Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Paul Romanuk Returns: Toronto Mike'd #704

Episode Date: August 12, 2020

Mike catches up with Paul Romanuk, asking him why he's no longer calling games on Hockey Night in Canada, then it's all about The Beatles and Paul's new podcast The Walrus Was Paul.

Welcome to episode 704 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. CDN Technologies, your outsourced IT department. Garbage Day, weekly reminders for garbage recycling and yard waste pickup. Visit GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike to sign up now. StickerU.com, create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. The Keitner Group, they love helping buyers find their dream home.

Text Toronto Mike to 59559. Pumpkins After Dark. Save 10% with the promo code Toronto Mike and Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Costa in Mississauga and Oakville. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Paul Romanuk. Welcome back, Paul. My pleasure, Mike, sitting here in your lovely backyard on this sun-soaked late morning in T.O. Did you wear sunscreen? I did.

I did. I was concerned about my placement, having watched a couple of these, so I knew I might be in the sun, so I've got the screen on. Yeah, I think my last guest was Scott Turner, and he was telling me about his Scottish background, and he had to layer on,

he just had a thick paste of sunscreen on every part of his exposed skin. So, yeah, this is a tough time of day. But that sun does go away. It'll be gone by the time you hear the first Beatles song. That's my prediction here. Okay. And we're going to do a lot of Beatles talk today. Beautiful.

Because you've got a new podcast. I do. I'm so excited about it. It's been something I've been working on for several months and it has just started to percolate out. It's called The Walrus Was Paul. Subscribe, download, enjoy. Okay, how's this? If you're listening to the podcast, you pause us right now and go search for The Walrus Was Paul. Subscribe to that and then come back and pick it up here because we will do a little uh I call it like a real talk catch-up before we dive deep into all the Beatles stuff

which I can't wait to do but I have a message for you right off the top from uh my friend and client Ralph Ben-Murgy who wants me to say hi to you. Oh, great guy. My relationship with Ralph goes back to my days at Ryerson. I was taking radio television arts and I met Ralph at the campus station at the time. It was called CKLN 88.1. Gone now, sadly. And Ralph worked at the station. Active guy. I believe he was the news director, intelligent, fun guy. Uh, love to hang around with them when I was at the station and also a big sports guy. And my role there was as the Toronto Marlies play-by-play announcer. Right.

So, uh, Ralph and I would, would talk Marlies and talk sports, but great guy. And, uh, yeah, I followed his career from afar. He had, of course, the run with the television show. Mid his career from afar he had of course the run with the television show and midday and then he had friday night and then he had friday nights and then he also had a run as the morning guy on jazz fm in toronto and now he's got a uh a pretty good podcast pretty good paul it's excellent uh top notch top shelf uh, not that kind of rabbi with Ralph Ben-Murray. Actually, you'd be a good guest on that podcast, talking about the religion of the Beatles, like the spirituality of the Beatles.

There's always a spin somewhere in there. Yeah, there would be. Well, especially it would be an interesting rabbit hole. You could go down with the whole John Lennon infamous, we're bigger than Jesus comment and how that was misconstrued and taken out of context. And of course, all the American right wing whack job religious people freaked out back in the 60s. Doesn't take much, though. No, even back then, even back then. In your CKLN days, did you have a relationship of any sorts with DJ Ron Nelson?

Yeah, I knew Ron. All these great people were there at the time. It was campus radio at its best. Mae Potts was there as well. I love Mae Potts. That was early days for Mae. She did a show. I did a Friday night music show.

Also did the sports. Ron was there and doing, you know, this really cool music that I think at that time was much more underground in Toronto than it is now. But yeah, a guy I knew. There were a couple of guys there, several, who went on to bigger things. Michael Landsberg was at CKLN as well. Okay, what about Steve Paikin? Was he there?

I'm just trying to know. Maybe it was a Cable 10 show where Paikin and Landsberg hooked up. Maybe I misremembered. Yeah, I don't have a recollection of Paikin being there, but Michael for sure. Yeah, wow. Okay, well, you go way back with Michael at TSN, so it all comes together.

Okay, so I'm going to just let the listeners also know, now that you've subscribed to Paul's new podcast, which we will discuss soon, if you want to hear Paul's first appearance on Toronto Mic, Paul Romanuk came by. So this is episode 704. You were also on episode 281. So there's a little gap there.

I guess you were playing hard to get. I had to be patient. When was that? What year was that? I didn't write it down. I think to be 281, though, we're going back four years or so. 2018, maybe? I think it might be earlier.

I should Google this quickly. But I can tell you, I wrote down the description. So in this 281st episode, Mike chats with Paul Romanuk about his years at TSN, his move to the Team 1050. Okay, I can tell you, I've had many people from Team 1050, and they all tell the story of when they got it, you know, from Jim Van Horn. So many people. And to a T, they all tell me about your reaction, that you were angry that day.

I was. I saw one of your listeners had tweeted and wondering about it. Now, there's a guy who is on the air and also a producer at nhl radio now a guy named mick kern who was a colleague there mix a great hockey guy good broadcaster in his own right and a good producer mick worked at the team and he surreptitiously recorded the mass firing by jimmy waters and uh and the management at chum at the time and we've discussed this subsequently of course i've never heard the recording i lived it so i don't need to but the interesting thing is is how things take on a life of their own i was i was angry and

i was pointed because they had misled people. Right. Uh, and, uh, all these years later, I'm comfortable saying they lied to people. Misled is just a fancy way of saying, so they lied to people. Uh, and so I stood up and I called them on it. I said, I said, I believe I said words to the effective, you lied, you sold us a bill of goods but these the story is taken on the context that i got up and had this big rant which absolutely is unequivocally incorrect i did not yell and i had that confirmed i talked to mick years later and i said mick said you have the tape of that and he goes yeah he goes no he goes you never He goes, you were very direct and very pointed. As you should be, right?

Yeah. But you did not raise your voice. You did not yell. So that's a complete fabrication or urban myth. Not even an urban myth. No, but it's probably, it is a bit of an urban legend, I guess, over the years. You know, it's like that fish you caught, that big fish you caught, and then 40 years later, you're talking about this.

