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Beatles as Women
I think I went to high school with Ringolina. Immediately after running across this delightful bit of Photoshoppery, I knew I had to post the following “Shakespeare’s Sister” question: Would the Beatles happen today, if four women came together in a band that great? How would it happen? What would it look like? We know […]
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Beatles Songs In Latin
“Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And for the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry.” Rest assured, I didn’t translate these myself; I took Latin for five years and never quite got the hang of it. But I got a kick out of these. Classicists, add more in the […]
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Lennon and McCartney’s “lost reunion,” by David Gambacorta
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. […]
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Pictures of Beatles and Pot?
I had a funny little thought today: we know the Beatles smoked a progidious amount of marijuana. Even Paul McCartney, the Beatle most likely to get you home by eleven p.m., smoked so relentlessly that he was actually thrown in jail for smuggling. But I couldn’t recall a single photo of any Beatle with a […]
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McCartney Talks Carpool Karaoke
The Paul McCartney episode of Carpool Karaoke has been so wildly popular (about 130 million people have watched it on YouTube or Facebook, and it spawned an extended version as well) that it’s hard to imagine that the show almost didn’t happen. But it’s true. McCartney and Corden in the car. I saw McCartney play […]
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All Hail the Rutles!
I’ve mentioned this sublime Beatles parody band many times before on this blog, but if you love the Fabs there’s never a good time not to celebrate the Pre-Fabs: Ron, Dirk, Stig and Barry. This afternoon I quite randomly happened to listen to “Let’s Be Natural” and was struck, for the millionth time, what a […]
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Abbey Road, the Best Non-Beatles Album Made by the Beatles
To me, Abbey Road is one of the least-dated-sounding Beatles albums—possibly the least dated—but it also sounds the least like the Beatles. Oh, there are Beatles playing on it, I’ll grant you that. The generally impeccable songwriting—that melding of optimism, expression, rawness, craft, and pure joy—could only have come from three particular songwriters. And that’s […]
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Happy Birthday Paul McCartney, Friend of the Jews
In honor of Macca’s 77th, The Forward posted this little squib detailing Paul McCartney’s various Jewish spouses, friends, business associates, et cetera. (This from Heeb aside, there is no evidence that McCartney has converted—though of course all his children would be considered Jewish under Hebraic law, because Linda was Jewish.)With all the Jews in and […]
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Paul McCartney Makes Mashed Potatoes
This man loved his wife. (I’m guessing he was promoting her cookbook.) Adding this after I posted it: GodDAMN but Paul McCartney is charming. I don’t care if it’s all just a big hustle, I just love the guy. Let us take a moment to, once again, be thankful for the brilliant stroke of luck […]
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Critic Amanda Marcotte: Sgt. Pepper’s made rock “music for men”
Yeah, no surprise that the 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper’s has everybody out there opining. But I find Amanda Marcotte’s take in Salon worth calling out, if only to say that as someone who considers herself a feminist I’m thoroughly tired of this kind of facile, oversimplified finger-pointing. Her claim that Sgt. Pepper‘s “was the point when rock stopped being the music of girls and started […]