Dr. Gwynette: Hello and welcome to the Autism News NetWORK podcast. My name is Dr. Frampton Gwynette and I’m joined here today by Russ from the Autism News NetWORK. Hey Russ.

Russ: Hi, how are you?

Dr. Gwynette: Doing great. Doing great. Thanks for doing this today.

Russ: Oh, I’m glad to.

Dr. Gwynette: So yeah, so we’re going to talk to a professor of sorts. I think we’re both huge Beatle fans as you heard us allude to the fab four previously. Russ, tell us just from the top, how long does your Beatle fandom go back?

Russ: I would say since 1973.

Dr. Gwynette: Okay. And so how old were you, if you don’t mind? How old were you at that time?

Russ: 12.

Dr. Gwynette: 12. Okay. And so do you remember the Beatles when they were actively making music?

Russ: Actually, no. Really.

Dr. Gwynette: Okay. So it was right after the breakup?

Russ: Oh, yeah. Back in the sixties I was too focused, I guess, because of my autism, but I was too focused on the TV show called Batman. I loved that show and no matter what, I would follow that, but absolutely I wasn’t into the music part until-

Dr. Gwynette: (Singing).

Russ: I love it.

Dr. Gwynette: (Singing).

Russ: Yes.

Dr. Gwynette: Great song. Great show. Adam West, right.

Russ: And Bruce Ward, yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah, what a great show. So you were into Batman and then at some point, tell us about how you got to be a huge fan of the Beatles?

Russ: Well, I kind of fell into that, well, because I’m have autism, although back then it wasn’t even named that but teachers would call me retard and they would, even if I said some question that had some intelligence, she would make sure that the class thought I was stupid and they would start making fun of me. They’d start ridiculing me.

Dr. Gwynette: Gosh, that’s horrible.

Russ: Yeah. I mean, I really started believing it. None of it is true, but because I was shy and because I didn’t like sports, that’s the only reason. But somehow, I guess because of TV, I did watch The Monkees so I knew of them and The Parsons Family. Somehow I got hooked on Bobby Sherman. Bobby Sherman was a teen idol. I got his albums, if you want to listen to them. Teen idols at the time, they good looking and they do have a voice, but it’s all hyped to get people to buy the albums. And…

Dr. Gwynette: And so they had to do a lot of publicity, they’d do a lot of photography to make them buy the albums. And so Bobby Sherman, was that a logical link to the Beatles?

Russ: Well, yeah. It started with him and I thought it was interesting that my parents didn’t really know of him or they didn’t listen to him. They listened to Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, I mean Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, all of-

Dr. Gwynette: Dean Martin, all those guys.

Russ: Yeah. And here I got this young guy, so here I am listening to someone who’s pretty much I can relate to so it was the first thing I thought. I felt kind of special that of the whole entire family, I had someone that I liked and people liked him too because he had hits. So again, I didn’t listen to the radio at that time, but somehow because of TV, I just started listening to Bobby Sherman.

Dr. Gwynette: And so the Beatles, when they first came out, they were heart throbs, right?

Russ: Yeah. Well, that’s the other thing as soon as I got Bobby Sherman, then I started listening to ’50s music, Chuck Berry, Little… My mom never heard of these people and she’s from the ’50s. And again, if I know something that my parents don’t know, then I’m not as stupid as what everyone says. So I had some sort of some, what’s you call it, respect for myself or I had a better… But then here I am wanting there was this album on… Well, I don’t know how, but since I like Frank, I mean, Frankie Eva and Four Seasons and I never got one, but mom bought me the Beatles, the Red Album.

Dr. Gwynette: The Red Album?

Russ: Yeah, Beatles 1962 to 1966 with the green apple label, which is a collectors’ item now. But yeah, I’d never heard of these people. Here I am listening to Love Me Do, She Loves You, I’m want to hold your hand and I’m good from the sixties I never heard of these. I’ve heard of the Monsters, The Addams Family, old TV shows, but never heard of… So it was like, wow. And I’m so used to singers like Parsons Family, Bobby Sherman and others that someone else write the songs for them.
There was only Lennon-McCartney so I just assume it’s two other people that’s their job is to write songs. How did I know? I mean, I didn’t even know the names. I just know The Beatles. The front cover has them as that they were in 1963 and the back was going to be the original cover of Get Back in 1969 but I didn’t know that. I thought, well, the clean cut version is from the beginning and up until 1966, that’s when they started growing here. Of course, I never even knew. My favorite song was Yellow Submarine and I would just be singing that song over and over again.