The thing that I took solace in, I mean, first of all, never be ashamed to uh to stand up for yourself and stand up for others and and i did that uh that day uh for myself because i was angry about being lied to and misled um but i had a guy come up to me years later when I was doing the Raptors game. So it would have been before I moved to the UK. So this would be circa 2004 or 2005 season. And I was in the press lounge before a Raptors game, you know, grabbing a bite. And this guy came up to me who I didn't recognize, much younger than I was. And he said, I just wanted to thank you for that day at the team when you stood up

and spoke out. And I said, I said, well, you're welcome. I mean, do I know you? And he said, well, he goes, I was, you know, I was a technician there or he had some role maybe in the newsroom. I didn't know him and I didn't work directly with him, but he was a young, he's a young kid just starting out in the business. And he had also been lied to by the management there at the time. And he said, he goes, I just want to thank you for standing up and speaking out for all of us, which is what I felt I was doing at the time. And that really made me feel good because, you know, there were some other people who should have stood up and spoken out as well and who didn't and it had to be said because they did they lied to us all and there were a lot

of young people the thing that really upset me was there were a lot of people who based on their promises that they were sticking with this format and they were dedicated to it when they knew damn bloody well that they weren't they were going to pull the chute on it and people went out and they made life decisions they leased a car they uh they they bought a house right uh they bought some furniture they made financial commitments that they were now not going to be able to keep and that's just reprehensible behavior no good on you for speaking up um i'm not i wasn't there but uh i'm glad you did it i'm glad you did it and uh what else we talked about living in england which you just referred to because you uh were in were overseas for a good spell there.

And then this is what I wrote at the time. Your triumphant return to Canada, calling games on Hockey Night in Canada for Sportsnet, which is a fair to say that, I think these were your words, but a dream come true of sorts to be calling games on Hockey Night. One hundred. There is not a person who has sat behind a microphone to call a hockey game in Canada

who hasn't had the dream of calling games on hockey night in Canada. And yeah, it was a dream come true. I was grateful to have done it for four years. It's fantastic. Okay, so we're going to just do the real talk closure on this, and then we're going to turn the channel to Beatles. Beatles, Beatles, Beatles, Beatles here. But I have a clip.

So this is on Toronto Mic. This is about a minute long. It's Scott Moore talking to me about you leaving Sportsnet. So this is about a minute. So Romy, where's my pal Romy? Yeah, you will never know, because I don't even think I would write it in my book. You will never know which of these decisions were truly mine and which I'm accepting the recommendation of somebody below me or accepting the direction of somebody below me or accepting the direction of somebody above me. But because as the president of the network, I'm the guy that makes the decision. And all I'll say about Romy was that that discussion with Paul might have been the

most difficult discussion of my career. And that's because Paul and I went to college together. Paul and I started junior hockey together at TSN in 1988. He convinced me to come and produce those games. We started a company together. And so we have this long, long history and sitting across from one of your oldest friends and saying, this is it, is gut-wrenching. Now, probably more for him than for me, but I would say, if you're a decent executive, and I'll hope that at least on that, you lose sleep over these things, You agonize over the decisions. But again, at the end of the day, you've got to listen to your audience.

Okay, Paul, what happened at Sportsnet from your perspective? Why did it end? One year you were calling a conference final and the next year you were no longer calling games. Well, you'd have to ask Scott Moore that question. Okay. Do you have any, with the clip I just played from Scott,

does that sound like a fair summary from where you sit? The only thing I'll say about Scott is he's somebody who I consider to be a friend and who let me down greatly, putting it lightly, on two occasions during my career. And the big mistake I made was trusting him a second time.

That's all I have to say about Scott Moore. But you have more to say about the Beatles, which is really important. We'll change the channel there. You understand, I knew that would be an uncomfortable conversation, but I needed to have that before we move on. As a guy who's done hundreds, if not thousands of interviews, there are many an athlete interview that I've done

where I've said, hey, I've got to ask you about the trade rumors, or I've got to ask you about the mistake in the third period. if not thousands of interviews i there are many many an athlete interview that i've done where i've said hey i've got to ask you about the trade rumors or i've got to ask you about the mistake in the third period right uh and all you can do is give them a heads up and just with the rogers i mean all you have to do is is just look at what's happened so they paid all this money for this big hockey deal. 18 months into it, after Keith Pelley left, a new guy came in, Rick Brace. And, you know, Rick has a well-deserved reputation as a hatchet man. And Rick came in and did what hatchet men do. And they've shed employees and salary since 18 months into the deal. So the first wave were Glenn Healy

and Mike Johnson, two great broadcasters. Mike, Mike, if Mike Johnson, isn't the best color guy, uh, doing hockey right now, he might be the second best, but he's outstanding. Uh, Glenn Healy best between the benches reporter there was. So they got rid of those guys. These are just people, you know, um, they got rid of me. They got rid of Darren Millard. They got rid of Nick Kiprios. They've recently got rid of Dave Randolph. I will stand proudly with all of those people who are all excellent broadcasters, nevermind the people behind the scenes, excellent producers and directors and production assistants and people like that. Kara has a different, more fun question for you,

which is, Kara writes in, I was shocked to see his Hockey Superstars book is still around with annual releases. I had it as a kid. Can he discuss that and how he kept it going? Happy to. That is one of the just great things that sort of fell into my lap. I was a runner at Hockey Night in Canada back in the early days,

and one of the guys who I worked with was Brian McFarlane, wonderful man, prolific author. And Brian said, you know, young man, I'm working on a book. Would you like to help me with some research? And I said, yeah, Brian, I'd love to. So I went to Brian's house, and he had this massive archive down in his basement, and I helped him do some research for a book that he was doing. I don't recall what the book was at this time.

So a few months later, Brian calls me and he said, look, I've got a meeting at my publishers at the time, Scholastic. And, you know, I'd like you to come along because there's a project they want me to do. They like this hockey annual. I don't really have time and don't know if I want to do it. And I'm going to, you know, I'm going to try to convince them that you should do it. So I went to this meeting and, uh, went in and met the people at Scholastic and Brian said, I don't have time to do it. This young man can do it for you. And I started doing hockey superstars. I want to say the first one came out in 1986, something like that. Wow. And I've been doing it ever since. It sells a ton.

The main method of distribution is through book clubs, the old Scholastic School book clubs. But it also sells quite well. If you go on and do a search for the book on Amazon, it's usually in the top five in its category, which is young people's hockey books. And it's a consistent seller. I love doing it. And the cool thing now, Mike, and the kind listener who sent in the question is it's now at the point where I have adults who are buying it for their kids. That's how long it's been going. I don't know how much longer

I'll do it. The people at Scholastic want me to continue. It still sells really well. I enjoy doing it. But it's, you know, thank you so much to Brian McFarlane. And Brian, I know because my buddy Banjo Dunk is good friends of Brian. He's still with us. He's right. He's still in Stouffville, I think.

He's living out in Stouffville. But I was thinking of making a road trip and capture some stories for Toronto Mic'd. He's just a wonderful man. I had communicated with him before the COVID shut down. And he winters in Florida, I believe it is. But we were going to get together for lunch when he got back. And of course, we haven't been able to do that. He's in his 80s now.

