Q & A With Ron Schaumburg

Shawnee Mission North alumnus Ron Schaumburg ('70) authored "Growing Up With The Beatles" (GUWTB) in 1976. It's a personal tribute and odyssey. One might say it foreshadowed today's online web log explosion in style and approach. Ron Schaumburg is the Executive Editor of Medical DecisionPoint in Montvale, New Jersey.

FJ: It's been 28 years since GUWTB was published. What's the most enduring legacy of your book?

RS: I'm kinda proud to have my very own Library of Congress number. That means my work is a permanent part of the nation's archive, that I contributed a tiny (very tiny) bit to the country's cultural heritage. Perhaps the best answer is that every once in a while someone gets in touch with me to let me know that the book meant something to them. A few years ago (it happened to be on my birthday) a fellow wrote to say that by reading GUWTB, he discovered that it was actually possible to write about something you love. With that inspiration, he went on to become a sports writer, and is now the head sports correspondent for the Newark Star-Ledger. I can't ask for a more meaningful response than that.There's another odd angle on this. The section I wrote in which I expressed my view that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was not a direct reference to LSD has taken on a life of its own. Someone posted that passage on a web site a few years ago, and just a few weeks ago it was quoted in an article published in a magazine, "The Weekly Standard." [Note: That publication is NOT something I subscribe to, physically or philosophically.] Despite Paul's recent statement that it WAS a drug song, I stand by my belief, largely because a few years ago Julian confirmed that his drawing was John's inspiration (that image is even available on the web).

FJ: How was the book received in '76? Was it a success?

RS: Yes, by objective standards it was. The first edition of 80,000 sold out, and more copies were made. I think by the time it went out of print it hit more than 120,000 in sales. I never got a final accounting; the packager had gone out of business.

FJ: Do you see any similarities between your approach with GUWTB and today's explosion of on-line journalism?

RS: I never thought about it. Online info is usually produced quickly (sometimes sloppily) and is very much "of the moment." A book takes months to produce and is meant to endure, at least for a while. So on balance, I'd say no.

FJ: Upon rereading GUWTB this year, I was struck by all the great Beatles photos you included. That's definitely something that sets your work apart. How hard was it to secure the rights to all the photography, and is that something that makes it difficult to get the book republished?

RS: The book was put together by a book "packager" from New York. She brought me in to write the text and hired a photo researcher and book designer named Mick Rock (great name!) to handle the photo research. (The main selling point of the book was the pictures; the text was basically there to fill up pages!) Mick contacted the photographers and was able to rummage through their files to turn up a lot of the shots. Many were indeed previously unpublished - unused shots from photo sessions, during which hundreds of images may have been captured. Some of the pictures (like the tickets for the Kansas City concert at A's Stadium) were of things in my possession.And yes, the photo issue is what's kept me from pursuing republishing of the book (although my wife has been nagging me about it for years). It'd be impossible (and impossibly expensive) to retrace our steps and secure the rights for a new edition. Maybe a sequel: "Growing Old..."

FJ: GUWTB has a lot of obscure Beatles trivia. For example, I didn't know that the people that cut up the Beatle pillow cases and sold the one inch squares after the Kansas City show sold less than half their inventory. What's your favorite factoid from the book?

RS: Hmm. I haven't exactly read it lately, so I'd have to think. One part I like is the discussion of the "Paul Is Dead" silliness, because I think I collected a lot of information and added some of my own. (And I played a small role in spreading the rumor by sharing my list of clues with the Kansas City DJ, who read back the list the next day on his show.) I also had wanted to include a long list of every bit of dialogue discernible in "Revolution #9" (I listened to that damn thing for about 3 hours straight), but the publisher decided that those words counted as "lyrics" and we weren't allowed to quote lyrics directly in the book (for fear of violating copyright laws).

FJ: Your book is pretty evenly balanced between your adolescence and the Beatles. Was it difficult to keep a balance? What kind of discussions did you have with your editors about that?

RS: The book was sold to the publisher as a personal memoir, so the adolescent stuff was built into the concept from the beginning. I kinda resisted doing TOO much personal stuff, because let's face it, my life wasn't all that interesting. (That was sorta the point.) I was much more interested in sharing what I'd discovered about the Beatles and their music. The publisher was quite generous in letting me pretty much write what I wanted. (In hindsight, I wish they'd been a little tougher on me.) About the only significant change they made - and it's one I came to agree with - was the "tone" of my meeting with Ringo. To be honest, he didn't seem exactly overjoyed at having to deal with another fan. But the publisher wanted this to come across as a happier event, a climax to the book in a way, so the editors suggested how to change just a few words so that I could report the encounter accurately, but still keep it on a positive note.

FJ: How did your friends and family react to the book in 1976? Has that reaction changed in the last 28 years?

