1960s Archives | Page 3 of 19 | Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Magical Mystery Band: The Beatles and God

By Nancy Carr|2016-02-17T10:41:20-08:00February 17, 2016|1964, Eastern religions, Guest blogger, India, rishikesh, Transcendental Meditation|

by Chris Dingman, guest Dullblogger I was born on April 3, 1964, the week The Beatles saturated the US pop charts like no act before or since, claiming the first five songs and fully fourteen percent of the top 100. But I wouldn’t hear them until some years later, when they would spark my first ideas of God. Chris Dingman -- you can read more about him and his projects at the end of this post. We tend to see Copernicus’s realization that the earth revolves around the sun instead of vice versa as the beginning of the end of [...]

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The Beatles Swan Song

By Michael Gerber|2016-02-16T11:25:02-08:00February 16, 2016|1969|

Where's John? Didn't really matter, did it? I'm delighted whenever Nancy gives us some Starostin news -- he's a brilliant critic, and a fluid writer as well. He is a guy I'd like to sit around listening to albums with, and that's not something I could say about a lot of music critics (Lester Bangs, for example). But I do, predictably, have a quibble -- and it's not just with Starostin, but with a lot of the appreciations of Abbey Road that I've read over the years. Here's how Starostin starts: While speculating on all the possible and probable causes [...]

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Starostin reviews “Abbey Road”

By Nancy Carr|2016-02-15T17:29:07-08:00February 15, 2016|1969, Abbey Road, Beatles Criticism, Beatles on the Web, George Starostin|

George Starostin, who by my calculations must sleep four hours or less per night to work an academic job and find time to review as many albums as he does. Indefatigable reviewer George Starostin, of the Only Solitaire blog, has just posted a review of the Beatles' Abbey Road. This one is part of his "Important Album Series," in which he is offering critical considerations of the "Top Albums of All Time" on the Rate Your Music site. Abbey Road currently sits at #7 on that site. I prefer the more comprehensive review of the album that Starostin posted in 2012 on his regular [...]

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The Meaning of Fun: The Paul is Dead Rumor

By Devin McKinney|2016-02-03T09:24:03-08:00February 3, 2016|1969, alternate history, Beatle myth, books, Paul Is Dead (PID)|

In Magic Circles: The Beatles in Dream in History, I wrote at length about the Paul is Dead (PID) rumor, attempting to weave it into a larger comprehension of the Beatles’ unprecedented, and exceedingly bizarre, effect on the private and public fantasies of the Sixties (and beyond). The rumor occurred at precisely the same time as the Manson Family murders, and my hunch for many years had been that their proximity beggared coincidence. That both were cults, both expressions—one benign, the other psychotic; one symbolic, the other brutally physical—of desires and fears accumulating at that instant in history; that those desires and [...]

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John and Mimi

By Karen Hooper|2016-02-01T07:52:10-08:00February 1, 2016|1960, Uncategorized|

Sometime in the mid-70’s, John wrote a letter to his Aunt Mimi asking her for information about the family genealogy. Mimi replied in the form of a recording. I found this little gem on Amoralto’s excellent tumblr blog and wanted to share it with fellow dullbloggers. But first, a little background on the lady who played such a significant role shaping the personality of one of the biggest rock artists in history. Bob Spitz, in his book The Beatles, describes Mimi Smith thusly: a sharp-tongued, high-principled, duty-bound young woman....There was nothing, no situation or dilemma, that Mimi was unequipped to handle. Her method [...]

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Faul McCartney expert wanted

By Michael Gerber|2016-01-30T10:26:45-08:00January 29, 2016|1969, Each One Teach One|

"We Demand Justice" This morning, I received the following email: Hello, I'm Tatiana. I'm doing a project.. my class got to pick from 41 different topics and I chose one about "Faul McCartney." I was wondering if you had any information/ clues about this topic? If so could you email me back ASAP? Thank you very much! Who says doing a Beatles blog is all arguments about heroin and Yoko? I sent Tatiana to the Wikipedia for "Paul Is Dead." Is there anything more to the contemporary theory? How else can we help this youth? Besides reassuring her that Paul [...]

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Beatles Ashram is Now Open!

By Michael Gerber|2015-12-09T11:11:43-08:00December 9, 2015|1968, India|

By law, this photo must accompany any article regarding the Beatles in India. It's always sorta been open to the public -- if you wanted to give a local five rupees and sneak over the wall -- but now the Indian government has made the Maharishi's old compound in Rishikesh a tourist attraction. In 1968, the Fab Four wrote most of the White Album while staying at the ashram located in the Rajaji national park, besides the river Ganges. Since the Maharishi left in the 1970s it has been overtaken by forest, but on Tuesday, 35 years to the day [...]

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Mick Jagger as Alex? The Beatles said yes

By Michael Gerber|2015-10-22T09:57:35-07:00October 21, 2015|1968, Movies, Rolling Stone, The Rolling Stones|

"Go for it, Mick" Mere days after revealing that John Lennon was (theoretically) into dudes, Auntie NME has revealed that all four Beatles signed a petition trying to get Mick Jagger the lead in "A Clockwork Orange." Picture this: it's February 1968. You're probably high. Mick as Alex; The Stones as his droogs; music by The Beatles; screenplay by Terry Southern... this movie would've been either the greatest thing ever, or totally unwatchable. Without a firm hand to guide him (Stanley Kubrick) Terry Southern tended to write stuff like The Magic Christian, films much less fun than the parties surrounding [...]

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Hello Goodbye: The first crack?

By Michael Gerber|2015-10-17T14:29:38-07:00October 17, 2015|1967|

Linda S. got in touch with the ol' Dullblog this morning with a thought too interesting not to share. "I was startled the first time I viewed the video piece for "Hello Goodbye," Linda wrote. "John seemed strangely subdued. I wasn't sure what I was sensing, only that it made me feel very uneasy. Still does. There is the coda, of course, the jokey dancing, where John seems more himself. Was it all in my head? Has anyone else ever been given pause by that video?" Actually, I've felt the same thing, but always assumed it was caused by John's many disparaging [...]

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John and Paul, Friends and Rivals

By Nancy Carr|2015-10-15T12:42:31-07:00October 15, 2015|1969, Breakup, India, John and Paul, rishikesh|

This started as a comment on Mike's "Were John and Paul Lovers?" post. Though I wrote it before commenter Marcua's thoughts came in, we're expressing some similar ideas about the probable roots of John's post-India hostility toward Paul. I very much doubt that Lennon and McCartney were ever lovers. There's enough credible evidence that Lennon talked about and expressed interest in bisexuality for me to think he, at some point, recognized a degree of attraction to Paul. And there's enough from Paul ("he had beautiful hands," etc.) for me to think it might have gone both ways, if not as strongly. Could [...]

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