Mark Lewisohn is a leading authority on the greatest rock n’ roll band of all time, the Beatles.
He’s the author of Tune In, the first volume of his masterful three (possibly four!) part biography of the Fab Four. Tune In garnered widespread acclaim and landed Mark the Penderlyn Music Book of the Year award.
Tune In has been widely celebrated for its depth and insight, leading most Beatle fans (a notoriously obsessive and fickle bunch), including this podcaster, to call it the best book on the band yet written. Aside from being one of the finest music historians of his generation, Mark Lewisohn is also exceptionally down to earth and frank, which makes him an exceptional conversationalist.
I first came into contact with Mark back in 2013, when I offered him a look at some primary sources I was collecting as part of my Master’s thesis research on the Beatles’ experience in India. Thus began a warm and friendly correspondence, and I eventually interviewed Mark for episode one of my first podcast, Travels in Music. I thought it only appropriate that Mark should be featured as the first interviewee for this new podcast, Humans in Love.
In many ways, this new two-part conversation picks up where my first interview with Mark left off. While our first interview was mainly focused on his famous subjects, today I wanted to get more insight into Mark the human being, as opposed to Mark the Beatles expert.
Speaking at the British Library in London, and later on Skype, in today’s two-part episode, Mark Lewisohn opens up about traveling to India, working (and occasionally sparring) with Paul and George, family life, writing, researching, interviewing, and the all of the unique challenges and joys associated with such a mammoth (and important) creative project.
Listen to Part One at the top of this post, or on iTunes, Stitcher, etc.
And you can listen to Part Two here.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Mark Lewisohn’s wonderful book, The Beatles: All Those Years: Tune In (Amazon)
- Paul Saltzman, who meditated with the Beatles in India in ’68
- My thesis relating to the Beatles’ experience in India, “Who wants tradition in the Beatle generation?”
- Beatles tourism in Liverpool
- Don’t forget to check out the wonderful band who supplies our intro and outro music! You can support Jungle Fire (and buy the HIL theme song ‘Comencemos’) here
Learn more and connect with Mark Lewisohn at:
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