John in "Nether-Nether Land"?
Commenter CMO#9 writes (slightly edited by me): I've been reading the latest issue of Vanity Fair and there is a profile of the late war correspondent Marie Colvin. The article mentions that growing up, Colvin idolized The New York Times war correspondent Gloria Emerson. That name should ring a bell for some of you and I have no doubt that you are familiar with her brief but polarizing entry into John's life, Michael. I believe it was either 1969 or 1970 when Ms. Emerson interviewed John (and Yoko) at Apple. She basically calls him a fool for him believing that his songs [...]
Rolling Stones open thread
I'm taking the occasion of The Rolling Stones' 50th anniversary to declare the first-ever Hey Dullblog open thread. Any thoughts/opinions/stories about The Stones are welcome in the comments, especially if they have some relation to Our Guys, no matter how tangential. This is an experiment; if everybody has fun, we'll do more open threads. I'll start it off with what I immediately thought of this morning, when NPR told me it was 50 years since The Stones' first gig: You know, they're congratulating the Stones on being together 112 years. Whoooopee! At least Charlie and Bill still got their families. In the [...]
Two takes on the Beatles
I collect cover versions of Beatles songs, because I'm fascinated by the variety of artists who have recorded them and the range of instrumentation and styles they employ. Many covers are just okay, some are outright bad, a few are great, and others are pretty well unclassifiable. The two covers I want to share with you today offer very different takes on elements of the Beatles' work that might be described as transcendent.One of the more improbable Beatles cover albums is Dutch musician Louis Van Dyke's pipe-organ-only Louis Van Dyke Plays Lennon-McCartney. I discovered this album through Dave Henderson's book The Beatles Uncovered (Black Book [...]
Beatle Photo Blog
Yee-up. In the course of trying to find the horrific Macca fan painting immortalized in "The Compleat Beatles" referenced by commenter J.R. Clark, I stumbled across this really neat blog specializing in photos of our Fabs. Enjoy, but browse at your own risk. You'll lose some time. Like, a day. Another Beatle photo blog I like is the memorably titled "Paul McCartney, Sex Gladiator."
All you need is paint
I saw this painting on Regretsy, the site that comments snarkily on products offered for sale on Etsy. Readers of Hey Dullblog, which Beatle comes off worst here? Best?[Note that this is an old listing -- you can't buy this painting, but you can read the Regretsy post about it.]
Underrating Sgt. Pepper’s
NANCY CARR • “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is now routinely underrated. I recently read Robert Rodriguez’ new book, Revolver: How the Beatles Reimagined Rock n’ Roll, and the introduction threw this underrating into sharp relief. I highly recommend Rodriguez’ book in all other ways—it's a fascinating look at Revolver’s creation, artistry, and context—but the introduction made me grind my teeth. The path Rodriguez treads in his introduction is now very well worn: people used to think Sgt. Pepper’s was the thing, but now we know Revolver is. Fair enough, to a point. Revolver is excellent, and preferring it to Sgt, Pepper’s is defensible. [...]
Piracy means no new Beatles?
[Update August 2013: I just found this elegant little video from a group trying to discourage music piracy. It's Beatles-authorized, and makes the point that "[l]oving The Beatles is a shared experience." And I'd add a sweet, life-affirming one, too. How many of those do we have anymore? That's why we do Dullblog.] http://youtu.be/K0_MeHq8o-o As an admitted collector of Beatle bootlegs, you might think that I have a free-and-easy attitude when it comes to downloading music. But I don't, and why I don't was expressed very nicely by Niall O'Conghaile over at Dangerous Minds: "I may be wrong, but I believe that [...]
Yes, we are perverse
Not only did we not do the seemingly obligatory "Paul is 70" post, we are going to share with you the following much less well-noted events: "Rishikesh George" made of felt (via Dangerous Minds)-- Rishikesh George by Felt Mistress --as well as the sad news of Victor Spinetti's death. I always feel a slight resentment towards the people of my childhood imagination when they die, but I am trying not to hold it against him. He was 82. Lord knows how old that makes me. Best not to think about it. I met Vic once (that's what people were calling [...]