Dr. Gwynette: That’s my favorite Beatles song, Yellow submarine. Is that yours?

Russ: Not anymore, but yeah, at that time, yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: At the time, yeah. And really to give you some credit, you were one years old when they started breaking to become pop stars. So, of course, you missed it because you were just a child but then when you were 12 years old or so you started discovering the music and that first album, you call it, the Red Album, that’s the one where they’re on the banister looking over, clean cut, and then on the back it has them kind of shaggy.

Russ: Yeah. Well, that’s what the fans call it, the Red Album and the Blue Album is 1967 to 1970.

Dr. Gwynette: Okay, well I was going to ask what did the music do to you?

Russ: Well, like I said, I still love Bobby Sherman because he was the first, but I thought, wow, I never heard this. I love it. I wish I knew about them. And so here I… happy to have this double album playing ’62 to ’66 and I thought it couldn’t be any better. I mean, I thought this was their only hit songs. So I don’t necessarily have to go and get on the albums because I got on their hits. Well, then next year there was an album on TV, where if I could find it… Called 40 Funky Hits.
I just made my own version because I got the album, I mean, the vinyl, but 40 Funky Hits was something impressive on TV. I mean they had these weird songs, Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop, Western movies, Short Fat Fanny. Everything that I do or in the past affects me in some way so this might have started something with me. I kept saying to my mom, “Please, I hope I get this. Please, can I get this?” I was so disappointed when I didn’t get it. But instead I got the Beatles Blue Album, 1967 to 1970. I’m thinking the album cover has them with beard and the 19 on the back, it’s the clean shaving, so I had to ask “Mom, what did they of didn’t shave at the end of the decade?”

Dr. Gwynette: Did they go through puberty?

Russ: She was happy that I liked it, although I preferred 40 Funky Hits at that time.

Dr. Gwynette: So 40 Funky Hits that was various artists?

Russ: Oh yeah. I could play it. It’s took me a while, but picked up my own. But yeah, as I grew, I’m starting liking the Beatles more. I still love the ’50s music and at that time, people in school would tease me, ridicule me, why am I not listening to the ’70s, or today’s music, which was the ’70s, but I have to listen to my parents’ music and blah, blah, blah. All of a sudden, Making Graffiti came out. Happy days. And now I didn’t look as bad.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah, for being a ’60s music fan

Russ: The ’50s but then the Beatles affected me more. Soon as I got… then I noticed on the Blue Album, everyone, again, Lennon and McCartney, there was a Harrison, but mostly Lennon and McCartney so I’m thinking who are these people? Then my third album, Beatles Revolver.

Dr. Gwynette: Great one.

Russ: In the back it has the people who are singing it, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George… Lennon, McCartney, George Harrison, now I know who these people are. I don’t know who Ringo is. I mean, Octopus’s Garden and was written by Richard Starkey so I didn’t know they were connected, but the more I knew, it’s like I really did focus more on the Beatles more and more and I just couldn’t stop. I mean, I went and got every single album some of which, even the Beatles did not want to be released.

Dr. Gwynette: Really? Can you give some examples?

Russ: The original Beatles Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, it’s a double album, silver, shining cover and inside you get this sort of fountain. Ringo Starr did not like it because it’s not them. It’s gears more to the ’50s style so Capitol Records had to discontinue that and release it again in two single albums so I’m glad I got the original, but yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: So you’re talking about some of these old records. Do you still have your vinyl records?

Russ: Oh yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: Wow.

Russ: I’m obsessive about everything I like.

Dr. Gwynette: Are they in good shape?

Russ: Yeah. I mean maybe the fringes in between but yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: And the record itself play?

Russ: Well, the record is perfect.

Dr. Gwynette: Wow. Now when you listen to music, do you put on a record player or do you prefer other times?

Russ: Well yeah, I played my vinyl. I play my CDs and iTunes.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah.

Russ: At work and when I was a man just cleaning pumps, I had a fan base because here I am playing music and a lot of women behind me watched me.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. They enjoy the tunes.

Russ: Well, yeah. But I’ve been told that they like my dancing.

Dr. Gwynette: Oh you dance while you listen to music?

Russ: Yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: Cool.