Right. But just a terrific guy. And to unselfishly give me that opportunity that I've been able to exploit and have continue for all these years. It's been over 30 years. Amazing. Amazing. So good on you. I know you brought me a copy last time you were over here.

Oh, damn, I forgot. I would have brought one. Well, I was going to say, so last time my son James was, although he's a little old for it, but he still enjoyed it because he loves hockey so passionately. He's 18 now. Oh, my goodness. The six-year-old who was fascinated by your car,

he's all about hockey now, and he's in love with William Nylander that morning. So we lost that game five and then the next morning, because he was asleep when it all went down, he saw the first period and he had to go to bed. And he's like, Daddy, what happened? How did we do?

And I broke the news and he took it in stride. I think he's going to be a fine Leafs fan. If you're okay with disappointing results like that, you're going to be fine as a Leafs fan. But yeah, I got to get a copy of the latest issue for Jarvis. I will send it along. Lovely kid. And he's just the age group. I still get, even in this day of texts and emails and so on, something that kids still do is they'll read a book in school and they'll have to send a letter, an old-fashioned letter with a stamp on it to the author.

And I still get a number of these every year. And it's just so cute to see the kid handwriting and the, Dear Paul, I read your book. I like your book. My favorite player is Austin Matthews. Who is your favorite player? Please do another book. You know, it's funny. They should do that.

Teachers should pivot to podcasts and make them listen to, you know, the Walrus was Paul and then write the podcast or a letter, you know. That would be, and it would expand their musical knowledge too. That's a great idea, Mike. Well, you mentioned parents are like, now parents who grew up with that book are now getting it for their kids, right? Like, but that's how Beatles spreads, right? Like it's the same thing. Like parents who, you know, lived it, if you were, you know, of an age and you lived it, they basically raised their kids with Beatles, right? This is sort of one of those things. And then kids grow up loving Beatles because, you know, mom or dad played the heck out of it. And we're, you know, and then, you know, they grow up and end up, well, now we're probably great grandkids are probably being taught.

So we're going to talk a lot of Beatles. I'm going to just let the listeners know we have Paul curated five Beatles songs that will be played as we discuss everything. So we'll get to that very, very shortly. But because I mentioned the last guest was Scott Turner, and although this appearance, his third appearance, was all about the 90s

and Energy 108. If anyone listening has any memories at all of Energy 108 and is curious, you should listen to Scott Turner's third appearance. But his second appearance was all about the 80s and CFNY, and he kicked out the CFNY jams. And memory, if I remember, last time you were on, we talked all about sports media stuff. And then I found out you were kind of a big CFNY fan back in the day. So before we pivot to Beatles, can you just share a little bit about listening to CFNY back in the day? Well, it was just so fantastic because as anybody who was a

CFNY listener back then, and I'm talking 80s. So David Marsden, Ivor Hamilton. Live Earl Jive, Beverly Hills. The whole, yeah, I mean, it was fantastic. And they played music that you didn't hear anywhere else. And they played a lot of what we would now refer to as Britpop. So that's where you would have heard the Style Council for the first time. That's where you would have heard the Blue Tones for the first time. All these great British bands. That's where you would have heard Suzy and the Banshees for the first time.

All of that kind of music, which was right in my wheelhouse. And they didn't, unlike FM and AM radio of the day, they didn't play the shit out of it. So they used to have a contest, as I seem to recall, where if you caught them playing the same song within a few, you called in and you could win a prize. But so it was just,

and it was, you know what it reminded me of Mike, not to digress too much, but when we move radio here by and large is, is pretty dire. Horrible is the word I would use for much of it. It's, you know, you don't have... CFNY had people who loved the music they were playing, but most importantly, they were given an opportunity to talk about it

and to curate their own shows. Yes. And this still exists in the UK on Radio 2, on BBC Radio 6 Music. Strongly recommend Radio 6 Music if you were a CFNY junkie because you have people on there who love the music, know about the music and the artists. They curate the shows, and they also have time to talk about it because there are no commercials.

And here, the best you can do is, you know, hey, that was a new one from so-and-so. Be sure to go to our Facebook page and like us and follow us on Twitter and we got a new contest going and hey, let's check the weather. Like, there's no time. You're so bang on here. In fact, when I think of the exceptions, there was an exception

sadly passed away way too young, but Bookie on Indie 88 had a show like that where he could, he was kind of speak to the music and you could tell he was, he had his bonafides. Like he, he could walk the talk and he, he was there as a brother Bill would say.

And the other guy who's still kind of doing something like that is, uh, somebody who, you know, you worked with at, uh, hockey night in Canada. And then he,

I, he was pushed out pretty quickly. Uh, George Strombolopoulos, his show on Sundays on CBC. Yeah, and again, Bookie, of course, was on a commercial station, but people love to rip the CBC, but man, I'll take Strombol's show, where he's talking about music and artists and curating his own show, without the commercials.

And I realize you've got to make money, but this, this is a whole other show. Radio commercials now by and large are horribly produced, horribly written and horribly presented. They're just awful. Like nobody listens to them there. And that's such a huge turnout factor.

Oh man. Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny cause just two days ago when Scott Turner sat in this very seat, he did shed some light on though, like, because he was talking about how he kind of had that model at Energy 108 where they played the imports, the stuff that was hitting in Europe that hadn't hit here yet. Maybe it was at that time, like in the 90s, it might be like, oh, we're going to release this Ace of Base song in a year, even though it's breaking big in Europe, right? even though it's breaking big in Europe, right?

And he explained that there was, until, I don't know, the mid-90s, there was a rule on FM radio in this country that you couldn't play X songs that were in the top 40. Like, there was literally, like, a no-hit rule. And that's why you had, like, album-oriented rock, if you will, like, deeper cuts.

And that's why CFNY in the 80s would play a lot of stuff that was hitting in Europe because it wasn't charting here. It was like a way around that top 40 rule and all that jazz. Well, all these Simple Minds, China Crisis, all these big British bands from back in that era, that's where you heard the Paul Weller, all that stuff. That's where you heard it. And that's, to go back to your original question, that's what I loved about CFNY. Plus, the personalities were fantastic and uh you know it it carried on some of that spirit when it

became edge 102 had the incomparable humble and fred doing their morning show which was another golden era uh for morning radio but by and large yeah back that 80s when it was the spirit of radio right and it was something special yeah so so listen to the uh second scott turner appearance where he talks all about the 80s cfny and kicks out jams from that era uh we're gonna go back further we're going back to the the 60s we're gonna be kicking out beatle songs in a moment here but i want to just give you a couple of gifts right off the top here before we talk about the walrus was paul uh there is a uh case of fresh craft beer for you on that table and uh i didn't know at this time of day if you'd partake but i know at least the two closest to you came straight from my fridge moments ago so lovely so

you know but that's from great lakes brewery so thank you great lakes uh for uh hooking up paul romanuk uh you're a fan of craft beer right yes? Yes, sir. And I have purchased and sampled much Great Lakes Brewery products. And I can speak. I'm very happy to see a can of their Canuck Pale Ale in there. Yeah, there's a couple in there. One's cold even. So, yeah, I always say their staple, if you will. That's Gordy Levesque on the cover there.

