breakup Archives - Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Beatles in the 1970s: Melting and Crying

By Nancy Carr|2022-04-18T14:03:34-07:00April 13, 2022|1970s, books, Breakup, Let It Be|

I'm an inveterate haunter of used bookstores. I love the physicality of books, and seeing how publishers chose to present subjects at particular places and times. Today I give you two 1970s finds, both British paperbacks, that feature melting or crying Beatles. This edition of The Beatles Lyrics was published by Omega in 1975 and features an introduction by (cringe) Jimmy Saville. Though the book includes no cover illustration credit, commenter Dan pointed out that it appears in Alan Aldridge's The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics (it's in volume 2, published in 1971), and commenter meaigs further noted that the illustration is by John Holmes. This is [...]

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The Beatles, “Let It Be,” and “Get Back”: “Trying to Deceive”?

By Nancy Carr|2021-10-22T09:59:45-07:00October 22, 2021|1970s, Abbey Road, Beatles Criticism, Breakup, Let It Be, Movies|

Michael G's post "Let It Be, Get Back, and History as Art" and the comments on the site have raised so many interesting points about Lindsay-Hogg's 1969 film and Peter Jackson's forthcoming one that I wanted to say a bit more about why I'm looking forward to Jackson's film, but also not expecting it to be the whole truth. A lot of that expectation derives from considering historical context, so let's get into the wayback machine for a minute. In 1975, Barclay James Harvest released the song "Titles," taken from their album "Time Honoured Ghosts." The vast majority of the song does consist [...]

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Drugs and Differences

By Nancy Carr|2022-09-04T17:56:19-07:00May 16, 2016|1980, Drugs, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Wings|

Given the comments on a recent thread beginning here, we've decided to resurface a great post by Nancy on the topic. Originally posted 3/13/13.--MG On the apparently unstoppable "How Do You Sleep?" thread, Peter Deville commented that "it's interesting to note that the growing differences within the band coincided with a divergence in their individual drugs of choice, having made the collective journey from alcohol to uppers to pot." He adds: "Acid initially created that soon-to-be familiar fissure, with John, George and Ringo on one side and Paul on the other. I'm not suggesting that the drug divergence was responsible for the [...]

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Yoko Ono on the Breakup

By Michael Gerber|2014-12-27T11:33:31-08:00December 29, 2012|1970, John and Paul, John Lennon|

"They were getting to be like Paul's band, which they didn't like," quoth the Yoko, via The Huffington Post. The interview's from 1987, and it's from Rolling Stone, so we can expect it to be simple-minded and St. Lennon-ish; but this canard deserves a bit of scorn. Can I? Thanks.Oh what a shame it was for Paul to run roughshod over those other three grown men, forcing stuff like "Hey Jude" and Abbey Road on the world. Why, instead of wasting all that time, John and Yoko could've given 500 more interviews, and filmed countless more asses. Or John could've continued to explore [...]

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The breakup, viewed from 1974

By Nancy Carr|2019-10-09T19:30:04-07:00September 22, 2012|books, solo|

In 1974, it seemed entirely possible that the Beatles would reunite. I knew this already, as we all know historical facts, but listening to a voice from that time—a voice that of course can't know what's to come—gives that reality a new vividness. I came across this book [The Beatles: Yesterday . . . Today . . . Tomorrow] in a used bookstore, and bought it for a dollar. I've never heard of the author (Rochelle Larkin), and it was published by Scholastic Book Services. It was one of those books you could order from a newsprint flyer your [...]

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The Beatles and Mad Men

By Michael Gerber|2015-11-02T10:13:30-08:00June 13, 2012|1967, Beatle-inspired, Sgt. Pepper, Television|

The original Mad Men. Look at that hat, for example; that's MAD. Did Matthew Weiner follow the structure of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the recently-completed fifth season of “Mad Men”? Yi! News site contributor Emily Viviani thinks so, and has developed this thesis over three posts, the first of which you can read here. Thanks go to commenter Craig for drawing the attention of Hey Dullblog to her pieces. -- Nancy Carr Viviani's case Some of the parallels Viviani draws are interesting (“At the Codfish Ball” as a take on “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”, [...]

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Mikal Gilmore: “They had thrown away something special”

By Devin McKinney|2015-01-03T15:09:40-08:00June 4, 2011|1969, Apple, books|

DEVIN McKINNEY • "I've never come across a story that fascinated or moved me more than this particular one. The end of the Beatles was convoluted and acrimonious, but it was also transcendent." Read this if you haven't. It resonates nicely with discussions that have gone on here, mainly between Michael and various of our correspondents, about why the Beatles broke up. It's by Mikal Gilmore, journalist, critic, and author of Shot in the Heart, one of the best books I've ever read. It is an excerption from Gilmore's 2009 Rolling Stone article, as well as prologema to his planned 2013 release, [...]

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More on the breakup…

By Michael Gerber|2015-01-31T15:01:22-08:00April 24, 2010|Brian Epstein, Lennon|

So there, John. A great comment from Nancy on the breakup of the Beatles, in the comment thread... Here's another thought, prompted by your post and the responses to it: both John and Paul reacted to Brian Epstein's death in ways predicted by their reactions to their respective mothers' deaths. John learned from his whole childhood that he couldn't really trust anyone (from his p.o.v., both his parents abandoned him), and that if you loved someone, he or she would vanish or change beyond recognition (his Uncle George, his mother, Stu Sutcliffe, and from his perspective, Cynthia). Paul learned from his [...]

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