Publisher at The American Bystander
is Blogmom of Hey Dullblog. His novels and parodies have sold 1.25 million copies in 25 languages. He lives in Santa Monica, CA, and runs The American Bystander all-star print humor magazine.
Latest posts by Michael Gerber (see all)
- The Beatles and “Scenius” - October 2, 2026
- Little Help From Our Friends? - September 2, 2026
- A quick yawp from Mr. History - August 24, 2026
I look at this train, and I see it needs sweeping
Before I do that, I want to go through every post and make sure all the links work, there’s no spam inserted into posts, and so forth. If YouTube videos have been taken down, I’d like to link to alternatives.
With about 900 posts, this is going to be a massive job. Most of our posts are up-to-date, but every time I look, I find more to do. So I just had a thought: would a handful of you like to help?
Get in touch.
Related posts:
Michael Caine Impressions
“Poor old Buddy”
The Beatles and the Dalai Lama
Shepard Fairey George Harrison Poster
Starostin reviews “Abbey Road”
Ian Leslie: “Notes on Peter Jackson’s Get Back”
Order Failed
Toppermost of the Toppermost?
Beatles at the BBC, Volume 2: clearly enjoyable
Lennon Murder Conspiracy Open Thread
Emailing you about this Mike.
Really helpful, @Justin!
I would be very pleased, within the limits of exceedingly limited skills, to lend a hand in any way that would be of benefit.
A little off track, but do any of the readers here have an idea if Paul McCartney, in the Get Back film, had an idea that a microphone had been placed in the cafeteria by Michael Lindsay-Whole-Hogg?
For some reason this just crossed my mind as I was walking the other day and it struck me as being a bit contrived so I went back and listened to a few minutes of that section.
Sure, placing a mic is contrived, but how did Hogg know that the group would sit at exactly that table? Did they always sit right there? Was it always reserved just for them?
I know that is getting pretty far in the weeds, but something just seems off.
And then what in the blazes is that comment “What are WE going to do about George?” I had missed that before.
Anyway, for musicians who were geniuses with lyrics, that cafeteria chin wag was painful. I have heard 4th graders voice their thoughts in a more structured and cogent manner. I understand that no one speaks like Jacob Rees Mogg 24/7, but still…
Somehow Hogg knew that the principals were going to repair to the cafeteria and that they were going to to discuss (a stretch) band business. How did he know this or am I just letting a random BB bounce around my head?
No one knew about the hidden mike except Hogg & crew. The table was reserved for the Beatles & co.
BTW, Jackson takes some seriously misguided artistic license IMO. He tries to make viewers believe that it was only John and Paul there, and he changes some of the conversation timeline around.
But there were many people at the table, including Ringo, Linda and Yoko. There is much more to the conversation in the Nagra tapes, but it is still fairly incomprehensible.
Thanks Paul.
You can get the details @ They May Be Parted
@ Michael, Anything new on the substack idea?
This looks interesting:
The Rubber Soul: New Special Edition by The Beatles is officially released on October 2, 2026. This expanded release brings fresh audio mixes and rare archival material to fans worldwide
I was surprised to hear this Lennon demo from Rubber Soul. “Little Girl” never made it to the finished album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNA1-t3qras
It’s a nice song, but so Lennony that it’s almost embarrassing to listen to.
Honestly, if someone said this might be fake, I would believe them. It does not quite sound like John to me, especially around the Rubber Soul period.
There was a post Beatles time when John would have killed Paul for writing something like this. No wonder it didn’t make the final cut, it is embarrassing.