Yeah, Canuck Pale Ale. So enjoy. I always say their staple, if you will. That's Cordy Levesque on the cover there. Yeah, Canuck Pale Ale. So enjoy. I also have in my freezer right now a large meat lasagna from Palma Pasta that you could take home and enjoy. That's authentic Italian food.

You had it before, right? Did I send you home with one? No, this was the pre-Palma Pasta era. Yes, so there we go. So you're in luck here. I know. I'm excited. I've got dinner tonight. I don't have to cook. Shout out again, if you don't mind, now So you're in luck here. I know. I'm excited. I've got dinner tonight.

I don't have to cook. Shout out again, if you don't mind, now that we're on the podcast. Shout out the artist who put together the Walrus Was Paul artwork. That's so fantastic. A woman who you should definitely have on your podcast. Her name is Jane Gowan. She's a musician. She's in a band called The Real Shade, which you can find therealshade.com.

And Jane is also a graphic artist. So Jane is going to be in an upcoming episode of The Walrus Who's Paul talking about Abbey Road. She's a fantastic musician and classically trained, if you will. So she can talk at length about chord changes and things, which is a really fascinating discussion coming up. And she also did the artwork for me. So what you need to do now is you need to go to stickeru.com and you upload that fantastic artwork that she created, and you could create stickers and magnets and badges and some swag and share the love for the Walrus was Paul.

That's what I did for Toronto Mic'd. And there's a sticker for you, a Toronto Mike sticker from stickeru.com. For anyone out there, especially with younger kids like mine who get excited about Halloween, Halloween might look a little different this year. There's a pandemic and I'm not sure we'll all be going door to door and getting candy.

I think it might be modified this year. So what I recommend is you go to pumpkinsafterdark.com and this big event in Milton is actually a drive-through event. So it's a contactless drive-through event. It's bigger and better than ever. You know, pumpkin carvings illuminating the night sky and big statues and it's going to be really cool, but the tickets will sell out. So get to pumpkinsafterdark.com, book your time slot. They'll even scan your ticket through the window. It's completely safe. And use the promo code Toronto Mike and you save 10%. So pumpkinsafterdark.com, welcome back. If you're looking to buy and or sell in the next six months, contact Austin Keitner. He's with the Keitner

group. He's a great guy to chat with on this topic. Text Toronto Mike to 59559 and talk to Austin. CDN Technologies are there if you have any computer or network issues or questions. I consider them your outsourced IT department. So call Barb at 905-542-9759. I'm actually co-hosting a webinar with Barb tomorrow at noon, which you can sign up. So follow CDN Technologies on Twitter or go to cdntechnologies.com. And finally, Paul, this is your to-do action item. Go to garbageday.com slash Toronto Mike and sign up for the free curbside collection notifications from Garbage Day. It's fun, it's free, and it makes you a good FOTM because you're a most excellent FOTM. Tell me why you started a podcast about the Beatles instead of like a hockey podcast or something like that. I was sort of hockeyed out and wanted to do something different.

And I have as great a passion for music and the music that I like, and I don't like anybody more than the Beatles, as I do for sports. And every out-of-work sportscaster there is seems to start a podcast. So I wanted to do something different. And I do have a couple of other podcasts, more sports-related, that are in development, and they'll be coming out in subsequent months. But I wanted to start off with something that was going to be near and dear to me.

And it's a cliche, but if you do something that you have a passion for, that comes across in the final product. So it was a simple concept, which I heard on another Beatles podcast. A simple concept, which I heard on another Beatles podcast, and it is get somebody, an artist preferably, to come on and go through their favorite Beatles or Beatles album track by track. And I thought, you know what? I'd like to do a version of that with Canadian music people. And so here I am.

And it doesn't have to just be a Beatles album, right? Like you could also kick out a solo album by a member of the Beatles. Absolutely. The next episode that drops on Thursday with Stephen Page, ex-Barenaked Ladies and fantastic solo artist, he goes after Tug of War by Paul McCartney. I was a little surprised. It's another podcast on its own but to talk about the choices that all these various artists made

right and he went right totally expected him to pick a beatles album and he came back and he said i'd like to do uh tug of war mccartney which was paul mccartney's what year did that come out tug of war came out in 1982 see that's why because he. Because he didn't live the Beatles, Stephen Page. He's probably about 50. And it's probably because he probably lived that Paul McCartney album in real time. Sure, sure. Well, I mean, I did much the same, right? The Beatles were just in their death throes when I was 8, 9 years old.

Around the time you start sort of consuming music. I was eight, nine years old. Around the time you start sort of consuming music. And I remember the only album of theirs that I remember coming out and getting it as a present when it was new and out was Let It Be. And that would have been in 1970. And I got it for, would have been my eighth birthday, ninth birthday. And the reason it was such a big deal is because the original version that came out came in this deluxe sort of box with a book inside of it that had pictures from what was the movie let

it be at the time plus some dialogue right and it was outrageously priced it might have been five dollars back then when a regular lp was was a couple of bucks uh so that's the only one I remember. Well, you can say you remember the tail end, which ties you there. But a very cool premise. So tell us, though, the first episode's already out there, and who is featured in episode one of The Walrus Was Paul? Started off with both barrels blazing, Jim Cuddy and Colin C cripps from blue rodeo and

jim also does solo stuff of course with the jim cuddy band and they were both great and they picked not surprisingly they picked rubber soul which is sort of a transition album for the beatles which really showcases those tight beetlele harmonies and great Beatles backing vocals, which you pick up in Jim Cuddy Band and Blue Rodeo stuff for sure. And they did a great deep dive track by track. Fun listen. I strongly suggest you check that one out before you check out the Steven Page one.

Well, yeah, you've got to go in order. Come on. You've got to go in consequential order, I you got it because that lets you hear the evolution too because uh uh you know toronto mic here we are episode 704 but it is interesting to go back and hear how it kind of evolves into what it sounds like today so you can you got to go in order for sure now i'm gonna if it's okay with you paul i'm gonna play the bit of the first song and then maybe then we can fade it down and chat a little more about the song and the album that's on. And just if you don't mind, I'd like to have a little Beatles because I didn't live the Beatles. I'm a little tiny bit younger

than you. I miss the Beatles. But of course, I love the Beatles like most sane human beings and reasonable people. And I just love hearing from Beatles fans talking about something they love and a passion for something. So you gave me five songs. I'm going to play them in order. I'm going to play the first one right now.

