Counterpoint on Magical Mystery Tour
For everyone who loves "Magical Mystery Tour" (the film) or has come to appreciate it over the years, there's someone who still hates it -- Jim DeRogatis, a Chicago critic who broadcasts on NPR's WBEZ, is a case in point. If you're interested in reading his vilification of the movie (and a lot of the album), you can do so here: http://www.wbez.org/blogs/jim-derogatis/2013-01/revisiting-one-beatles’-worst-mistakes-104650Here's the [...]
Marvelous mystery tour
Some nice Beatles references in Jonathan Lethem's "My Marvel Years," about Jack Kirby (and Lethem-as-comics-reader), over at the London Review of Books: Nevertheless, if you (I mean, I) accept my premise that the mid-to-late 1960s Fantastic Four were the exemplary specimens as I'm explaining what's out there, the Revolver and Rubber Soul and White Album of comics, and if you further grant that pulling against the tide of all of [...]
Yoko Ono on the Breakup
"They were getting to be like Paul's band, which they didn't like," quoth the Yoko, via The Huffington Post. The interview's from 1987, and it's from Rolling Stone, so we can expect it to be simple-minded and St. Lennon-ish; but this canard deserves a bit of scorn. Can I? Thanks.Oh what a shame it was for Paul to run roughshod over those [...]
The McCartney II thread
Hey, realize I know very little about this album, so I decided to start an open thread on it. Any McCartney II-related thoughts out there?
Yet more banging on about Magical Mystery Tour
Magical Mystery Tour pie chart, 1967 This blog seemed to go through a phase where every second post was about how awesome Ram was/is. Go back and check the stream; it was amazing. Went on for months. And I support that, not just because Ram is awesome, but because this ol' world of ours is big enough to have one place [...]
Ravi works George out
Reader Rupa S. pointed me to this great clip of George Harrison and Ravi Shankar from 1968 (before George decided to stick to guitar). RIP, Ravi Shankar. Glad to be alive at the same time you were. http://youtu.be/t79aI-I6ucA
Several Sides of Searchin’
Alvin Robinson. I'm going through a bit of a Northern Soul period (c'mon, I'm always going through one of those), and found a nice version of the song "Searchin'," performed by Alvin Robinson in 1961.But of course readers of this blog might remember it from the guys' ill-fated Decca auditions…...which is much closer to the Coasters' original.
Did Yellow Submarine beget The Simpsons?
Simpsons writer Josh Weinstein argues so in this (hotly debated) article for The Guardian. Without Yellow Submarine there would never have beenThe Simpsons, no Futurama, no South Park, no Toy Story, no Shrek. No animated anything that enables us to laugh at ourselves while being highly entertained. Naturally, I want to believe him. In my opinion, The Beatles (and -related) are that clear, burbling spring from [...]
Gran and The Giggler in Granta
Commenter Dorinish tipped us off to this lovely Beatle-related short story in Granta.