#316 Breakfast with the Beatles and Chris Carter

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:28

All right, Sadie, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week, and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 316 of classic conversations. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for what's sure to be the beat holistic episode of all ages. Oh my goodness, Chris Carter is here. That's right. Chris Carter, host of breakfast with The Beatles on Sirius XM. He knows everything about the Beatles. We're talking Beatles. This is chock full of Beatles. And that's coming up in just a few seconds. Last week, John Beckerman and Michaela Watkins episode 314 and 315 That's right, there was a bonus episode dinner with the parents. We talked to all about that and various other things in each of those episodes. Check it out. love that show. They'll love it. We'll always anyway, definitely check it out. But right now Well right now we're gonna take a magical mystery tour with Chris Carter. Enjoy. Alright everyone. I'm excited to introduce my next guest. Music film producer disc jockey. Do you consider yourself is a disc jockey? I think

Chris Carter 1:43

I would be a DJ. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I'll go with it.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:47

Based in LA recognized by bam, one of the top 100 Most Influential Californians in music history. In the music industry. Host a breakfast with The Beatles. Welcome to the show. Chris Carter. Oh, founding member of Rama, Rama.

Chris Carter 2:04

It's right. We can't forget that and forget that drama drama. How're you doing?

Jeff Dwoskin 2:08

I'm doing great. You know, normally I would have liked by default started binging Beatles songs to prepare talk to a Beatle expert and historian such as yourself. But I realized I've listened to a million buildings, Beatles songs. There's nothing I'm going to so I ended up listening to Rama Rama There you go. You

Chris Carter 2:27

go find alternative. Yeah, it was.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:29

So I wanted to do just the NAMA ver Tae. Yeah, breakfast with Rama Rama for a second. It's a cool background. You like this awesome background?

Chris Carter 2:38

Oh, yeah. It's pretty cool in here. You don't even this is just the

Jeff Dwoskin 2:42

I don't even mean your duty. I mean, like your background, but other than Oh, I

Chris Carter 2:46

thought you meant my back to your background is nice as well. Yeah. No, I

Jeff Dwoskin 2:52

mean, like, you were in a band. I mean, I just obey. I mean, it's like, I feel like when you read someone's history, and they're like, oh, he was in a band. He was I mean, you were on Letterman. You were on Dennis Miller Show. I mean, you were at MTV, you know, you were like this. We

Chris Carter 3:06

were a real bad. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:10

You've always been fascinated with music. Yeah, since

Chris Carter 3:14

I was a little kid, I guess it was 1967 would be the pivotal year for me as a seven year old just started listening to am radio, like all kids my age, I guess, free FM, and I got hooked. It was something that made me feel different. You know, when I heard incense and peppermints from the strawberry alarm clock for the first time it made you feel cool. And I liked that feeling. It just stayed with me. And I graduated high school and went to college for one year for business because I wanted to open a record store and I quit college and I opened the records. So I didn't have to finish the other three years because I said, Why do I need to do I already know what I want. So we started a record store in Wayne, New Jersey, where I grew up, me and a buddy in 79 kept it till about 1982 We started the band drama drama in the basement of that record store. That's kind of where it started, where music became like, you know, our profession, so to speak, instead of just something I like to private.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:17

It's awesome. I Looney Tunes records, your records. So I these days, my favorite thing to do is go to a used record store. It's really the only place where you can kind of just immerse yourself in that old school music store and kind of just surround yourself with music and kind of just feel the music, you know, just go through it, look at all the different things discover things that you otherwise wouldn't ever have discovered, or, oh, what album is this? You know, like, yeah,

Chris Carter 4:46

and the fact that you can, you know, look at albums, it became once CDs entered the picture. It kind of changed everything you know, and I always say to everybody, you know, what they should have done was They should have kept the concept of the 12 image, the big album cover, and then just put the CD inside the album. Because what happened was when they did the big transfer, all the record stores had these big bins, like in Looney Tunes records, we had bins that you'd look at there. And once CDs came along all those bins, they had to get rid of them. And it was kind of, you know, like starting from scratch again, you know, just so we can put these CD racks in. And it always bugged me because once you got the CD, as everybody knows, you couldn't read anything anymore, you were looking at everything with a magnifying glass, all the artwork that you loved so much was just shrunk down. Now, they should have just kept the size just stuck the CD in the album, like they do now, you know, they do that by boxsets. And you get the full album cover. And then they have these little slips for the for the CDs, you know, no one thought of that back in 1986. It's a

Jeff Dwoskin 5:54

great idea. And they could have then reused all the same.

Chris Carter 5:57

Well, they would have not had all the SAM goodies and all the Tower Records and they got rid of all those bins, which was the primary way you would buy music, it was very costly, you know, didn't make that transfer. Now, where are we at? Now? Now you're back to buy in records, that whole foods next to the broccoli, you know, they get by Sergeant Pepper for $35. You know, while you're checking out with your almonds,

Jeff Dwoskin 6:22

I remember when the shift to CDs was happening and CDs were expensive, like really expensive. And so I remember like my collection at that time would have would have been like Greatest Hits albums. Unless it was like a killer album like Leawood rumors or something like that would buy the greatest hits. Because couldn't afford to buy a lot of

Chris Carter 6:42

about do you remember blank CDs, like when I was in a band right? Back in the day, we would do a mix of a song, and we want it on CD, we want to take it home, it was $25 for a blank one CD, I was like, oh, let's all chip in for the blank CD. Now it's the penny. I mean that that's a real turnaround, if you will, you know nothing ever I can't think of one I thought that was bloody $5 At one time, and now is a penny, it's really hard to think of anything that really had that reduction in cost.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:15

I remember vividly buying one of my very first computers, you know, lay in late 80s, or whatever I like and having to decide you want to put a CD player on this computer, it was an option. Right, right. And then of course, you know, that became standard. And now you don't have they don't have CD players and you

