In Episode 423 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo speak with Elliot Mintz about his fascinating memoir of his friendship with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in the 1970s. (The news segment runs from 3’30” to 16’25,” followed by the interview.) Elliot was previously a guest on Things We Said Today on Episode 268, in 2018…

In Episode 422 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo speak with the director Erik Nelson about his new documentary, “Daytime Revolution” – a film about the week in February, 1972, when John and Yoko co-hosted the Mike Douglas Show. (The news segment runs from 3’15” to 9’20,” followed by a trailer for the film, and th…

In Episode 421 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of John Lennon’s “Walls and Bridges” with Chip Madinger, the author (with Scott Raile) of the extraordinary “Lennonology.” There is also plenty of news, which begins at 6’40” and runs until 31”00, when Chip joins the di…

In Episode 420 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo discuss the limited theatrical screening of Paul McCartney’s “One Hand Clapping” (and “The Backyard”), and Ken covers Ringo Starr’s concert at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut – the second-to-last concert before Ringo cancelled the tour’s final concerts because…

In Episode 419 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo speak with the Canadian author and music journalist Aaron Badgley about his book “Dark Horse Records,” a detailed history of George Harrison’s post-Beatles record label. Our chat with Aaron begins after the Ken’s news segment [at 23’15”]. As always, we welcome your…

In Episode 418 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo discuss “Revival ’69,” the new(ish) film about the day-long Toronto Rock and Roll Revival show on September 13, 1969, at which the Plastic Ono Band (John & Yoko, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Alan White) made a last-minute, show-saving appearance – a performance…

In Episode 417 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo are joined by Al Sussman, the Executive Editor of Beatlefan, and Bruce Spizer, the prolific author whose latest book is “The Beatles A Hard Days Night and More.” [[The intro and news segment runs until 17’45” followed by the discussion with Bruce and Al.]] Bruce’s …

In Episode 416 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo discuss the new 6 CD / 2 Blu-ray archival edition of John Lennon’s “Mind Games” album with Chip Madinger, the co-author of the unfolding “Lennonology” series and “Eight Arms to Hold You.” [[The intro and news segment runs until 24’30”, followed by the discussion wi…

In Episode 415 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo speak with Evans Mirageas, the artistic director of the Cincinnati Opera, about the company’s decision to present “Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio” as a fully-staged opera during its 2024 Summer Festival. [The news segment runs from 2’12” to 9’30.” The intervie…

In Episode 414 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo discuss Paul McCartney’s “One Hand Clapping” – why and how he made it, back in 1974, and how the newly released version stands up. [The news segment runs from 4’43” to 22’10.” That is followed by Darren’s recap of his recent visit to England, with flybys of Friar P…

In Episode 412 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo adopt the “Fab Five” idea from Ken’s videocast, which involves each choosing five “go to” albums – one by the Beatles and one solo album each from John, Paul, George and Ringo. The rules state that these are not necessarily the “best” albums, or even our favorites …

In Episode 412 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo have a chat with Sir Michael Lindsay-Hogg about “Let It Be” – the original film as well as the newly remastered version. Since we did a show just last week, the News segment is fairly short; the interview begins at 9’05”. As always, we welcome your thoughts about t…

In Episode 411 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo discuss the newly restored version of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 “Let It Be,” and how it got its bad reputation, and how it looks now; the just announced “Mind Games” archival release, due in July, and Ringo Starr’s virtual press conference on May 15. [For listene…

In Episode 410 of Things We Said Today, Darren Devivo, Ken Michaels and Allan Kozinn discuss the Beatles’ song intros, each selecting the 10 (or so) that grab them most, and explaining why they work so well. But the news section includes some discussion as well – an overview of Ringo Starr’s new EP, “Crooked Boy” and some other Record Store Day rel…

In Episode 409 of Things We Said Today, Darren Devivo, Ken Michaels and Allan Kozinn have a chat with Dana Klosner about her book “Beatlemania Lives On – Superfans in the 21st Century,” a fun read about the current state of Beatle fandom, based on interviews with everyone from Peter Asher and Laurence Juber to fans who have turned their onstage aut…

