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Jerden's most listenable Beatles spoken word release

Michael Hockinson | Portland, Oregon United States | 01/04/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There have been literally dozens of spoken-word albums issued on the Beatles. Yet even the most interesting of these releases are likely to be played, even by the most ardent fan, no more than once or twice before being filed away for a long slumber. Hardcores (like myself) collect them because we already have everything else. When the group wasn't bored, even listening to John, Paul, George and Ringo speak their minds could be entertaining. Rolling Bay, Washington's Jerden Records gets high marks for their Beatles series for securing high quality tapes of meritable content, much of it previously unissued.



What sets "Rock and Religion 1966" a cut above the usual interview/press conference discs is the way producer J.G. Tremblay assembled the familiar sound bites from the "Bigger Than Jesus" controversy - the Alabama DJs, Brian Epstein's official statement, the Beatles' press conference at Chicago's Astor Towers - and sequences them in between contemporary reminiscences from Barry Tashian of The Remains (one of the opening acts on the '66 North American Tour) and fascinating pre-concert interviews recorded inside Chicago's International Amphitheatre by radio station WCFL-AM (which to my knowledge have never been previously issued).



These vintage airchecks are gems - newcaster Carole Simpson reports on fashion trends amongst the fans, notably "British flag shifts", while DJ Howie Roberts interviews a security guard manned with wire cutters at "secret entrance X" where the Beatles would soon access the venue. As showtime approaches, DJ Joel Sebastian is captured onstage introducing The Remains.



It all makes for an entertaining program, running just over 45 minutes. When it was over, I found myself wishing there was more. (One wonders what couldn't be included from the WCFL tapes for legal reasons.) "Beatles Tapes VI" will aurally immerse you in the events of August 1966 in a way simply reading about it cannot.

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