Michael Gerber • Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Will the Beatles Last?

By Michael Gerber|2026-04-01T01:42:58-07:00March 30, 2026|Uncategorized|

When the Beatles are 64, from LIFE Magazine in 1968. As the Boomer generation fades into eternity, what does that mean for the standing of Beatlemusic in the culture? And what does it mean for the phenomenon of The Beatles as a cultural force? Will they persist as something like Mozart or Shakespeare, or recede like "Laugh-In" or Herman's Hermits? I'm biased, of course -- but less than you might think. I'm 56, so what people are digging in one hundred years' time is really nothing to do with me. But going strictly by what has happened since 1963, I [...]

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I’d Love to Turn You On

By Michael Gerber|2026-03-26T12:47:44-07:00March 25, 2026|Drugs|

The Beatles and friend in Hamburg, May 1962 Getting to those 10,000 hours at double speed. In the course of (as the kids say) "chopping it up" in the comments, I stumbled on a topic that I'd like to (re-) address. It's one that I've talked about incessantly on this blog, but it suddenly occurred to me that after all the posts and all the comments over the years, I might never have explained why. At one point I was fascinated by the intersection of The Beatles and addiction, and wrote about it a lot here. Even though you could [...]

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Memories of Nicholas Schaffner and The Beatles Forever

By Michael Gerber|2026-03-30T15:51:17-07:00January 4, 2026|1976, books|

This edition is in a lot better condition than mine is. Like many a second-generation fan, I thrilled to Nicholas Schaffner's book The Beatles Forever. (Which can be viewed in its entirety here!) Some years ago, when my mom was cleaning out the family homestead on Forest Avenue in Oak Park, she handed me a box of Beatles stuff salvaged from my old room—LPs, posters, and books all still scented with my desperate teenaged dreams. Of my shelf-full of Beatle books, I kept only five—SHOUT!, John Lennon: One Day at a Time (since pitched), the Hunter Davies bio, Rolling Stone's The [...]

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Old Draft: Beatles Folk Memory 1970-1995

By Michael Gerber|2026-01-03T21:30:45-08:00December 8, 2025|Uncategorized|

[Folks: I found this in Drafts, re-read it, and liked it. I don't know why I didn't post it before, maybe because i didn't come to A Grand Conclusion. Anyway, enjoy.—MG] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl8btU0EYno Commenter D.N. just coined a phrase that I really love: "Beatles folk memory," which I took to mean "how the Beatles phenomenon, and the experience of being a fan of theirs, was experienced by fans." I think it's a tremendously useful concept. The folk memory of first-generation fans is easiest to track, not only because it left huge traces in the mainstream monoculture, but because it was [...]

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Lights are back on.

By Michael Gerber|2025-12-08T12:51:57-08:00December 8, 2025|Housekeeping|

Folks, last week I watched the refurb'ed Beatles Anthology (might post my opinions). Then I cruised around r/beatles, and had a nice interaction with a smart fan, who seemed pleased I was part of the Hey Dullblog crew. They encouraged me to re-open the site, and said that if I didn't do that, "could they privately ask me a few questions via email"? Well, obviously, sure. That was flattering, and surprising—though I respect our other contributors immensely, for me HD has always been strictly hobby-writing, so when someone expresses a sense of its worth, I am particularly pleased. It's as if my [...]

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From Faith Current: “The Sacred Ordinary: St. Peter’s Church Hall”

By Michael Gerber|2025-12-08T12:22:45-08:00May 1, 2023|Uncategorized|

Folks, this piece was in the editorial queue before Nancy and I decided to put this site on hiatus. To honor my commitment to Faith, I post it here. Enjoy.—MG BY FAITH CURRENT St. Peter’s Church, Woolton Village, Liverpool January 11, 2023 “You’re lookin’ for Eleanor then?” The voice startles me — I’d thought I was alone and anyway, disembodied voices in cemeteries tend to be startling on any account. I spin around to see an old man regarding me with a cryptic smile. He’s wearing a thick woolen overcoat and carrying a walking stick. Standing in the mist at the edge [...]

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A brief (?) hiatus

By Michael Gerber|2025-12-08T12:22:48-08:00April 22, 2023|Uncategorized|

After much discussion over several months, Nancy and I have decided to put Dullblog in the deep freeze, at least temporarily. We may post occasionally, but comments will be off. We'll be leaving it up as an archive—for now. Diverting as it has been, Dullblog has never really fit with the rest of my professional life, and my first impulse was to send the other writers their posts, then nuke the site from space. But my wife convinced me that there might be people—perhaps someone housebound, as I was when Devin, Ed, and I began this site in 2008—for whom HD is [...]

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Something Happened

By Michael Gerber|2025-12-08T12:22:50-08:00March 6, 2023|1960s|

After reading my post on LA's legendary radio station KHJ, commenter @Hieronymus wrote, This is fascinating, Michael. We are roughly the same age and while I’ve been obsessed with the Beatles and 60s culture since I hit double figures, I only really started digging DEEP into the 60s (aside from the Beatles) around 20 years (I know, ONLY 20 years ago, ha!) but what I soon became aware of was how necessary that deep digging was to really understand the world I grew up in. I think we came into this world at the start of the slowing down of whatever the [...]

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The Beatles As They Were Heard: KHJ 93 Los Angeles

By Michael Gerber|2025-12-08T12:22:52-08:00March 4, 2023|Radio|

KHJ billboard, LA, 1960's. Yesterday quite randomly I stumbled upon this archive of recordings from Los Angeles' legendary rock and roll radio station, KHJ. "Boss 93" started in 1965, and for fourteen years was beloved by young groovers like Quentin Tarentino, who used the station as part of the soundscape behind Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. (Here's a nice appreciation from Los Angeles Magazine.) I started with this hour, from April 24, 1966. As I listened, it made me aware of a bunch of things: 1) The furious pace of change in The Beatles' music. We talk about this [...]

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All is well!

By Michael Gerber|2025-12-08T12:22:54-08:00February 28, 2023|Uncategorized|

The float right BEFORE the John and Yoko one. Folks, sorry about that -- the site went down yesterday for the most prosaic of reasons, an expired credit card on Autopay. We're all good now. …or are we? I must admit my first thought was all the attackery, hackery and miscellaneous jackery the site's been suffering over the last year. But no angry Floyd or VU fans were involved. Thank you for all the concerned messages. My favorite was, "Elliot Mintz hasn't come after you for talking about Yoko and kink, has he??" To be honest, the single best PR [...]

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About Michael Gerber