It All Comes Down to the Thumb
An English mathematician claims he has cracked the mystery chord at the beginning of "A Hard Day's Night." The article's interesting—the prof used computer software similar to some I've seen used on a tape of the RFK assassination—but the short version is that George was hooking his thumb over the top of the neck, and playing the low E string at the [...]
Manhattan Beatles
This Beatles image is from the wall opposite Bleecker Bob's record store at the corner of 3rd and MacDougal in Greenwich Village. I took it this past spring, just after buying a copy of the "Black Album" (comprised of Let it Be session bootlegs). Now Bleecker Bob's is, lamentably, about to close, another casualty of lagging interest in physical media and rising rents. Depending [...]
Apple Jam’s take on Lennon & McCartney
If you wish you could hear a new Lennon/McCartney single, check out Apple Jam’s “On the Wings of a Nightingale” EP. This Seattle Beatles tribute band has a whole album of Lennon/McCartney covers to their credit (“Off the Beatle Track,” a compliation of songs the writing partners gave to other performers). But “On the Wings of a Nightingale” is something special: an [...]
I’ve got a love-uh-ly bunch of coconuts
DEVIN McKINNEY • The news comes through this morning that Magical Mystery Tour is to be released in remastered form on DVD and BluRay on October 9 in North America, a day earlier everywhere else. The remaster is more than welcome, with the advertised extras making the Deluxe Edition compulsory for the committed. (I just ordered mine.) There's been talk here of [...]
Buckley on hating the Beatles
NANCY CARR * William F. Buckley really hated the Beatles’ music. I’d known this in a general way, but hadn’t read his diatribes against them before encountering them in The Beatles Book, a 1968 anthology of critical writing about the band edited by Edward E. Davis. (Finding books like this makes me feel justified in spending what is probably way too much time [...]
Liverpool
A recent comment string about Liverpool makes me wonder: What are the other great (or just very good) Liverpool bands? I can only think of one—Echo and the Bunnymen—but surely Dullblog readers will chime in with their favorites.... http://youtu.be/LbYxP11rbSM
The AV Club lists 18 anti-Beatles songs. (Readers of my other blog might recall a post about Sissy Spacek's song contra Two Virgins, included on this AV Club list.)Has anyone heard of this one? 4. The Exterminators, “Beetle-Bomb”The mysterious, little-known, mostly instrumental group The Exterminators specialized in the kind of R&B-slanted dance numbers that were huge in the mid-’60s. An inordinate number [...]
Anti-Beatle Songs
The AV Club lists 18 anti-Beatles songs. (Readers of my other blog might recall a post about Sissy Spacek's song contra Two Virgins, included on this AV Club list.) Has anyone heard of this one? 4. The Exterminators, “Beetle-Bomb”The mysterious, little-known, mostly instrumental group The Exterminators specialized in the kind of R&B-slanted dance numbers that were huge in the mid-’60s. An inordinate [...]
Covers, part 35
The site Cover Me features the tracks of Let It Be, each done by a different band...