A deep dive into the music and complex psychology of John Lennon, featuring interviews with such noted authors and podcasters as David Bedford, Dan Richter, Jude Kessler, Kit O'Toole and Ken McNab, as well as ex-Quarrymen bandmates Rod Davis and Colin Hanton
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Episode 101- Toronto 1969 Part 1: Revival '69 with Dave Thurmaier
Wednesday, August 28, 2024 • Duration 01:36:10
And so the next century of Glass Onion begins. We’ve got another fine 2-parter for you, with Antony joined by Dave Thurmaier, the co-host of the ‘I’ve Got A Beatles Podcast’ and former guest of the show way back in 2019 and 2020.
The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert of September 1969 yielded a live album for John & Yoko plus D.A. Pennebaker’s film ‘Sweet Toronto’ (which will be reviewed in the next episode) and most recently a fantastic 2022 documentary by Ron Chapman.
This latter doc is the focus of part 1 of our talk, and before that Antony and Dave discuss Beatle releases of the past year such as the ‘Now And Then’ song and video and the new Mind Games box set.
Bonus Episode # 14- Revolution 9 Revisited (Antony on 'Pop Goes The 60s')
Thursday, June 27, 2024 • Duration 01:51:45
Over 4 years on from our original episode about ‘Revolution 9’ (episode 25, in the show notes), we return to the topic with an audio version (including multiple sound clips) of a discussion that originally went out on video on Matt Williamson’s excellent you tube channel ‘Pop Goes The 60s’ back in March.
We discuss our origin stories with the track, it’s conception and recording, some of the ‘musique concrete’ works that influenced it, the other Beatles’ reaction to it and a few other things.
This is preceded by Antony’s thoughts on the new version of the ‘Let It Be’ film and some discussion/defence of Albert Goldman from a Mojo magazine special about John Lennon.
There are multiple links below to some interesting work, including quite a few avant-garde pieces that may not seem accessible but do have some rewards to be found if the mood is right, rather like ‘Revolution 9’ itself.
Episode 94- Shake It Up Baby!- The Beatles and 1963 with Ken McNab (Part 2 of 2)
Tuesday, September 26, 2023 • Duration 01:24:10
Ken McNab and I complete our discussion about his new book 'Shake It Up Baby!: The Rise of Beatlemania And The Mayhem of 1963' and the general atmosphere and events of that breathless year. This time round, we cover the second half of the year as our four intrepid musical explorers continue their furious work rate and have their first proper brushes with the British establishment.
They also record and release their second album and yet more seminal singles, and slowly set their sights on the ‘land of milk and honey’ across the Atlantic while conquering their homeland completely and finding time to record the first of their special Christmas messages for their growing number of fan club members…
Episode 93- Shake It Up Baby!: The Beatles and 1963 with Ken McNab (Part 1 of 2)
Friday, September 22, 2023 • Duration 01:07:17
Following the shows on 1962, we seamlessly move to 1963 with the welcome return of Ken McNab to talk about his new book 'Shake It Up Baby!: The Rise of Beatlemania And The Mayhem of 1963'. After Ken gives some thoughts on Peter Jackson’s ‘Get Back’ (his previous appearances on Glass Onion were prior to its release), we cover the events of the first half of the year and the slow creep of Beatlemania.
The Beatles move from also-rans to bill-toppers while covering an incredible amount of ground criss-crossing the country on British tours. They also record and release their first album and a couple of seminal early singles, John Lennon becomes a father and John and Brian Epstein go on holiday…
Antony's 'Life And Life Only' podcast (on Psychology and Alternative media)
Episode 92- John Lennon In 1962 with David 'Ghosty' Wills (Part 3 of 3)
Tuesday, August 29, 2023 • Duration 01:39:39
We complete our deep dive into 1962 in the outer world and in the Beatles family psychodrama, picking up from late July with Beatles events including a historic change of drummer, John Lennon’s marriage, the group’s first radio interview, their more than troublesome experience recording the simplest song in the world (Love Me Do), gigs with one of their biggest musical heroes Little Richard, and their final rather obligatory two trips back to Hamburg, the second of which yielded the infamous Star Club tapes
Ghosty and I’s casual chemistry (see part 1) yields tangents in some of the right places, and there are the usual array of diverse audio clips, the vast majority of which are relevant to the conversation…
Antony's 'Life And Life Only' podcast (on Psychology and Alternative media)
Episode 91- John Lennon In 1962 with David 'Ghosty' Wills (Part 2 of 3)
Thursday, July 27, 2023 • Duration 01:29:10
In this episode, Antony and Ghosty start discussing the Beatles/Lennon events of 1962, covering January to June. Particular focus is put on the Pete Best issue and the death of Stuart Sutcliffe, not to mention John Lennon’s contentious and highly unique reaction to that death.