A number of correspondents have asked why the Beatles “Red” and “Blue” album reissues were not covered on Things We Said Today, so in episode 408, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo catch up with those releases, as well as the more recent “Underdubbed” version of Paul McCartney’s “Band on the Run.” (Allan also offers a preview of the new …

This was the Things We Said Today panel at the Fest for Beatles Fans at the TWA Hotel, February 10, 2024. Ken Michaels, Darren Devivo and Allan Kozinn were joined by Allan’s McCartney Legacy co-author, Adrian Sinclair, to discuss Paul’s penchant in the mid-70s (i.e., the period covered in The McCartney Legacy Vols. 1 & 2) for recording outside Lond…

During our hiatus we missed a few relatively eventful weeks of news, so in Episode 406, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo catch up with all that, and discuss some recent news events and releases. As always, we welcome your thoughts about this episode of the show or any other episode. We invite you to send your comments about this or any …

In Episode 405, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo welcome author Bruce Spizer and Beatlefan Executive Editor Al Sussman for a discussion of our time at the recent Fest for Beatles Fans at the TWA Hotel at Kennedy Airport [11:00 to 49:50] and our memories of the start of Beatlemania in the United States, 60 years ago this month [starting …

Episode 404 is our last Things We Said Today for 2023, and it’s a long one – and something different. Catching up with the news of the last few weeks, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo pay tribute to the late Denny Laine [04:00-33:00], followed by plenty more news [33:00-50:00], But for the main part of the show [at 50:00] we welcome the…

In episode 403 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo speak with the author Kenneth Womack about his excellent new book, “Living the Beatles Legend – The Untold Story of Mal Evans,” and to Mal’s son, Gary Evans. During the news segment, Ken noted the streaming version of the concert presented at the Troubadour to rais…

In episode 402 of Things We Said Today, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo (Ken Michaels is taking a week off) speak with the author in impresario Vivek Tiwary about the 10th anniversary expanded reissue of “The Fifth Beatle,” his graphic (in the graphic novel sense) biography of Brian Epstein. We last spoke with Vivek in episode 241 (back in the audio…

In episode 401 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo have another lengthy and enlightening discussion with the great director Peter Jackson about the “Now and Then” video – his debut as a music clip director – as well as an extraordinary demonstration of his MAL system and how it has been used to de-mix Beatles recor…

To celebrate our 400th episode, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo welcome back two past co-hosts, Steve Marinucci and Al Sussman, for a look back at some of the show’s history and a discussion of social media, podcasts and other ways of exploring the Beatles legacy, and its effect on the world of Beatles scholarship, fandom and the Beatl…

In episode 399 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo have a chat with the producer, engineer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Bruce Sugar about his work with Ringo since “Ringo Rama,” and offer their reactions to Ringo’s new EP, “Rewind Forward.” During the news segment of the show we promised links for Denny La…

In episode 398 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo take a look at John Lennon’s “Mind Games” album on the 50th anniversary of its release, and remember John on what would have been his 83rd birthday. During the news segment of the show we promised links for Denny Laine’s Go Fund Me page and the All You Need Is Love…

In episode 397 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo talk to Steve Matteo about his new book, “Act Naturally – The Beatles on Film.” During the show we mention a few people or subjects we’ve also covered in other episodes, so if you missed those, here are the relevant links: Episode 337: Our interview with Dr. Bob Hi…

In episode 396 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo discuss Ringo’s new track, “Rewind Forward,” Dolly Parton’s new cover of “Let It Be” with Paul and Ringo, and the freshly liberated recording of the Beatles at Stowe, April 4, 1963 – and that’s just the news section. The rest of the show is Wrack Our Brains, an ide…

In episode 395 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo choose their favorite and least favorite tracks from each of the Beatles British albums. It was harder than we expected, particularly selecting “least favorite” tracks, since let’s face it, the Beatles were the zenith of Western Civ and there are no actual bad trac…

In episode 394 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo reconvene for another chat with Mark Rivera, the saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist who has been the music director of Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Bands since the 1990s, as well as being a member of Billy Joel’s band since 1982, having worked with many other artists…

In episode 393 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo have a chat with Mark Rivera, the saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist who has been the music director of Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Bands since the 1990s, as well as being a member of Billy Joel’s band since 1982, and having worked with many other artists. We had su…