RS: They were happy to go along with the plan and were pleased with the book's success. Every once in a while a fan wanting to reach me gets in touch through my siblings, both of whom still live in KC. They happily put them in touch. My mom and dad are both gone, but my dad was a big booster. He even printed up some stationery with the book's cover on it for me to use. My mom was delighted that her son, who'd wanted to be a writer since second grade, actually saw his dream come true.

FJ: You mention Corky Carrell in your acknowledgement section. Were you a Capers Corner customer?

RS: Faithfully. Corky advised me about other records I might enjoy, provided me with some nifty collector's items, and helped me get tickets to Paul's "Wings Over America" tour. He was a great source of info and very supportive. Last I saw of him, he'd opened his own record store in Mission, but that was easily a decade ago.

FJ: My older brother played the Beatles around the house in the late 60s and Simon and Garfunkel too. What other musical acts besides the fab four garnered your attention in those days?

RS: In my naïve (and kinda pigheaded) way, for a while I thought there was nothing else BUT the Beatles. A lot of my friends liked S&G; I thought they were a little pretentious but I grew to like them a lot. I tried to like the Monkees, thinking they were gonna be "the next Beatles," but I grew out of that phase pretty quickly. (I remember I couldn't sell their LPs for a dime at a garage sale, and ended up literally throwing them away, like frisbees.) The first non-Beatles record I bought was "Monday Monday" by the Mamas and Papas.

By about 1968, though, I was snarfing up all kinds of music. One way I broadened my taste was by collecting every record I could find released on the Apple label. I loved James Taylor's Apple LP; the Mary Hopkins stuff, Jackie Lomax, Modern Jazz Quartet, John Taverner, Billy Preston, Doris Troy... even the Hare Krishna stuff George produced! I credit the Beatles for opening my ears and eyes to a wider world of sound and experience.

With the Beatles my main influence, I've always gravitated toward pop stuff - melodic, harmonic, well-structured, imaginative orchestrations - rather than the hard-rock stuff, but I can groove to Led Zep, the Stones, the Who when the mood is right. I've always thought The Band had something special, especially their "brown" album. I've bought everything Elton John has released - for me, his early 70s stuff really helped fill in the gap after the Beatles broke up. Cat Stevens, Supertramp, Gerry Rafferty, CSN&Y. Basically anything you might label "classic rock."

FJ: How influential was WHB radio for you during the 60's?

RS: A lot. It was the first station I listened to faithfully, beginning with a little red-and-white plastic transistor radio with a painfully knobby earpiece. (I was the WHB high school reporter for SM North). But as I recall, KUDL ended up taking over, being more ambitious, playing album cuts and a wider range of other stuff.

FJ: Neosho Lane is within walking distance of downtown Mission, Roeland Park, and Fairway. Where did you spend more time?

RS: Fairway had the Fairway Theater, which played "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!" But the shops in Mission were more fun - Hobby Haven, Baskin Robbins, TG&Y...

FJ: Ever eat a cheese frenchie at King's Food Host?

RS: Uh, don't think so, but I remember picking up the phone and ordering many a burger from the place. In Boy Scouts, when we were freezing our asses off in our fog-shrouded tents high atop Mount Phillips at the Philmont Ranch, we fantasized about getting back home so we could stuff our faces with "Kings Double Cheese!!!"

FJ: You're an east coast guy now. Do you still have family in Johnson county? How often do you get back to Kansas City?

RS: Not much. I've lived in Jersey for longer now than I ever lived in KC; my 2 daughters were born and raised here, but I don't think of Jersey as my home. It's just where I live. Whenever I come back to Johnson County, I'm impressed by how easy it is to get around (you guys have NO idea what a traffic jam REALLY is), how easy it is to get access to things (tickets to shows, etc), and how nice and friendly people are. However, living in the east, you get exposed to a much greater variety of people, ideas, and events. The midwest seems a bit isolated and provincial at times - but I think that suits a lot of people just fine. Personally, I thrive on a bit more variety.

FJ: This may or may not be in your book: What's your favorite Beatles album of all time?

RS: I think it's there. One day in college I did a side-by-side earphone comparison of Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road, and came down on the side of Abbey Road - great songs, amazing playing, astounding vocals, unmatched production. A fabulous farewell.

FJ: What kind of writing are you doing these days?

RS: Nothing you'd want to read. I work for a company that produces medical education programs for doctors. We teach them about new developments in lipid management (cholesterol), psychiatric disorders, arthritis, etc. I've published a dozen or so books on medical topics, mostly as a ghost-writer for physicians. As a sidelight I write short biographies that appear in a radio series (A&E Biography for Radio) in 200 markets around the country. And I'm involved in a years-long project researching the life and times of my great-great-grandfather, who was a gold miner in California and Nevada in the years following the Gold Rush. I'd like to turn his story into a book, but I'm a bit daunted by the prospect. Someday...