Russ: I think that’s why, but-

Dr. Gwynette: Okay. So when you’re-

Russ: But as long as I’m enjoying it, I don’t care.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. So you’ll be at work, listening to music and dancing while you work?

Russ: Yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: That’s awesome.

Russ: See, I love myself. So right now, I mean, no one can, well, insult me, put me down because I got through that.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. You went through a hard time when you were young.

Russ: Yeah. Okay, I could understand the classmates because frankly they are idiots.

Dr. Gwynette: So you’ve worked through a lot and has music been a big part of your life?

Russ: Yeah, it really did. But from 1973 to 1980, it was just Beatles. I mean I come walking into the room and I’ll be saying hi and by the way, do you know the Beatles did this or Beatles said or whatever you said, I would compare it to. I mean, I had all their albums, all vinyl, including the Let It Be, which is the only one with a red apple because it was made in New York. But then I got the solo career, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney in the wings, John Lennon, John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Man, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, all them.

Dr. Gwynette: So you followed them all the way through their solo work?

Russ: Yeah.
I liked Paul. I wasn’t sure about John and George, because one was about religion and the other one about this peace thing, but Paul McCartney had these great pop songs and Ringo Starr, well I love him too. Because I don’t want to get stuck in an album that I wouldn’t like but I got Paul, I got Ringo and then I got The Greatest Hits of John Lennon, Shaved Fish, which again is out of print and George Harrison’s Greatest Hit album. The Shaved Fish.

Dr. Gwynette: You’re saying Shaved Fish?

Russ: Yeah. That was the name of his greatest hit album.

Dr. Gwynette: Oh.

Russ: I don’t know why but-

Dr. Gwynette: That’s funny.

Russ: But yeah, they had the Mind Games, Give Peace A Chance, Cold Turkey, and Women Are The “N” of The World and I thought that I… But heck is a camera? So I thought, well, I’ll let that one go but I liked the whole album. And then John Harrison’s Greatest Hit A side is just Beatles songs, the B side is his. So I liked his. His was better to me. But like I said, gradually, I got John and George’s albums and I was happy. My brother would be listening to Grateful Dead and Rolling Stones, whatever, and me? The Beatles. Beatles, Beatles, Beatles, Beatles. Constantly Beatles. I mean Beatles. I mean, if they wrote a song for someone else, I want that. If they were in the background singers, I would want to get that. If they were mentioned in a song, I would get that. Now I got John Lennon’s two books, In His Own Write, A Spaniard in the Works. George Harrison’s original hard cover, I me mine. I mean, I got piles and piles of Beatle books.

Dr. Gwynette: Really?

Russ: Yes.

Dr. Gwynette: Do you read them?

Russ: Yeah. Some of which I think they took some from another one because some of them sound pretty much the same, but yeah, I gradually got all of them except for four albums. My birthday in July, I got Introducing… The Beatles Vee Jay, which, again, out of print. Yeah, the Let it be, Ringo’s Greatest that’s what hooked me on. So from July 26th to December 9th, I got all the solo albums.

Dr. Gwynette: So you completed the collection?

Russ: Yeah. Well, except for Double Fantasy. I mean here, John Lennon is coming out of high time and there’s a chance the Beatles can get back together again. I love it. I really enjoyed it. Then I got woken up. My mom came in the room, says, “John Lennon is dead.” I just woke up. I couldn’t believe that. So for the whole day on the radio, they would be saying, I want to live. They got recordings of him, “I want to live. I want to live. I’ll live.”

Dr. Gwynette: Who was saying-

Russ: In New York. New York.

Dr. Gwynette: Who was saying I want to live?

Russ: No. I mean, they had an interview and they took a John Lennon’s voice and they kept repeating it. It’s something that I guess you have to be there, but it was like the world can’t live without him. Oh, they were talking about the Beatle John Lennon this. Even when he’s dead, they still have to talk Beatle John Lennon has just died. Beatle John Lennon this. They keep forgetting about him being in Plastic Ono band. They forget all that. And I have Newness articles and I mean, I was so damn down. I was so upset in my inner self, I couldn’t smile. I mean the greatest hope I have in life-

Dr. Gwynette: Of the Beatles getting back together?

Russ: Oh, just to have John Lennon coming out. He’s my favorite.

Dr. Gwynette: Okay.

