The Brian Epstein Story
Can't remember if I posted this before, but here's a great 1998 BBC documentary on Brian Epstein. (I originally posted just the first segment, but the subsequent segments were not auto-loading, so I found all nine.) Watch The Brian Epstein Story. You will enjoy it. (And when you're finished, read Devin's great story about seeing the film which I've told to more [...]
McCartney’s Songs of Empathy
Paul McCartney, possibly empathizing NANCY CARR • Over the years, and especially as a solo artist, Paul McCartney has written many songs expressing empathy toward others. Being the analytical list-making obsessive I am, I've created a catalog of them. Note that I'm not arguing that writing such songs shows McCartney to be a better or more empathetic human being than [...]
"Hey Bulldog" by Fanny
Earlier today, I was hipped to the group "Fanny" by the excellent website Dangerous Minds. In the comments somebody mentioned that the group did a cover of "Hey Bulldog." I liked it so much I had to share. Super guitar solo.
Twelve Apostles of Rock
While buying an obscure album of Beatles covers from Weirdo Records (www.weirdorecords.com ), I was intrigued by their "Top Tens & Stuff" section. Here they post top ten lists by staff members and customers, ranging from "Ten Greatest Jazz Artists" to "Favorite Hip-Hop Instrumentals." One of the lists is "Twelve Apostles of Rock," posted by Gordon Marshall in November 2009.Like most personal best-of [...]
Review: RAM (Paul McCartney Archive Collection)
DEVIN McKINNEY • Can anyone think of another pop record whose qualities have been so vindicated, and whose reputation has been so rehabilitated, by time? Though I’ve fought bravely on this site against massed resistance (well, one or two people) to call it something just less than a masterpiece—can’t get past a certain emotional vacuity at the core of things—RAM is so [...]
The Shins
KoreAm magazine directs me to Shin Joon Hyung, now 73, the "Godfather of Korean Rock." It's a fascinating story, and now there's a compilation available stateside called Beautiful Mountains and Rivers. "The anthology’s 14 tracks and 32-page liner notes detail his genre-spanning career, from his early attempts to channel Elvis Presley under the moniker Jackie Shin, the stage name he used while [...]
Rundgren v. the Beatles
Todd Rundgren and his spat with Lennon came up in the comments thread on the "Ah, Girl" post -- I wasn't aware of it until Devin pointed it out. [Particulars here: http://trconnection.com/trconn.php/article=lennon.art#lennon]. The tenor of this interchange doesn't surprise me much, and brings into focus my sense of Rundgren's animosity toward the Beatles. Rundgren seems to have a clear case of what Harold Bloom would [...]
You’re an intellectual giant…
I am pro-John when it comes to that Emerson interview...but what does it mean that this Pet Shop Boys song keeps springing to mind?
Another kind of cover
Rabid Rabbit #8 (available here) features 30 different artists, each visually interpreting one song from The Beatles in a two-page format. Interesting constraint: the lyrics are not quoted anywhere. Some artists attempt literal illustrations of things described in the song; others have more impressionistic takes.Speaking of comics, which Dullblogger is going to write about Baby's in Black?(Thanks to the talented Forsyth Harmon.)