Welcome to the New Year, SATB people!
Trust you all had a safe and joyous New Year/holiday season. This newsletter will be on the briefer end, in that there wasn’t much to report on in the past week and the fact that I am simultaneously racing to get the new show up this very day, plus I am cutting a new one today with Oliver Murray. (If the name means nothing to you, look it up.) 317 is my conversation with Walter Everett, Cameron Greider and Jack Petruzzelli on the Help! album. Their RPM School session on the same album begins two weeks from today, so check out the details here if you are interested in the terrific deep dives they conduct.
NEWS
The only really notable Beatles-related item worth repeating I saw for the past week was that apparently the Traveling Wilburys’ music disappeared from streaming services this past week. I am not a streamer myself, so I really don’t understand what may be behind this, beyond some kind of business shenanigans or else preparation for some kind of new release.
Since there really isn’t anything else to say in current events, maybe it’s a good time to look back at the fine folks we lost during the last orbit…
SO LONG IN 2025
There were a lot of goodbyes this past year, and the ones I am listing were at least tangentially Beatles-related. (It’s hard to omit a Sly Stone, but there really was no specific overlap that I could find.)
David Lynch - filmmaker and TM advocate January 15, 2025
Marianne Faithfull - artist January 30, 2025
John Kurlander - EMI recording engineer February 9, 2025
Roberta Flack - musician February 24, 2025
David Johansen - musician February 28, 2025
Joey Molland - Apple recording artist March 1, 2025
Andy Peebles - BBC broadcaster March 22, 2025
Clem Burke - musician April 6, 2025
Wink Martindale - Radio and TV broadcaster April 15, 2025
Terry Draper musician May 15, 2025
Jim Irsay Beatles collector May 21, 2025
Rick Derringer musician May 26, 2025
Brian Wilson genius June 11, 2025
Mo Foster musician and author July 3, 2025
Ozzy Osbourne musician July 22, 2025
Mark Volman musician September 5, 2025
Rick Davies musician September 6, 2025
Bobby Hart songwriter and musician September 10, 2025
Sonny Curtis musician September 19, 2025
Chris Dreja musician September 25, 2025
John Lodge musician October 10, 2025
Ace Frehley musician October 16, 2025
Diane Keaton actor October 11, 2025
Gilson Lavis musician November 5, 2025
Jimmy Cliff musician and actor November 24, 2025
Steve Cropper musician December 3, 2025
Rob Reiner filmmaker December 14, 2025
Brigitte Bardot actress December 28, 2025
HISTORY
We also remember Mal Evans - lost fifty years ago today: January 6, 1976
He was 40 years old and in tragic symmetry with what occurred 4 years later, felled by 4 shots.
The former Beatles road manager was in the midst of a downward spiral at the time. Though what amounted to indentured servitude under the group showed promise the year they split, when he produced a bona fide hit single - Badfinger's "No Matter What" - a solid career path forward never materialized. He dabbled in film (alongside Ringo in 1971's Blindman) and tried his hand at songwriting: an actual co-write with George on the closing track of Ringo's blockbuster 1973 self-titled release, "You and Me (Babe)," as well as the theme to the 1974 Apple film, Little Malcolm: "Lonely Man" - recorded by Splinter with contributions from George as well.
But rewards for all the slogging he'd done on behalf of the group proved illusory (despite promises of credit or royalties for his lyrical contributions to Sgt. Pepper's "Fixing A Hole"). Mal was fired from his role as producer on the Keith Moon solo album project, after months of work turned up little to show but outrageous liquor bills. Something similar occurred with his serving as agent for Natural Gas - the post-Badfinger Joey Molland project. In attempting to score a record deal, it was felt that he overplayed his hand and he was dismissed.
By the end of 1975, despite some opportunities that looked as though his Beatle past would finally keep him afloat - interviews on radio and for David Frost's television "Salute," as well as guest appearing at the Beatlefest held that year in Los Angeles, plus a book deal, based on the diaries he'd kept, Mal had reached a point of despondency.
Though separated for years, his wife filing for divorce apparently hit him hard. Close friend Ken Mansfield sensed that something was very wrong during their final phone call on the evening it all ended; Ken was on his way to an award ceremony and couldn't connect face-to-face that night, but plans were made for a lunch meeting the next day. Holed up in the bedroom of the Los Angeles apartment he shared with his girlfriend, Fran Hughes (located at 8122 West 4th Street), he hit bottom. He called his co-author, John Hoernie, and what John heard was enough to set off some alarms. As he rushed over, Fran called police, telling them that her old man was "zonked' on quaaludes and drink (his autopsy revealed some Valium and beer, but neither to excess). Fatally, he was clutching a Winchester air gun when the cops broke through the door.
The four former Beatles reacted with shock to the turn of events, with Paul asserting that had he known the state Mal was in, he could've saved him: "Had I been there I would have been able to say, 'Mal, don't be silly.' In fact, any of his friends could have talked him out of it without any sweat, because he was not a nutter." Mary Hopkin, early on part of the Apple roster, reacted with anger: “Couldn’t they have shot him in the knees or something?...He was the gentlest person I’ve ever known.”
Details of Mal’s life largely remained a mystery for decades, especially with the manuscript he’d been working on seemingly lost forever. But it wasn’t - it was misfiled by the publisher, destined for destruction until a savvy temp named Leena Kutti recognized the significance of the contents of four bankers boxes languishing in a basement. They contained the diaries, the manuscript, and a treasure trove of photographs. She brought them to the attention of Yoko One (being in New York) as well as Lil Evans. It was through this latter connection that the materials ended up in the hands of Beatles historian Ken Womack, who, augmenting the materials through extensive interviews, at last realized Mal’s dream by getting the story into print in 2023 as Living The Beatles Legend.
It’s expected that a second volume containing the photos and raw diaries themselves will be published late this year. It’s clear from a perusal of Mal’s words that he had a pretty lucid view of the realities of his lot, having a family he dearly loved who clearly came second behind serving the group who had changed his life and gave him a sense of purpose; this tension wracked him with guilt. One entry was particularly telling, dated January 13, 1969 - the first reconvening at Twickenham after George's walk-out. (This was the day of the conversation - at which Mal was present - where Paul observed how comical it would seem in 50 years that the Beatles broke up because "Yoko sat on an amp.") Recorded Mal: "I was elevated to office boy and I feel very hurt and sad inside — only big boys don't cry. Why I should feel hurt and reason for writing this is ego... I thought I was different from other people in my relationship with The Beatles and being loved by them and treated so nice, I felt like one of the family. Seems I fetch and carry...."
SEEDERMAN!
I don’t want to start off the new year and end a newsletter on a down note, so it’s time now for the latest installment. Volume 10 covers the period from July 1993 through March 2003, so think about that: The Simpsons - Anthology - Flaming Pie - Wingspan, plus lots and lots of stuff in between. Sadly this volume also includes the losses of Linda and George (and the addition of Heather Mills), but there’s loads of good music around it all.
Here is the video link and here is the guide to the series so far. (Go back to newsletters 54 and 57 to get links to the entire series as shared.)
Till next week…
All best,
RR
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