Hello everyone,
I am always happy to post a Monday newsletter when a new episode has dropped, and in this case, 321: Beatles Comic-Con has just landed. The conversation with Stephen DeStefano and returning guest Glenn Greenberg covers a lot of ground besides comic books, including some TV cartoons as well as graphic novels, plus more recent works by Vivek Tiwary and Carol Tyler. I’ll have more about this episode below, but suffice to say, even if you don’t think that comics are your thing (which was more or less my position until this conversation), I think you will find it a fun and enlightening talk (which I did).
NEWS
We just got the sad news of Neil Sedaka’s passing at 86 this weekend. I was glad to see that a lot of postings about his passing noted the single that he released in 1975, “The Immigrant,” which he dedicated to John Lennon, then in the midst of his immigration troubles. For anyone who doesn’t know, I want to provide more of the back story to this recording…
Sedaka was a musical prodigy (see this beginning at 5:24) who might well have ended up in a career on the concert stage had he not changed course, landing at New York’s Brill Building as a top tunesmith as well as a singer himself, racking up ten top twenty US hits (that included one chart-topper) beginning in 1958 before his hot streak faded in 1963. (It would be tempting to say that his hitmaking days were ended by the advent of The Beatles and the British Invasion, but the timing doesn’t work out: his commercial peak was on the decline before they ever set foot here.)
A number of his hit tunes may strike listeners from a different era as ephemeral lightweight throwaways (1961’s “Calendar Girl,” for instance - presented here as a 1966 Scopitone) but it would be a mistake to underestimate his talents. His 1962 chart-topping “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do” fit the mold of his established early sound, but Sedaka recognized its potential with an entirely different approach: he recast it as a torch ballad (originally for Lenny Welch) before recutting it himself in 1975 and scoring another top ten hit during his triumphal “Sedaka’s Back” resurgence in the mid-70s (which began with “Laughter in the Rain,” quickly followed by the Elton John duet, “Bad Blood” - a #1 bumped from the top a week later by Elton’s “Island Girl” as, arguably, a misogyny two-fer.) The Captain and Tennille codified his comeback with their own cover of Sedaka’s “Love Will Keep Us Together,” 1975’s best-selling single of the year. (That song was inspired by the chord sequence of the Beach Boys’ “Do It Again,” in essence bringing things full circle, since Captain Daryl Dragon had been a Beach Boys sideman.)
In any event, “The Immigrant” came amidst this period of renewed hitmaking activity; the initial inspiration was his own immigrant father. But Sedaka recognized its welcoming message was suitable for John’s situation and used the release to underscore his support for the ex-Beatle during this trying time, even post-Nixon when the outcome was still by no means assured. The two had connected during this period of heightened social interactions (AKA “the Lost Weekend”), and it was therefore perfectly reasonable for Sedaka to phone John and let him know what he was doing, prompting John to tell him: “Normally people only call me when they want something. It’s very seldom people call you to give you something. It’s beautiful.”
L-R Elton John’s drummer, Nigel Olssen - May Pang - John - Jozy Pollock (Nigel’s fiancee) - Neal Sedaka
One last thing that I think may be of interest to the SATB audience: between his post-early 60s hits and mid-70s comeback, Sedaka found himself recording in the UK, making an album in 1972 at a facility called Strawberry - do you see where this is going? The backing musicians were Graham Gouldman, Lol Creme, Eric Stewart and Kevin Godley. Sedaka had heard of them when they were briefly recording as “Father Doctor,” but their more lasting handle had been “Hotlegs,” under which they had scored a 1970 hit, “Neanderthal Man.” Their collaboration resulted in two albums: the first of which, Solitaire, yielded the title song, later covered successfully by Andy Williams and The Carpenters. (Here’s Sedaka’s fine performance of it.)
But having failed to achieve any lasting success to this point, Creme, Gouldman, Stewart and Godley were inspired to give it another go after working with Sedaka and at last found their feet as 10cc.
Before Gilbert Gottfried’s death in 2022, the podcast he produced with Frank Santopadre recorded this excellent conversation with Sedaka.
Other news: a book project first announced last July was given more detail this past week. The Third Eye, a collection of photographs taken during the 1960s by George Harrison, will be coming in October (around John’s birthday, as it happens). This makes three Beatles that have published collections of period photos; Ringo and Paul have done likewise in recent years, leaving only John unrepresented. (And we know that he was using a camera as much as the rest of them; maybe his photos will surface one day.)
Other George news: he owned a 1964 Gibson SG guitar that we initially got to see in 1966 during some pre-North America live shows as well as in their “Paperback Writer”/“Rain” promos. The next time we got to see it was in the footage shot for a “Lady Madonna” promo that actually depicted the recording of “Hey Bulldog.” At some point, he gifted the guitar to Badfinger’s Pete Ham.
