Happy birthday, George!
Today (or yesterday, depending on when you asked him) would've been George Harrison's 68th birthday. Don't think about that too hard, because you'll suddenly remember all the really shitty people who made it to 68 and are still going strong. Henry Kissinger. Charles Manson. Oh well. I guess God doesn't want to be around those guys any more than we do. Thanks [...]
Indiana, Indiana
The Beatles, live at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis, Sept. 3, 1964, at Heavy Sugar Radio.
"Love"
What do you think? I could listen to Priscilla Ahn sing the phone book. (I like her cover of VU's "Afterhours," found about 5:30 into this vlog post.)(And remember her cover of "Julia"?)
The Beatles First American Concert
The moptops in action amid a hail of jelly babies, February 1964. Last night, I was lucky enough to see the closed-circuit film of The Beatles' first American concert, given February 11, 1964, in Washington, DC. The film was broadcast in March, 1964, to movie theaters all across the country--then languished in somebody's basement until the mid-90s, when it was [...]
Caption contest
The Fab Four as you've never seen them before!
Thoughts on "Paperback Writer"
Thinking about "Paperback Writer" — it's a thousand pages, give or take a few?!Heard this one with fresh ears recently and began thinking about 1,000-page debut novels (paperback or no): Are there any?Not sure. But then I thought about that scene in Wonder Boys (the film based on the Michael Chabon novel), in which novelist Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) is typing a [...]
The Casey Black album
You'd think "Eleanor Rigby" would not be an ideal song to cover...but I dig my former student Casey Black's rendition: http://www.youtube.com/v/MiOy2gr0klU?fs=1&h More than once, one of Casey's originals has popped up on the ipod and I've thought: some Springsteen song I forgot? Check out this one: "The Sarge." (At the very least, he finds something to rhyme with "hippocampus.")POSTSCRIPT: Just noticed via [...]
Nilsson’s "Isolation"
Some people get Mania, others get Pandemonium Brother/good influence Jack Gerber just sent me this great cover of John Lennon's "Isolation" by JL's close friend/bad influence Harry Nilsson. It was unreleased until 2008, when it appeared as a bonus track on Aerial Pandemonium Ballet. Lennon covers almost never come close to the original; Lennon's paramount gift was to make his [...]