Chris Carter 7:36

can't buy a car with a CD player anymore. You can't even order them. Like if you try to order them. I'm sorry, you can't even order if they don't want you to have them. Which is really odd because any box set that comes out no matter who you know, if you want the Fleetwood Mac box, and if you aren't the you know the yes box and they're all on CD. That's the the RE mixing and the remastering is still done on CD of course, you get the vinyl but so it's a weird time, in the era of purchasing music, you really don't know how to also count sales, you know, when I looked at the wood now and then by the Beatles came out that new song, I was looking at all the charts to see how it was charting, to see if it was gonna, you know, get to number one or whatever. And I looked at the billboard singles charts the week that now and then came out and the top 10 songs, eight of them were from Taylor by Taylor Swift. And I thought I was looking at the wrong chart. I go, this must be the streaming chart. This can't be the hot 200 Single. And it was so that's the other thing was how do you account sales now because you have streaming you have downloads, you have vinyl, you have CDs, you know, how do you it's a tricky, it's a tricky thing to determine.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:52

It's an interesting world. Couple of years ago, my daughter went to a concert and they mailed her artists new CD, and she gets it in the mail and she looks at me and goes Dad, what am I doing? You know, it's interesting. Oh, you brought up two things as So Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift is the closest to the Beatles. Now then there's been it seems that she's you got every generation, loving her multiple generations. She's just yeah, a powerhouse.

Chris Carter 9:19

The only reason I would say maybe not exactly is the way you're marketed now in that The Beatles kind of got where they were solely on the on the music and you know, the image that they had, you know, the quick image that you saw pictures in a movie now with the Tick Tock world that we live in, and it's it's a whole another way to garner huge audience. And sometimes I wonder, would she have the kind of numbers she has, if she was doing it the old school way, you know, like if she was around in the 70s say, you know, would she have this kind of, you know, mass, you know, these kind of numbers that she racks up because it's incredible when you look at the numbers, I think if the Beatles were around today in the same with the same audience, I think they could have maybe surpassed that if you were playing by the same rules, like if the Beatles were on tick tock, and you were looking at, I want to hold your hand and the Ed Sullivan was, you know, streamed through billion houses, you know, it's a different way to rack up your sales. But I don't want to take anything away from her. You know, she's definitely unique in the fact that she, she just racks up numbers, like, nobody else really quite comes close to this. And she's doing something that The Beatles kind of did. And that's she has a very young audience, and then she has an older audience that still likes or you know, people always say, Well, how are the Beatles so big? And I always say, well, because seven year olds and 17 year olds liked them at the same time, which is unheard of, because anything a seven year old, usually likes especially artistically, you know, like music, someone who was 17, you'd be hard pressed to say, well, they were late, like the same thing a seven year old would like but in the case of the Beatles, they they really checked off all those boxes. And then the adults also understood that the talent there too. Yeah. So in that respect, I think she's somewhat close. And she's not a group either. You know, she's a person. So that's kind of removes her from that kind of competition against the Beatles as well.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:22

Yeah, I don't mean competition. I wasn't trying to say I just

Chris Carter 11:27

mean phenomenon. The Beatles never had eight out of 10 songs. But again, that's based differently. It's based on Right,

Jeff Dwoskin 11:35

right. But yeah, I mean, how things are distributed now is different. Yeah, you can't compare. Yeah, the general feeling I was, it was I was gonna bring up now and then I was gonna ask you how you must be really excited that that group finally got their act together and put out a new song

Chris Carter 11:51

about time. Well, you know, people always say, Well, what do you think about that song? Do you love it? Do you think it's the first thing I always say is, you know, I don't think when John was writing it, he ever intended it to be a single, which was released that it's a definite album track, if anything, and I think if it was an album track, and it was sitting on, you know, side to fourth song, and I think it would have been one of people's favorite songs, you know, it's like, sexy Sadie or cry, baby cry. And they weren't hit singles, but they were great album tracks. And I think of it like that, you know, John does wrote that song. I don't think he visioned it as a single, but it was released as a single. So everybody, you know, looking at it, like a single when people release singles, usually they're the more catchy song on a record or the most, you know, you could you know, as the most cross section of an audience. So it was put in a in a weird position. You know, here's a song John was working on. And now, you know, it's released as a Beatle single, you know, I don't know if that would have sat well, with John, he would have been like, Yeah, but are you kidding? That was you know, but with that said, it's pretty awesome. The whole the whole trilogy of free as a bird real love. And now this song, you know, it's pretty mind blowing. Just think about it that three of the Beatles got together. And did that in the first place was

Jeff Dwoskin 13:10

I love the whole story behind this song, which was part of those new songs. Yeah,

Chris Carter 13:15

yeah, George didn't like it at all, you know, George was not a big fan of the song, which is why they kind of scrapped it, not to get into, you know, inside the world of the Beatles. But I think when the three of them got back together, I think George being probably the, you know, the most difficult of the three, you know, to want to get back together and relive the old days of the lads, I think, you know, one of the one of George's things was let's, let's bring in Jeff Lynn, to the picture because George works very closely with Jeff Lynn. And you'll notice now that George has left us you know, Jeff Lynn wasn't really involved with this one, you know, it was kind of Paul in the driver's seat, Giles Martin in that group. So point is George carried some weight with the three of them when they got back together. And I think they were kind of walking on eggshells around George, but definitely they knew he was the guy who was probably be the most least into it, I should say. And so having Jeff Lynn there, I think was a plus for George, and he felt more comfortable. So you know, now that George was in here, Paul thought, let's do it. And one of the more interesting things about that song is that there was a bridge in the song that Paul and Ringo, I guess you could say took out, which was an interesting call, because if you were familiar with it, you kind of miss it when you hear it not being there. And then the last thing I want to say about that is some of the cover versions, you know, there's you can go on and find, you know, a 1964 rendition and there's a group called apple jam or a good Beatles tribute band. They did a version of now and then about a month before it was really released by the Beatles and I was playing it a little bit. It's really good because it's a lot more melodic you know, they made it It's a little more Beatle esque than the actual Beatles did it, which is interesting.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:05

I didn't know there were other versions. Oh, yeah. There's

Chris Carter 15:07

two or three. Yeah, just go on YouTube and Google Now. And then you'll find them. There's like a couple of them. But one of them in particular is really good.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:18

I had heard that you had mentioned that it was sort of like, well, okay, with Georgia passed away I had or that it was because of the AI technology, because John had recorded it over piano, and they were finally able to remove the vocal from the music, and then create the full recording from it. Yeah,

Chris Carter 15:36

that's what they did. Yeah. But they took out this part of the song that was in there.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:41

Where can we find that part of the song can

Chris Carter 15:43

go on YouTube and just type in now and then the Beatles, and you could hear the original John Lennon version.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:48

Okay. All right. This is good. Yeah, I was really taken by that song. I got a single right there on vinyl. I bought it. I just I loved it. I loved it. And it was funny, because when I'm driving and listening to it, I'm like, Oh, this is going to be used in every montage where they show people that passed away.