Russ: Then I read this news article, two women in New York and one man in Florida commit suicide because they can’t live without John Lennon. Thing pop in my head. I want to prove to the world that I love the Beatles just as much. But it’s like a light switch off. Wait a minute, if I do that, I won’t be able to listen to the Beatles. So that was a double edge, but it also got me focused away necessarily. I started liking the Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks stick out. I mean, all the best rock. Because I didn’t want to get into just that one thing thinking that I would… I mean, I love life and to think like that, I couldn’t do that anymore. I now have every song ever recorded from January 1st, 1960 to December 31st, 1969. And I got the ’40s, I got the ’50s. Everyone I like from 1910 to now but yeah, that one moment I thought… And then of course Christmas came, I got the Devil Fantasy.

Dr. Gwynette: So John had been dead for just a few weeks?

Russ: Yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: And you got the album Double Fantasy?

Russ: Yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. So you were really, really into it.

Russ: Oh yeah. I used to play guitar because the Beatles. I played all their music-

Dr. Gwynette: Really?

Russ: … with my audio and then later, my guitar, electric guitar. And I mean, I blew the auto guitar. I mean, I kept playing it. It just fell apart and the electric guitar that I blew out the speaker. When he died or I should say assassinated, I stopped playing. I mean, it’s not that I don’t like it. It’s just it’s time for me to move on to something else. I still love him. I’ll still play him. And anytime I feel down, I’ll play the Beatles or John Lennon or even Yoko Ono. A lot of people don’t like her. I love her.

Dr. Gwynette: Love her music?

Russ: Yeah. I got a boxset of CDs at home of just Yoko Ono. I do have some vinyl, but they’re hard to find. But yeah, I got all hers on iTunes. So I got them. I love Yoko Ono.

Dr. Gwynette: Wow. So for the people, listen, you’d recommend that they check Yoko Ono’s music out?

Russ: I say it, but I don’t think anyone’s going to listen to it.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. Is it an acquired taste or is it a certain style?

Russ: You want to hear one?

Dr. Gwynette: Maybe we can consider that. I don’t know if we can do that. But maybe give us the names of some songs that you like. How about that?

Russ: I do love Sister, O Sister, which is on the New York, I mean, Some Time in New York. I also like We Are All Water of Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for a Hand in the Snow). Again, you’re going to have to spend some time, get your brain washed out and just listen to it because… And most people aren’t going to like her.

Dr. Gwynette: Okay. But that’s interesting. Worth checking out. So is it fair to say that when you got the news about John Lennon, like many people that you were shattered and devastated?

Russ: Yeah. And at school people were fans of the Beatles and even the teachers and so at that time I was going to a private school because of my autism, and it was like first time, classmates and teachers and myself was in the same page.

Dr. Gwynette: Grieving.

Russ: Yeah. Talking about their love for John Lennon, or most of them, the Beatles. But yeah, I got over it. I’m here.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. And you’re mega fan.

Russ: Oh yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: So you mentioned earlier that John’s your favorite?

Russ: Oh yes.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. I’m a Paul guy, myself. I personally feel like John had kind of the cool aspect that he had a lot of the star quality and that Paul was like the steady hit producing guy and that they balanced each other out so well, they challenged each other. They brought out the best in each other and it’s really, I don’t think there’s been another case in music history where two people fed off of each other so well.

Russ: Yeah. There’s a song on Let It Be, Getting Better. I mean, not Let It Be, Strawberry Fields Forever, Getting Better. You can actually hear both of them when they do line by line, Paul McCartney’s line is I’m getting better and hear in the background, John saying, “It can’t get much worse.” Meaning here’s Paul McCartney looking at the bright side and here’s John Lennon looking at the negative side. But yeah, it’s like you said, there’s some songs on there they just recorded just on the spot and there’s others that just one does one part and the other one wants to compete and do it better. And yeah, they did a great job.

Dr. Gwynette: Oh yes.

Russ: Yes. I always thought that George Harrison or Ringo Starr could have been the second, but that never happened.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah, because George Harrison was a musical genius as well in his own.

Russ: He started writing songs after they stopped touring but when he started writing songs, some of them are even better than Lennon and McCartney.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. They’re amazing.

Russ: Yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: Have you gone back much and looked at videos of Beatlemania, seeing what it was like? I think a lot of people in this age group, my own kids, I showed them Beatlemania videos for education. Have you ever looked at any of those?