Pete used it extensively, but the word is that during their final year of touring (1974), a backstage mishap resulted in the neck being snapped off. It was next reported in the possession of Pete’s brother John after his 1975 suicide, where it stayed out of the limelight for many years until acquired at auction by Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay as part of his extensive history and rock and roll holdings. As the collection is being liquidated (as reported here) in the wake of Irsay’s May 2025 death, this historic SG is getting fresh attention. Historically, the Harrison estate has used proxy bidders to reacquire instruments associated with George. It’ll be interesting to see if they go for this one.
Other photograph news: you probably all saw this in the past couple of days, but if not…
As plenty of you probably recall, in 2017 Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine was published. It was written by Joe Hagan, and in the course of his writing, he interviewed plenty of relevant folks, including Macca. That interview was just run (in two parts) in Vanity Fair, and it’s a good one, though doubtless there will be some who take exception to some of Paul’s views. It’s paywalled unfortunately or I’d link to it here. (I know that some of you find work arounds for such things.)
But what’s getting most of the attention is the discovery of yet another Polaroid photograph of John and Paul together in Santa Monica in 1974, making six total (if I recall correctly). Now Paul seemed to be getting the worst of the sunlight that day in the photos, and none of them is at the portrait quality of level of anything taken by Astrid Kirchherr in 1960, but instead seem to be casual and nonchalant captures from someone who may have recognized the auspiciousness of the occasion but wasn’t prepared to stop the two in their tracks and get them to pose.
This new one isn’t any different in that regard and doesn’t illuminate anything that we didn’t already know. It shows John holding a Polaroid picture (for those unclear, these were cameras that came into common use in the 1960s that shot film that would develop within minutes of their being taken. They were not intended for serious photography, tending to be low-res and with colors that would fade quickly over time.) In this, it aligns with some we already knew about, including the most recent one revealed, in the Ken Womack Mal Evans bio. It does show John with Paul and Linda (who’s wielding a pool cue stick), and Keith Moon (in profile). We know that May Pang, Harry Nilsson and Mal Evans were also present; possibly Ringo too (since he appears with Paul in another photo at around that time, though it may not have been the same visit).
The story associated with this one is that John sent it to Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner and it bore the date as well as the inscription, “How do you sleep?” John had, by this time, beef with Wenner over the latter’s publication of his December 8, 1970 interview in book form as Lennon Remembers, against John’s expressed wishes. Even now, the issue was still raw with John, and at year’s end, when he was hanging out with George, it was brought up in their last joint interview (at 2:32) with George defending John’s anger at what he saw as abuse of his trust in Rolling Stone. (George had his own issues with the same mag at that same time.) In his conversation with Hagan, Paul seems to be acutely aware of how Wenner was clearly on team Lennon after the break-up (and one can make the case that he was before as well).
Other McCartney news: doubtless many if not most of you have seen Man on the Run by now. There will be some kind of show produced by SATB about this, but likely not with Morgan Neville at this point. But if, in the meantime, anyone wants to read a thoughtful review of it, check out this.
SATB 321: BEATLES COMIC-CON
As mentioned in the show, I wanted to share with you some of the comics cited during the conversation. First, there is the 1978 Marvel special edition, The Beatles Story. What I particularly love are the period ads found within (for Creem and Rock Scene) as well as the inserts of info: a US discography, as well as features on their films and their promos, plus background on the Marvel artists involved.
You can likewise check out Batman #222, the one featuring the “Paul is dead” story here. Titled. “Dead Till Proven Alive,” it’s a smart take and a fascinating snapshot of the times, as discussed in the show.
Bonus: here’s one we didn’t talk about but it’s a pretty novel one.
I had mentioned and described something I’d read about Bill Gaines, Mad magazine publisher, up before the committee in Washington. You can read about the whole thing here, and for clarity: I mentioned EC as “educational comics,” which is what the company was when started by Gaines’ father in the 1940s. Following the death of Max Gaines in 1947, his son Bill changed the direction from Biblical and truly educational fare to the stuff we associate with EC as “entertaining comics”: Tales From The Crypt - Weird Science - The Vault of Horror - Crime SuspenStories - Mad.
We had wondered about what was going on in the UK during The Beatles’ formative years, and as I’d predicted, a listener came through with some information - thanks Byron McKeeby!
The largest UK producer of comics at that time was DC Thomson in Dundee, a family company which started in 1905. I think it is simply a coincidence that you have "DC" on both sides of the Atlantic.
While both companies operated during the 1930s and used "DC" in their names (representing different things—"Detective Comics" for the US, and "David Couper" for the Scottish publisher), they did not share origins or intellectual property.
An unpublished comic strip featuring Paul McCartney, intended for The Dandy around 1963 or early 1964 was created but not published at the time, later surfacing in 2022.
