Doing impressions of Michael Caine, Swinging London institution and drinking buddy of John Lennon, has become a bit of a cottage industry in Great Britain. The slow-burning meme was kicked off (apparently) by comedy great and drinking buddy of Ringo Starr Peter Sellers in 1974...And I agree: for reasons I don't quite understand, I can't get enough Michael Caine impressions. Hear for yourself, but be warned -- they're addictive. http://youtu.be/-qIy1DmGLWI
Did Jimmy leave a secret legacy? On June 22, Chris Carter's "Breakfast With the Beatles" unveiled an unreleased Beatles track that has fans buzzing: the full 42-second song that blares only for a few seconds from Ringo's transistor radio during the train scene in A Hard Day's Night. Thanks to Chris' kind permission, we were the first site to bring the track to the web. Yay, Dullblog. As the debate over Ringo's train music continues (I say probably yes, Devin says probably no, this blog says probably yes, this one probably no, Chris Carter says probably yes, Giles Martin says probably [...]
Okay folks, after checking with Chris Carter from KLOS' wonderful "Breakfast With the Beatles"—a Sunday morning institution in my household, and should be in yours, too--I snipped out this bit of new Beatle-music. Originally recorded during the sessions for "A Hard Day's Night," it was found by collector Dave Morrell, and had its worldwide debut on BWTB last Sunday. I couldn't find it anywhere on the web, so I thought I'd post it so non-LA Beatlepeople could hear and enjoy. Sorry for the slack air at the end, I have to learn GarageBand over again every time I use it. [...]
Just a quickie, 'cause I have a book to write and magazine to launch dammit-- Last Sunday, Chris Carter's excellent "Breakfast with the Beatles" played a complete song potentially recorded by The Beatles during the Hard Day's Night sessions in 1964. A loving recreation of anonymous Invasion pop, we've only heard a snippet of this before…at 4.01 in the video below: http://youtu.be/4Nq-GyLrtHc I looked for a full recording online, and it's not up anywhere (yet). Is it The Beatles? Carter believes so, and I agree; it's highly unlikely that any backing group would've been able to keep mum for 50 years. Furthermore, [...]
Mrs. Brian Epstein? (or Mrs. Lionel Bart? or Mrs. John Lennon?) MIKE GERBER • Happy to report that The Fifth Beatle, Vivek J. Tiwary's graphic novel about Brian Epstein, continues to carve out a bit of space in the culture. Here is an interesting interview with Tiwary. Apparently Tiwary's a strong supporter of marriage equality, and the book is affiliated with Freedom to Marry; in the course of discussing marriage equality, Tiwary says the following: There’s a line in the book, during a television interview where Brian’s being asked about the Beatles’ romantic lives, and Brian said “I think Beatles [...]
Is Mike man enough to withstand the awesome depressive POWER of this film? Last Thursday I happened to rent a DVD of "Let It Be," and I did so mostly out of surprise that it was on the shelf at all. I'd seen it only once before, in the summer of 1981, paired with "A Hard Day's Night" at the pot-scented Tivoli Theatre in St. Louis. Maybe it was Lennon's recent death, or having watched the young Fabs in full flood directly before, but I still remember the funereal aspect of the evening's second half, something even the sweet smell [...]
Commenter Hologram Sam wrote in to say: "Blank On Blank finally did an animation of a John & Yoko interview. http://youtu.be/DmvmnYEy9NY "What amazed me were the comments on the boingboing link. It looks like the anti-John backlash is growing." To me, Sam, that's not a backlash, just another sterling example of Homo internetius. Uncharitable opinions hastily expressed, based on commonplaces and half-digested conventional wisdom. Internet comments are the single worst invention since the hydrogen bomb.
Dig the lineup on this EP. Way to confuse Portuguese fans, EMI. Eagle-eared commenter Bill Garrity writes to say: "I was just listening to 'Paperback Writer' and wondered if anybody noticed some flubs along with background noise — coughs, extraneous breathing, muttering, etc. Notable are the following: 0:08-0:10 extraneous breathing 0:57 cough 1:19-1:21 missed cue on background vocal 1:45-1:48 extraneous breath, sniffling or something like that, someone practicing a background vocal. Let me know!" Can you hear these, and any more? Let Bill know in the comments! PS—Certainly filming this video was a mistake. Most Bored Beatles Ever. http://youtu.be/pz9G5sIS62I
JAMIE BRYAN • “It’s the center of the earth,” Lennon said famously. And so inevitably Beatlemania returned to New York, bringing 60s-era good vibes not only to the cavernous convention spaces of Manhattan’s Grand Hyatt, but even to its sterile, airport-style lobby bar. Where the locals were gleefully engaging in a quaint little custom they picked up from Peter Minuit, the fleecing of the rubes. The "OB-LA-DI OB-LA-OLIVES" were $6. The chef's selection of artisan charcuterie and local cheeses ("MAXWELLS SILVER PLATTER") was $16. A buck less got you either the "MAGICAL MYSTERY HUMMUS" or the "FREE AS A BIRD WINGS". All branding [...]
MIKE GERBER • Devin's excellent post on James Marcus' graceful, slightly Slate-only-smarter Letting Go of The Beatles spurred some thoughts, which were too long to put in a comment. I wrote this in haste and I can feel the dullness of my tools (doing a lot more business-stuff than writing-stuff these days), but I paste them below. It was fifty years ago today… Beginning in May 1964 and ending that November, the BBC broadcast a 26-part documentary called The Great War. Produced with the cooperation of the Imperial War Museum and its analogues around the world, it is a fascinating examination of that [...]