James Angleton, head of CIA Counterintelligence from 1954-1975. His opinion about The Beatles remains a mystery. Just a quick post, but a thought that I believe is important enough to surface up top. Recently some commenters have been using the Krays thread to explore conspiracy theories surrounding John Lennon's murder. This topic is, to me, more than fair game—it has been bubbling under the surface of Hey Dullblog for at least a decade, and I am perfectly happy to have commenters surmise, as long as it's done in an appropriately forensic manner. Adults speaking facts to other adults. What do [...]

Who's Who (not shown: The Who) Longtime readers of this blog know that I maintain it simply as an excuse to avoid grown-up work. And also, that I love Sgt. Pepper. It is my single desert island disc, as pedestrian as that choice is, because to me, Pepper contains so much more time than any other Beatles record. What do I mean? (When you have to type that sentence in an piece of prose, you know you're fucking the writing up.—Ed.) Well, one of the things that I love most about Pepper—almost as much as the music—is how it intentionally [...]

Reggie (left) and Ronnie Kray, photographed by David Bailey For those (mostly American?) readers who haven't run across Ronnie and Reggie Kray, they were a pair of murderous twin brother gangsters who ruled the London underworld in the 1960s. Probably the most notorious British criminals since Jack the Ripper (sorry, Crippen). Before settling down to serious lawbreaking, the Krays were amateur boxers run out of the Army for being too wild; Ronnie was gay (sorry: "I'm bisexual, not gay. Bisexual") and Reggie was straight. Ronnie was also paranoid schizophrenic, while Reggie was apparently neurotypical which is…kinda worse? So what do [...]

After Senator Bernie Sanders showed up at yesterday's inauguration looking a bit, shall we say, casual, the photo spawned a thousand memes, with the Progressive octogenarian popping up in every famous shot imaginable. Of course the Beatles were part of this, so Michael Bleicher and I assembled some of the best examples. Add more in the comments.  

I want to say right at the start that I've never really gotten the cult of Phil Spector. With all apologies to our beloved @Hologram Sam, rock and roll before The Beatles leaves me cold—and trust me, I've tried. All that Ronettes stuff sounds like a pompous, immature version of something Motown did so much better. I've also tried to like, or at least understand the appeal of, Phil Spector. I've read Tom Wolfe's 1964 essay "The First Tycoon of Teen" (not available online but worth a read).  I've pondered Spector's close friendship with Lenny Bruce—as described by Albert Goldman, among others. [...]

This morning the following video was dropped on Twitter, and it's been lighting up our comments, so here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UocEGvQ10OE So, basically, "A Hard Day's Night," circa 1969—which is what lots of Beatles fans wanted in 1970, and maybe even more want in 2020. It's really striking to see them doing the same kinds of cuts and capers they did in 1964, but with High Hippiedom swirling about them, and Yoko playing the role of Patti Boyd. Anybody who's ever cut together a film knows that the narrative is created by the editing; and Jackson's narrative is plainly meant to counterbalance [...]