Vinyl remasters: To buy or not to buy?

By |2014-07-23T11:58:01-07:00November 13, 2012|Uncategorized|

Three years after the CD remasters, we now have the vinyl remasters of the Beatles catalog. (Mono vinyl remasters to follow). The question is, are the remasters worth buying, if you already have Beatles vinyl in good condition?The decision is more complicated than it was for the CD remasters, because the Beatles CDs from the 1980s were fair to horrible-sounding. But the original Beatles vinyl versions still sound great if they've been well cared for.If you're trying to make up your mind, you'll be interested in the following Chicago Tribune piece, in which a panel compares the sound of old, new, and [...]

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A cover that tops the original

By |2012-10-08T17:19:00-07:00October 8, 2012|Uncategorized|

I love this version of "My Brave Face," by SR-71, and think it's better than McCartney's original (which appeared on "Flowers in the Dirt.") SR-71's version is on "Listen to What the Man Said," a great 2001 compilation of McCartney covers.

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I’m Fonda this book!

By |2015-09-19T00:23:23-07:00October 2, 2012|Uncategorized|

Just in case founding Dullblogger Devin doesn't trumpet the news...His new book, The Man Who Saw a Ghost: The Life and Work of Henry Fonda, is out today! [Ed.'s note: this post was meant to appear on Tuesday.] A must for anyone interested in Fonda, Hollywood, acting, and (above all) Dev's jaw-droppingly smart and stylish writing, some of which has been on display here on Hey Dullblog...(Of course, you've all read his first book, Magic Circles: The Beatles in Dream and History, haven't you? Look on the left for the link!) Some more praise for TMWSAG:"Henry Fonda may have been the strangest, most compelling [...]

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Buckley on hating the Beatles

By |2014-07-23T11:58:38-07:00August 22, 2012|1964, Beatles Criticism, Uncategorized, William F. Buckley|

NANCY CARR * William F. Buckley really hated the Beatles’ music. I’d known this in a general way, but hadn’t read his diatribes against them before encountering them in The Beatles Book, a 1968 anthology of critical writing about the band edited by Edward E. Davis. (Finding books like this makes me feel justified in spending what is probably way too much time in used bookstores.) Buckley’s 1964 National Review article on the Beatles was entitled “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, They Stink.” He piles on the adjectives in an effort to convey his absolute loathing of their sound: “Let me say it, as evidence [...]

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By |2012-08-15T19:28:00-07:00August 15, 2012|Uncategorized|

The AV Club lists 18 anti-Beatles songs. (Readers of my other blog might recall a post about Sissy Spacek's song contra Two Virgins, included on this AV Club list.)Has anyone heard of this one? 4. The Exterminators, “Beetle-Bomb”The mysterious, little-known, mostly instrumental group The Exterminators specialized in the kind of R&B-slanted dance numbers that were huge in the mid-’60s. An inordinate number of those songs bore ostensibly anti-Beatles titles, including “Beatle Wig Party,” “Beatle Stomp,” and “Stomp ’Em Out”—which was perhaps only natural, considering the band’s name. With “The Beetle-Bomb,” however, The Exterminators got a little more personal. Parodying “She Loves You” [...]

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 16

Anti-Beatle Songs

By |2015-09-19T00:26:25-07:00August 15, 2012|Uncategorized|

The AV Club lists 18 anti-Beatles songs. (Readers of my other blog might recall a post about Sissy Spacek's song contra Two Virgins, included on this AV Club list.) Has anyone heard of this one? 4. The Exterminators, “Beetle-Bomb”The mysterious, little-known, mostly instrumental group The Exterminators specialized in the kind of R&B-slanted dance numbers that were huge in the mid-’60s. An inordinate number of those songs bore ostensibly anti-Beatles titles, including “Beatle Wig Party,” “Beatle Stomp,” and “Stomp ’Em Out”—which was perhaps only natural, considering the band’s name. With “The Beetle-Bomb,” however, The Exterminators got a little more personal. Parodying “She Loves [...]

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Twelve Apostles of Rock

By |2015-01-08T14:20:25-08:00August 2, 2012|Uncategorized|

While buying an obscure album of  Beatles covers from Weirdo Records (www.weirdorecords.com ), I was intrigued by their "Top Tens & Stuff" section. Here they post top ten lists by staff members and customers, ranging from "Ten Greatest Jazz Artists" to "Favorite Hip-Hop Instrumentals." One of the lists is "Twelve Apostles of Rock," posted by Gordon Marshall in November 2009.Like most personal best-of lists, Marshall's includes the pretty-much-expected (James Brown, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix) the less-expected (Brian Eno, Bob Marley, Morissey), and the surprising (Holgar Czukay of Can, Robert Wyatt of Soft Machine, and Christian Vander of Magma). Here are his [...]

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 13

The Shins

By |2015-09-19T00:02:31-07:00July 31, 2012|Uncategorized|

KoreAm magazine directs me to Shin Joon Hyung, now 73, the "Godfather of Korean Rock." It's a fascinating story, and now there's a compilation available stateside called Beautiful Mountains and Rivers. "The anthology’s 14 tracks and 32-page liner notes detail his genre-spanning career, from his early attempts to channel Elvis Presley under the moniker Jackie Shin, the stage name he used while playing for U.S. troops in Korea; to his formation of South Korea’s first rock band ADD4 after hearing the Beatles..." ! There are Add4 tracks on YouTube (of course)—check out this one, particularly the "yeah yeah yeah"s at :39, right [...]

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