Russ: I have a box set of The Ed Sullivan Show with all four episodes, the complete episode with the Beatles and oh yeah, I watch that a lot. I mean, I love to see him, but it’s kind of hard to watch him. I mean, to-

Dr. Gwynette: To hear him.

Russ: Yeah, to hear him because the fans kept screaming and screaming. You just couldn’t hear anything.

Dr. Gwynette: Paul said that he and John once were on stage at Shea stadium, I believe. And it was so loud that they just looked at each other during the song and just went blah, blah, blah, blah, into the microphones because no one could hear them anyway. And they were just randomly strumming their guitars and they’re like, “Listen, the crowd’s so loud. Who cares what we play for that 10 seconds sort of?”

Russ: And all four of them at times was actually playing four different songs and they couldn’t hear each other. And John Lennon, he started just acting like an idiot and just walking as though he’s handicapped or something. No one even cared. He just acted like himself, but no one cared.

Dr. Gwynette: Did you ever hear that in the early days when they were playing smaller indoor venues, that the venues would start to smell like urine because a lot of the people screaming, a lot of the women screaming would be peeing themselves during the concert? You ever hear that?

Russ: It’s probably true. I’ve never actually heard that, but it’s probably is.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah, I’m just interested in that as a physician that you create so much pressure by screaming, sometimes that happens by laughing that people become incontinent of urine and then just the idea of that kind of hysteria at a concert it’s really hasn’t been matched in the 60 years since has it?

Russ: No, no. No one’s ever even come close.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. And I’ve been showing my kids some of the videos of when they arrived in New York or even in England and you see 20,000 people in the street trying to get to their limousine. You have to see it to believe it. Or a band lands at the airport and there’s a hundred thousand people at wherever they landed in, I think it was LaGuardia. It’s unbelievable, right?

Russ: Right. Now the singers of today, because of CDs and whatever, they might be getting paid more because of the economy and they may have fans. They may have them and that, but no one before, during and after can outdo the Beatles. There’s just no one.

Dr. Gwynette: Absolutely. And to think too about, I have goosebumps, I’m looking out of on my arms just from you saying that, because to think how really short their career was, it was just about 9 or 10 years. And they, like these days, like you said, Justin Bieber, he’s been around better part of 20 years now.

Russ: I don’t like him. I never liked him. Don’t even put that.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah, sorry.

Russ: Edit that.

Dr. Gwynette: We’ll edit that out. But-

Russ: Put a different name.

Dr. Gwynette: Well, Taylor swift has been around probably 16 years now and that’s way longer than the Beatles. But yeah, it’s pretty amazing how fast they were able, how prolific they were. Can you speak about what listening to the Beatles does for you emotionally?

Russ: It depends on the song. My favorite song of all is Across The Universe.

Dr. Gwynette: From Let It Be?

Russ: Now there’s the original version, not the Phil Spector that he ruined on Let It Be, but the original with the birds chirping and I can just sit there, listen to it… Oh, sorry. I’m in another world.

Dr. Gwynette: You’re transported.

Russ: Yeah. It’s like, wow. There is a life after on this world that’s of hate and it doesn’t make sense, but-

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah, they were able to tap into this happiness and this hopefulness. And I think that might be part of why I love the song, Yellow Submarine so much because they have so many great songs and Yellow Submarine’s kind of a novelty song. It’s just kind of a childish song that they act real goofy in it but at the same time, it’s a beautiful melody and it just takes you this place where you’re just bouncing on the waves in this Yellow Submarine and you don’t have to think about life for those two and a half minutes.

Russ: Oh yeah. And that’s my favorite film.

Dr. Gwynette: Is that right?

Russ: Yeah. I mean the way it blinks, and the way it has holes in it, they really looked at all the Beatles songs at that time and you could tell that they try to make their lyrics into what… I just love it. Whether I’m a Beatle fan or not, it’s just, I guess watching cartoons on what Disney. It’s like a step up to adults and I thought, wow.

Dr. Gwynette: Absolutely. And they were doing so much of this without MTV or social media.

Russ: They didn’t have to.

Dr. Gwynette: No. Yeah, they didn’t have to. It’s-

Russ: They just put the album in the stores and matter of fact, the Beatles albums never had a hit song on it. I mean, I Want To Hold Your Hand was not on the album. In United States, yes but in Great Britain, no, because I mean, when you’re a performer, you want to put your hit song on the album to get selling the album. Beatles never did that. They just made a whole album and then the song but United States that they tend to revamp it.

