Michael Gerber • Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

The Beatles in Pittsburgh, 1964

By Michael Gerber|2014-09-15T11:59:05-07:00September 15, 2014|1964, Beatlemania|

The Beatles one and only visit to Pittsburgh came in 1964, at the height of Beatlemania. The Post-Gazette commemmorates both the concert and the phenomenon here. This is my favorite part. Three fans, holding a cake they hope to present to the group, are outside the arena waiting for the concert to begin: Speaking “British” was something the three teens who’d never ventured far from Weirton [West Virginia] had done quite often. Just a few weeks earlier, Sharon and Beverly had launched into the accents while attending the premiere of the Beatles’ new movie, “A Hard Day’s Night,” in nearby Steubenville, Ohio. [...]

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Joshua Wolf Shenk on Lennon and McCartney (Take 2)

By Michael Gerber|2015-04-11T11:43:35-07:00August 14, 2014|Breakup, John and Paul, Joshua Wolf Shenk, Reviews|

Hello there Nancy (and everybody)— Mike here. Nice post, Nancy; thanks. Here are some more thoughts spurred by The Atlantic's Joshua Wolf Shenk on Lennon and McCartney, perhaps too many. "I read The Atlantic, mmkay?" First of all, Shenk’s piece struck me as typical magazine journalism in the post-Gladwell age — well-written and not factually wrong, but persistently unambitious, only revelatory to somebody who hasn’t really thought about anything but TPS reports since the late 1990s. You know the drill: writer declares something to be conventional wisdom — Shenk even goes to Wikipedia for it — then demolishes it via a catchphrased [...]

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Charles Taylor on A Hard Day’s Night

By Michael Gerber|2014-08-12T09:54:34-07:00August 10, 2014|1964, AHDN, Beatles Criticism, Swinging London|

Some boys have trouble expressing affection. Charles Taylor has written a marvelous appreciation of "A Hard Day's Night" for the Los Angeles Review of Books. He just gets so much right here, and it's stuff that I've felt myself but never read anywhere else. Here's the opener to get you started: HOW WOULD YOU REACT if there appeared in front of you a flesh-and-blood vision of everything you ever dreamed life could be? What if you could, at the same time, be your distinctive self and an irreplaceable part of a greater whole? What if that greater whole showed you [...]

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Thoughts on the Python Reunion (and the Beatles)

By Michael Gerber|2014-08-08T09:56:33-07:00August 7, 2014|Breakup, comedy, Monty Python|

Just got back from watching Monty Python Live (Mostly), the filmed record of the Python reunion concerts performed at London’s O2 Theatre last month. It was — and I say this as someone who bought the expensive tickets primarily out of affection — a ball, a delight; if you can see it, go see it. The two and a half hours flew by; I laughed a lot, and even got a little choked up there at the end. I’m so glad I’ve lived at the same time as Monty Python. (A shaky fan video of their farewell — "Always Look on the [...]

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1967 Brian Epstein Interview with Murray the K

By Michael Gerber|2014-07-27T18:57:57-07:00July 27, 2014|1967, Brian Epstein|

http://youtu.be/_0kHAqfGnfQ Taking a moment on this lazy Sunday to pass along a mildly interesting recording I found last night: the infamous 1967 Brian Epstein interview with WOR-FM's Murray Kaufman ("Murray the K") from March 1967. Brian was in the US announcing the addition of Robert Stigwood (and Stigwood's acts The Cream and The Who) to his company NEMS. The coolest bit comes at the 15:00 mark, where Brian mentions turning "Sgt. Pepper" into a TV show. Is this what became "Magical Mystery Tour"? Could be -- according to this page, MMT began in April, shortly after this interview. Of course we know [...]

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The Black Album: Solo Beatles According to Ethan Hawke

By Michael Gerber|2014-07-21T21:18:24-07:00July 21, 2014|Beatles lists, solo|

Filmed over the course of 12 years, Richard Linklater's movie "Boyhood" is getting raves. Beatlefans will take particular note of the scene where a father (Ethan Hawke) gives his son (Ellar Coltrane) a mix of solo Beatles tracks, which he dubs "The Black Album." (Please note: this is not the stupendously lo-fi Let It Be-era bootleg, which managed to bring me down within seconds of loading the video.) The fictional collection's fictional liner notes begin, "I wanted to give you something for your birthday that money couldn’t buy, something that only a father could give a son, like a family heirloom. This [...]

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Update: George Harrison’s India photos (and John’s Spain ones)

By Michael Gerber|2015-04-14T04:44:35-07:00July 17, 2014|1966, George Harrison, India, Photos|

Shooting Film has a lovely post collecting all of the fisheye selfies taken by The Quiet One in India in 1966. You should read the whole post, but I'll paste the whole set of George Harrison's India photos below. [h/t Dangerous Minds, whose ever-snappy writeup is here.] FISHEYES FOREVER: ...and as a special Dullblog bonus, here's another fisheye shot from the same period, which I first saw in Devin's book Magic Circles. John's in Almería, Spain, filming How I Won the War. DM here: Thanks to Mike for posting what I knew was the only possible closing photo for my book. I [...]

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The Beatles on Stella Street

By Michael Gerber|2014-07-14T12:08:29-07:00July 14, 2014|comedy|

The Beatles on Stella Street? Yes, indeed -- although I don't think impressionists Phil Cornwell and John Sessions' hearts are in those impressions. It's not John and Paul, but the idea of John and Paul. (George and Ringo are even sketchier, and Yoko...aiyiyi.) When they do people like Richard Burton, Michael Caine, or Larry Olivier (I can call him that because we share a driving instructor -- really), there's much more precision and juice there. Thanks, Buck Turgidson, for this bit of Beatle comedy from BBC2. http://youtu.be/IQGva6HnXhc

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Ringo on the Train Song

By Michael Gerber|2014-07-08T23:07:32-07:00July 8, 2014|1964, AHDN, Unreleased/Outtakes|

Starr, swaddled. After last night, I should've learned my lesson: no posting after your contacts dry out, it's just gibberish. But this just came over the Mojo Wire: Los Angeles Times man of music Randy Lewis asked our own Ringo Starr about the mysterious 42-second snippet that's been rocketing around Beatledom. It's the full track from A Hard Day's Night, a snippet of which comes out of Ringo's transistor before being switched off by the upper-class git. “I hope you don’t mind a crazy ‘Hard Day’s Night’ question,” I said before relating the recent events and asking if he knew [...]

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The Beatles and the Dalai Lama

By Michael Gerber|2014-07-08T10:37:54-07:00July 7, 2014|1966, Revolver|

Yesterday, after reading Devin's lovely commemoration of everybody's favorite drummer (both here on Dullblog and on HiLobrow), I was quite tickled to find out -- via Facebook -- that Ringo shares a birthday with the current Dalai Lama. Then, after I'd written this entire post, I confirmed the birthdays and found that Facebook was wrong. The Dalai Lama, born in 1935 as Lhamo Dondrub, made the scene on July 6th, while the ever laid-back Ringo emerged a day later on July 7th. I am keeping this post up, however, as a mute testimony to the dangers of trusting Facebook, especially for you young [...]

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