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Beatles Rewind Podcast

Beatles Rewind Podcast

Written by: Steve Weber and Cassandra
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 Beatles. All day, every day. Eight Days a Week !!!

beatlesrewind.substack.comSteve Weber Music
Episodes
  • The Secret Supergroup: How George Harrison Accidentally Created the Traveling Wilburys

    The Secret Supergroup: How George Harrison Accidentally Created the Traveling Wilburys
    Jan 24 2026
    When we think of 'Supergroups,' we usually imagine massive egos colliding in high-stakes negotiations and expensive studios. But the greatest supergroup of all time didn't start with a contract; it started because George Harrison left his guitar at Tom Petty’s house and needed to knock out a B-side before dinner." 🍽️The Traveling Wilburys—consisting of George, Petty, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne—wasn’t a calculated move. It was a happy accident that George “secretly” assembled in a Malibu garage. By pretending to be a family of half-brothers named “The Wilburys,” these five legends managed to pull off the ultimate rock-and-roll heist: they made a masterpiece while the world wasn’t even looking. 🤫Despite being a “casual garage band,” the group was a massive commercial powerhouse; their debut album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and eventually went triple-platinum in the U.S. alone. They even took home a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group, proving that their “secret” project had truly captured the public’s imagination. 🏆The Traveling Wilburys never played a single public concert. 🚫🎸 While George Harrison said he would have loved to tour with them, it remained strictly a studio-based brotherhood. The closest they ever got was the “End of the Line” music video, which remains our only visual of the “brothers” performing together as a unit.The Garage Band with Five FrontmenRewind to 1988. George Harrison was in L.A. and needed a bonus track for his European single called “Handle with Care.” He was having dinner with Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison, and he simply asked them if they’d help him record something the next day.The only problem? They didn’t have a studio booked. George called Dylan, who offered up his garage studio in Malibu. On the way there, George stopped by Tom Petty’s house to pick up a guitar he’d left behind, and he figured, “Why not invite Tom, too?” Just like that, the most over-qualified garage band in history was born. As Petty later recalled in a 2010 interview with Mojo Magazine:“It was just too good to miss... George conned us into doing it! ... We were all sitting there throwing in words and it was so easy you couldn’t believe it. It was so, so easy.” 🎤Watching the Masters at WorkWhile the world saw Dylan as an untouchable enigma, Petty was fascinated by the “Human Spark” of watching Bob and George collaborate over a kitchen table. Petty’s accounts of these sessions give us a rare look at how Dylan actually “builds” a song.In that same Mojo interview, Petty marveled at Dylan’s process:“There’s nobody I’ve ever met who knows more about the craft of how to put a song together than he does. I learned so much from just watching him work... He’ll write lots and lots of verses, then he’ll say, ‘this verse is better than that.’ Slowly, this great picture emerges.”Imagine being Tom Petty, sitting in a garage, watching Dylan scribble lyrics while Harrison works out a slide guitar part. It wasn’t about being famous; it was about the work. They wrote and recorded “Handle with Care” in a single afternoon. When George played it for his record label, they told him it was “too good” to be a B-side. They said: Give us a whole album. 📀The inclusion of Orbison wasn't just a nod to the past; it was an act of musical reverence. To the rest of the Wilburys, Roy was the "Big O," a man who had been a titan of the industry while the Beatles were still teenagers playing in Liverpool basements. Later, the Beatles toured the UK as co-headliners with Orbison in May 1963, and they spent those nights huddled in the wings, watching in awe as Roy stood perfectly still in his dark glasses and decimated audiences with nothing but the sheer power of his four-octave voice. With the Wilburys, Roy bridged the gap between the birth of rock-and-roll and the modern era. 🌟Checking the Ego at the DoorThe genius of the Wilburys was their anonymity. George decided they should all use pseudonyms—Nelson, Otis, Lucky, Lefty, and Charlie T. Wilbury. By ditching their real names, they ditched their baggage.They even had a rule: no “serious” technology. They wanted a sound that was raw and acoustic—mostly guitars and voices around a single microphone. It was the antithesis of the slick, over-produced 80s sound. It was five friends laughing, eating together, and rediscovering why they fell in love with music in the first place.Who Was Who?On the first album (Vol. 1), the band members were credited as the sons of Charles Truscott Wilbury Sr. Here is the lineup of the “brothers”:* Nelson Wilbury (George Harrison): The “spiritual leader” of the group. George was the one who gathered the guys and insisted on the slide guitar sound that defines the album.* Otis Wilbury (Jeff Lynne): The producer behind the curtain. Jeff was responsible ...
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    10 mins
  • Ringo's Mistake That Created Heavy Metal Drumming 🥁

