Quadruple fantasy
Let's play along with David L. Ulin's "The Beatles, 1970–1975," in the Believer's 2009 music issue (just out—get yours here or at your favorite store...be forewarned, these sell out!): If The Beatles Hadn't Broken Up The Beatles are the fascination that lingers. I’ve been listening to them since August 1968, when my parents gave me Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for [...]
You Say it’s Your Birthday (Or Was Yesterday)?; or, How the Beatles May or May Not Have Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll
DEVIN McKINNEY • Again showing our contrarian streak, we thought we'd differentiate ourselves from everyone who wished "Sir" "James" Paul McCartney (jus' Paul to us) a happy birthday yesterday—which, true enough, was his actual date of birth, but isn't it always nice to get something the day after too? (Or is that Christmas?) Sorry for the miss, Paul. But you and we [...]
Hmmm…
Jay-R's mashup of of L'Trimm's "Cars with the Boom," Gary Numan's "Cars," and the Beatles' "Drive My Car." Thank you, Jay-R. Interesting fun fact as of July 2014: L'Trimm's Bunny D. has been married five times (never, though, to Jay-R) and has four children from her first four marriages, which is an admirable kind of efficiency. She has published a series of [...]
"Hullabaloo Salute to RUBBER SOUL"
"We turn the sound down and say rude things." A medley of Beatles medleys at Bedazzled… Man, they loved those Beatles Medleys back in the 60's and 70's... Here, the Righteous Brothers and Nancy Sinatra tackle songs from "Rubber Soul" with predictable results (very lame but slightly amusing).Righteous Brothers – "I've Just Seen A Face"Nancy Sinatra & The Righteous [...]
"How the Beatles Destroyed Rock and Roll"…
If that's destruction, bring on Ragnarok. ...is the provocative title of a new book spied by Ed this morning via the Very Short List. The book's not out yet, so I'll quote VSL as to its premise: "When the Beatles became 'purely a recording group,' author Elijah Wald writes, 'they pointed toward a future in which there need be no [...]
The hardest button
Provenance, anyone?
First bass
Stu and Emptiness Summer reading for Dullbloggers? Stuart Sutcliffe: A Retrospective is available at Book Soup in L.A. MG adds, July 2014-- Michael Bracewell reviewed the book and show Stuart Sutcliffe: A Retrospective for Frieze Magazine, and it's well worth reading. Here's a scrap: "Since his death, and encouraged by the superior but romantically stylized biographical feature film Backbeat (1994), the [...]
Michael Caine, Friend of Lennon
Everyone who saw this blacked out from the coolness. One of the few people as cool as The Beatles (is that heresy?) talks to New York about the Sixties, with a brief mention of our guys. An interesting nugget: "The sixties wasn’t drugs, you see. What ended the sixties was drugs." Here's the full snippet: Who was your first musical [...]
Eric Idle’s comments at George’s ceremony
Just in case anybody missed it, here are Eric Idle's one-liner filled remarks at the ceremony last week unveiling George's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Eric Idle and George Harrison really made some magic in this here Material World, didn't they? http://www.youtube.com/v/hWX6OsdTN64