Allen Ginsberg: “Portland Coliseum” (1965)
Whenever our commenters start griping about the perception of John Lennon as the leader of the Beatles, I always think of this poem, written by Allen Ginsberg in 1965. It's a good poem...and it also speaks to how people perceived the group in 1965. Reversed to give emphasis, Ginsberg's perception of the members' relative power was just as they were endlessly advertised: [...]
From @meaigs: “Misogyny Aimed At Paul McCartney”
Frequent commenter @meaigs recently expressed some thoughts about sexual politics and public perception of Paul McCartney, which I asked her to expand into a post. I hope you find her insights as interesting as I did; for me, some things snapped into place that had never made much sense.—MG Paul, facing the Press about LSD, 1967 P aul McCartney is [...]
From Faith Current: The Subversive Madness of Sgt. Pepper
Folks, this is part 2 of Faith Current's unique, challenging interpretation of The Beatles mid-60s masterpieces. If you haven’t read part 1, do so now. You'll get more out of this post. Enjoy!—MG Ringo, John, Paul and George looking with the eyes of love, 1967. BY FAITH CURRENT—By December of ‘66, the Great Global Revolver Freak-Out is over. The Beatles [...]
From Faith Current: “The Divine Madness of Revolver”
George and John boxed up backstage, Busch Stadium St. Louis, 1966. Large chunks of the Beatle catalog are so celebrated they've become hard to perceive. (Try writing about "Yesterday," for example.) So when someone comes to me with a new angle, I immediately take notice. I find Faith's vision of Revolver and Pepper as twins to be an interesting, [...]
“I Think [The Beatles] Are Underrated”
This from our dear Ed Park: Mike Myers, Beatles superfan, discusses "Get Back" and his latest project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG6w2X5byt4
Hey Dullblog Online Housekeeping Note
Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash Hello everyone, Faithful Hey Dullblog commenter Hologram Sam and others have mentioned having issues when loading the site or accessing comments, so Michael G. and I had the tech specialist we consult, Josh, take a thorough look at things. After running numerous malware checks and usability tests, Josh concluded that the site looks [...]
“Imagine” better Op-Eds
Our John Lennon circa 1971, haunting Gary Abernathy's dreams. Because she knew it would get a rise out of me, commenter @Tasmin sent me this cringeworthy Op-Ed from The Washington Post today, which I pass along out of a need to trauma-share. The Bezos-owned WaPo, for any foreign readers, is ostensibly the liberal-est of our oh-so-very-liberal American media, which [...]
Beatles in the 1970s: Melting and Crying
I'm an inveterate haunter of used bookstores. I love the physicality of books, and seeing how publishers chose to present subjects at particular places and times. Today I give you two 1970s finds, both British paperbacks, that feature melting or crying Beatles. This edition of The Beatles Lyrics was published by Omega in 1975 and features an introduction by (cringe) Jimmy Saville. Though [...]
Beatle Dreams!
Last night, I had the most amazing dream, one of my favorites ever. I was flying on a jumbo jet from New York to Los Angeles, with my brother and father. That's not important. What is important is that the jet was an amazing flying museum of all these wonderful Beatle artifacts, like a flying exhibition. In addition to all sorts of [...]