Michael Gerber • Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Paul McCartney: Screwed by life

By Michael Gerber|2015-01-03T15:06:35-08:00December 17, 2013|McCartney: Man of the People, Paul McCartney|

Didn't want the bloody thing anyway MIKE GERBER • Paul McCartney was at last night's Nets-76ers game, and came this close to nabbing a t-shirt from one of those slingshots. So the next time you think, "Geez, some people have all the luck," remember, not all of it. Some people become world-famous billionaire geniuses, and others get a free t-shirt. PS—The shirt reads: "I sat near Paul McCartney and all I got was…" PPS—THINK OF THE ODDS! First, you have to go to the game, and Paul has to go to the game. Then, out of all the combinations of [...]

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Lewisohn review round-up

By Michael Gerber|2014-08-01T11:56:19-07:00December 9, 2013|biography, books, Mark Lewisohn, Tune In|

The title that always gets attention For those of you who have asked for details on what can only be called "revelations" regarding George Martin's forced signing of The Beatles, Tim Riley's review in the NYT spills the beans on that. He also notes Lewisohn's possible debunking of Lennon's Choice between Alf and Julia though—to his credit, I think—Riley doesn't really buy Lewisohn's take. What man would turn to his sailor buddy and say, "Yeah, my son just picked his mother over me"? BTW, our Devin's Magic Circles gets name-checked and called "shrewd" to boot. For those of you who've [...]

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The Beatles and Criticism

By Michael Gerber|2013-11-19T21:22:17-08:00November 19, 2013|books, Reviews|

"Apparently, we're not a patch on The Shadows." MIKE GERBER • Devin wrote something in an comment regarding The Beatles and criticism that I thought was too well-expressed, and too rich a topic, not to break out for further discussion. First, here's Devin's comment (edited a bit by me; follow this link to get the full version): Something’s been sticking in my craw for some time, and I will take this occasion to extract it. A while past on this blog, I posted a video of myself and a friend debating the best Beatles album. I picked the White Album, [...]

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Beatles For Sale sessions

By Michael Gerber|2015-01-04T20:18:31-08:00November 4, 2013|1964|

Four little-known musicians from Liverpool, 1964 MIKE GERBER • We've linked to the devilishly delightful site Willard's Wormholes before, and in the process of fixing that link this morning, I found a wonderful something I just had to pass along. My love for 1964's Oh-Shit-Christmas-Is-Coming LP Beatles For Sale is almost as idiosyncratic as my affection for psychedelia.* Truth be told, I think my love began when I heard Malcolm McDowell's almost ominous descriptions of the period in "The Compleat Beatles". ("Haggard"..."windswept"...am I making this up? I distinctly remember it.) It's the backside of Beatlemania that I'm always more interested in. [...]

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If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger…

By Michael Gerber|2013-11-04T11:36:22-08:00October 29, 2013|Beatles on the Web, Photos|

"Is it me, or does the guy on the target look like Allen Klein?" MIKE GERBER • Devin has called Tom Sutpen's blog "If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There's Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats" the best blog ever, and you can add my voice to the chorus of praise. I've been browsing it for years, and find it all the stuff that dreams are made of. Sutpen's beat is the same 20s to 70s culture I love myself, and while I haven't listened to the podcast (opinions?) his eye for the odd or arresting or simply beautiful [...]

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Nik Cohn reviews Abbey Road, 1969

By Michael Gerber|2013-10-26T11:11:41-07:00October 26, 2013|1969, Abbey Road|

An outtake from Abbey Road (the cover, I mean) Dullblogger Ed (come back Ed! we miss you!) shared a link this morning: Nik Cohn's original review of Abbey Road for The New York Times. I always find hot-off-the-press reviews like this really interesting; for one thing, they give us a sense of how differently now-iconic bits of culture were seen at that time, which not only demonstrates how changeable things are—that there are pieces of work truly more in tune with a past or future than their time of creation—but also give us a clue as to how the texture [...]

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Emitt Rhodes: The One Man Beatles

By Michael Gerber|2013-11-04T10:36:15-08:00October 2, 2013|Beatle-inspired|

Emitt Rhodes, four musicians in one. “I hate those guys [The Beatles]! They ruined my life!”—Emitt Rhodes For a while I'd heard about Emitt Rhodes, famously called "the one man Beatles," but I'd never actually heard him. So I gave a listen and (unsurprisingly) liked it enough to share. Rhodes' career is a fairly standard Sixties story: guy forms a band with some buddies; gigs around for a couple years; is spotted by an A&R man and given a contract; records an LP which, while good, doesn't catch fire; then struggles to fulfill his contract in a business more interested [...]

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George Harrison joke in The Onion

By Michael Gerber|2013-09-24T09:58:19-07:00September 24, 2013|comedy, George Harrison|

A friend who works for The Onion wrote a George Harrison joke, which you can find here. George tells his own Beatles joke below. http://youtu.be/42udXDE36-0

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Good Ol’ Freda: True tales from the Beatles’ loyal secretary

By Michael Gerber|2022-07-25T11:41:59-07:00September 16, 2013|Apple/Inner Circle, Documentaries, Guest blogger|

Guest review by LINDA MARSHALL-SMITH • When 17-year-old Beatles fan Freda Kelly was hired as Brian Epstein’s secretary in 1962, she couldn’t have known she was in for a uniquely intimate ten-year view of Beatlemania and its aftermath. Unlike many of the Beatles’ former associates, Kelly—a self-described “private person”—has kept her stories of the band under wraps for decades. In Ryan White’s newly released documentary, also available on iTunes, she finally shares her tales. (Well, some of them.) A Beatles fan’s dream job Kelly’s firsthand observations about the Beatles and their inner circle make the film well worth watching. She tells stories [...]

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About Michael Gerber