In episode 392 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo celebrate Paul McCartney’s 81st birthday (on June 18) by choosing one favorite song of his from each decade he has been working – from the 1960s to the present. In the news segment, Ken noted the passing of Chas Newby, who played bass for the Beatles very briefly a…

In episode 391 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo discuss George Harrison’s “Living in the Material World” album – Ken’s favorite album of all time – on its 50th anniversary (along with a quick overview of what George got from the “Bhagavad Gita,” and what he was telling us about it through the album). As always, …

In episode 390 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo revisit “The Beatles 1962-1966” (the “Red” Album) and “1967-1970” (the “Blue” Album) on their 50th anniversary, each adding (and in some cases deleting) tracks to make updated 2023 versions. As always, we welcome your thoughts about this episode of the show or any …

In episode 389 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo speak with Denny Seiwell, who played drums on the RAM album and became the first drummer for Wings (1971-3). The subject is mostly Red Rose Speedway, released 50 years ago this month, but Denny discusses other aspects of his time with Wings as well. As always, we w…

In episode 388 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo celebrate the 60th anniversary of the release of the Beatles first UK LP, “Please Please Me” by looking at various aspects of the album and its individual tracks. (Plus a rare cameo by Yoda, one of Allan’s cats.) As always, we welcome your thoughts about this episo…

In episode 387 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo speak with the composer and author Albert Glinsky about his new book, “Switched On – Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution,” and the use of the Moog by the Beatles, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and other pop musicians (and films and TV shows). At one point, Ke…

In episode 386 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo celebrate what would have been George Harrison’s 80th birthday by each choosing five deep cuts – tracks that we feel should be better-known and better-appreciated than they are – as well as our top five Harrison albums (not counting “All Things Must Pass,” which we…

In episode 385 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo celebrate Yoko Ono’s 90th birthday with a discussion about her life and work with Dan Richter, the actor, author and longtime assistant to John and Yoko, and Madeline Bocaro, the author of the important new Yoko biography, “In Your Mind – The Infinite Universe of Y…

In episode 384 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo each discuss some of their favorite covers of Beatles tracks by other artists – some of them rare, out-of-the-way tracks that you may not know, but should, because they’re inventive and fun. As always, we welcome your thoughts about this episode of the show or any …

In episode 383 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo have a chat with Gary Burr, a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who, besides having written hits for Juice Newton, Lady Antebellum, Garth Brooks and many others, collaborated with Ringo Starr on about three dozen songs over the past 20 years, and played guitar a…

In episode 382 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo discuss their favorites among the songs the Beatles wrote (or simply gave) to other artists, both during the group’s active years and in the 53 years since they broke up. As always, we welcome your thoughts about this episode of the show or any other episode. We in…

In episode 381 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo review Mary McCartney’s documentary about the Abbey Road Studios, “If These Walls Could Sing,” and then each discuss their favorite Beatles releases and events from 2022, and look ahead to 2023. As always, we welcome your thoughts about this episode of the show or …

In episode 380 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels and Darren Devivo interview Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair about their new book, “The McCartney Legacy, Vol. 1, 1969-1973,” the first in a projected four-volume series that offers an in-depth look at Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles life and art. The book is due on December 13, and on December 14,…

In episode 379 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren DeVivo commemorate the 21st anniversary of the passing of George Harrison by each assembling a two CD compilation of what they consider his best or most essential work. At the end of the show, we mention a charity raffle to benefit Martin House Children's Hospice in Bosto…

In episode 378 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren DeVivo look at the new Giles Martin-Sam Okell remix, as well as the surround mix, of “Revolver." (The outtakes were covered in the last edition.) Also lots of news, including some thoughts about Paul’s new singles box. As always, we welcome your thoughts about this episod…

In episode 377 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren DeVivo look at the outtakes and demos included in the new “Revolver Special Edition," and at the set generally. The new Giles Martin-Sam Okell remix will be covered in the next installment. In the news section, we mentioned that the first issue of the “Journal for Beatles…

In Episode 376 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren DeVivo interview Jay Bergen, the lawyer who represented John Lennon in the lawsuits with Morris Levy over the “Roots” album. Mr. Bergen is the author of “Lennon, the Mobster & the Lawyer,” an excellent, richly detailed look at the lawsuits and trials, with plenty of mater…