Chris Carter 16:06

Right, right. Yeah. The year end. Yeah. But there was just something

Jeff Dwoskin 16:10

about it. That was a nice. I thought it was great that they had a track from George. So that was nice. So they could say it was all four of them. Because they had done it way back then I thought it was a

Chris Carter 16:20

nice, you know, yeah, Paul did his bass part over again. You know,

Jeff Dwoskin 16:24

I thought it was a nice, just kinda, and it's a fine

Chris Carter 16:27

song without a doubt. And you know, it's one of those songs that also grows on you. You think about the first time you heard it, and then how and then how you feel now and it takes time. You know, songs take time, especially something like this where everybody wants an instant reaction. What do you think of the new Beatle song? If it's like, give me you know, talk to me in a month. You know, it's true. Songs, you have to you have to get into a little bit you have to become a part of your life. You know, it's not instant pain. It's not like a meal.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:56

Right? Some hit you right away? Yes, some do.

Chris Carter 16:59

And usually, it'd be like, in the beginning, you might not like it as much later.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:03

Yeah, it's the same thing with sometimes TV shows movies. Totally. Yeah, you gotta you gotta you gotta sleep on it a little bit. Zack. Sorry to interrupt have to take a quick break. Do you want to thank everyone for their support of the sponsors? When you support the sponsors? You're supporting us here at Classic conversations. And that's why we gave the lights on. And now back to my conversation with Chris Carter. So before the Beatles again, there was drama, drama, and drama before your big la band when you broke up. I actually want to hear more about the VH one reunion.

Chris Carter 17:40

Yeah, that was a interesting event. They had a show called bands reunited. But they didn't tell us that when they first pitched it to me this guy, Richard blade was a DJ on K rock. And he's now on Sirius XM. He said, Chris, we're doing a show called most influential bands of the 80s. And I was like, Oh, wow, how nice. We'll finally get some recognition as influential bands of the 80s. Yeah, great. Can I get you know, the band members addresses and phone numbers I want to I was like, Sure. So I helped them out. And like a couple of weeks later, I'm doing breakfast of The Beatles. On a Sunday morning. I'm alone at this radio station as you are on a Sunday morning at a radio station. I look up at the little camera in the lobby. There's like 10 guys with cameras and boom mics. I'm like, What the hell's this on a Sunday morning, I'm wearing cut off shorts. And like a Hawaiian shirt. No one sees you when you go, I just roll out of bed. So we let them in. And it's Richard blade and the camera crew from VH. One and we're doing a show called bands reunited. And Chris Well, you get back together with your band, and they put you on the spot and put a microphone in front of you. And I'm thinking this whole time this guy told me we're on a show called most influential bands of the 80s. And now it's a show called bands reunited, I'm like what happened. And I all this is going through my head at the same time. So they put the mic in front of you. And the concept of the show is they go up to all the members of these bands that have been broken up and each person has to say that they would get back together. So I'm like, Well, I gotta think about it. Because I was like mad at the guy for kind of lying to me. But of course I said yes. And long story short, we had been broken up for I guess 10 years at the time. So we get all back together with the original guys. And then they asked you to play a concert with your band that got reunited they don't pay you a penny by the way. So you have to get back together uh, guys that you kind of all you know yet. I don't think we ever had real falling out. We were all still friends, but it's a little uncomfortable. You know, you're getting back together with the guys that you hadn't seen her all these years. And then you have to put on a concert at the Roxy which is sold out, right because it's a big thing. K rock concert, back drama, drama. So you have to be good. You haven't played in 10 years. So you have put on a concert so they're putting all this pressure on you right? You have to get back with your friends that you You haven't talked to you have to learn a set you have to a whole shows worth of songs basically. And they don't give you any money. Looking back on it, it was I don't think I would have done it again, you know,

Jeff Dwoskin 20:11

sounds like a dream come true.

Chris Carter 20:12

It was it was like it was good for them, you know, but it wasn't. It wasn't that fun. It was a lot of work, really. But it was kind of cool. Yes. And

Jeff Dwoskin 20:21

then that band still together now. I mean, not with you. But yeah,

Chris Carter 20:25

no, no, there's three guys that are still together and they're playing. And I keep in touch with the lead singer Johnny's Dale still and we're still friends. We're all still friends. It's all good.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:37

Well, you got like point oh, five cents coming your way, because I just listened to your album on Amazon.

Chris Carter 20:45

I don't understand any of that. How you get paid for streaming? And I have no idea. I know. We've had like, over a million streams for the swan song. I don't know what that gets you. I saw the Beatles had 72 million streams of now in that in it. They made $42,000 from that doesn't sound right. Yeah. But that's about I think the point is, that's how little

Jeff Dwoskin 21:09

you make you do not make a lot. Do you still manage the wonderment? No, no,

Chris Carter 21:13

no, we after the band after drama Rama broke up, I managed a couple of bands, the Wunderman su went on to become Brian Wilson's backup band and another band called Baby lemonade and another band called The Negro Problem and they all went on to do really cool things started from the Negro Problem did a musical on Broadway with Spike Lee and they all ended up kind of ending up doing what they dreamt of like the wonderment for big time Beach Boys fans and they ended up being Brian Wilson's band and this band baby lemonade were big Arthur Lee and love fans and they became love. So if he goes see love now your original members and baby lemonade, so that was fun. Then I made a movie about Rodney being in Heimer. Who is a DJ on camera. Now he's on Sirius XM with me and little Stevens underground garage on Sunday nights. So I made that movie about Rodney which took about seven years to make mayor of the Sunset Strip ever see that? Mayor the Sunset Strip?

