J & P on the same mic. Any other instances you can remember? [Updated January 2014: Apple's taken down the original clip, so here's one of them doing the song for "Blackpool Night Out." Two Beatles, one mic, as noted in the comments.] http://youtu.be/JgyWUQOicuY
Flower Power. Hi folks! We're getting a LOT of comments these days, which we love. Hologram Sam just sent a yawp of protest over a couple of his comments not appearing, so I wanted to set down what our guidelines are, because I realized that we haven't ever done that. 1) We love comments. Love 'em. 2) We approve 99% of readers' comments. 3) The only comments we don't approve are ones which we feel a) don't add anything substantive to the discussion, and b) are uncivil, e.g., "Yoko is a beeyotch." Ms. Ono-Lennon may or may not be a [...]
John and Paul face off, 1969 Some thoughts about an aspect of Lennon's and McCartney's solo music, prompted by some recent re-listening. -- Nancy After the break up, each Beatle pursued his own musical sensibilities pretty much unchecked. Here I want to look at a difference between Lennon’s and McCartney’s solo music that hasn’t gotten much critical attention: Lennon’s tendency to write songs of rejection and McCartney’s tendency to write songs of invitation. Since we’re considering Lennon and McCartney, everything is maddeningly complicated. Presenting them as opposites or complements overlooks all the ways their music overlaps, and focusing on a [...]
Black and white from White NANCY CARR • I can't resist highlighting another recent George Starostin review, this one of The Beatles. Every time I read his reviews, especially his reviews of the Beatles' work, I'm floored again by the fact that he's writing and publishing for free writing about music that's better than 90 percent of today's paid music journalism. While apparently working a day job as a linguistics researcher at a university. Call it slacking, call it idling, call it a hobby, call it anything you like—it's great. You can read his whole review here: http://only-solitaire.blogspot.com/2012/05/beatles-beatles.html Perhaps the best review [...]
I recently praised George Starostin's "Only Solitaire" review website on a comments thread, and wanted to draw the attention of Hey Dullblog's readers to his blog, which features reviews of new music and revisitings of music discussed on the original, now archived "Only Solitaire" site. The latest review is of "Magical Mystery Tour," and includes much to think on for any Beatles listener. http://only-solitaire.blogspot.com/2012/05/beatles-magical-mystery-tour.html [Background info: George Starostin isn't a professional reviewer, but a Russian linguist, born in 1976, who is a member of the faculty of the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow.] Postscript (added May 12): you can [...]
Sure, they seem harmless enough. But were they leading rock off a cliff? Commenter Hologram Sam (nice handle, man) pointed us to a nice little screed by Gene Sculatti, where he compactly autopsies the music we love. If that name sounds familiar, it's because Sculatti was the main brain behind the fun pop culture compendia The Catalog of Cool and Too Cool.I thought the piece was provocative enough to surface on a post of its own. Read it and give an opinion: were The Beatles part of the problem? Or can their example lead rock back to life?
I thought critical opinion had largely come around to appreciating Paul and Linda McCartney’s Ram, 41 years after its release, but apparently not. It’s true that allmusic.com gives it five stars, having inched its rating up over the years, but a couple of reviews of the remastered album, due out later this month, are déjà vu all over again. The latest issue of Qmagazine gives the remastered album 2 stars. For context, the previous issue included a rapturous 5-star review of the reissues of the Human League’s Dare and Fascination albums, and called Lana Del Ray’s Born to Die a “Must Buy” [...]
Several nowhere boys ED PARK • Just saw this on Salon—a very good review of the Scorsese documentary on George and of "Nowhere Boy." I love that the author, Erik Nelson, describes himself as "a card-carrying Beatlemaniac, with a mail-order degree in advanced Moptopology." This is my favorite paragraph: "A much scruffier and ultimately more revealing insight into the Beatles Creation Myth comes from the 2009 "Nowhere Boy." This movie is set entirely in those moments when a strange kind of human alchemy transpired, in the grimy laboratory of Liverpool. No attempt is made to explain how the magic happened, but the viewer gets [...]
1963: The Beatles (and Nell?) relax in the sun in Weston-Super-Mare during a week’s appearance at the local cinema. MIKE GERBER • This photo's Beatleness caught my eye, but my love of Python made me post it. An extra scoop of cosmic ice cream to the first person who makes the connection in the Comments... Friend Shirley Tulloch made the following comment when she posted it on Facebook. "Never seen this pic before. If that is Nell in the background, he was truly blessed no? ;)"
Another month, another Q magazine "Best Of" list. This time it's "The Real Best Of" most of the usual suspects (the Stones, the Smiths, Madonna, Springsteen, etc.), with the cover declaring "AND IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK . . ." And OK, this worked, because I wanted to see what Q is presenting as "The Real Best Of" the Beatles.The Beatles 10-best list was chosen by Rob Fitzpatrick, and I give him credit for declaring them "the most underrated pop group in history. " I agree that "they're the only group in the history of pop music that are actually better than everyone [...]