The 1963 Ambition: Following an interview in the New Musical Express(NME) in February 1963, Paul McCartney revealed that appearing in The Dandy comic was one of his childhood dreams.
The Unseen Strip: Cartoonist Nigel Parkinson (known for The Beano's Dennis the Menace) created a storyboard titled "Little Sir Paul McCartney". This strip depicted McCartney waking up, taking a bus, and being chased by fans, with references to lyrics from A Hard Day's Night**Ticket to Ride, and I Want To Hold Your Hand.
Discovery: The half-finished, unpublished storyboard was put on display at the Liverpool Beatles Museum in October 2022.
Final Appearance: While the 1963 strip was never published, Paul McCartney's wish came true in the final physical edition of The Dandy in December 2012, where he appeared alongside Desperate Dan.
For anyone wanting to get the feel of the times and US reaction to The Beatles as expressed in comic books, you can do no better than to check out this page, where any number of editions are online for your inspection. These are all fully navigable.
Finally: Stephen has a fab YouTube conversation series called Dying is Easy - Comics are Hard: Conversations on Graphic Storytelling which you can find here.
I’d mentioned that Gleen Greenberg has authored a series of “bookazines.” Here are the two most recent:
https://magazineshop.us/products/the-beatles-trivia-book
Plus a Marvel for good measure:
HISTORY
Sixty years ago, on March 4, 1966: This was the day that the first of the four individual profile interviews by the late Maureen Cleave was published in the Evening Standard. The series began with John (naturally) and THAT conversation draws interest, not only for the long-term repercussions of his off-the-cuff observations about contemporary Christianity (which were in fact misrepresented: he was NOT boasting about The Beatles’ popularity but simply making a comparison as to how church influence had diminished among the young, so much so that even his group held more sway), informed by his current reading, Hugh Schonfield’s The Passover Plot but also his noting a certain ennui with their collective success. That they could achieve every dream and beyond that they ever held for themselves and he was STILL unsatisfied really speaks to both the lingering depression he felt he was going through (his hindsight “Fat Elvis” comments) as well as artistic longing for something more. "You see, there's something else I'm going to do, something I must do -- only I don't know what it is. That's why I go round painting and taping and drawing and writing and that, because it may be one of them. All I know is, this isn't it for me."
But the other conversations draw our interest as well: they are remarkably candid and insightful, both a tribute to Ms. Cleave’s skills as an interviewer as well as each Beatle’s desire to offer up something more substantive than what had been the usual for the last nearly three years. The talks were informed by the intimacy between the subject and the journalist (suggestions that it extended to the physical between Ms. Cleave and a certain Beatle are unproven and were denied), giving them a frankness that may not have been shared with others in the press, at least at that time.
In Paul’s, he railed against American racism - something Datebook publisher Art Unger seemed to underscore by placing his exact uncensored words on the cover (alongside his photo) in the infamous issue of the magazine in which they republished the articles in the US months later. But George’s was equally compelling, catching him on the cusp of embracing eastern religions and expressing his distaste for received wisdom and authority which he questioned at every turn. Talks with Ringo and Brian rounded out the series.
See what you think: given where these guys were at that time - a crossroads leading to the end of life as they’d known it to this point - Ms. Cleave’s timing could not have been more fortuitous. It’s hardly a coincidence that not long after sitting with her, they then sat for Robert Whitaker’s “butcher cover” session, began the Revolver sessions, and thereafter, quit touring.
FAREWELL, SEEDERMANN - WE HARDLY KNEW YA
And with this installment, we close the door on the Seedermann Simple Chronology video series, each running six hours long. For those new to the SATB newsletter, this was a project instituted by someone in cyberspace some years back (pre-pandemic) in an attempt to collate not every piece of Beatles/related TV footage, but a coherent collection, group and solo, Beatles and covers, along with promos and live footage. Again, not intended to be completely comprehensive but immersive enough to cover a ton of ground with a contemporary feel (ads, for instance, are included, as well as interviews). The complete run down can be found here. I have been sharing this for as long as the newsletter has run, monthly, with the exception of a time out when files I had on a drive proved corrupted, resumed when I was able to re-upload the missing ones.
So here is the finale, running from July 2009 through December 2017. It covers the launch of Rock Band, albums including Y Not, New, Postcards from Paradise, and Live at the Hollywood Bowl, much news footage including Paul’s wedding to Nancy Shevell, plus loads of live footage. Maybe someone will come along and update the last nine years, but until such time, this is it.
THIS JUST IN:
As this edition is going to press, word of the passing of one of the last members of The Quarry Men, Len Garry, has been announced. There will be more to say in the next edition. Fly high, sir…
Seen here between Paul (L) and John (R), November 1957
All best,
RR
www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com < (the site’s getting rehabbed!)
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