You ready to rock? I'm ready. I'm ready. Shake it up, baby Shake it up, baby Twist and shout Twist and shout Come on, come on, come on, come on, baby Come on, baby Come on and work it on out

Work it on out Work it on out Work it on out You know you look so good So good You know you got me going now Got me going Just like I knew you would

Like I knew you would Shake it up baby now Shake it up baby now Everybody my age is thinking of Ferris Bueller's Day Off right now. Exactly. Yep. Yep. Talk to me about this song because this is not of course This is a cover song

The songs that I picked out The five songs come from The next four From sort of the transition era Of you sort of going through Rubber Soul and Revolver Towards Sgt. Pepper I put Twist and Shout in there

Because their first album Which was Please Please Me Released in 1963 that's the official catalog version was the uk album the remarkable thing about it was that on february 11th 1963 they had a session for a day and they recorded 11 songs in 10 hours wow so they came in recorded a bunch of songs in the morning took a lunch they came in, recorded a bunch of songs in the morning, took a lunch break, came back, and recorded a bunch more. George Martin was producing the session,

and he knew that he wanted this song in the album. And he also knew that it was a vocal cord shredding performance that you were going to have to give. So he saved it right until the end. John Lennon was suffering from a cold, and he was drinking milk and taking cough drops to try to help his voice, and he ripped through the version you're hearing,

take one, and that's the one they got. They tried to do a second take, and it broke down because he lost his voice. So this was one take, the last thing they recorded before they said, we're done for the day. 11 songs in 10 hours, and listen to that vocal performance,

One for the Ages. One for the Ages. I often wonder, because sometimes you hear about a band puts an ad in a paper. If we had Alt Weeklys, I guess we still have Now Magazine. You stick an ad in there,

like we're looking for a lead singer for our band or whatever but but the the whole idea that these these three like like paul and uh george and uh john like met so organically and authentically like this perfect storm and that this is the result like that's kind of like uh that's kind of amazing it's an amazing story and if you the more you read about it, and I've read a lot about it, it's, you know, it's just one, it is. It's fate was just right place, right time. These guys met. They had these three voices. They managed to meet Brian Epstein.

They managed to hook up with George Martin right at that time when parlophone were looking for artists for the label uh they managed to hit america just after the kennedy assassination when america was looking for a little bit of happiness and joy which is what the beatles brought and i mean it's it's just the whole thing uh parts of it read like a fairy tale and the three voices and them all meeting and getting together in a northern industrial town in the UK in post-war Britain. It's remarkable.

And we still talk about, enjoy, and listen to their music over 50 years, coming up on 60 years for some of it after it was made. It's incredible.

It's absolutely incredible. And remind me, is it the Isley Brothers? Who's the original artist behind Twist and Shout? Do you have that in there? No, I don't have that. You could Google it. Here, I, is it the Isley Brothers? Who's the original artist behind Twist and Shout? Do you have that in your head? No, I don't. I don't have that.

You could Google it. Here, I'll do it real quick. No, it's two guys. It was two guys. Russell, I think, want to say? Isley Brothers. It is, at least the version I know, which I believe is the original,

is the Isley Brothers. But they didn't write it. Okay, possibly they didn't write it right. Yeah, they definitely didn't write it. The famous version. Yeah, it's right, right. Okay. No, I was just, you know, I'm going to ask these questions that they didn't write it right. But I think they had the, yeah, they definitely didn't write it. The famous version. Yeah, it's right. Right.

Okay. No, I just, I was just, you know, I'm going to ask these questions that you weren't prepped for just to throw you off a little bit as we go there. So the,

uh, twist and shout again, uh, um, Ferris Bueller, uh, at the parade. Anyway,

it's the, so for many people, my age, it might be the first kind of Beatles song they were exposed to because of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. So that's as interesting as that sounds. And that's a fantastic scene in the movie, right? Twist and Shout, Phil Medley and Burt Burns.

All right. At the time credited as Burt Russell. In one take, one and out, one and done there. Yeah, that's why I wanted to talk about that song, just because a lot of people don't know. I mean, most of it was recorded in one day, 11 songs in 10 hours. So most of it's played live, and then the coup de grace, if you will. Okay, we want to take one run at this.

George Martin knew that he only had one performance in him. He did it, ripped through it, one take, and it's a vocal performance for the ages. And it tried take two, it broke down. To quote George Martin, he said, I did a second take, but John's voice had gone. That was it. Wow. Do you, Paul Romanuk, have a favorite Beatle?

No, but it's funny how the trajectory of that goes. When you're very young, oftentimes your favorite Beatle is Ringo because Ringo seems to have or had this natural affinity to kids that made them like him. He did Shining Time Station. He was the conductor on there. He did Yellow Submarine, Octopus's Garden, all what you would regard sort of as children's songs.

Then you get a little bit older, and you like John. You know, when you're teenage, because John was a rebel. John told it like it was. John didn't take any shit. So, you know, he was real, so you love John. Then you get a little bit older than that, and you have an affinity towards George Harrison, because George became very spiritual and zen and all things must pass and my sweet Lord and the big picture and being comfortable in your own skin. And then eventually you get to the point where you look at Paul McCartney

and the body of work that he's done, both with John Lennon and the Beatles and as a solo artist, and you go, the man is a freak of nature and is the most gifted composer of pop music in the history of the genre. And then to go back to our earlier point, if you could imagine those four in the same band. And there you go. There's the Beatles. Like, it's unbelievable. Yeah.

And it's, on the one hand, you look at it and you play that game of what if they'd stayed together? What would they have sounded like in the 70s? And Beatles nerds, there are all kinds of sites where you compile what would have been the Beatles album after Let It Be based on the solo stuff. So you'd have Imagine on there. You might have Another Day by Paul McCartney. You'd have a bunch of George songs from All Things Must Pass. But the thing is, Mike, by splitting up the way they did,

it just preserved... That body of work sits there and stands for all time and it's not tainted by, you know, sticking around too long. Right. Let's kick out another Beatles jam. The rain comes, they run and hide their heads They might as well be dead If the rain comes If the rain comes When the sun shines They slip into the shade

When the sun shines They're everywhere but me When the sun shines When the sun will shine When I don't mind Sounds great in the headphones, man. It's an amazing song, and this starts into the transition era this was recorded around the time

of rubber soul and you can hear you know compare that to just three years earlier and twist and shout right and the interesting thing about this song it was a b-side to paperback writer came out in 1966 recorded in april of 66 and the beatles were enthusiastic about experimenting to achieve new sounds and effects in the studio so when you listen to this song listen to those guitars so those guitars were recorded. When they played the track, they recorded the guitars a little faster than would be normal for the song. When they played them back, they slowed them down a little bit, and that creates this sort of sludgy guitar sound that really typifies the song.