Jeff Dwoskin 22:11

I know I haven't seen it. I just I came across that I've got I got that to watch now and search on all the other now and then version.

Chris Carter 22:20

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You'll have fun with all of that. Yeah, the mayor the Sunset Strip is interesting rock and roll movie. Everybody's in it. Like Rodney was such a pivotal figure that it was really easy to get all these people in the movie and it's directed by a guy named George Hickenlooper, who passed away and George had directed hearts of darkness the making of Apocalypse Now, which was one of the greatest documentaries of all time, it was almost better than Apocalypse Now because you got, you know, all the crazy stuff that happened. So when I wanted to make this movie about Rodney, I wanted to get a director who was great at documentaries, but who knew nothing about rock and roll, I didn't want to get a rock and roll guy. I wanted to get someone who didn't know about rock and roll so he could look at it from another point of view. And then I just I told him, I said, you know, we can get anybody in the world in this movie. And he's like, really? I go, Yeah, we can. And we ended up doing just that, you know, shares in the movie, David Bowie's in the movie, Courtney Love The Ramones, Alice Cooper, I mean, you can't name anybody rock. You know, that's not in this movie. Oasis Gwen's to funny. It doesn't matter. Everybody's in this movie. Sadly. He passed away after he made a movie with Kevin Spacey. That was weird. So yeah, then after all that I started hosting breakfast with The Beatles. So I had a little management stint little movie making now I've been doing this for 22 years.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:40

Amazing before breakfast vetoes you did your on air talent for a while right before that, right?

Chris Carter 23:46

Yeah, a couple of shows. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:48

Where's the love? I mean, I was I ever I love the Beatles. Everyone loves the Beatles. Why should ask you when someone comes up to you and says, really? The Beatles? How do you even handle that? Do you have a face that you have prepared? When someone comes up to you and says that they really don't like the Beatles?

Chris Carter 24:02

I never really, I don't get a lot of that. Honestly, I don't get a lot of people telling me they don't like the Beatles, they probably wouldn't come up to me to say that. Right? Unless you wanted to cause trouble. Yeah, and try to argue with me. But I can understand, you know, how someone might not like the Beatles. Usually, it's someone who didn't grow up in that era. You I mean, it's hard. You're hard pressed to find someone who grew up then. But there were a few that didn't like the Beatles. Right. It's interesting, though, that the young people that the amount of young people that still like the Beatles, and buy Beatles stuff is so incredibly high. I mean, the requests I get on the Beatles channel, I'd say half of them are people under 40, you know, which blows my mind, you know, because I'm thinking we're always just playing right, you know, everybody out there 65 And over, you know, but it's not the case. Again, that's why the Beatles were here and everybody else was here, you know, and I always use the same example if you, you know, if you go see Paul McCartney in concert, now, you'll see a given row of people, you'll see a family with kids, you'll see an old, you know, hippie and a tie dyed t shirt, you'll see a cross section of every age. And that's what the Beatles did. And if you go see, say, The Rolling Stones, you don't see that you don't see kids singing along to the stone songs. It's not a family Bay, Paul kind of carries that torch of what made the Beatles so universal. And again, you know, they just had this cross section of fans that nobody else really had.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:39

Now, you mentioned, like the one concert that I saw with my dad twice was Paul McCartney, what have been flowers in the dirt era?

Chris Carter 25:47

Right? Yeah, that doesn't take you to see the stones, you know, you know what I mean? It's just because it's the same. It's the same thing carried carried on. But

Jeff Dwoskin 25:55

you know, I did go see the stones. So but not with that. And the reason I know not with my dad, and the reason I did was because I was like, they're all They're probably going to give this up, too. And that was steel wheels. Yeah, yeah.

Chris Carter 26:10

I have a documentary from the stones. 7576 tore right. You know, they're out a big stage and Philadelphia, the guy is on the news. He's on the stage in the afternoon. He's like, two hours from now. Mick Jagger. 36 year old Mick Jagger will be running up and down the stage for two hours, ladies, gentlemen, at 36. And that was like a big deal. Like, wow, this guy is old. If they only knew that that same guy wouldn't be running up and down that same stage at AIG. The I mean, the new stones record that Paul plays based on, you know, the song that Paul played is based on is like, Sex Pistols song. I mean, it's like, it's a raging piece of rock and roll it's like, and to think that there's two guys in their 80s on that song and Keith Richards who's 79 and I think it kind of proves that rock and roll really is it's kind of ageless, in that if you can still sing. It's really not hard to play guitar. You know, it doesn't matter how old you are. It's really just, you know, you see it these guys can still play guitar fan, you know, Jimmy Page, those guys still play great. It's something I don't think anybody ever really thought would be happening at this point. I mean, even Aerosmith. He goes see Aerosmith live. And they're like if you're if you're from like, half way back, it looks and sounds just like Aerosmith in 1979. You know, it's like Steven Tyler still has the exact same moves and how old is he? He's gotta be in like, he says 70 something right? I mean, it's

Jeff Dwoskin 27:42

incredible. Keeps them young.

Chris Carter 27:44

Nobody thought that these guys would be able to do this. You know, at this point. I mean, even kiss, you know, those guys. They just played their last show at the garden. And you know, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, they're still on these heels that are saying I'm Paul Stanley's on six inch heels and he's still jumping around like that. It's it's quite amazing thing about

Jeff Dwoskin 28:02

it is it's, it's absolutely incredible.