Dr. Gwynette: Commercialize it, yeah. No, that’s a great point. So the Beatles were kind of known for having little treats inside their albums that only the fans, the real fans knew about. Sometimes people call those Easter eggs, like video games will have little hidden things and the Beatles had their own Easter eggs in their albums. Did you ever get into any of those?

Russ: What? Like the Paul is dead hoax?

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. Paul’s dead.

Russ: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And if you look at it, it does really, really… because I got somewhere that you can look on an arm on the Abbey Road album. And if you look really close to it, well, the Abbey Road album has a lot, but so did the-

Dr. Gwynette: Sgt. Pepper, right?

Russ: Sergeant pepper and-

Dr. Gwynette: The Magical Mystery Tour.

Russ: That too. And then there’s some certain songs that’s also has some Easter eggs in it.

Dr. Gwynette: And there were literally people out there, a lot of people who swore that Paul was dead, right?

Russ: Right. Just recently Paul McCartney, well, a few years ago had a live album and called Paul Is Alive.

Dr. Gwynette: Is that right?

Russ: Yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: I never knew that.

Russ: But yeah, there’s a lot of people who thought maybe they did it on purpose, but all four of them swear they didn’t do it.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. I think-

Russ: But you can’t do it with CDs or iTunes, but on the vinyl, you could play certain songs and plays backwards. You could hear a message. The US did not have the Sgt. Pepper In The Groove, but in Great Britain and others has a… This in the groove that when you play, I mean-

Dr. Gwynette: So you’re saying-

Russ: The day in life, there’s a added thing, but not in this country. But if you play that backwards, you hear another message. Matter of fact, to tell you how great the 60 group fans will actually go to these people that love and they would just shake your hand, I mean, on the streets.

Dr. Gwynette: Nowadays that wouldn’t happen, now.

Russ: These two girls came to Paul McCartney’s house and say, “Would you do what you said, that’s on this album?” And he didn’t understand what they were saying. So he played it backwards and it says, “Will F you like Superman. Will F you like Superman.” And they don’t say F they say the… But yeah, he was so shocked about that.

Dr. Gwynette: Wow. How did that happen, you think? The record company?

Russ: Don’t know.

Dr. Gwynette: That’s crazy.

Russ: I think they had to know something like this, but those who were buying albums to have them burn because of what John Leonard said about Chris-

Dr. Gwynette: About Jesus.

Russ: … that Beatles are more popular than Jesus, which they are. Everything is more popular. iPhones are popular. That lamp is. Most people do not think of, unless they go to church, more people are thinking of what they see. So parents will actually be buying albums so on TV, they could just burn them.

Dr. Gwynette: Wow.

Russ: But because of the Paul McCartney dead hoax, people were buying Beatle albums and they were going on the charts again, the previous ones so they can listen to and find the clues.

Dr. Gwynette: The clues. Wow. So they were going back up the charts after they had been out several years. That’s unbelievable.

Russ: No, I’m talking about back in the late sixties. They were still together. But oh yeah, people just loved the Beatles.

Dr. Gwynette: And just thinking about fandom, there is different levels of fandom and certainly you’re way high up there. Did you know that there is a young lady in Liverpool who bought all four childhood homes of the Beatles?

Russ: No.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. She went and bought each one where the lads grew up and now she owns them.

Russ: Oh, lucky.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. Would you like that?

Russ: I would love to see them. I’m not sure if we might necessarily want to go in it, because I might disturb a footprint of what, but to just maybe take a chair and look outside and like I said, I don’t know if I would actually walk in because… All four of them? No.

Dr. Gwynette: And they were tiny. I’ve seen pictures. They’re tiny places. This was working class guys.

Russ: Oh Ringo was really the working class. I mean that was in Dingles area there in Liverpool.

Dr. Gwynette: What’s Dingles?

Russ: That’s-

Dr. Gwynette: That where he was from?

Russ: Well, yeah. It’s next to Liverpool. Maybe part of it, but it’s a different area than the other three.

Dr. Gwynette: Okay.