It's sort of sludgy, droney. That's how they did it. They did the opposite with John Lennon's voice. He recorded it a little bit lower, and they sped it up slightly when they mixed the album. So they were playing around with tones and textures, and the other big one that you'll hear in the fade out of the song listen now right here take both of those those are backwards vocals. So there are two versions of the story. One is that George Martin knew they wanted something a little different in this song,

so he took Lennon's singing. He's singing when the sun shines, when the rain comes, and he took that and he flipped it around and played it backwards across the head this is back when they use tape boys and girls they didn't have digital files so you hear that and you get that right and lennon heard it in the playback and went holy shit i love that yeah the other version of the story which he told was that he was he was stoned at home and he had he took the tapes from the session home that day and he messed them up putting them on the spool and when he played it it was backwards and he went oh i like that we got to go in and do that however you cut it it's backwards guitars and backwards vocals used pretty much for the first time in popular music so that's

where they were starting to go which leads leads into the next song. Now, think of what you heard in Rain, the sludgy guitars, the droning, and all the tape effects, and then transpose that right around the same time into this song. Turn off your mind Relax and float downstream This is not dying This is not dying Lay down all thoughts for surrender to the void. It is shining.

It is shining. That you may see the meaning of within. It is being It is being Paul, I got to ask, do you always listen to your Beatles in headphones? No, I often sit and listen on a good old i have a nice stereo uh i sit in and listen to an off vinyl on stereo because this song in the headphones is like mind-blowing it's amazing recorded in 1966 the same month they recorded paper our paperback writer and rain but we just heard now what you're hearing is just rain taking another step further

you hear that that sort of gibberish that you hear yeah those are tape loops of guitars somebody laughing somebody singing and they're mixed in randomly the lat the the what sounds like the birds is somebody laughing sped up and put in a tape loop. And then you have backwards guitars. And then... It's trippy as fuck, right? Well, it's an acid song, right? I was going to ask you, you enjoy it sober, or do you...

It's maybe a Great Lakes song. And certainly, John Lennon told Jeff Emmerich, who was the engineer, and George Martin, who was the producer, I want this to sound as though it's a hundred chanting Tibetan monks standing on a mountaintop. it's a hundred chanting Tibetan monks standing on a mountaintop and the way they tried to to achieve that was by putting John's vocal through a Leslie speaker

and a Leslie speaker as musicians would know is a speaker that's in a cabinet and the speaker whirls around while the signal's coming through it so you get this exaggerated Doppler effect on the vocal so that's how they did john lennon's vocals and then they also did something right around this time they

were starting to experiment with something called adt automatic double tracking where the signal was delayed off of one of the the playback heads one of their ends so you get this sort of double track artificial sounding vocal which you get in this uh all kinds of innovation the backwards guitar solo the loops so you could see how they were developing and again this was only three years after twist and showed and she loves you and and that kind of music it's what a remarkable development to have had take place that quickly paul did you watch mad men yes i did yeah do you remember the scene when uh that don draper who seemed always seemed a little stuck in the 50s uh when he put on the turntable and listened to this song at the end and they said i don't know i think they said h not hbo who was it whoever owned it not showed anyway amc amc uh like really

broke the budget on licensing this song because they got the original track and played it. And it was a great scene with Don Draper just listening to this song. Well, the cool thing, and I interview a few people on the podcast, The Walrus Was Paul, rollmecast.com if you want to subscribe.

Okay, rollmecast.com. At the very end, make sure you tease the other podcasts that might come under this umbrella, this Roll Me Cast. Yes, sir. I'm happy to. Of the Twister Arm. But the cool thing, when you talk to people who actually grew up in the 60s,

I just taped an episode with Christopher Ward, the Much Music VJ. Fantastic guy. And his book, This Is Live on Much Music, is amazing. amazing yeah and he's an eclectic guy he's also a very accomplished songwriter he wrote black velvet famously co-wrote uh and i'm sure that's bought him a couple of houses but but he loves the beatles and we talked about help is his episode that's coming up in a few weeks oh he's a great guest but he's a guy who who grew up he was in that sweet spot mike of of you know you're sort of late teens early 20s when you're

you're really starting to get into your music and i mean he talks about hearing revolver for the first time putting it on and just going what the hell is this this is incredible hearing sergeant pepper for the first time you know, this just blows your mind. It's so different from their last album. Nobody's ever done anything like it before. And that would have been such an exciting time. Can you imagine putting the needle down and hearing Tomorrow Never Knows in 1966

when you look at what else was being played at that time? Oh, no doubt. That's what happened to Don Draper in that episode. This 50s guy is suddenly like, whoa, because he had the much younger uh wife at the time but uh i loved mad men so okay great show yeah it was really really really good and that was really cool scene there um oh crap what was i gonna say uh oh yeah well here let me ask a quick question from a listener uh this is a question from Dave D. Ask him, that's you, Paul,

what's his favorite Beatle album? And then he adds a little caveat that the correct answer is Revolver. But what say you? What say you? I did see this, and I answered it on Twitter. But it's impossible for me to pick one album.

It depends on what month it is, what day it is what kind of a mood i'm in but there is no doubt revolver is a spectacular album it's a fantastic album many would regard it as their finest but again i might regard it as their finest one week and then go nah right now mate listening to abbey road abbey road's amazing hey just finished listening to help is amazing the vocals you know the the harmonies so it depends and all compressed into a relatively short period of time right like is it fair to say all this is like 63 to 69 or something like pretty much yeah yeah think about that one like uh you know i mean i'm enjoying my my pearl jam and my tragically hip but if you know

you look at how many years of catalog you get from uh you got from either band and then you got that's uh six years 63 to 69 and again they went from in 63 she loves you rock and roll music uh twist and shout i want to hold your hand yeah yeah great great pop songs you get to 1966 and they're doing rain tomorrow never knows eleanor rigby you get to 67 they're into the psychedelic sergeant pepper penny lane strawberry fields really colorful you know height of psychedelia then they strip right back in 68 with the white you know, almost an indie sound of its day to it. And then you finish up with the amazingly produced Grammy Award winning for production, Abbey Road. I mean, it's over six years. But like a comet, you know, very short time, but very, very bright.

