Michael Gerber • Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Dominic Sandbrook on the Early Seventies

By Michael Gerber|2020-01-20T14:41:24-08:00January 20, 2020|1973|

Not-so-Great Britain. Today I happened across something I think Dullblog readers might like: "The Weird World of Seventies Britain," a lecture by the Oxford historian Dominic Sandbrook. (You'll also dig it if, like me, you're a fan of "The Crown.") The details Sandbrook relates—cue Paul's "Power Cut”—are interesting and enjoyable. Spurred by our conversations about the British nightclub scene, I've gotten Sandbrook's histories of Britain from 1956-63, and 1964-70. I will read them and report back with Interesting Beatle Facts. Britain in the Seventies is usually considered to be dystopic in the extreme, and it was certainly a rude comedown from a [...]

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Best Post-Anthology Tracks?

By Michael Gerber|2020-01-18T19:52:54-08:00January 18, 2020|bootlegs|

I was just prowling around on the internet -- as one does on a Saturday night -- and discovered a Lennon demo from December 1968 called "A Case of the Blues." It's a neat little scrap of a song. See what you think. Maybe all of you know it already? What are your favorite demos, outtakes, and alternate versions of Beatles songs not on the Anthology? https://youtu.be/a0a_52O_9qo (Way to make John Lennon's handwriting boring-looking, anonymous designer.) I remember about two years ago I got obsessed with the McCartney tune "Suicide" as performed in 1969, and was shocked that 1) I was still [...]

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What are we doing here, anyway?

By Michael Gerber|2022-10-14T12:14:27-07:00January 13, 2020|Uncategorized|

They don't even golf like you or I. I was responding to a comment regarding the podcast Another Kind of Mind, and the application of "emotional intelligence" to The Beatles, and as I wrote the water grew deep enough for me to want this to be its own post. I have long thought—since 1995 or so, when the Anthology finally belched out all the last tracks worth hearing—that the great undiscovered country of Beatle fandom was trying to figure out what the experience was like for John, Paul, George, and Ringo. What, day by day, LP by LP, million by million, did [...]

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Swinging Through The Sixties Podcast

By Michael Gerber|2020-09-10T11:06:06-07:00January 13, 2020|1960, Podcasts|

The many faces (and bodies) of The Profumo Affair. Since everybody seemed to enjoy last week's post on Another Kind of Mind, a podcast offering some interesting new angles on Beatles analysis, I wanted to offer up another Beatle-related podcast I'd run across recently: Swinging Through The Sixties. Though the podcast is Beatle-tilted, it also has quite a bit of general Sixties topics and talk, so that's even more up my alley. I'm currently listening to Episode #25, "The Beatles' Unrealized Album." (Once again, a topic we've discussed endlessly.) This podcast is worth listening to from the first bit with George, which [...]

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Another Kind of Mind Podcast

By Michael Gerber|2020-01-08T23:38:26-08:00January 3, 2020|Podcasts|

The gentlemen under discussion, some years prior Reader Laura pointed me to an interesting Beatles podcast called "Another Kind of Mind," and after listening to a bit, I think you guys would love it. AKOM describes itself as "Artists, musicians, & professionals who dissect and challenge Beatles narratives with irreverent, though-provoking analysis.” I think we can all get behind that. The episode I tasted was Part 1 of their ongoing series on the breakup. Since that's a topic we discuss endlessly here, I think that might be a good way in…and I think you'll discern some overlaps over their discussion and ours. [...]

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Question Time!

By Michael Gerber|2020-01-03T00:14:20-08:00January 3, 2020|Housekeeping|

Private Gripweed indulges his sweet tooth. I am attempting, with only partial success, to stay off my computer. I find, like so many of us, that frequent exposure to Facebook and Twitter makes my mind feel like the bottom of a birdcage; and on top of that, I was in production for Bystander pretty much every day since July 1. So my tanks were low, and this was necessary. Slowly, very slowly, my personality is coming back, and as it reemerges I find myself entertaining happy obsessions like The Beatles and the Sixties that surrounded them. (In the last 24 hours I [...]

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The Problem With Being a Genius

By Michael Gerber|2022-07-24T13:51:44-07:00December 20, 2019|Paul McCartney, Uncategorized|

In catching up on recent comments, I ran across a couple that suggested Hey Dullblog judges Paul McCartney more harshly than it does the other Beatles; and one of the persistent conversations here for the last couple years is an anti-Paul bias in the media (I suppose we are part of the media?). Why doesn't Paul get his due? commenters ask. Is it because he's been coded as feminine? Is it because he traditionally appealed to female Beatles fans? Is it misguided post-murder worship of Lennon? Is it Jann Wenner's Rolling Stone vendetta hardening into a permanent attitude? This is how a [...]

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Robert Freeman, Photographer of the Beatles

By Michael Gerber|2021-12-06T01:38:48-08:00November 10, 2019|Photos|

On this busy Sunday (busy for me at least), let us pause for a moment to remember Robert Freeman, the man responsible for many of the most iconic images of the Beatlemania years. Freeman took the photos for With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles for Sale, HELP, and Rubber Soul, plus a proposed cover for Revolver that, if you ask me, should've been the inner sleeve. (Here's a video on that cover if you haven't seen it.) https://youtu.be/EliGoQnSEeA But not only the covers, which I think are probably the least interesting part. Freeman took the cover photo for both of [...]

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Best Beatles Mashups

By Michael Gerber|2019-11-06T15:45:12-08:00November 6, 2019|Collaborations|

I must admit that I love a good Beatles mashup, and after Stephen Kroninger shared the following one today, I thought: "What are the best Beatles mashups? This sounds like a job for the Dullblog Commentariat!"Put your faves in the comments; if I like 'em, I'll move 'em to this post. https://youtu.be/3QdPI238qh0 Whole Lotta Helter Skelter (Beatles & Led Zeppelin) The one below's a bit of a cheat, given that The Monkees were the best Beatles impression Hollywood songwriters could create. But I like it. https://youtu.be/zghGlLdPp6w Paperback Believer (Beatles & Monkees) A bit awkward in places, but the guitar break makes it [...]

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Geoffrey Giuliano Goes Off

By Michael Gerber|2019-10-23T15:09:27-07:00October 23, 2019|Uncategorized|

Commenter Gibson pointed me to this cri de coeur from Beatle author Geoffrey Giuliano on the perils of "thinking about the Beatles a little too much." It tickled me immensely, and some of you will have strong feelings, I'm sure. I look forward to hearing them in the comments. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go back to frying chicken. :-) You'll get the joke if you watch the video. (Actually, Kate and I are about to go to The Getty Villa. Ancient Romans had many analogues to Beatle-worship, and not simply gods and emperors and the cults around each. There [...]

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