Gotta Get This Outta My Life
Nineteen sixty-eight has been called the year America came apart, and I personally think this Joe Pesci Beatles cover might have been the reason. Listen at your own risk. https://youtu.be/JfCPawM7kIY
Yellow Submarine by Alex Ross
Maybe all of you knew this already (and if so, I appreciate you allowing me to live in blissful ignorance). This morning commenter Linda S. hepped me to an interesting development in Beatledom: Apple has engaged comic book artist Alex Ross to create photorealistic illustrations based on the Beatles' 1968 film, Yellow Submarine. The thing about Blue Meanies is, they never look like Blue Meanies. In the real world, they wear suits -- which was the Beatles' first lesson post-Yellow Submarine. Hey, kids! See if you can find the sugarcube hidden in this photorealistic art! I love comics, and I [...]
I’m Down by Joe Strummer
"You tell lies thinkin' I can't see..." This morning, I awoke to find this gem in the comment queue from @O'Boogie... "Long time/first time — tangentially, there are some neat bits of Beatles flavoured trivia to London’s pub rock/proto-punk scene. Joe Strummer christened John Tiberi (pre-Clash manager of The 101’ers, later associated with the Pistols) “Boogie” because he’d smoke Winston cigarettes; before “No Elvis, Beatles or The Rolling Stones” in 1977, Strummer was speeding through material like I’m Down and I Saw Her Standing There." Here's the YouTube in question; I've cued it up for "I'm Down." Thanks, @O'Boogie, and [...]
“These Paper Bullets!”: The Fabs Meet the Bard
For everyone who's wondered what might have happened if Shakespeare had met the Beatles, These Paper Bullets! delivers "a modish rip-off of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing with a serious backbeat." I saw one of the last scheduled performances of the play, by New York's Atlantic Theater Company, and it was a delight. Despite a few wobbly bits, it stands on its own as a story—but it's also salted with plenty of in-jokes and references for Beatles fans. And the original songs, by Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, are outstanding. The play originated with the Yale Repertory Theatre, and its book was written by Rolin [...]
ELO is back
Since we're talking about Jeff Lynne, I wanted to pause for a moment and take Dullblog's temperature on Electric Light Orchestra. Because ELO is back with their first album in 14 years, and I just listened to this catchy little tune. https://youtu.be/uy0oWuhTzh8 Commercially -- for the moment -- ELO is back, but for a lot of Beatles fans, they've never left. Their greatest hits spend a lot of time on my iTunes playlist, for sure. The overlaps between Jeff Lynne and his four Liverpudlian heroes are well known, and too numerous to list here. But before they snuggled up together in the [...]
Beatles Halloween Costumes? Sure there are
Mr Lennon, before he made my candy bag all sticky Just a quick post before I go out trick or treating -- okay, okay, I'm not quite that immature, my bank account to the contrary. I am going simply as moral support. But I do plan on plucking some winners out of the obscene haul my young friend Henry is poised to extract. Nice neighborhoods around here. Good candy. And Halloween gets a pass from the usual food Fascism practiced by so many Cali liberals -- I think it's the "gay Christmas" connection. Tonight, all the Snickers you can eat; [...]
Fest for Beatles Fans Chicago 2015
In the "better late than never" department, herewith some notes about attending a day of #ChiFest15 -- the first such I'd ever been to. My 16-year-old daughter accompanied me, and we met up with fellow Dullblogger Michael for part of the day. -- Nancy Carr Two Fest helpers -- the one in the white hat and sunglasses looked unnervingly like Yoko from some angles Events: A lot, and quite varied. Most fell into one of the following categories: authors talking about their books, people with some affiliation with the Beatles talking (often about their books), and a grab bag of alternatives (sing along contests, a FABratory of Beatles-related science, [...]
Braverman’s Condensed Cream of Beatles
Since it's so damn hot in my apartment -- much too hot to work out the plot of my historical spy thriller -- I cast around a bit in the Beatles-strewn attic of my mind for a suitable post. I suddenly got a hankering to find and watch a Beatles-related film I once saw as a hot child on a hot night such as this. Once a year -- invariably during a pledge drive -- St. Louis' PBS station KCET would host a night of Beatles. One year in the late 70s, sandwiched between "A Hard Day's Night" and a scratchy copy [...]
Two of Us
...and so began the Tantric Sex Scene. Commenter Karen pointed me to this interesting interview with Mark Stanfield, the screenwriter for "Two of Us," the film that portrays a fictional 1976 reunion between Lennon and McCartney. Stanfield's interlocutor is Martin Lewis, whom I used to see regularly at Beatle- and Python-themed events all over Los Angeles. I spent the evening of my 40th birthday listening to him tell tales of Peter Cook. The interview meanders, especially at the end, but there are lots of bits worth reading and pondering over. This sentence jumped out at me, in light of all our [...]
Miley Cyrus’ Boobs Made Paul McCartney Uncomfortable
That title says it all, really. If you want to cut to the chase, start watching this clip from Jimmy Kimmel Live at about the 2:15 mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePCxz76qzr8 And in this photo of Cyrus, Jett, and McCartney at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Paul does a little . . . nonplussed. Say what you will about Miley, she's performing a version of 1960s freedom that the Beatles helped pioneer. She's done the Sgt. Pepper's cover album with the Flaming Lips, and I can just see her on the bus with Ken Kesey if she'd been a teenager [...]