Why We Still Love The Beatles?
"You love us because you are anxious." The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik has a theory, and apparently it's something like, "modern life makes people anxious, and in their anxiety they cling to certain things, and discard other things." Which is not really an answer -- why the Beatles and not, say, Queen? -- but the real reason makes for bad [...]
The Beatles on Spotify
"We make it up in volume." Finally! A band that can live on 0.006 per song! As you might have heard, the Beatles' catalog became available for streaming on December 24th, and users took to it with a will, streaming 70 million Beatles songs in the first three days. Commenter @Hologram Sam posted the following lists of the ten most [...]
Dullblog’s Top Posts of 2015
The Fabs look very strange on this, right? George looks like Brian Jones As everybody is still busily digesting their Beatle-related gifts (how many of you got "1+"? Anything else to review?), I will confine myself to a quick check-in/roundup. I'm happy to report that 2015 was a banner year for Hey Dullblog. Traffic was up over 43% from 2014. [...]
John Lennon: Witness for the (Marijuana) Defense
"Yoko, smell this flower! It's like I've never even smelled flowers before!" In 1969, Gerald Le Dain, a Canadian lawyer and Supreme Court Justice, headed a government commission on the “non-medical” use of cannabis and other drugs, with the ultimate aim to develop pertinent social policy. This commission, which ran from 1969 to 1972, was known as the LeDain Commission [...]
I Only Have Eyes For You (A Lennon Collage)
I found this photo in my archives and wanted to share it for those Dullbloggers who may not have seen it. It’s a photo collage John made for Paul, which Paul subsequently copied to Julian, who in turn added it to his Beatles’ Memorabilia book. (If you want the exact circumstances, I think Julian describes them there.) Any comments out there as [...]
Beatles Ashram is Now Open!
By law, this photo must accompany any article regarding the Beatles in India. It's always sorta been open to the public -- if you wanted to give a local five rupees and sneak over the wall -- but now the Indian government has made the Maharishi's old compound in Rishikesh a tourist attraction. In 1968, the Fab Four wrote most [...]
My Yoko Problem… and yours?
"Me and Yoko and a backing group…" In the thread regarding Ruth's excellent review, longtime Dullpal @Sir Huddleston Fuddleston wrote this: "I guess what I’m saying is, whatever the problem, it’s Yoko’s fault. A failed 'concept artist' took the most successful popular musician in history, by a long way, and made him think his work was shit. By comparison, it’s [...]
Allen Klein biography review by Ruth
No, no, he was really a nice guy, says the authorized biography Frequent commenter and house historian Ruth has sent in her review of Allen Klein: The Man Who Bailed Out The Beatles, Made the Rolling Stones, and Transformed Rock & Roll. Written with Ruth's trademark incisiveness and interest in Beatles historiography, it is posted below -- with our deep [...]
Four In Hand by John Lennon
This musical was brought to you by Purell. With all this talk of certain male sexual practices, I couldn't help but remember Four In Hand by John Lennon, the sketch he wrote for Kenneth Tynan's erotic revue "Oh! Calcutta!" First mounted (so to speak) in 1969, "Oh! Calcutta!" was a massive success — long runs on both sides of the Atlantic, [...]