Chris Carter 28:07

The sad thing is in the next 10 years, they're all going to die. It's

Jeff Dwoskin 28:10

so freaky because they're not you put it out there. Well, yeah, like I'm

Chris Carter 28:15

I'm keeping them alive. Now. You know what I mean? You got Paul and Ringo, Mick and Keith, Ray and Dave from the kinks and Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey all your senior class of the British invasion. They're all you know, they're not going to be able to they're not going to get into their late 90s You know, these guys have probably, you know, they're all going to go in succession. It's gonna be really weird Dylan, they're all gonna go like within a couple of years. I know I don't want to bring you down

Jeff Dwoskin 28:42

here Megan it's so sad it's

Chris Carter 28:44

true that we just do the math it's like all these guys are still with us right? I know. I know. It's just gonna it's gonna be like a kind of a snowball effect I'm afraid

Jeff Dwoskin 28:55

age is a bitch and it's gonna get if nothing else gets us age is gonna speaking of which is Paul dad already

Chris Carter 29:03

Yeah, you know he's they've had a new guys since 1967. I don't know why that's such a hard thing to understand. Yeah. mustache on Sergeant Pepper. Not Paul. Now

Jeff Dwoskin 29:14

that's impressive. And we were talking earlier about the time like for something like that to like a conspiracy theory like that to spread to become part of pop culture before internet ever I mean, I grew up knowing this as well. Paul's dad a DJ discovered play this backwards there

Chris Carter 29:30

was a great magazine that came out that I just got a new copy of actually I think it's right here call is dead here now. I thought it was right handy but it's not it's a whole big magazine about every clue about ball being dead. It's great, right?

Jeff Dwoskin 29:44

There's supposed to be like, certain album covers and lyrics and like strawberry Yes. Forever. Yeah. And backward messages. I'm so tired. I don't know. Paul was dead. Paul is dead. Yeah. That's part of I think what keeps the mystique alive too is all that kind of cool stuff.

Chris Carter 30:03

Oh, yeah. Well, it was fun. Like you said before the internet, you know, you can get away with things like that for longer period of time. Exactly.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:11

Alright, so when did you fall in love with the Beatles to make it your life? Because I mean, other than your British Invasion show where maybe you pull in a couple of songs from new or whatever, you are nonstop Beatles. And I mean, there's only so many Beatles songs. So I you know, by me when you get to 60

Chris Carter 30:29

a day, Jeff, I have to put together a 60s song playlist every day at on the weekends. Actually, I do eight shows a week I do Monday through Friday on the Beatles channel and I do the British Invasion Saturday and Sunday. Then I do a live version of breakfast of The Beatles on KOLs in Los Angeles, which is what I've been doing

Jeff Dwoskin 30:48

for 22. That's an extension of like the original Ron right. Yeah,

Chris Carter 30:51

right. Exactly. Which has been on 40 years here in Los Angeles. So we just had our 40th anniversary of the show that I took over from Deirdre O'Donoghue, who was the original host, ya know, my love for The Beatles, you know, well, it makes the job easier when you're dealing with, like you said, there, you know, there's almost 200 songs give or take, and the majority of them, you know, I'm hard pressed to pick more than like three or four really bad Beatles songs, you know, there really aren't any a couple of covers, you know, Till There Was You singing about wonderful roses and things like that, you know, obviously, that's not a highlight necessarily of the Beatles canon of songs. But other than that, I mean, you're dealing with level of quality that is, you know, unsurpassed, basically. And they're great for radio, most of these songs because they're all short and you realize up until Ticket to Ride, which came out in 65. That was the first Beatle song over three minutes long. So every song up until tickets arrived was under three minutes. I mean, think about that for a minute. You know, that's, it's incredible to get that much in, you know, it shows you the talent of their songwriting, you know, in and out verse, verse, chorus, bridge, verse chorus out two minutes and 34 seconds. Not easy.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:07

I've like the tuner 13 songs. I think I think I read. I don't like throwing out stats in front of you, because you like 24 of them were cover songs roughly Yeah, give or take. Yeah, give or take, how rich are those people? Because that was what

Chris Carter 32:21

I always talk about, like Larry Williams, right? Who's just this guy who made records in the late 50s. Never had any real big hits, right. All of a sudden, the Beatles started covering your songs. We always call it mailbox money. You know, it's a lot of mailbox money for the Williams family. Because the Beatles are, you know, covered three of this guy's songs free Larry Williams songs. Imagine that surprise, go into the mailbox every quarter to get your royalty check. Beatles are covered and your song. That's incredible. You know? Yes. I was

Jeff Dwoskin 32:51

talking to Jeff Sherman, whose father was one of the Sherman Brothers. Yeah. And Cyndi Lauper. She's so unusual was actually a cover of he's so unusual. And all of a sudden, I think it was I don't think it was his father wrote, it might have been whatever, but then all of a sudden, so much money started coming.

Chris Carter 33:07

It's incredible. And especially when you're talking Beatles money, yeah, it's one thing to have, you know, a hit on an album or whatever. But when you're talking Beatle money, it's incredible. And it's worldwide to you know, it's not just in America, those records are sold all over the world. So it must have been an amazing turnaround for a guy like Larry Williams, who really never had probably made any kind of big time royalties. You know, Chuck Berry's a different story. You know, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, those guys were used to mailbox money. But Larry Williams you know, that was like a wow. Eight about happy man. I think he I think he died in the 80s. So he got time to spend money died

Jeff Dwoskin 33:47

in 1980 at age 44. Young Yeah,

Chris Carter 33:51

I'm always amazed by a lot of the ages. And a lot of these guys, you know, died at 47. Well, you know, from you know, liver disease. Guys who died in their 40s You know, it's like, wow,

Jeff Dwoskin 34:02

oh, man. Yeah. So, alright, sad story with Larry Williams. We won't get into that. Yeah, that's a whole thing. Yeah. Sorry. So your love for the Beatles. Do you remember like, like hearing the Beatles first? What was your first Beatles album that you got up or

Chris Carter 34:14

saw every album I ever owned? First. Beatle album was the first album I ever owned. Got it at ShopRite which was a food store for $3.49. I didn't know why my mom let me have it. I didn't know any of the songs on it. Because none of those songs were on the radio the Rubber Soul that came out in America there were no singles on it. So I just knew it was the Beatles and I knew that they were the Beatles and that was it. That was my door into the Beatles in the it's still my favorite album of all their albums. The American Rubber Soul. I'm not a big fan of the American albums as much as British ones. But that one is this perfect. I think that's the perfect Beatles album.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:52

i That's a perfect segue for my next question, because I knew you could answer this to me. That's the one thing I just never understood why UK Albums us albums that it's

