Best of What’s Left of?
The bottom of the bottom of the barrel? Or something better than that? Recently I ran into a problem that I thought the Beatles hive-mind here at Dullblog might be able to solve. My wife and I were driving to a party at a friend's house; the last time we'd met this friend, he'd discovered I was a Beatle freak. In [...]
The less eternal question
Which New York Observer film critic had the more interesting Beatles mention last week? Andrew Sarris, on the Scorsese Stones doc Shine a Light:When I was teaching at the School of Visual Arts in 1965, all the students seemed to be fanatical Stones fans, listening to their songs incessantly on the cafeteria jukebox. They seemed determined to make me see how wrong [...]
The eternal question: John or Paul?
John or Paul?The debate rages on WNYC's Soundcheck below.
Salman Rushdie, Rutlemaniac
"I just discovered this great band that sounds just like The Rutles." According to this article, Salman Rushdie was at the Rutles NYC gig last night. After which he immediately declared a fatwa against Ron Nasty for breaking up the group. OH THE IRONY
The News in Welsh
MOLLIE WILSON REILLY • I've been thinking about Patti LuPone over at Restricted View, and I never think of Patti without thinking of Life Goes On, the TV series she starred in when I was growing up. Though the role was not officially a musical one, Patti did lead the cast in singing the theme song: "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da." It was bouncy and fun, [...]
Billy Preston: The week that wasn’t
Billy, in better days ED PARK • "An obituary on June 7, 2006, about the rock keyboardist Billy Preston misstated his date of birth. His Web site recently announced that he was born on Sept. 2, 1946 — not Sept. 9, as was widely reported." —NYT[Original article is here. For more ambiguous Beatle birthdaying on Hey Dullblog, go here.]
"Don’t touch Neil. He’s ours."
Neil Aspinall and Paul McCartney in 1969. Allan Kozinn, the NYT's resident Beatle expert, writes a top-notch obit of Neil Aspinall. And Beatle biographer Hunter Davies has some interesting things to say about Neil here. Hey Dullblog--your one-stop Neil Aspinall obituary source. Re: the photo: Sixties fashions were incredibly unkind to men over 25, don't you think?
Send good vibes to Neil Aspinall
The right hand of the Fab Four. I heard this morning that Neil Aspinall, ex-Apple Corps exec and long-time right hand man to the Fabs, is seriously ill with cancer and receiving treatment at Sloan-Kettering in NYC.Perhaps the grapevine is incorrect in this case; hope so. But if not, I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing Neil--or, as the [...]
The Vision of Joe Orton
DEVIN McKINNEY • The missing piece in the Beatles’ movie puzzle, the wild card in their deck, is Joe Orton. This enfant terrible of the British theater, in between epatering the ‘60s bourgeoisie with the likes of Entertaining Mr. Sloane and Loot, wrote a screenplay for the Beatles at the commission of producer Walter Shenson. Adapted from an early, unpublished novel and [...]