Michael Gerber • Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Beatles For Sale sessions

By Michael Gerber|2015-01-04T20:18:31-08:00November 4, 2013|1964|

Four little-known musicians from Liverpool, 1964 MIKE GERBER • We've linked to the devilishly delightful site Willard's Wormholes before, and in the process of fixing that link this morning, I found a wonderful something I just had to pass along. My love for 1964's Oh-Shit-Christmas-Is-Coming LP Beatles For Sale is almost as idiosyncratic as my affection for psychedelia.* Truth be told, I think my love began when I heard Malcolm McDowell's almost ominous descriptions of the period in "The Compleat Beatles". ("Haggard"..."windswept"...am I making this up? I distinctly remember it.) It's the backside of Beatlemania that I'm always more interested in. [...]

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If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger…

By Michael Gerber|2013-11-04T11:36:22-08:00October 29, 2013|Beatles on the Web, Photos|

"Is it me, or does the guy on the target look like Allen Klein?" MIKE GERBER • Devin has called Tom Sutpen's blog "If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There's Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats" the best blog ever, and you can add my voice to the chorus of praise. I've been browsing it for years, and find it all the stuff that dreams are made of. Sutpen's beat is the same 20s to 70s culture I love myself, and while I haven't listened to the podcast (opinions?) his eye for the odd or arresting or simply beautiful [...]

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Nik Cohn reviews Abbey Road, 1969

By Michael Gerber|2013-10-26T11:11:41-07:00October 26, 2013|1969, Abbey Road|

An outtake from Abbey Road (the cover, I mean) Dullblogger Ed (come back Ed! we miss you!) shared a link this morning: Nik Cohn's original review of Abbey Road for The New York Times. I always find hot-off-the-press reviews like this really interesting; for one thing, they give us a sense of how differently now-iconic bits of culture were seen at that time, which not only demonstrates how changeable things are—that there are pieces of work truly more in tune with a past or future than their time of creation—but also give us a clue as to how the texture [...]

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Emitt Rhodes: The One Man Beatles

By Michael Gerber|2013-11-04T10:36:15-08:00October 2, 2013|Beatle-inspired|

Emitt Rhodes, four musicians in one. “I hate those guys [The Beatles]! They ruined my life!”—Emitt Rhodes For a while I'd heard about Emitt Rhodes, famously called "the one man Beatles," but I'd never actually heard him. So I gave a listen and (unsurprisingly) liked it enough to share. Rhodes' career is a fairly standard Sixties story: guy forms a band with some buddies; gigs around for a couple years; is spotted by an A&R man and given a contract; records an LP which, while good, doesn't catch fire; then struggles to fulfill his contract in a business more interested [...]

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George Harrison joke in The Onion

By Michael Gerber|2013-09-24T09:58:19-07:00September 24, 2013|comedy, George Harrison|

A friend who works for The Onion wrote a George Harrison joke, which you can find here. George tells his own Beatles joke below. http://youtu.be/42udXDE36-0

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Good Ol’ Freda: True tales from the Beatles’ loyal secretary

By Michael Gerber|2022-07-25T11:41:59-07:00September 16, 2013|Apple/Inner Circle, Documentaries, Guest blogger|

Guest review by LINDA MARSHALL-SMITH • When 17-year-old Beatles fan Freda Kelly was hired as Brian Epstein’s secretary in 1962, she couldn’t have known she was in for a uniquely intimate ten-year view of Beatlemania and its aftermath. Unlike many of the Beatles’ former associates, Kelly—a self-described “private person”—has kept her stories of the band under wraps for decades. In Ryan White’s newly released documentary, also available on iTunes, she finally shares her tales. (Well, some of them.) A Beatles fan’s dream job Kelly’s firsthand observations about the Beatles and their inner circle make the film well worth watching. She tells stories [...]

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Pop Chart Lab Beatles Charts

By Michael Gerber|2013-09-06T19:22:48-07:00September 6, 2013|Beatle-inspired, Graphic Art|

Graphic swiped from Visual News. MIKE GERBER • "To render all of human experience into chart form”—is this a good idea? Unclear. Must we prepare for the ascension of our new, chart-toting overlords? Beyond the purview of this blog. All we can say for sure: Brooklyn-based graphic designers Pop Chart Lab have produced another in their series of incredibly beautiful, insanely detailed, not always so decipherable charts, this time about The Beatles. The Beatles Song Charts, Volumes I-III displays each member's contribution to each song, and is perfect for that Beatle-less space above your couch. Make any room your Beatle [...]

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The Fifth Beatle graphic novel

By Michael Gerber|2013-09-06T08:25:36-07:00September 5, 2013|books, Brian Epstein|

MIKE GERBER • In keeping with our recent spate of blather on Brian Epstein, I wanted to alert Greater Dullblogania about something that I am certainly getting for Christmas (with the Lewisohn book, it's looking mighty Beatle-y this Noel). It's a new graphic novel about Brian called "The Fifth Beatle." They've got a snazzy website, and a book trailer, which I'm pasting below.

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Tune In by Mark Lewisohn…

By Michael Gerber|2013-09-04T10:32:22-07:00September 4, 2013|biography, books|

This cover is what happens when a club flyer has sex with the phone book. ...is coming and I cannot wait! MIKE GERBER • According to this article, it's off the press in the UK. According to the author, if you think you've seen an advance copy, you haven't. There are lots of editions—US and UK, mass market (960pp) and Extended Special Mike Gerber Xmas Present Edition (1728pp). The Super-Duper Obsessive Edition, which is the only one we really will discuss on this site, obviously, is slated for November 14 in the UK, and February (maybe) in the US. Rather odd [...]

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About Michael Gerber