"Hmm...I did not know that" Reader @Maya writes in to ask: "Hi, Michael. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the cancelation of Peter Doggett’s book on Lennon’s Dakota Days, Prisoner of Love: Inside the Dakota with John Lennon that was meant to be released April of last year. It would have been so great to have a book on Lennon’s life in the late 70s that wasn’t marred by accusations of total unreliability, so I was very disappointed to see that it had been not just delayed, but completely canceled. It has started to legitimately frustrate me. If it [...]

Right next to today's news of the Queen Elizabeth II's passing, there appeared in my Twitter feed this photo of John in 1967, dressed in togs from "I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet" or some such. Which made me think: what would've happened if, through some terrible mix-up or unforgivable governmental chicanery, John Lennon had been crowed King of England in 1967? I'll start you off… Compulsory LSD to all UK schoolchildren National Anthem now "A Whiter Shade of Pale" All governmental vehicles, phone booths and postboxes painted by "The Fool" "Alex Mardas is running the nuclear programme, and anybody who squawks is [...]

[Folks, this post may be a little rough because I'm having real trouble typing into the WordPress backend. Forgive any typos, etc.—MG] Elvis the Pelvis comin' at ya I’ve never seen Elvis’ breakthrough 1957 movie, Jailhouse Rock, because truth be told, I'm not the world's biggest Elvis fan.  But I decided to watch it, specifically with an eye towards comparing it to A Hard Day’s Night just seven years later. We talk a lot about masculinity here on Dullblog, and The Beatles’ relationship to older models of manhood. The first thing that struck me about Jailhouse Rock was the inciting [...]

O frabjous day! Variety reports that Revolver will be the next Beatles album to get the Deluxe treatment, with the box set likely to appear this fall. Which means that by December 26th at the latest, it will be nestling cozily next to my box set of Sgt. Pepper. Yeah, I have that much confidence in Santa. He never lets me down, when it comes to the Beatles. Highlights of the set will include: A handwritten description by Paul McCartney of each of the seven levels A photograph of the condom used to record "Yellow Submarine" (Lewisohn denies it was ribbed, but [...]

Folks, a longtime HD commenter pointed me to some recent Beatle-related musings on their Substack, which I liked enough to repost here. Enjoy. —MG BY WABI SABI • My favourite music reviewer, George Starostin, has been writing about the Beatles for a long time. On his old site, he takes on both the naivety of the Beatles superfan who thinks the band did everything first, and the pedantic factchecking of the rock snob who points out there’s very little the foursome are credited with that hadn’t been introduced to the scene a couple of months earlier by someone less celebrated. (Not that I [...]

Folks, in the midst of scrubbing the pot/CBD-links from our posts, I came across some posts by Karen Hooper, who used to post here. I always found Karen's contributions interesting and valuable, and I would encourage you to browse them. In subsequent years, it seems that Karen's gone on to co-admin Erin Torkelson Weber's fascinating site; and I see they did some podcasting together here. I haven't delved into any of that work, but I suspect if you do, you will find it very worthwhile.

Whenever our commenters start griping about the perception of John Lennon as the leader of the Beatles, I always think of this poem, written by Allen Ginsberg in 1965. It's a good poem...and it also speaks to how people perceived the group in 1965. Reversed to give emphasis, Ginsberg's perception of the members' relative power was just as they were endlessly advertised: John, Paul, George and Ringo. ""Portland Coliseum"by Allen GinsbergA brown piano in diamondwhite spotlightLeviathan auditoriumiron run wiredhanging organs, voxblack batteryA single whistling sound of ten thousand children'slarynxes asingingpierce the earsand following up the bellybliss the moment arrivedApparition, four brown Englishjacket christhair [...]

Frequent commenter @meaigs recently expressed some thoughts about sexual politics and public perception of Paul McCartney, which I asked her to expand into a post. I hope you find her insights as interesting as I did; for me, some things snapped into place that had never made much sense.—MG Paul, facing the Press about LSD, 1967 P aul McCartney is a man who gets treated as though he were a woman, and that is weird and bad. Not because being a woman is bad, but because women get treated badly. Before watching Peter Jackson’s Get Back I was a casual [...]

Folks, this is part 2 of Faith Current's unique, challenging interpretation of The Beatles mid-60s masterpieces. If you haven’t read part 1, do so now. You'll get more out of this post. Enjoy!—MG  Ringo, John, Paul and George looking with the eyes of love, 1967. BY FAITH CURRENT—By December of ‘66, the Great Global Revolver Freak-Out is over. The Beatles have freed themselves from the restraints of touring, but they’re still confined--this time in the studio and this time, voluntarily. They have unfinished business with us. They’re busy remaking Revolver. I don't mean track for track, although there are concordances. [...]