"This Halloween, go as one of the biggest bastards on Earth!" Folks, just a quick post here but one I think is worth making. In the comments to my 80th birthday post for John Lennon, we're talking about John's bad behavior (specifically his abuse of women--and men, too, though that is mentioned less). It's come up several times, and indeed the original post mentions that younger fans don't connect with John because they think he was a hypocritical asshole. Can't argue with that; "All You Need Is Love" does sound different coming out of the mouth of a "hitter." But [...]

Lennon, no saint, mid-miracle. I haven't been thinking a lot about The Beatles or John Lennon lately, which is why you haven't seen me around here. But today being John Lennon's 80th birthday, I was awakened with this article from Esquire.com in my Twitter feed: "The Difficulty of Remembering John Lennon Today," by Alan Light. "Why does John Lennon, for decades one of the world’s most beloved figures," Light writes, "seem to be coming under increased scrutiny, and getting a more critical look, from younger generations?" The article makes some interesting observations and you'll enjoy it, but the answer is [...]

Being immortalized in wax is a particularly harsh price of fame, don't you think? Even the dummies reproduced on the cover of Sgt. Pepper (surely the best of a bad lot) seem to have at best a distant relationship to their human counterparts. But this one, provided by friend and fellow Beatlefan Stephen Kroninger, takes the cake. If you have better (or worse), put 'em in the comments. This dubious quartet resided in Louis Tussaud's House of Wax in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, famed throughout Britain as the world's worst wax museum. It was closed in 2013; Jean, Paol, Jorge, and Ringoo—along with [...]

My Dear Dullblogisti, Yesterday I wrote a post about Yoko Ono's relationship to The Beatles, and how strange it seems to me—not only her needless antipathy, but also John Lennon's—and how their marriage seemed to be founded on a mutual dismissal of/antagonism towards the idea of The Beatles. I mentioned how this puts any Beatles fan in a weird, yet seldom examined position of mentally defending the group against its founder and arguable leader. And because that's the way it happened, no one comments on how bizarre it is. I pulled the post down for two reasons—first, it felt like something I'd [...]

Knowing the internet, SEO alone will probably make this the most popular post in the history of Dullblog (hello Were John and Paul Lovers). But my thoughts are philosophical, not evidentiary. Spare your revulsion for a moment while I share some thoughts which may explain a lot of what I've written on this blog since 2010. Fact: there is a level of fame, wealth, and power that dehumanizes you, and makes you dehumanize others. This, in our current cultural moment, is epitomized by Jeffrey Epstein and his little black book. I think the Beatles experienced this level of fame/wealth/power, as did the [...]

Singer-songwriter Emitt Rhodes, the ill-starred talent once called "The One-Man Beatles" (also the title of a 2009 documentary, pasted below), has died. The New York Times obituary is here. I wrote about him previously on Dullblog, and those thoughts revisited me today. Nothing more to say but: good luck to you, Emitt, and thanks for the music. https://vimeo.com/266426996

Read this in a comment this morning: "I am 59 years old, and a brand new Beatles fan as of two months ago, so basically a blank slate with no preconceived thoughts on the band." Which got me to thinking, what sources would I recommend to a person who was new to The Beatles? Of course I'd start with the music. I'd probably recommend the mono box set, but I actually think which version is a bit less important than going chronologically, spending a little time with each album in order. As you enjoy yourself and get to know the song canon, [...]

And so we say goodbye to one of my favorite parts of the Beatle story, the complex and talented Astrid Kirchherr. Though their influence is impossible to quantify, Astrid, Klaus and the "Exis" are foundational to what John, Paul, George and Ringo became. It was in Hamburg that the Fabs transformed from a group of English teenagers playing sloppy covers of American R&B tunes into a artistic unit with a coherent aesthetic that would take over the world. The Beatles are so BIG a cultural phenomenon that it can be difficult to see the artistic outlines of other people in their orbit. [...]

This morning while listening to "Fame," the David Bowie song guest-starring our pal John Lennon, I realized something. At a certain point, John ad-libs "What's your name?" Why does he do that? Because, when you're famous and someone comes up to you for an autograph, you ask… "What's your name?"

Stumbled across this via a comment thread on BoingBoing.net, and it was too good not to share. By the way, you'll like the BoingBoing post as well. https://youtu.be/xaDsbnhK2CQ