The connections
What does Magical Mystery Tour have to do with Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange? Read on...
Counterpoint on Magical Mystery Tour
For everyone who loves "Magical Mystery Tour" (the film) or has come to appreciate it over the years, there's someone who still hates it -- Jim DeRogatis, a Chicago critic who broadcasts on NPR's WBEZ, is a case in point. If you're interested in reading his vilification of the movie (and a lot of the album), you can do so here: http://www.wbez.org/blogs/jim-derogatis/2013-01/revisiting-one-beatles’-worst-mistakes-104650Here's the executive summary: "Nearly half a century on, the fascinating thing about "Magical Mystery Tour" the film is the rare glimpse it offers into one of the best rock bands of all time at its unaldulterated worst. And make no mistake: [...]
Marvelous mystery tour
Some nice Beatles references in Jonathan Lethem's "My Marvel Years," about Jack Kirby (and Lethem-as-comics-reader), over at the London Review of Books: Nevertheless, if you (I mean, I) accept my premise that the mid-to-late 1960s Fantastic Four were the exemplary specimens as I'm explaining what's out there, the Revolver and Rubber Soul and White Album of comics, and if you further grant that pulling against the tide of all of Kirby’s inhuman galactacism, that whole army of aliens and gods, was one single character, our squeaky little Sue, then I wonder: Invisible Girl, the most important superhero of the Silver Age of comics?
Vinyl remasters: To buy or not to buy?
Three years after the CD remasters, we now have the vinyl remasters of the Beatles catalog. (Mono vinyl remasters to follow). The question is, are the remasters worth buying, if you already have Beatles vinyl in good condition?The decision is more complicated than it was for the CD remasters, because the Beatles CDs from the 1980s were fair to horrible-sounding. But the original Beatles vinyl versions still sound great if they've been well cared for.If you're trying to make up your mind, you'll be interested in the following Chicago Tribune piece, in which a panel compares the sound of old, new, and [...]
A cover that tops the original
I love this version of "My Brave Face," by SR-71, and think it's better than McCartney's original (which appeared on "Flowers in the Dirt.") SR-71's version is on "Listen to What the Man Said," a great 2001 compilation of McCartney covers.
I’m Fonda this book!
Just in case founding Dullblogger Devin doesn't trumpet the news...His new book, The Man Who Saw a Ghost: The Life and Work of Henry Fonda, is out today! [Ed.'s note: this post was meant to appear on Tuesday.] A must for anyone interested in Fonda, Hollywood, acting, and (above all) Dev's jaw-droppingly smart and stylish writing, some of which has been on display here on Hey Dullblog...(Of course, you've all read his first book, Magic Circles: The Beatles in Dream and History, haven't you? Look on the left for the link!) Some more praise for TMWSAG:"Henry Fonda may have been the strangest, most compelling [...]
Buckley on hating the Beatles
NANCY CARR * William F. Buckley really hated the Beatles’ music. I’d known this in a general way, but hadn’t read his diatribes against them before encountering them in The Beatles Book, a 1968 anthology of critical writing about the band edited by Edward E. Davis. (Finding books like this makes me feel justified in spending what is probably way too much time in used bookstores.) Buckley’s 1964 National Review article on the Beatles was entitled “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, They Stink.” He piles on the adjectives in an effort to convey his absolute loathing of their sound: “Let me say it, as evidence [...]
The AV Club lists 18 anti-Beatles songs. (Readers of my other blog might recall a post about Sissy Spacek's song contra Two Virgins, included on this AV Club list.)Has anyone heard of this one? 4. The Exterminators, “Beetle-Bomb”The mysterious, little-known, mostly instrumental group The Exterminators specialized in the kind of R&B-slanted dance numbers that were huge in the mid-’60s. An inordinate number of those songs bore ostensibly anti-Beatles titles, including “Beatle Wig Party,” “Beatle Stomp,” and “Stomp ’Em Out”—which was perhaps only natural, considering the band’s name. With “The Beetle-Bomb,” however, The Exterminators got a little more personal. Parodying “She Loves You” [...]
Anti-Beatle Songs
The AV Club lists 18 anti-Beatles songs. (Readers of my other blog might recall a post about Sissy Spacek's song contra Two Virgins, included on this AV Club list.) Has anyone heard of this one? 4. The Exterminators, “Beetle-Bomb”The mysterious, little-known, mostly instrumental group The Exterminators specialized in the kind of R&B-slanted dance numbers that were huge in the mid-’60s. An inordinate number of those songs bore ostensibly anti-Beatles titles, including “Beatle Wig Party,” “Beatle Stomp,” and “Stomp ’Em Out”—which was perhaps only natural, considering the band’s name. With “The Beetle-Bomb,” however, The Exterminators got a little more personal. Parodying “She Loves [...]