Four years later, Led Zeppelin would make this hotel famous. The title is referring to a notorious groupie-related event in Led Zeppelin history, detailed here. Long dismissed as legend, it seems to have really happened in July 1969, and (could this possibly be?) everybody left the hotel room happy. Except, of course, for the poor shark. My last few posts have discussed the relationship of the Beatles' (and Lennon's) image versus the likely reality, and my desire for Beatle fandom to become more nuanced, sophisticated and—forgive the loaded word—adult in its relationship with these things. For us to stop giving [...]

"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

I’ve been on something of a Jazz Age kick recently, and you can’t be on one of those without running into my second-favorite American author of all time, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Somehow the thought occurred to me: F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Lennon have a lot in common. The original John and Yoko? Fitzgerald said that all his works were imprinted with what he called his “stamp”; he said this stamp was “taking things hard.” Specifically, Fitzgerald was referring to Ginerva King, a Chicago heiress and socialite whom Fitzgerald courted in his late teens and who rejected him for someone wealthier and [...]