Russ: But yeah, now he had that tough life. I mean, I’ve hear certain people in autism that had awful childhood. They were abused. They were talked down to. And one of the negative things that I read, Ringo Starr had it worse. I don’t care what anyone says. Ringo Starr had every childhood disease known to man.

Dr. Gwynette: Really?

Russ: Every one.

Dr. Gwynette: Never heard this.

Russ: Yeah, he had so many one year that he had to repeat the same class where he was. Then there was times when he had it so bad that they thought he was going to die.

Dr. Gwynette: And he was just a young guy.

Russ: Yeah. And then the parents thought he’d been out of school so much that it’s not for him. They just bought him a drums kit and there you go. Now again, in Liverpool they listened to rock and roll but they had their own music, skiffle music where they would take a-

Dr. Gwynette: What kind of music?

Russ: Skiffle.

Dr. Gwynette: Skiffle. Okay.

Russ: Yeah. They would take a drum and well, they make their own instruments. Whatever made a sound, that’s what they would use. But-

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah, there’s-

Russ: Ringo didn’t have much of a good childhood. He didn’t graduate because he never… But they, all the people who did their groups, not just the Beatles, but also Gerry and the Pacemakers, [inaudible 00:45:24] and everyone who was in Liverpool, they just thought this was going to be for a couple years and they’ll just go and work in the factories because that’s all that Liverpool had was factories. So it doesn’t really matter if you had an education or not. It’s just, you go in the factory.

Dr. Gwynette: So they didn’t anticipate the British invasion?

Russ: No, they didn’t know anything. They were amazed that Brian Ep signed them so, they were amazed that Brian Epstein got them a recording contract.

Dr. Gwynette: This had never been done before, so yeah.

Russ: No. No. Absolutely not. And it was like one step after another and they didn’t know what America was like. There was a few people who came to United States that was famous in Great Britain, but bombed. I mean they just thought United States is not going to be-

Dr. Gwynette: Not going to be good.

Russ: … something you want to go to.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. There’s a song by Paul McCartney on a pretty recent album that came out six or seven years ago from his album called New. And it’s a song called Early Days and it’s about being in Liverpool when you’re 14, 15 years old and he’s describing him and his friend, which we presume to be John Lennon dressed in black, slicking, their hair back.

Russ: Teddy boys.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. What did you call them?

Russ: The Teddy boys.

Dr. Gwynette: The Teddy boys, yeah. Walking up and down the streets of Liverpool with guitars on their backs and playing their music, going in the record stores, trying to imitate the sounds that they heard the American early rockers and one of the quotes in that song is he says, “Everybody says that they know what happened between Paul and John,” and he says, “but let me tell you, I was in the early days I was there. They weren’t. I lived it.” And he can go all the way back. And it really brought chills to me because the bond that those guys had growing up together and they went through Beatlemania. They’re the only ones who ever went through Beatlemania from their perspective and it’s just amazing. And Paul’s 80 now. It’s pretty hard to believe.

Russ: And he made an album. He still makes albums. Him and Ringo, still makes albums.

Dr. Gwynette: So yeah, it’s just fascinating that they’re still winning fans to this day. I hope people who listen today can appreciate the Beatles all over again and please go back to the albums. If you listen to vinyl, break them out. If you listen to tape decks, eight tracks, CDs, hit iTunes, Spotify, wherever you can and just listen to that music because it will never be duplicated. It’s really-

Russ: No. I mean, there’s people who record them in Motown or the country westerns jazz and even R&B and they could put their thumbprint in it but it doesn’t have that same quality. I mean, I like how they play it, but it’s not the same. I mean, it doesn’t have that style that… You could sing the song, but you don’t have that flavor.

Dr. Gwynette: Do you think that you and I should talk about the Beatles regularly on a regular show?

Russ: Yeah. Actually I was planning on being my silly self, but-

Dr. Gwynette: Please.

Russ: But yeah.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. You can always be your silly self on this pod and yeah, I think that we have the beginnings here of a great series about the Beatles that is at least one show, but let’s try to make it many more than one.

Russ: Sure.

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah. We’ve just scratched the surface, right?

Russ: Right.

Dr. Gwynette: Okay. Well, again, thank you to our audience for joining us today. I’m here with Russ from the Autism News NetWORK who is a lifelong Beatle fan and always will be, and we appreciate you being with us and we hope that you’ll join us for our next episode soon. I’m Dr. Gwynette from the Autism News NetWORK. Thank you for joining us.