    Ringo's Mistake That Created Heavy Metal Drumming 🥁
    Jan 23 2026
    Why does “Ticket to Ride” sound so heavy compared to everything else the Beatles recorded in early 1965? Seriously, put on “Eight Days a Week” or “I Feel Fine” or any other Beatles single from that era, then play “Ticket to Ride” immediately after. Something’s different. The drums hit harder, the chord changes so dramatic. The whole song has this weight, this thudding insistence that Beatles records simply didn’t have before. Most people can hear that something’s off—or rather, something’s incredibly on in a way that feels almost proto-heavy metal for 1965. But what exactly changed? 🤔The answer is gloriously simple and perfectly Beatles: Ringo played it wrong. During the “Ticket to Ride” sessions at EMI Studios in February 1965, Ringo was supposed to play a standard rock beat, the kind of straightforward drumming that powered most Beatles songs up to that point. But either accidentally or instinctively—accounts vary on whether this was a mistake or a creative impulse—Ringo started playing the floor tom with the bass drum, creating that distinctive thudding sound that makes “Ticket to Ride” feel like it’s being played by a band twice as heavy as the actual Beatles. George Martin and the band liked the “mistake” so much they kept it. And in keeping it, they accidentally invented a drum sound that would help define hard rock for the next decade. 🎵The Sound That Shouldn’t Have WorkedHere’s what Ringo did that was “wrong”: instead of playing a traditional rock beat with the snare drum providing the backbeat while the bass drum kept time underneath, he doubled up the floor tom and bass drum together. That floor tom—the largest drum in the kit, the one that sits on the floor and produces the deepest tone—became a primary voice rather than an occasional accent. The result is that thudding, almost tribal quality that drives “Ticket to Ride” forward with relentless momentum. Every beat lands with more weight than standard 1965 pop drumming allowed. 🥁If you listen to the isolated drum stem from “Ticket to Ride” you can hear exactly what Ringo’s doing. That floor tom is absolutely front and center, providing a low-end thud that works in tandem with the bass drum to create a sound that’s less “pop band” and more “something heavier is coming.” The snare is still there doing its job, but the floor tom/bass drum combination is what you remember. It’s what makes the song sound like it’s being played by a band that’s discovered something darker and more powerful than “She Loves You.” 🔊The technical side gets interesting when you consider how EMI Studios captured it. This was 1965, which means four-track recording with limited options for mixing. The microphone placement on Ringo’s drums had to capture that floor tom prominence without drowning out everything else. The drums in “Ticket to Ride” are mixed louder and more prominently than on previous Beatles records, which amplifies Ringo’s unconventional beat into something that dominates the entire sonic landscape. 🎚️Compare “Ticket to Ride” to literally any other Beatles single from early 1965 and the difference is shocking. “Eight Days a Week” has perfectly competent, cheerful drumming that serves the song without calling attention to itself. “I Feel Fine” features Ringo’s solid backbeat. These are good drumming performances, but they’re playing the role drums traditionally played in pop music—keep time, provide rhythm, don’t overshadow the vocals. “Ticket to Ride” throws that playbook out. The drums aren’t just keeping time; they’re a primary melodic element, creating a hypnotic, almost menacing pulse that defines the song’s character as much as John’s vocals or George’s guitar. 🎸The Pattern of Productive Mistakes“Ticket to Ride” fits perfectly into a broader Beatles pattern of turning accidents into innovations that changed popular music. The most famous Beatles “mistake” is probably the feedback that opens “I Feel Fine,” recorded in October 1964 just a few months before “Ticket to Ride.” John leaned his guitar against an amp during a take, creating unintentional feedback that the band loved so much they deliberately incorporated it into the recording. But “I Feel Fine” was a gimmick, a cool effect at the beginning of a song. The “Ticket to Ride” drum mistake was structural; it changed how the entire song sounded and felt. ⚡Later Beatles mistakes-turned-features include John’s backwards guitar solo on “Tomorrow Never Knows,” created when he accidentally played a tape backwards and realized it sounded better than the original. The Beatles developed a reputation for recognizing when “wrong” was actually better, when the accident revealed something more interesting than the plan. But “Ticket to Ride” represents something special because it came relatively early—this is still mop-top ...
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    10 mins
  • The Beatles' Secret Favorite Drug: It Wasn't What You Think 🎸💊