Chris Carter 35:03

simple. The record label they were on in England was Parlophone. They were owned by EMI in America, they needed a record label. The intention was to put them on Capitol Records, but they didn't like them in 1963 that people in America so they put them on V J records, which was just a cheap Chicago label, right? Yeah. Interestingly, another inside the Beatles kind of thing in Canada. The Beatles records were on Capitol in 1963. When they weren't on Capitol in America, they were on VJ. So in Canada capital said you can so the orange, yellow swirl on those 45. They were out in 63 in Canada, which a lot of people don't know. But getting back to it. What happened was the American market was viewed differently than the British market Capital Records. It was their job put out the Beatles records. So in England you had Please Please Me was their first record and those songs were on introducing the Beatles on v j. So capital didn't want those songs. The next Beatle album, the second Beatle album in England was with the Beatles, which has got that cover of all four of them that's like meet the Beatles. And that is where they took the majority of the songs for what became the Beatles first album in America on Capitol which is meet the Beatles. And they ignored that V J record because it was crappy label that The Beatles weren't on the Beatles signed a deal with capital. And they gave v j a deal like by the end of 64. You can't put out any more Beatle records because they're big and we were stupid for not signing them. But now we're smart. And we signed them. So you guys are done. So then it became the job of Capitol Records to take what the Beatles were doing in England, and then try to put it out in America. They already had two different albums out in England. So it was confusing. So they said let's just make our own album to introduce everyone to The Beatles, and that was meet the Beatles, and then it became a vicious cycle. In other words, the next time let's make another Beatles record that last one was a hit. We'll call it the Beatles second album, and that was songs made up from the next Beatles album so they would take songs from the real albums that The Beatles put out. The Beatles put out records very calmly and orderly if you look at the British releases in 1963 it was pleased pleased me and with the Beatles 1964 It's very simple. A Hard Day's Night Beatles for sale 1965 help and Rubber Soul but in America in that same period of time, I just said you got the Beatles second out we got the Beatles six you got all these Beatle albums that were where they were so they were taking songs from one album and putting them on the net. We didn't know this in America, kids in America just thought it was the new Beatles record. It was until the CDs came out in the 80s that we saw you know what was going on like oh, it's a lot easier to understand they only made made two records a year and here they are in America they were just done in these records that all over the place the Beatles would come to play they never knew what to say they would say this record is from a Beatles nine they would say they would just make up died because they didn't know the early Beatles, The Beatles six you know Beatles second album, it was confusing, something new, all these album titles and you're like what's going on? To really understand it once they got up to Sergeant Pepper. That was the first time that they put out the same record in England as it was in America. No more nonsense no more of this because if you look at some of these American records like revolver, right, the revolver I got when I was a kid. There's only two John Lennon songs on it. So you got a Beatle album with the leader of the Beatles only going to sing two songs on the American revolver. George Harrison sings three songs of the American revolver George things were songs and John on a Beatles album and it's crazy because those are the songs that they pick for us to hear at Capitol Records. And I'll leave you with one more crazy thing The Beatles second album. It's called The Beatles second album, Paul McCartney only sings one song on it long tall Sally. The whole album Paul sings one song and again this was created by capital which is insane have passed in one song that The Beatles out but we didn't know any better. We bought them. So that was the deal with the capital versus Parlophone releases England versus America. So it got all cluttered up. And then in America, they would put singles out that weren't sales Eight Days a Week wasn't a single in England. The Beatles didn't want it to be a single but they wanted it to be a single in America. So they put it out. They wanted Ringo to sing a song so Matchbox was a single crazy stuff. But that helped break. Beatles couldn't get mad at him because it made the million those odd calls by Capitol Records in the 60s made them the biggest selling band as well. So you you can kind of look back at it and say you know, it was kind of a screwy choice of releasing albums that way but they He would come back and say, but they were all number one. So I guess we do what we were doing. So there you have it.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:05

There you have it. Sorry to interrupt, had to take another quick break. And we're back. You mentioned something real quick and I had talked to identity. Laurie Jacobson, she wrote a book called top of the mountain about the Shea Stadium. Yeah, number one of the things when I was reading that book that I was fascinated with was the fact that Beatles came out not everyone liked the Beatles. Not everyone was big fans. And I just I don't know, I grew up in an age where just everyone loved the Beatles. You know, I mean, I guess you could have liked the stones or the Beatles, but it was a great record

Chris Carter 40:36

called Pop go the Beatles pop hates the Beatles excuse by Allan Sherman. There were some like anti Beatles novelty records, stamp out the Beatles. You know, there were a lot of the boys a lot of guys didn't like the Beatles because their girlfriends all like them. Now, they had longer hair. So there was a lot of Mad boyfriends in the 60s that jealousy

Jeff Dwoskin 40:58

almost did the Beatles in Yeah. Why do you think the Beatles I mean, besides the multigenerational thing, but I mean, I'm sure there's like you could point to other similar things. But why are the Beatles The Beatles still right I mean, there's there's the Beatles or stones there's but yeah, there's certain people we still talk about why do you think the Beatles are just never went away? I mean, when their new song came out, just became a thing immediately, and everyone just fell in love again. And well,

