Happy Passover, Tatellehs and Mommellahs
Kosher butcher cover? DEVIN McKINNEY • Yes, it's time once again to gather at the seder table, eat the ritual spices, set aside an empty chair for Elijah, watch as the kids search for hidden matzohs, and spin some Beatles tunes. (Anything but "Piggies.") My thoughts have gone all Semitic since being reminded today of this. (Thanks to Mickey Trester [...]
John, Paul, George, Ringo—and George?
DEVIN McKINNEY • Written in November 2002, cut from the Magic Circles discography: The Star-Club material has been reshuffled and reissued in a variety of forms over the years, none odder than that of 1962 Live at Star Club in Hamburg, issued in 2000 on the Walters label. Two dozen of the Star-Club songs (including most of the finest, and in the [...]
Sleeveface: Change your head
DEVIN McKINNEY • Probably more enterprising net-cruisers than I already know the British website Sleeveface, which since early 2006 has been making a small, pleasant fuss on the Internet, and latterly in the British press. According to Wiki, the concept originated, according to the BBC, in Cardiff, Wales, according to a guy who lives in Cardiff. Anyway, click [...]
Pizza, Pooh & Magpie
This just begs for a funny caption. DEVIN McKINNEY • The following was spotted recently in the liner notes of Peter, Paul & Mary's LP See What Tomorrow Brings, released December 1965, simultaneous with Rubber Soul. The notes spend needless time defending PP&M for not being "hip" like Dylan, or "electric" like the Beatles; and then assuring us it doesn't [...]
Ringo singing at a party?
"All right, I'll sing it for you...just this once." Help me, Dullbloggers, you're my only hope...I was speaking to someone last week who was at a party in the Seventies with Ringo Starr which devolved into a singalong. I seem to recall there being a Beatleg out there with Ringo, George, and a bunch of partygoers warbling "Yellow Submarine." Does [...]
“Revolution 1” In The Head
If only you were here to confirm or deny... DEVIN McKINNEY • Mike asked what I thought of the “Revolution 1” Take 20 RM1, so called, that's been burning up Beatleland. I’ve been loving and chewing on this piece of mystery meat since the weekend, and at first assumed it was genuine. Why not: Remember the stripped-down masters of those [...]
10-minute "Revolution"
I love it when the sleeves can't keep up with the group.— MG ED PARK • Dullblog scout Eric brought this find to our attention—from EW's Popwatch: Over the past couple of days, Beatles fanatics have been chattering about an amazing outtake that recently leaked onto the Internet. The 10-minute-plus recording of "Revolution" (embedded below) offers a fascinating look at [...]
It happened in Toronto
John Lennon onstage in Toronto 1969. "When is a shaky, under-rehearsed performance even better than a polished, high-octane explosion by an artist who is beyond iconic? When it's September 13, 1969, and John Lennon finds himself in the unenviable position of having to follow Little Richard at the Toronto Peace Festival. "Big-time rock & roll fan John Lennon had been [...]