You can listen to Paul McCartney's new album, "Kisses on the Bottom," free for a limited time here: http://www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen I was skeptical when I learned McCartney was planning an album of covers, and when I heard the title, I did a facepalm. But after an initial listen, I'm liking it much more than I thought I would. Take a listen and see what you think!
Macca and Boz.NANCY CARR • If you've ever wondered why Paul McCartney writes story songs and loves performing, or why his sentimentality sometimes runs away with him, I hope you'll enjoy these ruminations on his links to a Victorian forebear. Looking at Paul McCartney’s personal and artistic similarities to Charles Dickens helps explain a lot of things. It illuminates why McCartney is hugely popular but often critically reviled, why he is driven to make money despite his great wealth, and why he tirelessly performs live. Most importantly, it brings his particular gifts into focus. Often McCartney is compared to John Lennon and criticized [...]
[After the millionth insightful comment by our indefatigable Nancy, we asked her if there was anything Beatley burning a hole in her well-furnished brains. This is what she wrote; give her a warm Hey Dullblog welcome.--MG] NANCY CARR • When it was released in 1971, Ram was hated—really hated, to the point of practically being crushed and melted—by many rock critics. Rolling Stone’s Jon Landau inveighed against it as “the nadir in the decomposition of Sixties rock thus far,” calling it “incredibly inconsequential” and “monumentally irrelevant.” Robert Christgau was kinder, giving it a C+ and sniffing “If you’re going to be eccentric, [...]
The Beatles during their "Mad Day Out," 1968 Shenk's series in Slate provoked this interesting post from my good friend, the progressive pundit Jonathan Schwarz. Check out the comments section, too--I left one, and it's usually very vigorous. BTW, enjoy the thematically appropriate "Mad Day Out" pic.
Lennon and McCartney by David Bailey, 1965. My favorite photo ever of John and Paul, taken by David "Blow Up" Bailey in January 1965. Speaks volumes. In analysis that is almost Dullbloggian in its grain of detail, Joshua Wolf Shenk addresses the Lennon/McCartney collaboration in this multi-part series in Slate. Take a look; if you're reading this blog, you'll really enjoy it. This article--part of a series on famous collaborations--was forwarded to me by my own dear collaborator Jonathan Schwarz. Jon and I wrote a bunch of humor back in the 90s. You can read Jon's own "Yesterday" (or "Help!" [...]
But on 45? ED PARK • Here's a simple/brilliant/catchy thing by Geoff Geis: FAST RAM. Which is exactly what it sounds like: Ram played at 45 rpm. Geis writes: I’ve listened to Ram on 45 a whole lot, but I’ve barely listened to it on 33. And while my initial love affair with it was a few years ago, I’ve gotten back into it pretty hard lately. Coincidentally, the other day it was the topic of conversation at a party; fortunately it was a party with a turntable and a copy of Ram. My friend Kyle S said that he [...]
Paul McCartney performs a rare version of Blackbird in this video from 1968. http://youtu.be/3uqGCqMYaHQ
John Lennon The Life by Philip Norman The New York Times Book Review sent Philip Norman's new biography John Lennon: The Life to singer-songwriter Nellie McKay, and her very positive review is written in the manner of Lennon the prose stylist. Did she pull it off? I'm of two minds, myself. On the one hand, the review is a chore to get through, in a way In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works are not. As I read, my delight was heavily diluted by frustration. But that's at least in part a genre problem: a book review, [...]