Chris Carter 41:25

because they were the biggest entertainers in the history of entertain. So that's a good starting point. Once you're there, you're never gonna go away. You know, once you're Elvis, you're Elvis doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how many years daddy still Elvis though, as time goes on, it is getting scarier where more and more people die ever heard of Elvis and never heard of The Beatles. And you're starting from there. Whereas at least even if you didn't know all about them, you've heard of a lot of people like who, you know, that's when it gets scary to me. And you know, once you lose a couple of generations of people passing this down, which is why I kept saying earlier about all these guys who are going to leave us see once they leave you once making Keith die, the whole Rolling Stones machine stops, okay, as long as they're alive, they keep it going. You see the tongue tour and the dead once they're gone? Because it happened to Elvis a little bit, you know, because like guys from my generation thought, you know, Elvis would always be Elvis, the king, but at when you start, like I said, skipping through generations, they started closing down going to see Graceland, you know, which was open seven days a week. Now it's open three days a week, or, you know, they had the plane that obviously they took that away because no one was going as the years go by less and less interest in Elvis, which is going to happen with everybody. But since Paul and Ringo are here generating and you see they're still generating business like they were, you know what I mean? There's apple and capital, and you got the now and then record and red vinyl and cassette, they're still marketing and they're still pushing it. Once that ends, it'll be interesting to see if the Beatles will always regain, you know, their top or most of the popper most status. But the other reason too, was because they always evolved. So you have this catalog of music, see a lot of bands, kind of, you know, you shoot your load, pardon the expression, but it's over, you know, like you do your thing. And that's it. The Beatles became a new band every two years, you know, you had the moptop, Beatles of 64. And you know, I want to hold your hand and then you had the folky Beatles, you know, the mature rubbers, then you had the psychedelic Beatles. And then you had the White Album and they kept changing, which is the key to their success, which is why they weren't the Dave Clark Five who again by 6465, you got the Dave Clark Five they weren't going they weren't making a psychedelic album that was blowing your mind the Beatles kept going and getting progressively i You could say better and more interesting. And that's the other reason they have this body of work. Once you have that body of work, you can become timeless you know, Quentin Tarantino is always gonna have a body of work when he's dead or whatever. Alfred Hitchcock has a body of work you got to have that you can't just do one or two things really well and that's it. Check it out and expect to be a legend. You have to have that and Elvis has that to some degree too. You know you got the 50s Elvis you got the 60s movie Elvis he got the Vegas Elvis and but the Beatles were a group and Elvis is just a guy so it's a little more like Taylor. She should start a band that would be smart

Jeff Dwoskin 44:30

that way when you're putting together your list 60 songs a day. Yeah. Which is about up just the core songs. It'd be about the I'm sure you we can do covers and solo and all that kind of but like you have any rules like oh, yeah, like you can't do the song that you did yesterday. Yeah.

Chris Carter 44:49

Well, I have you know, Monday through Friday rules because I'm considerate of the audience. And I know when you're doing morning drive, as they call it, the radio, you're getting Seeing people that listen to the same channel at the same time. So I'm very cognizant about playing, you know, and I love her in the first hour, you know, sometimes the first hour I'll be later, I'm not going to play Helter Skelter, the first song, I'll ease them into the day. So then you'll find yourself playing similar songs during the first hour. So I try to avoid that. And I always again, aware of the date today, for instance, Yellow Submarine came out in England in 1969. So I mentioned that and I mentioned, you know, we're a week away from the Beatles arriving, you know, JFK and everything this year is everything this year from 1964 is the 60th anniversary. So this is a big year for the Beatles. So it's the 60th anniversary for the Ed Sullivan Show. It's the 60th anniversary for the first show in America. It's the 60th anniversary for the Beatles landing in JFK. So you keep all that going in your mind as well. I have all McCartney Mondays, I have a we do two for Tuesdays, where I pair up songs I've spin the wheel Wednesday's wherever categories on all the wheels. So this all helps me when I'm putting together playlists to answer your question. Because if you just start with a clean slate, like okay, 60 songs G you'll be there all day start like what am I going to start with? Wait, you have 215 choices, plus all the solo records to choose. So you'll be there all day. You know, should I start with? Maybe I'm a maid? No. Should I start with Sergeant Pepper? No, maybe something older. So I don't do it that way. I just kind of look at the day I see what albums came out. I know what I'm doing. I don't play songs that sound ridiculous next to each other. You know, I'm not going to play a day in the life and then I don't know, play big hit or something. Well, that might sound good because it fades up the end of the cord. You see that's it. Like there'll be the final chord of a day in the life and like what do I do now? I have this chord what Dear Prudence that fades up, that'll be good. You think of it, I think of it in terms of, you know, sets, everything's

Jeff Dwoskin 46:53

keep this in your head? Or do you have like all in my head,

Chris Carter 46:56

it's all in my head because I know it so well. I don't have to go listen to how a song it's like, you can name a song I can tell you if it fades out or if it ends cold. I just know it. And then there's the mono versus the stereo mixes. And you also have to consider the fact that like say I know everything about the Beatles, right? You don't want to be that guy. You don't want to be the guy who knows everything in it because there's nothing more annoying than some buddy who thinks they know everything. So I'm talking to guys like me who know a lot and I'm also talking to a guy who might have one Beatles album in his collection like Beatles one Greatest Hits. So you have to talk to both of these guys at the same time. The hardcore guy who knows everything and the casual fan, you want to give the right amount a little bit of tidbit of information that will pacify the hardcore guy and show him that you know what you're talking about. And at the same time not talk down to someone else like well if you don't know that the mono mixes you know, you can't you know, you want to try to be informative. And then on top of all that be kind of funny, because the Beatles were funny guys. And Umer was a big part of the Beatles you never see John Lennon where he's not making a camera goes to John Galliano. He'll make a face he'll stick his tongue out, we'll do something. So keeping all that in mind, you

Jeff Dwoskin 48:09

know, I will say you want feedback is I listen to your show a lot, is based on what you were saying. Why it occurred to me is when I would listen to you and the thing that I loved most about listening to you is that one you don't come off like the smartest guy in the world. But you clearly know a lot you always sounded just as excited to say it for the first time. You sound like you were saying it for the first time, every time like you were just so excited to share this information that you just got it like yeah,

