Which Beatles album is actually their last?

By |2013-08-03T04:37:33-07:00June 22, 2013|1969, 1970, Abbey Road, Let It Be, Uncategorized|

Bare feet, ouch! Paul suffers for his art. Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone: So let's argue: Which album truly counts as the grand finale? The case for Let It Be: It came out in 1970, which was after 1969. The case for Abbey Road: (1) virtually all of Let It Be was in the can before the Abbey Road sessions even began; (2) Abbey Road feels more like a classic Beatles record; (3) "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was the last time all four played in the studio together; (4) the last song on Abbey Road is called "The End"; (5) except for "Her Majesty"; (6) rebounding from the Let [...]

Climax filled with climaxes

By |2014-07-23T11:56:53-07:00June 20, 2013|Uncategorized|

The film wrings dozens of gags from the chaos that is Harold’s workday behind the fabric counter—as when, attempting to hand off a parcel to a little old lady amid the throng, he shouts, “Who dropped that fifty-dollar bill?” and the mass of matrons subsides like the Red Sea getting the Moses treatment—but it’s in the final half hour, when Lloyd reluctantly assumes the role of the human fly, that Safety Last! delivers something close to pure pleasure. Watching the extended sequence is like listening to the seamless suite of miniatures on side two of Abbey Road: it’s a climax filled with climaxes. Enter [...]

Discovered! Another bad Beatles lyric

By |2014-02-25T19:50:04-08:00April 21, 2013|Uncategorized|

ED PARK • We've discussed in these virtual pages the dire quality of that couplet in "She's a Woman" (you know the one), and the let's-sneak-this-in-and-move-on line in "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" ("I look at my floor and I see it needs...sweeping")... This morning, I was enjoying "Baby's in Black" and was struck by: I think of her but she thinks only of him, and though it's only a whim, she thinks of him. It's only a whim! A whim!!!

Who is Red Norvo?

By |2013-08-01T04:35:46-07:00February 14, 2013|Uncategorized|

A while back we featured the blog "They May Be Parted," devoted to the Nagra Reels. Here's Dan again—using this familiar George statement as a jumping-off point. Well worth a read.George: OK, I don’t mind. I’ll play, you know, whatever you want me to play. Or I won’t play at all, if you don’t want me to play. Whatever it is that will please you, I’ll do it.

Beep beep yeah!

By |2013-08-01T04:36:43-07:00February 8, 2013|Uncategorized|

Maybe once a year I remember a digital watch I had as a kid which played "Hey Jude" and "Yesterday." Previous searches didn't turn up anything, but today I stumbled on a video of the watch in action! Any other Dullblog readers remember this (or -- still have it?)?

Counterpoint on Magical Mystery Tour

By |2014-07-23T11:57:52-07:00January 3, 2013|Uncategorized|

For everyone who loves "Magical Mystery Tour" (the film) or has come to appreciate it over the years, there's someone who still hates it -- Jim DeRogatis, a Chicago critic who broadcasts on NPR's WBEZ, is a case in point. If you're interested in reading his vilification of the movie (and a lot of the album), you can do so here: http://www.wbez.org/blogs/jim-derogatis/2013-01/revisiting-one-beatles’-worst-mistakes-104650Here's the executive summary: "Nearly half a century on, the fascinating thing about "Magical Mystery Tour" the film is the rare glimpse it offers into one of the best rock bands of all time at its unaldulterated worst. And make no mistake: [...]

Marvelous mystery tour

By |2018-12-30T18:19:13-08:00December 31, 2012|Uncategorized|

Some nice Beatles references in Jonathan Lethem's "My Marvel Years," about Jack Kirby (and Lethem-as-comics-reader), over at the London Review of Books: Nevertheless, if you (I mean, I) accept my premise that the mid-to-late 1960s Fantastic Four were the exemplary specimens as I'm explaining what's out there, the Revolver and Rubber Soul and White Album of comics, and if you further grant that pulling against the tide of all of Kirby’s inhuman galactacism, that whole army of aliens and gods, was one single character, our squeaky little Sue, then I wonder: Invisible Girl, the most important superhero of the Silver Age of comics?

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