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This week on the Big Show, one guest: John O’Sullivan. We booked him to fact check this season of Netflix’s The Crown as he was a speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher and was a witness to much of what occurred in the show (and what didn’t). But that wasn’t the only topic we covered with John. We also had a long and shall we say lively conversation about the Trump legal team’s efforts to overturn the results of the election. We think Mr. O’Sullivan represented the views of many of our members and listeners, much to the consternation of one of the hosts of this podcast (guess who?). Also, Peter Robinson discovers The Beatles forty years after the fact and then immediately proceeds to blame them for a lame Christmas song written decades after the band broke up. Also, a new Lileks Post of The Week courtesy of @majestyk and a short but thorough primer on why streaming killed the movie theater star.
Music from this week’s show: Her Majesty by The Beatles
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That’s not the Beatles. That’s just Paul McCartney.
I’d pay extra for that.
Edit:
I’ll pay $20 cash money for a video of Peter Robinson listening to Queen’s The Prophet’s Song through headphones.
Somebody please let me know when Rob becomes fun to listen to again. I…I just can’t anymore.
He’s probably heard of Elvis Presley, but how many Elvis songs do you suppose he’s actually heard?
How about this one?
Thats one happy ass.
Sorry, I guess this song goes to prove the value of John Lennon’s contribution in the song writing.
John Lennon wrote “Happy Christmas” which sounds to me like some kind of socialist anthem.
I would suppose quite a few. Peter Robinson is 63, meaning he would have been a teenager in the mid 1970s, Elvis’ career was fading by that time – but he was still getting a lot of radio play. Even if he’s not an Elvis fan, he couldn’t help but hear some of his music in elevators.
And yet he didn’t really know about the Beatles? That would seem to put a shadow over his Elvis knowledge too.
Plus while he might have heard Elvis songs in elevators – and Beatles too, for that matter – he may not have known who they were by.
Care to know what I grew up on? My dad bought a set of dozen LPs, called something like “The Reader’s Digest Big Band Collection,” and I played those things over and over. While all the other kids in the neighborhood were listening to Elvis and the Beatles, I was listening to Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, and Duke Ellington.
Thank you for keeping track of all this stuff.
See, I was right! He didn’t know about Elvis, either.
I thought Rob was very rude to John O’Sullivan. To my sensibilities, it was extremely jarring the way he interrupted and talked over him. But no one has mentioned it yet. Must just be me.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but Rob’s behavior didn’t surprise me.
Ok, fair point.
But you’d said that it was about how many songs he’s heard…I would still say a few – even if just on radio play.
I also knew “Smoke on the Water” by the Moody Blues for years (the riff of the song is quite distinctive) – without knowing the song tittle or the artist. It wasn’t until I was driving to a poker game one night 5 or 6 years ago – that the DJ played the song, but then told the story of how the song was recorded. Everyone at the poker table was incredulous – how could I not know that song?
It wasn’t just you. He’s become completely unprofessional to the point of being cringeworthy regarding Trump and his supporters, all 70 million of us.
Cool. I also grew up listening to old people music. Although I am a little younger, so my music was Elvis, Duane Eddy, Johnny Horton and oddly the Boston Pops. Back in the 70s Safeway ran a promotion that if you bought groceries you could get a free album – my mom got the full set. (I think like 16 of them) Lots of great classical music on them. I think I nearly wore out the Guillaume Tell Overture and 1812 Overture.
My mom was a huge Elvis fan, she’d bought every album he’d ever put out – seems like there where dozens of them.
Honestly this was a fine podcast except that it didn’t even attempt to talk about the really important issues. I am so sick of Trump and the election. How many times does Rob Long have to sigh and postulate about how stupid it all is? We have a glaringly serious issue facing us that the Ricochet Podcast would do well to cover. CHINA!!!! We are about to get a President who, along with his family, is completely compromised by the Chinese Government. China will expect something in return for its money and Biden will have little choice but to give them whatever they want. But you would rather talk about Trump and that disgusting election. For me the biggest fraud of the election was not the voting but the suppression of Hunter and Joe’s dirty dealings until after the election. And you guys still don’t want to talk about it!
Not to mention (because you didn’t) the entire Swalwell debacle.
I think “unprofessional” expresses it well. He needs to control his emotions for the benefit of the listeners. Whether we agree with him in substance (which there may be beneath all the ranting) or not, no one benefits from this performance. I consider it to be disrespectful of the audience.
I say this as someone who has appreciated Rob for many years.
If you are going to freak out about Trump you need to understand why populism and socialism is an issue.
Shortly before Apollo 8, Jim Lovell was amused that Frank Borman, on hearing a Beatles song, said, “They’re really good.” Borman had no idea who they were.
I haven’t listened to this podcast for weeks, but listened to part of it after a few positive comments about Mr O Sullivan.
I’v had the pleasure of Mr O’Sullivan’s company several times, along with his lovely wife Melissa. Here on the podcast he was as measured and smart as I expected.
Rob Long was shrill, bordering on hysterical. Sort of like the spoken word of @blueyeti’s recent written comments here on Ricochet.
And that gives me pause – why is this so personal for some that professional decorum is abandoned? I am sure my life, during a Biden presidency, is going to take a huge hit. Personally, professionally and financially.
I am a 62 year old woman. I’ve lived through my share of drama – earthquakes, fires, car accidents, getting an unexpected call for bail. I’ve had two kids in the military – one who spent some long months In Afghanistan
It’s been noticed by more than one that I don’t panic. I don’t get hysterical. I don’t get shrill. As a mother of a large family, I’ve always considered a luxury I don’t have.
Which brings me back to Rob and BlueYeti’s recent behavior. Why so personal?
As have I.
Mostly obscured by the hysterical ranting, Rob’s main concern seemed to be that the Republican party was being seriously harmed by the unsubstantiated allegations of fraud. This is true in the case of Lin Wood and unfortunately Sydney Powell*, but he totally discounted the valid claims of many others.
90+% of Republican voters supported Trump, but there seem to be a very unrepresentative 80%, or so of Republican office holders and judicial appointees who are ostentatiously not supporting even his valid claims. This is the real problem facing the party.
*Rob calling this allegation falsely “the Loch Ness monster” doesn’t help, nor does his false claim that these people are alleging that the long-deceased Hugo Chavez is currently engaged in vote manipulation. The truth is bad enough, so why make up these false claims?
The reason that so many people support Trump is because of the condescension of the Rob Longs of the world. Trump is overly very rude and Trumpy but this supporters put up with it because they know how much the elites hate them. Notice how the entire media is freaking out about Trump’s refusal to admit to defeat but they permit all the Russian nonsense and never condemned Hillary Clinton’s insistence that Donald Trump was not legitimately elected by the Electoral College.
I am not very happy with the Donald overstating his case and I understand Rob’s criticisms of the President’s overreach but I wish he could express it in a less coastal elite kinda way.
My suggestion to everyone on every side is that this Trump phenomenon was always bigger than the man. This populist thing isn’t going away.
Also, the Loch Ness monster interfering in our elections is an even bigger deal than Bigfoot as it involves a foreign power meddling in American domestic affairs. (I respectfully disagree with the allegations that Bigfoot is a Canadian.)
I don’t know about BY but it seems pretty clear that Rob doesn’t have a family that he needs to control his behavior for. So maybe he never learned how.
Little personal maybe?