1974 Archives - Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

How “Lost” Was My Weekend?

By Michael Gerber|2019-08-07T00:42:48-07:00July 30, 2019|1974|

Lennon and friends, up to no good. Especially that woman up front there, she seems like TROUBLE. :-) Frequent commenter @Hologram Sam provided this comment in one of our earlier threads. I commented, but as is usual these days had enough to say that I'm making a post out of it. Pop over and read it. I'll wait. I feel obliged to point out that May Pang's alleged statement tracks neatly with The Lives of John Lennon: John and Yoko as more a business entity than a couple, fulfilling their sexual/emotional needs elsewhere; May and Julian written out of the history; and [...]

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Lennon and McCartney’s “lost reunion,” by David Gambacorta

By Nancy Carr|2019-06-25T11:11:23-07:00June 25, 2019|1974, Beatles in LA, bootlegs, Breakup, Chris Carter/Breakfast With the Beatles, Harry NIlsson, John and Paul, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Uncategorized, Unreleased/Outtakes|

Posted at the excellent aggregator and original writing site Longreads is David Gambacorta's exploration of the 1974 California jam session John Lennon and Paul McCartney engaged in -- the last time they would play together. Most Beatles fans will be familiar with the history Gambacorta recounts, but it's nice to see it laid out succinctly. Gambacorta does turn up a few facts that were, at least, new to me: for example, it's not clear what happened to the master tapes made that night. And the piece is well worth reading for the recent comments Gambacorta got from several people, including Elliot Mintz, [...]

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“Nobody Loves You When You’re Down and Out” acoustic demo

By Michael Gerber|2019-05-10T11:20:06-07:00May 10, 2019|1974|

With a few exceptions, demos are genial curiosities, adding context but little else to the standard version. You don't hear the song any different after. This one is an exception. Like a lot of folks, I've always found this song from Walls and Bridges particularly haunting, given where John Lennon was in his life (and vis a vis the music business); but this version really got me—the break at 3:36 is just amazing. Go listen. (h/t to Stephen Kroninger) (Stray thought: it might be fun to compile a list of truly essential demos, ones like “I'm Looking Through You." Put 'em in [...]

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Dark Horse demo

By Michael Gerber|2016-01-31T11:44:53-08:00January 31, 2016|1974, George Harrison|

Dig those boots. Commenter @Linda S. sent me this lovely video of George Harrison singing a Dark Horse demo. Just the thing on this rainy SoCal Sunday. (BTW, I was interested to learn -- via Wikipedia (so...y'know) -- that "[a] number of music critics rate Dark Horse as one of Harrison's finest post-Beatles compositions and believe that the single would have achieved greater success with a cleaner vocal performance." https://youtu.be/mLR8_e7Gc_M

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A slight present, on John Lennon’s 75th birthday: Interview self-interview, 1974

By Michael Gerber|2015-10-09T13:12:32-07:00October 9, 2015|1974|

Sun's out, guns out, eh John? There's something interesting making the rounds during this, John Lennon's 75th Birthday Week -- and by "making the rounds," I mean that commenter Karen and Kim from JohnHeartPaul contacted me about it within 48 hours of each other. Who am I to resist the Collective Unconscious? So here's a self-interview typed out by the late great Johnny Ace, conducted in 1974 for Andy Warhol's Interview. (Getting celebrities to interview themselves, and even type it up for you? Now that's capitalist thinking.) It's a prime cut of Walls and Bridges-era Lennon -- which, if I [...]

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Whatever Gets You thru the Night…

By Michael Gerber|2014-12-07T23:00:07-08:00December 7, 2014|1974, John Lennon|

Recently we've been discussing the gargantuan "Time Lapse Photography" comment thread, which discusses Beatle sexuality, and specifically the erotic tension between John and Paul. It's clear that some existed; whether or not it was acted upon is a matter of endless fan speculation (hello Johnheartpaul! Thanks for the traffic!) but ultimately between those two men alone. This morning, while listening to Chris Carter's wonderful radio show "Breakfast With the Beatles," I had an interesting thought: perhaps the 1974 hit "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" is Lennon talking to himself about his (possible) bisexuality? Now obviously: this is total speculation, and shouldn't [...]

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These happy days are yours and—?!

By Devin McKinney|2014-07-23T11:56:35-07:00July 12, 2013|1970s, 1974, John Lennon, Ron Howard, Television|

DEVIN McKINNEY • This comes by way of Tom Sutpen's If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats, which I've more than once called "the best blogsite there's ever been, ever." It appears under the heading "When Legends Gather." (For the irredeemably trivia-minded, I'm pretty sure that's Jerry Paris with half of his face cut off at the right side. He was Rob and Laura's neighbor on The Dick Van Dyke Show, plus he directed 200 eps of Happy Days.)

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Before "Toot and a Snore"

By Michael Gerber|2014-12-30T20:12:54-08:00February 4, 2013|1974, bootlegs, John and Paul|

The act you've known for all these years, in Santa Monica, 1974. Here are some photos from Retronaut.com — the last photo of John and Paul — taken at Peter Lawford's old beach house here in Santa Monica. Whenever I want to bask in some ghosts (Marilyn and Jack! Marilyn and Bobby! Nilsson and Baron Von Moon!) I bike down six blocks; the house is right on the PCH. It's surprisingly small; glamour required less square-footage back in those days. Anyway, according to Retronaut, these were taken in March 1974, at the time of the infamous "A Toot And a Snore" [...]

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