Here, let's kick out another Beatles jam and talk about it. In the corner is a banker with a motor car The little children have an hymn behind his back And the banker never wears a mac In the pouring rain, very strange Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes And in my eyes They act beneath the blue Suburban skies I sit and lean While back at Penny Lane

There is a fire Penny Lane. You bet. And this and the next song that I picked, Strawberry Fields Forever, forming the greatest double A-side single. Now, just listen to the trumpet right here. That is the most distinctive thing in the song,

and the story that I can tell about that is it's a piccolo trumpet. It was recorded on January 17, 1967. It's played by a guy by the name of David Mason, and this was the first use of this instrument. It's a distinctive specialty instrument. It's pitched an octave higher than a standard trumpet which is which is pitched in a b-flat so they bring him in to do this george martin writes out the orchestration based on paul mccartney what he heard in his head because paul mccartney didn't have the skill to write out charts for musicians to play off of.

And the reason McCartney wanted the piccolo trumpet used was because, as happenstance, he was watching on BBC Two a performance of the second Brandenburg Concerto by Bach. And Mason was playing in this on his piccolo trumpet. He said, that would work in Penny Lane. Let Mason was playing in this on his piccolo trumpet. He said, that would work in Penny Lane. Let's get him in. So in comes David Mason and lays down this

first time you ever heard a piccolo trumpet in pop music. And the rest is history, as they say. Wow. See, if the podcast, The Walrus Was Paul,

is even, you know, half as good as this conversation right now. We're in for a treat because this is great fun, like hearing songs broken down and it's just great fun. Well, and just listen to the end here. That's a backwards cymbal.

So you take the cymbal, roll out on the drum, it was turned around, roll out on the drum. It was turned around, played backwards across the head. So they were doing all this experimentation in the studio right around this era, which is why I picked these songs. And if you listen to Penny Lane in your headset, it is just so orally complex. There's the little bit of hi-hat. There's a double bass.

There's the piccolo trumpet. There are flutes. The piano at the beginning isn't one piano it's four pianos layered on top of one another four different types of pianos so you have in essence a super piano giving it that uh that very clipped it's become a cliche everybody uses it now that but that bump, bump, you know, it's such a remarkable song. And listen to it and try not to smile. To me, it's summer in a song. Paul, I'm wondering if you have an opinion on sort of how the Beatles and Beach Boys,

like only because when you, you know, Beatles, they have the pop songs, right? You want to hold your hand and all these pop songs. And then they evolve into this like very deep kind of sophisticated music. And Beach Boys have a similar project, projectory, right? Like they had those, you know, surfing USA and all these like surfing pop songs and then pet sounds. Yep.

And I've heard stories and I maybe you would know better than I do. You probably read a lot more on this subject, but like Beatles being heavily influenced by pet sounds and then kind of going back to England and being like, like, and then next thing you know, Sergeant Pepper is the result. Like just the way the harmonies and the different,

like how they kind of inspired each other almost across the pond. I believe the way it worked was, and it was a different time. You know, there, of course there was stating the obvious, there was no Internet. There was no sending files over phone lines and transatlantic cables and anything like that.

So, yeah, you would have Brian Wilson sitting around in California, and he might hear rumors from people who visited London or whatever, but he's not hearing what the Beatles are working on. And the rumor is that he heard Rubber Soul, hearing what the Beatles are working on. And the rumor is that he heard Rubber Soul and he thought it was such a complex, uh, vocally and the playing and thought it was such a remarkable album. And he wanted to do something like that for the Beach Boys. So that got him onto the Pet Sounds track, which is one of the great albums of all time. Right. The Beatles heard that, thought it was fantastic and then mccartney on a trip to america ended up in california and what i've read part of the beetle lore is that he had a few tracks from this new

album they were working on sergeant pepper's lonely hearts club band and he played it to brian wilson it would have been an acetate or maybe a reel-to-reel tape back then. And Brian Wilson basically just, he was gutted. We can't do anything better than that. This is remarkable. And, you know, I think it's probably a bit of an urban legend, but he went into a great depression after that. He started working on the Smile album, which never really got finished. And then it comes back to Stephen Page, your next guest guest on on the wall versus paul and brian wilson right yeah yeah yeah

exactly exactly yeah um so you know there was there was certainly the rivalry between the two uh and then you know you had the same the stones copied the beatles the beatles did sergeant peppers only hearts club band the stones came back with Satanic Majesty's Request. And the cover was a copy of the Sergeant Pepper's cover. I mean, you had all these bands interacting. What an exciting time it must have been. Seriously, what a time to be alive here. In fact, let's kick out this final jam,

and then we'll finish up here. But let's kick it. Let me take you down Cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields Nothing is real And nothing to get hung about Strawberry Fields forever Living is easy with eyes closed Misunderstanding all you see

it's getting hard to be someone but it all works out it doesn't matter much to me let me take you down cause I'm going to strawberry fields I'm going to take you down Cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields

Nothing is real Nothing to get hung about Strawberry Fields forever Wow. So the story with this song, it was the first song they started in what was ultimately going to turn out to be Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. They started in November 24, 1966 in Studio 2 at Abbey Road.

The band recorded three distinct versions of the song. And after 26 takes, three reduction reduction mixes they had a much more dense sounding track and it was faster and more urgent than the first version they recorded so then Lennon came back and he told George Martin that he wanted the first part of the first version edited to the second part of the second version now what made that request a big deal was that the two versions were recorded at different speeds, so they were a semitone apart in pitch. So George Martin said, it's impossible to put them together.

They're different songs. Lennon was insistent, and as it happened, the difference in the tempo of the two tracks was nearly the exact ratio of the difference in the keys so martin and engineer jeff emmerich very speeded manually the two tracks to the same tempo and they pulled off one of the greatest edits in the history of recorded music if you listen for it you can hear the edit at one minute. And it is virtually invisible, but for a slight, very slight change

in ambience. Do you want me to go back to the one minute? Could I go back? Okay, hold on, I know this is not going to... Let's see, where are we? Okay, so 49. 49. Although now I realize I'm not even sure what I'm listening for It's so Unseamless

It is seamless Wow It's an amazing song I'm seamless. It is seamless. Wow. It's an amazing song. And the after words to the story is that the Beatles came in and they started the project, what was ultimately going to be Sgt. Pepper. So they recorded this song first, and then they also were working on Penny Lane. So both of those songs were done.

Brian Epstein came to George Martin and said, We need to put out a single because the record company is all over me right so george martin and it was something that he many years later said he regretted for the rest of his career was that he gave them penny lane and strawberry fields forever to go out as a single they don't appear on any original Beatles album. And the Beatles back at that time, they put out singles, and singles did not appear on albums for the most part. They didn't want to rip the fans off, so to speak. So can you imagine how much better of an album, if that's even possible,

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band would be had these two songs being on there? That's unbelievable. You know, I knew Rain wasn't on an album, but I don't even know if I don't think I even knew this particular fact. That's amazing, and partly because you know, when you're a teenager and you dive into the Beatles, you buy like

that double disc. Yeah, and the funny thing in Britain, this represented, this double A-sided single, which many pop scholars widely regard as the greatest single ever released, double A-side, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, did not make number one. It was kept from number one in Britain by Engelbert Humperdinck's Release Me. That I did not know.

