Michael Gerber
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Folks, I’ve broken our worshipful silence for the best of reasons: a line on some paying work!

Dullblogger Faith Current contacted me yesterday, asking if I knew any bright-eyed types to help her research and collate a vast Beatles project. In the free-wheeling and democratic spirit that made this blog great, I asked her to write up a job listing, which is posted below.

Hope everyone is well, and enjoys the last-ever (?) Beatles song, coming next week. I occasionally run across a Fabs-related tidbit, so don’t be shocked if you see a post every, er, Now and Then.—MG

Hi everyone (and thank you, Michael, for breaking the hiatus to send this out. You are a prince among men or an officer and a gentleman or some other Very Good Thing).

I’m a Beatles writer/scholar (once and I suppose, technically still, HDB contributor) seeking a part-time virtual research assistant.

The primary work I’m doing is a rework (book/podcast) of the history of the band with Lennon/McCartney at its heart. After several years of full-time research, including regular research trips to Liverpool, London and Hamburg, I’ve come to the conclusion that the standard narrative is deeply and fundamentally flawed. I’m working on what I intend as a more complex and nuanced (and I think beautiful) narrative than the story as it’s usually told. (Think Cocaine & Rhinestones, but for the Fabs.)

This is a big project. I need some research and organizational help. First, I need frequent little fragments of research and verification done, but I don’t have bandwidth to drop everything and chase them down. Second, I have multiple years’ worth of research material, some of it primary sources from my trips to Liverpool and Hamburg, that needs to be organized, so that I can quickly find what I need when I need it.  So I really need someone who is good at sorting a large collection of data into a coherent research archive — and ideally you’d have some ideas of your own on how best to do that., because that kind of sorting is not my thing!

You definitely don’t need to be a Beatles expert, but the right person for this situation will have a better-than-average familiarity with the history of the band and, more broadly, the ‘60s. The right person would probably know, for example, (without googling) who Stu Sutcliffe is and when Sgt. Pepper was released and also probably have some kind of an intelligent but not militant opinion on the White Album.

Obviously, this work requires familiarity with the basics of professional research and source/fact checking. Also a flexible and open and curious mind, but not so flexible and open that scanning the first few pages of results on Google constitutes research.

I tend to be irreverent and snarky, but this is work that I take seriously, even reverently, and that I’ve shaped into my life’s passion. (Michael calls me Joan of Arc…). Obviously, I don’t expect that level of obsession from you, but it’s important to know where I’m at with it, I think.

If this opportunity is of interest, please respond to faith@faithcurrent.com with your compensation requirements (please don’t underquote, or you’ll get resentful because you underquoted and that will make both of us miserable and frustrated) and a bit about your background and your interest in the project, and any questions you have that I didn’t cover.

For more about me, visit faithcurrent.com. Due to the indefinite hiatus of HDB, I’ve also started a substack at beatlesabbey.com.—Faith Current

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