Things We Said Today Beatles Radio Show - Podcast Rankings and reviews

I’ve listened to Things We Said Today for years and often go back to listen to past podcasts. Allan, Ken and Darren’s discussions are always informative and interesting. Listening to the show is like hanging out with friends – not any old friends but those who share my same passionate interest in the Beatles. I really, really appreciate the trios’ time and effort to putting on this podcast (and webcast). I’ve been a Beatles fan since age 7 (1969) and this show is one of my favorite things in life.

This is a great podcast to get discussion from two recognized Beatle experts on new going-on in the Beatle world. Not reviews of old albums or lists of favorite songs. Steve runs a website that provides daily news on the Beatles today and brings those updates here for discussion, often including other Beatle experts and authors to help the discussion. Highly recommended if you're still one of us following The Beatles.

...and listen to every episode. 2 improvements I would suggest: 1) Skip the lengthy intros. We all know who the guys are now. I’ve gotten to the point that once I hit play on a new episode, first thing I immediately skip forward 2-3 minutes. 2) The noises in the background seem to be getting worse. This has been a problem for quite a while, but during the most resent episode regarding Beatles compilations, it sounded literally like one of them was wrapping Christmas gifts! This rustling of paper or whatever it was went on and on and was quite often louder than whomever was speaking at the time. It got so distracting that I couldn’t finish listening to the episode. I wonder, do you guys ever listen back to the episode before posting it? I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t notice this. I can appreciate the concept of multitasking but you really have to just cool it with that while you’re recording an episode.

While some of these blokes can occassionally sound like crotchety old men (I’m looking at you, Darren), they usually bring an experienced perspective to their discussions.

The highlight of this podcast has been their scoop of getting Peter Jackson to appear and talk at length on some of the most insightful Beatle stuff in recent memory.

I especially appreciate Kozin’s studied analysis and Ken’s news and optimism. Thanks for keeping it light, honest, and interesting, guys.

The audio quality is terrible: tinny, very low fidelity. This is particularly baffling considering DeVivo is a professional broadcaster. Often the guests are let to ramble, and I think the interviewers need to keep them on point. Sometimes they get things flat-out wrong: for instance, the recent author of Act Naturally said Magical Mystery Tour's run time is 45 minutes. I didn't have to look it up to know that's wrong (it's 55 minutes). Considering the stature of the three hosts, these problems are really unacceptable, but avoidable.

Please fix the audio!

I respect the hosts for their greatly varying degrees of knowledge of all things Beatle, but the podcast itself is dull and often a bit irritating — the result, I think, of the loose structure that causes the hosts to constantly fall silent while waiting for someone else to talk or pose a question. The hosts seem truly bored with every topic that’s discussed, and they don’t really engage with each other or provide fresh insights into the music that’s being discussed. The feeling is that they’d all rather be doing something else.