That's amazing. And to quote one of my guests, Stephen Stanley, formerly Lowest of the Low. I love Stephen, yeah. Stephen is on a future episode of The Walrus Was Paul, and the album he picked was Magical Mystery Tour, and we talk about this song as well. He was fantastic.

And he brought up the great point. He goes, if somebody never heard of the Beatlesles you could give them this single and say listen to that side penny lane and that'll tell you all about paul mccartney listen to this side strawberry fields forever that will tell you all about john lennon and that is that right there that's the beatles genius in two songs. Amazing, amazing. Okay, so Stephen Stanley. So now I'm excited to be teased about some upcoming. So first episode, Colin Cripps and Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo. It's a great, great opener.

Oh, I didn't do any. Oh, there's more. The classic Beatles of the time, the false ending. And then they come back. And then if you could turn up the end here, you'll hear the outro. You hear that little voice in your left ear. It sounds like, I buried Paul. Right, this is the

famous... This is the famous Paul McCartney is dead, and that was a clue. Right, yes. Yes, because he's barefoot on is it the Abbey Road? Abbey Road, on the cover. And then Sergeant, someone put a hand over his head. A hand over his head, and yeah. And in the pre-internet days, it spread, you know, through, I guess, through radio and school yards.

Started at a U.S. radio station is how it all started. Amazing. Okay, so the Walrus was Paul. I have some nuts and bolts questions. So you got, okay, so Colin Cripps and Jim Cuddy, the next episode, which drops Thursday, this Thursday,

that's tomorrow, right? That's Steven page, Steven page doing tug of war by Paul McCartney. Great episode, Colin and Jim Cuddy. Fantastic as well. Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, you teased, uh, so Steven Stanley, of course,

uh, who, and by the way, Steven Stanley and Steven page to FOTM. So. By the way, Stephen Stanley and Stephen Page, two FOTMs, so shout out to them. We've got to get Jim Cuddy and Colin Cripps on Toronto Mike. But I'll work on that. I'll work on that.

Do you want to tease any other upcoming guests, or is it confidential? No, no, not at all. We have the roster after Stephen Page will be Dave Bedini. Oh, yeah, Rheostatix. Fantastic guy, Rheostatix, Dave Bedini band, and an entrepreneur, West End Phoenix newspaper. Right.

Do you deliver those? You're too far west. I know. He needs an East End Phoenix. I mean, sorry, sorry. I meant too far east. Yeah, sorry. Although I'm too far west, actually, for West End Phoenix. Dave talks about Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Great conversation. He's an author. He's a musician. He's so great to talk about when it comes to music, anything. But he has a passion for it, and he can talk about it. And his conversation is really, really good. You won't want to miss that. And then the next episode after that from the indie band The Real Shade

is Jane Gowan. And Jane, a trained musician, plays a number of instruments, also a designer, and has a great band in her own right. And a major logo. Yeah. She talks. It made my logo. That's right.

She designed the logo for the Walrus is Paul podcast. And you can find her at jangowan.com if you're interested. But Jane talks about Abbey Road and really comes at it from a very musical angle where she talks about the chord changes and the harmonies and the playing of the various Beatles. Then after that, we've got Stephen Stanley from Lowest of the Low, who talks passionately about Magical Mystery Tour, what that meant to him.

Interesting pick there, because I don't think you'd ever confuse any of Stephen's music with that era of the Beatles. And then Christopher Ward, a great episode coming up where he talks about help. He talks about seeing the movie for the first time with his daughter and just the great vocal harmonies and the tight playing. So I'm going to do a little promo quickly here myself, which is tomorrow night, so Thursday night around 7ish or something,

we're doing our weekly Pandemic Friday episodes with Cam Gordon and Stu Stone. And tomorrow night our theme is Yacht Rock. And I actually pulled a Christopher Ward song from the late 70s or early 80s, which I think is just as an example of yacht rock. So Christopher Ward, Yacht Rocker. I don't know if you've heard that. I don't know if you've heard the... Oh, yeah, no, absolutely.

Absolutely. That right out of California in that era, the Yacht Rock. Right. So there's a Yacht Rock, and even if it's not your cup of tea, you want to hear Stu Stone talk about Yacht Rock. I think that's worth the price of admission. Now, RomyCast is like an umbrella, like TMDS, right? And then TMDS has Toronto Mic'd and other podcasts.

So The Walrus Was Paul, this is like your first podcast. It's a passion. You're passionate about the subject, so it's a good start. And do you want to tease other podcasts that might be coming from the Romy cast? I've got a couple others that are in development, more sports related, interviewing athletes and trying to take a bit of a different angle on it rather than just the normal. And most interested in talking to athletes who are finished their careers because I believe that with anything in life hindsight is 20-20 and I believe that when you look back at something you are more able to articulate what

happened and why it happened and the effect that it had on you. So that's a more sports-related cast. And another one I'm doing, which I think will be fun when it comes together, is about the early days at TSN, which are near and dear to me because that's when I started my career and so did many others. So they're in development and I hope to have them out later this year, early next. Well, I can't wait. I hope we hear some Jim Van Horn on the TSN podcast. Absolutely.

And Michael Landsberg and Paul Wells. John Wells. John Wells. Yeah, sorry about that. Terry Leibel, is she out there somewhere? I feel like she was there day one. Yes, she was. Yeah, Michael Landsberg, Terry Leibel, John Wells, the late Peter Watts, Steve Cooney, lots of great people.

When does Vic Rauter show up? A few years in, I guess. I want to say 18 months, two years in, something like that. Shout out to Vic Rauter, who never misses an episode of Toronto Mike. So we've got to give some love to make the final Vic Rauter. Please, sir, please, yes. No curling for a while, which has got him a little bit sad,

but it'll come back. Everything will come back. In the meantime, we have The Walrus with Paul. Great new podcast from Paul Romanek. Paul, thanks for coming over here and chatting me up

in my backyard. This was great fun for me. My pleasure. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram as well at the underscore Romycast. The underscore Romycast. The underscore Romycast. The underscore Romycast.

Okay, I'm going to do all that right now. And that brings us to the end of our 704th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Paul is at the underscore Romycast. He's also on Instagram with that same handle. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Make sure

you get your lasagna before you go. Sticker U is at Sticker U. The Kytner Group are at The Kytner Group. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. Sign up for that webinar tomorrow. Me and Barb are going at it at noon and it should be great fun. Pumpkins After Dark are at Pumpkins Dark.

The Garbage and Garbage Day are at GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike. See you all next week. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started.