books Archives | Page 6 of 9 | Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Book Review: “Beatles vs. Stones”

By Devin McKinney|2016-12-01T17:40:34-08:00July 22, 2013|1968, Beatles vs. Stones, biography, books|

Beatles vs. Stones by John McMillian 288 pp. Simon & Schuster, 2013 Reviewed by Devin McKinney A character in Jonathan Lethem’s novel The Fortress of Solitude claims that every small-group dynamic found in fiction or in life is comprehensible via the Beatles model of organizational relationships: “The Beatles thing is an archetype, it’s like the basic human formation. Everything naturally forms into a Beatles, people can’t help it.” He illustrates this theory by applying it, convincingly, to Star Wars and The Tonight Show. (For the record, the archetypal roles—or “four sides of the circle,” as the title of a Beatles bootleg once [...]

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My Beatle, My Gastroenterologist

By Ed Park|2013-08-05T04:42:51-07:00May 31, 2013|books|

Author Mark Leyner. From an amazing interview with one of my favorite authors, Mark Leyner (conducted by Sam Lipsyte, another terrific fictioneer). This comes at the very end—well worth reading the whole thing (plus Leyner's original piece that follows, which forms a crazy Mobius strip with the interview itself, it seems to me). Here's something funny, though. Last night, I was listening to the Beatles song "You Can't Do That" and it brought tears to my eyes. I mean, big fat tears rolling down my cheeks. Because I have (and have always had) this helpless, completely homoerotic affinity for the [...]

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Hooray, or uh-oh, I can’t decide

By Michael Gerber|2013-08-07T04:34:55-07:00April 16, 2013|biography, books, John Lennon, Paul McCartney|

Beatle biographer Philip Norman is writing a new McCartney bio. The New York Times reports that Philip Norman has been signed to do a new McCartney bio. One part of me: all right! Other part of me: oh no. Philip Norman is an excellent writer, with a beyond-thorough grounding in the subject. There is nobody who possesses better tools with which to create the definitive biography of Paul McCartney. He's very smart, knows England of that period, knows rock, knows London, knows The Beatles, knows John Lennon. Unlike Miles, he's his own man; unlike Lewisohn, he's a journalist. Shout: The [...]

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Fool’s Goldman: Reliving “The Lives of John Lennon”

By Devin McKinney|2013-08-13T22:41:29-07:00March 19, 2013|biography, books, John Lennon, Lennon|

DEVIN McKINNEY • Warning—there’s a lot of rant here, most of it to do with Albert Goldman but some of it just my articulated flailings about the nature of biography and criticism, writers and readers. But Michael asked, I answered, this is our blog, and we make the rules. So strap on your poncho and feel free to skip around. Reading the “Drugs and Differences” comments, I took special note when the ghost of Albert Goldman reared its shiny dome. He’s so easy to despise and so difficult to defend on any level, but I’m always curious about the case to be [...]

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I wonder if we can get a Dullblog bulk discount?

By Michael Gerber|2013-09-04T12:35:36-07:00March 4, 2013|biography, books|

If anyone will know, it's Mark Lewisohn MIKE GERBER • Volume One of Mark Lewisohn's Beatles bio series is slated for October, promising to be full of Lewisohn's trainspotter-y goodness! Just who was Torchy the Battery-Boy, and how did he influence a young Paul McCartney? Did George Harrison first read two of the Four Noble Truths scrawled on the wall of his father's city bus? Brief but exciting web-teaser is here.

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Essential Beatles Reference Books

By Nancy Carr|2015-01-01T15:24:44-08:00November 6, 2012|books|

The stacks. I'm thinking about which Beatles books are essential because I moved last week and was confronted by the sheer volume of tomes I possess about the band (not to mention the ridiculous number of books about other subjects . . . .) So here's my list of the ten Beatles reference books I pull off the shelf most often—the ones I'd put in the box if I could take only one box of Beatles books with me on my next move. Hey Dullblog readers, I'd love to see your lists as well. [Note: These are listed in no [...]

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Beatleology

By Michael Gerber|2016-03-08T10:03:04-08:00October 15, 2012|books|

John with Paul ascendent in the House of George, thanks It had to happen . . . . a book-length Beatles-based personality quiz, with explications of each type. Fortunately, the authors, Adam and Roger Jacquette, write with enough wit and panache to make it fun and illuminating.Beatles fans won't be too surprised at the traits linked to each member (for example, Pauls can be overbearing, and are soppy when they're in love, duh), but there's more depth to each characterization than I expected in a book of this type. If you take the quiz, you'll end up with both a [...]

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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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A literary White Album

By Ed Park|2015-01-07T20:09:55-08:00July 2, 2012|books|

Highly recommended. I'm reading Joe Meno's upcoming novel Office Girl (highly recommended!), and came across this recent interview in TriQuarterly Online: TQO: [...] I'm about seventy pages into your last novel, The Great Perhaps (2009), and I've already noticed the Beatles popping up throughout.Meno: Yeah, I mean that whole book is The White Album. I wanted to do a book that had four different voices, and they all sing on that album. And they cover pretty much all of 20th century music. There's “Rocky Raccoon.” There's country western. There's “Honey Pie,” which has this kind of jazzy sound. There's “Helter Skelter,” [...]

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Underrating Sgt. Pepper’s

By Michael Gerber|2014-12-23T18:13:47-08:00June 21, 2012|1966, 1967, books, Reviews, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper|

NANCY CARR • “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is now routinely underrated. I recently read Robert Rodriguez’ new book, Revolver: How the Beatles Reimagined Rock n’ Roll, and the introduction threw this underrating into sharp relief. I highly recommend Rodriguez’ book in all other ways—it's a fascinating look at Revolver’s creation, artistry, and context—but the introduction made me grind my teeth. The path Rodriguez treads in his introduction is now very well worn: people used to think Sgt. Pepper’s was the thing, but now we know Revolver is. Fair enough, to a point. Revolver is excellent, and preferring it to Sgt, Pepper’s is defensible. [...]

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