Beatle-inspired Archives - Page 5 of 9 - Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Liv Warfield got “Blackbird” wrong: Ten covers that get it right

By Nancy Carr|2014-12-30T21:34:48-08:00April 7, 2014|1968, 21st century references, Beatle-inspired, Covers|

Liv Warfield NANCY CARR * Last Friday Liv Warfield, best known for her stint in Prince's New Power Generation, performed her new song "Blackbird" on The Late Show With David Letterman, declaring "Paul McCartney got it wrong / I ain't never want no song / I ain't special, I ain't strong / Black . . . bird." It's not clear to me why Warfield, who was born in 1979, is so angry about a pro- Civil Rights song released in 1968 -- especially when the song is pitched in such a universal key that it can apply to any person or [...]

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The Fab Files, Pt. 2: Beatle Traces in the Mid-Atlantic Conference

By Devin McKinney|2014-04-05T06:25:09-07:00April 5, 2014|1969, alternate history, Beatle-inspired, Beatles fiction, comedy, Fab Files, Paul Is Dead (PID), Paul McCartney|

“We’ve never seen the body.But we know he’s there.” DEVIN McKINNEY • Having written about the McCartney death rumor in Magic Circles, I knew that campus papers in the Middle West and Near East were the seedbed of the whole thing. For several weeks in the autumn of 1969, student editors, reviewers, lit majors, and budding gag-writers scrambled to co-opt, rip off, outdo, or otherwise find their place on the bandwagon begun by University of Michigan student Fred LaBour’s seminal satire-dissertation, “McCartney Dead? New Evidence Brought to Light,” printed in the Michigan Daily of October 14. Lately I’ve been researching [...]

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Admiral “Recovers” The Beatles; or, A Genre Waiting to Be Named

By Devin McKinney|2014-12-30T21:31:46-08:00April 3, 2014|alternate history, Covers|

DEVIN McKINNEY • You have your cover versions of Beatles songs, and then you have your “recovers”—songs rendered as The Beatles would have done them, had they done them completely differently, or, in some cases, at all. One of the earliest and best entries in this imaginative and as-yet unnamed subgenre was It’s Four You (1994), by Australian soundalikes The Beatnix, which recovered, in authentic Beatlesque, Lennon-McCartney songs written for others. Apple Jam’s 2012 EP On the Wings of a Nightingale likewise restyled three songs by solo Beatles in various Beatles and post-Beatles styles. (AJ’s previous album, 2009’s Off the Beatle Track, [...]

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Beatles solo albums sell slowly: or, no escape from the Fab Four

By Nancy Carr|2022-04-11T09:43:45-07:00March 24, 2014|Beatle-inspired, Breakup, solo|

NANCY CARR * The Beatles broke up over 40 years ago, but in the public’s mind they could never really stop being Beatles. The desperate efforts of all the band’s members (well, except Ringo) in the 1970s to escape its gravitational pull were doomed. If you want to see this reality in action today, check out the displays in a nearby record store—assuming you're near one that's survived. There's a good chance that everything Beatles related will be shelved together. One of my favorite local shops, Oak Park Records, is owned by Alan Heffelfinger, who's particularly knowledgeable about music (he worked for [...]

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Merch, Mind Games, and the Serious Proximity Buzz

By Michael Gerber|2021-12-09T03:57:18-08:00March 11, 2014|anniversaries, Beatle-inspired, Beatles tributes, Guest blogger|

JAMIE BRYAN • “It’s the center of the earth,” Lennon said famously. And so inevitably Beatlemania returned to New York, bringing 60s-era good vibes not only to the cavernous convention spaces of Manhattan’s Grand Hyatt, but even to its sterile, airport-style lobby bar. Where the locals were gleefully engaging in a quaint little custom they picked up from Peter Minuit, the fleecing of the rubes. The "OB-LA-DI OB-LA-OLIVES" were $6. The chef's selection of artisan charcuterie and local cheeses ("MAXWELLS SILVER PLATTER") was $16. A buck less got you either the "MAGICAL MYSTERY HUMMUS" or the "FREE AS A BIRD WINGS". All branding [...]

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Jimmy Webb on Harry Nilsson

By Michael Gerber|2015-01-13T17:26:08-08:00January 25, 2014|Beatle-inspired|

Everything's OK with Harry N. Trolling the internet in the wake of another viewing of "Who In The World Is Harry Nilsson?" I ran across this interview with the legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb on Harry Nilsson. Nilsson fans are well-nigh enjoined to read it. Here's a nice meaty quote for you: [Harry] was proud of that [the famous screaming contest with John Lennon]. There was a lot of testosterone floating through the air, and John, in a way... Well, there are a lot of Lennon fans out there, God forbid I should say anything about John, but he kind of [...]

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The Beatle Brothers at Fitzgerald’s: four hours of passion

By Nancy Carr|2013-12-21T16:29:22-08:00December 21, 2013|Beatle-inspired, Beatles tributes, concert, Covers|

Great mural outside, great music inside NANCY CARR * Last night I saw the Beatle Brothers at Fitzgerald's in Berwyn, IL, giving the crowd the ultimate Christmas gift for Beatles fans—four hours of covers played with expertise and passion, featuring the best Lennon and McCartney vocals I've heard outside the real thing. Far more than any dress-up-like-the-Beatles-band, Phil Angotti and Jay Goepnner, along with their stellar crew of backing players, put across the emotional intensity of the music. Their spontaneity and obvious love for the music they're performing made last night's show fly past, though they started playing a little after 9:00 [...]

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Phil Rickman’s “December”: Wrestling with Lennon’s ghost

By Nancy Carr|2013-12-07T07:50:41-08:00December 7, 2013|1980, Beatle-inspired, Beatles fiction, books, Double Fantasy, John Lennon, Reviews, Uncategorized|

It's hard to write Beatles-related fiction without backing yourself into a corner NANCY CARR * What Beatles fan who was alive in 1980 hasn't wished he or she could have done something to prevent Lennon's murder? And what thoughtful Lennon fan hasn't been troubled by the contradictions manifested in Lennon's personality and life? Those questions drive Phil Rickman's 1996 novel December, a worthy read for this time of year despite its flaws. The book's action starts on December 8, 1980, not at the Dakota in New York City, but at a decrepit abbey in the Welsh countryside where a band fraying [...]

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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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World Party: What The Beatles Might Have Sounded Like Had They Been Just One Guy (Who Grew Up Listening to The Beatles)

By Devin McKinney|2013-09-13T15:22:54-07:00September 13, 2013|Beatle-inspired, Beatles tributes, concert, Covers|

Karl Wallinger c. 1991, Lennoning. DEVIN McKINNEY • Last week, my wife and I had the pleasure of seeing World Party perform at City Winery in Manhattan. World Party is Karl Wallinger, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has been making music on and off since the late ‘70s, first with The Waterboys and then on his own. For the last few years he’s been performing in America and England, usually accompanied by fiddler-mandolinist Dave Duffy and guitarist John Turnbull. He’s one of my favorite musicians ever, not just Beatles-influenced but Beatles-besotted, and I really don’t know why it’s taken me so [...]

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