Joshua Wolf Shenk on Lennon and McCartney (Take 1)
[Beloved HD readers: We're trying something a little new here, a call-and-response. This is my take on a recent piece in The Atlantic by Joshua Wolf Shenk on Lennon and McCartney. Soon Mike and/or Devin will chime in with posts of their own. -- Nancy Carr] What hath Malcolm Gladwell wrought? Thith. Hi Mike and Devin, I just finished reading [...]
Thoughts on the Python Reunion (and the Beatles)
Just got back from watching Monty Python Live (Mostly), the filmed record of the Python reunion concerts performed at London’s O2 Theatre last month. It was — and I say this as someone who bought the expensive tickets primarily out of affection — a ball, a delight; if you can see it, go see it. The two and a half hours flew [...]
Putting HuffPo’s Beatles Test to the Test
#12. This is not a sandwich. DEVIN McKINNEY • I’m the first Beatle Superfan to admit there’s a world of things I yet have to learn about them. That’s one reason Mark Lewisohn (look just to your right) is worth reading. So it’s with an ‘umble spirit that I report being both slightly let down and vaguely comforted, in a [...]
Mark Lewisohn Interviewed at Critics at Large
DEVIN McKINNEY • One of my colleagues at Critics at Large, Toronto-based arts critic Deirdre Kelly, has scored a dynamite interview with Mark Lewisohn, recently in T-Town for a screening of the Hard Day’s Night re-release and a book-signing. The interview is both substantial and delightful, especially for we who so eagerly consumed Tune In last December, who still see its vivid [...]
1967 Brian Epstein Interview with Murray the K
http://youtu.be/_0kHAqfGnfQ Taking a moment on this lazy Sunday to pass along a mildly interesting recording I found last night: the infamous 1967 Brian Epstein interview with WOR-FM's Murray Kaufman ("Murray the K") from March 1967. Brian was in the US announcing the addition of Robert Stigwood (and Stigwood's acts The Cream and The Who) to his company NEMS. The coolest bit comes [...]
The Black Album: Solo Beatles According to Ethan Hawke
Filmed over the course of 12 years, Richard Linklater's movie "Boyhood" is getting raves. Beatlefans will take particular note of the scene where a father (Ethan Hawke) gives his son (Ellar Coltrane) a mix of solo Beatles tracks, which he dubs "The Black Album." (Please note: this is not the stupendously lo-fi Let It Be-era bootleg, which managed to bring me down [...]
Update: George Harrison’s India photos (and John’s Spain ones)
Shooting Film has a lovely post collecting all of the fisheye selfies taken by The Quiet One in India in 1966. You should read the whole post, but I'll paste the whole set of George Harrison's India photos below. [h/t Dangerous Minds, whose ever-snappy writeup is here.] FISHEYES FOREVER: ...and as a special Dullblog bonus, here's another fisheye shot from the same [...]
Beatles Doc to Be Directed by Ron Howard
" ... and with a love like that, you know you shouuuuullllld ... " DEVIN McKINNEY • News comes through this morning, via Rolling Stone, that Ron Howard will direct a documentary about the Beatles' lifespan as a touring band, covering the years (approximately) 1960 to 1966. The film will be assembled, Anthology style, from existing footage from all manner [...]
The Beatles on Stella Street
The Beatles on Stella Street? Yes, indeed -- although I don't think impressionists Phil Cornwell and John Sessions' hearts are in those impressions. It's not John and Paul, but the idea of John and Paul. (George and Ringo are even sketchier, and Yoko...aiyiyi.) When they do people like Richard Burton, Michael Caine, or Larry Olivier (I can call him that because we [...]