    The Beatles' Secret Favorite Drug: It Wasn't What You Think 🎸💊
    Jan 22 2026
    When we look back at the 1960s, we tend to see it through a hazy, sometimes romanticized, Technicolor lens of peace, love, and “flower power.” But if you want to know the truth about how the Beatles actually survived their decade of world domination, you have to look past the incense and peppermint. The Beatles weren’t just musical pioneers; they were elite-level chemical explorers, for better or worse.From the grimy clubs of Hamburg to the high-society dinner parties of London, the band’s sound evolved in lockstep with what they were swallowing, smoking, or snorting. They moved from drugs that helped them work, to drugs that helped them think, and finally—tragically—to drugs that helped them disappear.The Hamburg “Work” Ethic: Speed and the Prellies 💊Before they were the darlings of the Ed Sullivan Show, the Beatles were musical endurance athletes. In 1960, they were sent to Hamburg, Germany, to play in the Reeperbahn—a red-light district that makes modern Las Vegas look like a church picnic.They were expected to play for eight hours a night, seven days a week. You can’t do that on a diet of bratwurst and tea. To keep their energy up, they turned to Preludin, or “Prellies.” These were diet pills—essentially pharmaceutical-grade speed—that the club waiters and even the “friendly” local ladies would provide.John Lennon later admitted that they would be “talking their mouths off” and playing at a breakneck, frantic pace just to stay awake. That high-energy, “mach schau” (make a show) style that defined their early hits? That wasn’t just youthful exuberance. It was a chemical byproduct of a band trying to survive a German basement at 4:00 AM.The Great Pivot: Bob Dylan and the Green Room 🌿For the first few years of their fame, the Beatles were mainly “drinkers.” They’d have Scotch and Cokes, but they were still essentially professional showmen. But everything changed on August 28, 1964, at the Delmonico Hotel in New York.Bob Dylan arrived at their suite and, thinking the Beatles were already “experienced,” offered them a joint. As legend has it, Dylan had misheard the lyric in I Want to Hold Your Hand—”I can’t hide”—as “I get high.” When he realized the Beatles were “green,” he lit up anyway. Ringo, not knowing the etiquette, Bogarted that first doobie all by himself and dissolved into a fit of giggles. Soon, all four were “flying.” As Ringo later recalled, “We got high and laughed our asses off.”This was a massive pivot. Speed makes you loud and fast; marijuana can make you introspective and weird. Perhaps it wasn’t coincidence that the Beatles soon ditched the jelly-baby tunes. They quit writing about “holding hands” and began writing about “Nowhere Men” and “Paperback Writers.” By the time they were filming Help!, they were stoned for breakfast. If you watch the movie today and wonder why they look so genuinely confused during the action scenes, it’s because they probably were.The Hidden Playlist: Drug Lore vs. Reality* “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” — (1967) The public was convinced they had cracked a secret code here, pointing to the initials L-S-D. It seemed like an open-and-shut case, but Lennon insisted until his dying day that it was purely inspired by a drawing his son Julian brought home from school, and the subject was his classmate, Lucy O’Donnell. (Verdict: Misinterpreted) 🎨* “Got to Get You Into My Life” (1966) — For decades, teenagers listened to this as a standard, upbeat Motown-style love song about a girl. But Paul eventually let the cat out of the bag: this was his “ode to pot.” He wrote it as a literal love song to the plant itself, celebrating the way it had changed his perspective. Once you know that, the lyric “I was alone, I took a ride, I didn’t know what I would find there” takes on a whole new meaning. (Verdict: Correct) 🌿* “Day Tripper” (1965) — Many listeners thought it was about a literal traveler, but John later revealed it was a “sneer” at “weekend hippies.” He was making fun of the people who would take acid on a Saturday but put on their suits and short hair for their office jobs on Monday. (Verdict: Correct) 🚌* “A Day in the Life” (1967) — The BBC banned this masterpiece because of the line “I’d love to turn you on.” The authorities saw it as a blatant invitation to the youth to start experimenting. For once, the BBC was actually right—John and Paul admitted the line was a deliberate nod to the “mind-expanding” culture they were currently leading. (Verdict: Correct) 🌀* “Yellow Submarine” (1966) — In the late ‘60s, the counterculture was convinced the “submarine” was a metaphor for Nembutal capsules (yellow barbiturates). The common interpretation: As the “submarine” went down, the drug submerged your feelings. In reality, Paul just wanted to write a fun, slightly surreal children’s song ...
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    14 mins
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