All You Need Is Love–And To VOTE!

By |2020-11-03T07:57:41-08:00November 3, 2020|Beatle History, Beatle-inspired, Politics, Uncategorized|

Please, if you're legally able to do so in the United States, get out and vote today. If you have an absentee or mail ballot, drop it off at an authorized collection place (preferably one that is attended by an actual person), and track the status of your ballot online. I believe that most of us who contribute to or read this blog are drawn to the Beatles at least in part because their music offers us a measure of hope and encouragement. They wrote plenty of songs about sadness, and even despair. They  didn't shy away from the complexity of reality, [...]

Global Beatles Day 2020

By |2020-06-24T07:30:04-07:00June 24, 2020|1967, Beatle History, Beatles on the Web, Psychedelia, Television|

Tomorrow–June 25–is Global Beatles Day. Begun in 2009, this is a day "honoring and celebrating the phenomenon and ideals of the Beatles,  collectively and individually, for their gifts to the world including their promotion of peace and love, of truth and youth, and of the expansion of human consciousness." This specific day was chosen because it's the anniversary of the Beatles' performing "All You Need Is Love" live on the BBC program Our World, in 1967, using the first live satellite TV link. If we ever needed a time to promote peace, love, truth, youth, and the expansion of human consciousness, I'd [...]

RIP Little Richard, Unique Trailblazer

By |2020-09-10T11:02:03-07:00May 11, 2020|1960s, Beatle History, Obituaries, Other bands, Paul McCartney|

  Richard Penniman, whose music and performance stylings reshaped rock 'n' roll, died on Saturday at the age of 87. His full-throated, emotion-packed singing, piano playing, and songwriting had a profound influence on the Beatles, as well as on a wide range of other musicians and performers through the decades. I wrote about seeing Paul McCartney perform "Long Tall Sally" at Candlestick Park back in 2014, and that performance was such a strong reminder of the many, many influences that go into creating a musical moment. There are a multitude of reasons to celebrate Little Richard's legacy; his impact on the Beatles [...]

Eight Days A Week: 5 Great Things About Ron Howard’s Documentary

By |2022-08-25T17:28:11-07:00September 26, 2016|1963, 1964, 1965, Beatle History, Beatlemania, concert, Live, Movies, Uncategorized|

Getting ready to perform, during the suit-and-tie era. Ron Howard's Eight Days A Week documentary of the Beatles' touring years is excellent. Not perfect, not a definitive look at the totality of the Beatles' career, but very good at doing what it sets out to do. Howard does shy away from the unseemly elements of the Beatles' life on the road, most obviously the rampant sex. And he doesn't delve into the disenchantment that Lennon and Harrison later expressed about the experience of being Beatles. But Howard is aiming to show us what being on public display felt like for [...]

The Jets and The Beatles

By |2016-04-25T14:44:45-07:00April 25, 2016|1962, Beatle History|

Rick Richards, far right, with the Jets. Tony Sheridan is beside him. Sometimes the musings of artists about the Beatles who knew them in the early days are pretty amusing.  Take, for example, Rick Richards' memories of The Beatles while they were performing together at Der Kaiserkeller: ...[Bruno] Koschmider engaged the Beatles through Alan Williams to play at another club he owned called the 'Indra'. The Indra although in the same street as the Kaiserkeller (the Grosse Freiheit) was someway away from it where the main crowd never seemed to reach, and consequently didn't get the custom it should have. We [...]

Comments Off on The Jets and The Beatles

Biography vs History: Expectations and Assumptions about Beatle Narratives

By |2016-03-11T15:29:15-08:00March 11, 2016|Beatle History, biography, books|

Over at the Tumblr fandom categories post, an interesting and lively discussion is taking place about Beatle biographies, and our expectations of and assumptions about authorial intent and accuracy.  I thought the topic warranted a closer look. Are journalists and biographers simply writers "who are paid to tell a story that sells", as Mike Gerber contends, or should they be held to a higher standard because their work, as Ruth contends, is presented and consumed as history?  Should biographers be held to the same journalistic standards of factual reporting which govern the Fourth Estate? Here are some basic elements: Reporters are expected [...]

Go to Top