Every year in the Beatles story from around 1960 was packed with activity and full of psychodrama, and 1962 is no exception. As ever, there are interesting audio clips to complement the conversation, and our two intrepid Beatle commentators go on tangents in most of the right places…
Episode 90- John Lennon In 1962 with David 'Ghosty' Wills (Part 1 of 3)
Saturday, June 24, 2023 • Duration 02:01:38
Our latest Lennon odyssey starts with a review of the events of 1962, a tangential conversation in which Antony and guest David ‘Ghosty’ Wills freewheel into all kinds of other territory before setting the listeners up with some pre-1962 context on the Beatles’ progress on their own journey to musical and cultural world domination.
1962 was marked by a massive historical event, the Cuban Missile Crisis, which happened in the same year as the first appearances in the world of the Beatles’ music and a certain famous undercover spy known to absolutely everyone he meets, and as we often do in this series, we talk about the relative importance of these events in the grand sweep of history
Episode 89- All We Are Saying: The 1980 Playboy Interviews (Part 3 of 3)
Thursday, May 25, 2023 • Duration 01:37:38
We complete our latest Lennon journey with the conclusion of my analysis of some of the more telling quotes from the series of interviews conducted in September 1980 for Playboy magazine by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
This episode contains a lot of clips from the original audio of the interviews and focuses mainly on John's comments about who wrote what in the Lennon-McCartney catalogue, including John#s analysis of the deeper meanings behind the song 'Strawberry Fields Forever'.
I have also included (by kind permission) an extended segment from the excellent 'Yesterday and Today' podcast that deals with a certain seafaring adventure that John undertook in June 1980 and which would have a profound effect on him.
Finally, there's a little bit of music from your humble host...
Episode 88- All We Are Saying: The 1980 Playboy Interviews (Part 2 of 3)
Monday, April 24, 2023 • Duration 01:42:36
This episode starts with a ‘short intro’ of around 45 minutes, with yet more Coleman vs Goldman material, before continuing our in-depth look at John Lennon’s series of interviews for Playboy magazine in September 1980, which also included Yoko Ono.
The interviews offer a fascinating and multi-layered study of a highly eccentric artist and also form an integral part of the official narrative of John and Yoko’s relationship in 1980 before John’s sudden and brutal demise.
There are numerous audio clips to complement the conversation, including some of John from the interviews themselves. You will also hear from Arthur and Vivien Janov talking about Primal Therapy, and comedy genius Bill Hicks discussing drugs.
Episode 87- All We Are Saying: The 1980 Playboy Interviews (Part 1 of 3)
Saturday, March 18, 2023 • Duration 01:34:37
John Lennon’s series of interviews for Playboy magazine in September 1980, which also included Yoko Ono, are not only a fascinating and multi-layered study of a highly eccentric artist but also form an integral part of the official narrative of John and Yoko’s relationship in 1980 before his death and of the genesis of the songs for their joint album ‘Double Fantasy’.
This episode is the first of a 3-parter that picks out some interesting extracts from the book ‘All We Are Saying’, based on the transcripts of the interviews.
A lot of the narrative promoted by John & Yoko in these interviews has been reasonably debunked, including the obvious and provable point that John's songs for 'Double Fantasy' were worked on for years rather than being the product of pure inspiration. The overall contention over what the truth is has helped form the Coleman-Goldman continuum that has been a almost frequent topic of study on this podcast
Before the main topic, there is also a recommendation and critique of Madeline Bocaro’s epic new 500-page book on Yoko Ono, whose narrative fits neatly with the interviews being studied in this episode.
There are numerous audio clips to complement the conversation, including some of John from the interviews themselves.
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