About Michael Gerber

is Blogmom of Hey Dullblog. His novels and parodies have sold 1.25 million copies in 25 languages. He lives in Santa Monica, CA, and runs The American Bystander all-star print humor magazine.

Gopnik on Norman on McCartney

By |2016-04-26T21:37:24-07:00April 26, 2016|biography|

Paul, looking over his shoulder Adam Gopnik has contributed a peculiar review of Philip Norman's new bio, Paul McCartney: The Life. The TL;DR is "A reader familiar with the past twenty years of Beatles biography will have a pretty hard time finding a single new fact or revelation within [Norman's biography]." Pretty damning, right? Apparently not; Gopnik hastens to add that we shouldn't blame Norman. "After Lewisohn; after Barry Miles’s strange Many Years from Now, a semi-official biography; after Albert Goldman’s The Lives of John Lennon and the Beatles Anthology series, there just isn’t much left to say. Even if [...]

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Prince SHREDS While My Guitar Gently Weeps

By |2020-09-16T15:18:43-07:00April 21, 2016|Covers|

So much to say about Prince, probably the closest thing my generation had to The Beatles, but today is the last day of our Kickstarter for issue #2 of The American Bystander -- so it will have to wait a bit. While you're waiting, however, here is a 2004 version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with an absolutely cataclysmic guitar solo by Prince. (And I don't like solos, as a rule.) We've posted it before, but today of all days, it must be heard. https://youtu.be/6SFNW5F8K9Y I'm typing this quickly, in between updates to the Kickstarter, but the more I think, the [...]

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Hey Jude by Tiny Tim and the Brave Combo

By |2016-04-14T09:44:31-07:00April 13, 2016|Covers|

UPDATE: Such is the awesome power of Dullblog, that the video of Hey Jude by Tiny Tim has been taken down less than 12 hours after this post. In its place, I offer Tim's version of "Girl," which should give you a flavor. Anybody who finds a link to "Hey Jude," lemme know and I'll replace it. https://youtu.be/eL0Xq03eZWw Just to be absolutely clear, I love that we live in a world where Tiny Tim existed; if he hadn't existed, I would've longed to invent him. And I'm glad there are people who like his work. But... Brave" is the word I'd apply [...]

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The American Bystander #2

By |2016-04-08T12:26:47-07:00April 8, 2016|comedy|

I look high, I look low... Where is Mike?" I'm sure many of you are not asking. But others may be concerned. "Where am I supposed to get my daily quota of digs at the White Album? Who can I turn to for frank, unashamed love for the Fabs' psychedelic period? Not to mention egregious and off-topic references to Peter Cook and Peter Sellers? Some bad person is trying to make me listen to Let It Be, and I need reasons not to! Help!" It's like this, Beatle peedles: After a near-decade of under- and straight up un-employment, my life [...]

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Ray Cathode is George Martin and Maddalena Fagandini

By |2016-04-01T17:34:32-07:00April 1, 2016|George Martin|

Spotted something neat on the Twitter feed of musician Michael Penn today: this oh-so-1962 single, recorded by a post-Goons pre-Beatles George Martin and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's Maddalena Fagandini. Can someone please tell me what a "time interval" is? Apparently "Time Waltz" was a reworked time interval. https://youtu.be/mhVYEgMrxOg In addition to his humble roots, George Martin's buttoned-up demeanor and BBC diction hid just how widely his mind did range. The Fabs were beyond lucky to pair up with him. It is the intellectual range of the Beatles which makes them so endurably fascinating to me. (And maybe to you, as well.)

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Commenting Standards on Hey Dullblog

By |2016-03-24T10:31:33-07:00March 24, 2016|Housekeeping|

Your commanding officer, Mr. Paul McCartney They all laughed when we stepped up to the mic, but when we began to sing... Hey Dullblog is the most popular Beatles fan site on the web, with about a thousand visitors a day. This means that we're getting lots of new commenters, which we love. But now's a good time to remind everybody that Dullblog's a bit different than the rest of the internet: comments here are expected to be constructive, substantive and civil. Constructive meaning part of a good faith attempt on our all parts to learn more, and understand better, [...]

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Paul Is Dead Open Thread

By |2016-03-24T10:17:55-07:00March 24, 2016|Paul Is Dead (PID)|

Worst Hanukkah EVER In case you hadn't noticed, here at Dullblog, we live to serve. One of the topics that seems to be of persistent interest — particularly to Beatle fans under 40 — is the theory that Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike. (My personal theory is that Paul committed suicide so he wouldn't have to go through the Get Back/Let It Be sessions.) While there are lots of places to discuss PID on the internet, I'm creating this open thread so that people who want to dig into all the ins-and-outs of this [...]

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George Martin Tribute on Twenty-First Century Radio

By |2016-03-21T12:21:08-07:00March 21, 2016|Interviews|

"We have a ghost in our house in the country...he smokes a pipe." Commenter Linda sent me some interesting links to last night's two-hour George Martin tribute on Twenty-First Century Radio, hosted by Dr. Bob Hieronimus. Baltimore-based radio host and artist Hieronimus seems to be somewhat Art Bell-ish, but with a definite Beatles bent (he's written a whole book on Yellow Submarine). Hieronymus interviewed Martin six times between 1995 and 2007. Says Linda, "This is definitely interview material I have not encountered before — George Martin and Dr. Bob discuss ghosts, life elsewhere in the universe, ecological concerns... a departure from the [...]

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