Chris Carter 48:37

because sometimes you think of it for the first time. If you don't plan everything that spontaneity like, I'm glad it shows because I never do. I never say I'll read back and set and have no idea what I'm gonna say. It just goes. And to me, that's the way to do it. Because otherwise it sounds scripted. You know, you can tell when someone's reading, you just can't write. And if you kind of know it already, why but why read it, you know, I'll remind myself but you just kind of let it go. And always remember, someone's just driving to work. They just want to get there. You know, you don't want to give them too much. You don't want to give them too little too, because they wait for you to come back on and talk. You know, they know the songs and some people want to hear what you have to say. It's just a little balancing act. But if you listen to radio a lot, you're a fan of it. It's just kind of comes natural. This is why Quentin Tarantino made movies. He said, I watched so many movies, I knew how to make a movie. Like it's true. Like if you listen to enough records and really understand production and what's going on with the instruments and stuff. When it's time to like when it was time to make our own records. We kind of knew what to do. We instinctively knew what to do. We'd never been in a studio. We never made a record but we kind of knew from listening to so many records like you're gonna start with the bass. You're gonna come in with the piano and the verb like you kind of just instinctively now and then once you do it, then you'll learn it. It works out well for some people,

Jeff Dwoskin 49:56

or some people Yeah, favorite Beatles song song that you think people don't think of when they want to go his favorite Beatle song like the best one like this is a great song but just people don't talk about it.

Chris Carter 50:09

Yeah, there's a few that fall into that category. I think Cry Baby Cry is a really great John Lennon song that no one for any credit grabbing baby cry love that I love sexy Sadie and Dear Prudence Dear Prudence obviously a lot more popular than the other tip but they're both all three of those songs are cut from the same cloth descending chords White Album Era great John I think while I respect Paul I love him when I put together my favorite Beatles songs are majority of them are John songs interesting no matter what album I look

Jeff Dwoskin 50:41

at. It's always been the case

Chris Carter 50:43

Yeah, and it's subconscious it's not anything like I planned but like I could look at revolver and go I'm only sleeping I love that song right look at Rubber Soul girl. I love girl I love you know, in my life, obviously. It's a classic. I love the word. I love Wait, those kinds of weird songs that no one's like the word. I love the word for rubber. So it's another song no one like you said that no one talks about ever you know the word great song great radio song to go to song for me. Hey Bulldog, another song that John said is a good sounding record. That meant nothing. Well, a lot of most songs be nothing at the end of the day. What does it mean? You know, it's just a bunch of words from a guy who wrote up what it is supposed to mean. So hey, Bulldog means as much to me as anything. It's great. It's a great riff. It's a great recording. And you know, no one would ever put that on their favorite. My favorite Beatles song is Hey, Bulldog, but I love it. You know, I also think in terms of radio, you know, I know when I play the word or I play Hey, Bulldog, or certain other songs sadboy truffle, certain songs instantly get attention because they're good. They jump right out at Yeah, there could radio songs and then you balance those with songs that might be a little different that don't jump out at you. So when you're putting sets together, you go do that. You don't want to hit them every single time you want to go peaks and valleys a little bit.

Jeff Dwoskin 52:03

And the reason I asked is I think like growing up I was probably a Paul McCartney leaned on and as I grew older, I think I started to really love George Harrison more. But I think the thing that actually got me I think hooked on the Beatles was the Imagine movie. I remember seeing that. And I was probably always a fan and enjoyed but seeing the imagined movie. I mean, just it was like a moment for me and like then getting the soundtrack and just listening and discovering because I don't think I had really kept up at that point with a lot of the solos, right? And so, like some of those songs that John did. Well,

Chris Carter 52:40

the first three years of the post Beatles 7071 7273 are almost extensions of the Beatles because all the John songs from imagine in the Plastic Ono Band Paul songs on RAM and McCartney. They're all Beatle songs. They're all from January 69. They're all from India. Give me some truth backseat of my car, you know another day, you can go on and on. Give me some truth. They're all done in India. So those first three years are exceptional. I love them as much as the beetle years. I think 1970 is my favorite beetle year of all the beetle years and it was the year they broke up. But if you look 1970 They put out more music in 1970 than any other year of their career. It was a crazy year. I just looked at the records released in that one year.

Jeff Dwoskin 53:29

Oh yeah, it's incredible. I do want to just I didn't want to not give Ringo kudos for photograph and it don't come easy. Those are two songs when they come on. I can stop what I'm doing and listening to those for some reason those. Those do Ringo songs getting every time I love I'm there.

Chris Carter 53:45

They're both George RIT written by George primarily. Yeah, I

Jeff Dwoskin 53:49

love George see in that zone.

Chris Carter 53:51

I mean, look at George I mean, George is in a band with the two greatest songwriters of the 20th century right. And now in 2025 24 Excuse me, or 2023 I should say really? His song Here Comes the Sun is the most downloaded and streamed Beatle song of all Beatle songs, which George would have just loved if he was alive to see that because his whole life he's dealing with John and Paul write songs his and if that wasn't enough, I believe the Top 10 Top 10 streamed Beatles songs. George has three in the top 10 Because something and While My Guitar Gently Weeps is in there with your comes the sun so out of the 10 most St. George has got three that's amazing.

Jeff Dwoskin 54:39

I think when George died when John died it was tragic when John when George died one of the things that came out of it the tribute song when they did with Petey and brands comes on and they do well yeah. Which is probably one of the I can't like if I'm scrolling and I come up I can't not watch it. It's

Chris Carter 54:59

it's way too The end, you know, before you get to you watch him throughout the song. He's kind of in the back and then he comes out does the solo and he throws the guitar. One of the greatest performances of all time, great rock and roll performances.

Jeff Dwoskin 55:12

Yeah. Well, Chris Carter, thank you so much for spending all this time with me. I really appreciate it. I've loved listening to you on breakfast with The Beatles. And I've loved talking to you. So thank you for sharing the stories with me and all you do keep the Beatles going. Thanks

Chris Carter 55:28

for having me, man. I will. So love is Ringo would say he's in

Jeff Dwoskin 55:34

love. All right. How amazing was Chris Carter? It was so amazing talking Fab Four with Chris Carter. Hope you enjoyed our Avital chat. Definitely check out Chris Carter on Sirius XM breakfast with The Beatles make that part of your morning drive tradition, if it isn't already. Well, huge. Thank you again, the Chris Carter. And of course another huge thank you to all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

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