I want to say right at the start that I've never really gotten the cult of Phil Spector. With all apologies to our beloved @Hologram Sam, rock and roll before The Beatles leaves me cold—and trust me, I've tried. All that Ronettes stuff sounds like a pompous, immature version of something Motown did so much better. I've also tried to like, or at least understand the appeal of, Phil Spector. I've read Tom Wolfe's 1964 essay "The First Tycoon of Teen" (not available online but worth a read).  I've pondered Spector's close friendship with Lenny Bruce—as described by Albert Goldman, among others. [...]

This morning the following video was dropped on Twitter, and it's been lighting up our comments, so here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UocEGvQ10OE So, basically, "A Hard Day's Night," circa 1969—which is what lots of Beatles fans wanted in 1970, and maybe even more want in 2020. It's really striking to see them doing the same kinds of cuts and capers they did in 1964, but with High Hippiedom swirling about them, and Yoko playing the role of Patti Boyd. Anybody who's ever cut together a film knows that the narrative is created by the editing; and Jackson's narrative is plainly meant to counterbalance [...]

I'm making one. What should be on it? Nominate songs in the comments. By the way, anybody read this book by Miles? I may have to. I read Shawn Levy's book Ready Steady Go! and liked it a lot.

Four years later, Led Zeppelin would make this hotel famous. The title is referring to a notorious groupie-related event in Led Zeppelin history, detailed here. Long dismissed as legend, it seems to have really happened in July 1969, and (could this possibly be?) everybody left the hotel room happy. Except, of course, for the poor shark. My last few posts have discussed the relationship of the Beatles' (and Lennon's) image versus the likely reality, and my desire for Beatle fandom to become more nuanced, sophisticated and—forgive the loaded word—adult in its relationship with these things. For us to stop giving [...]

"This Halloween, go as one of the biggest bastards on Earth!" Folks, just a quick post here but one I think is worth making. In the comments to my 80th birthday post for John Lennon, we're talking about John's bad behavior (specifically his abuse of women--and men, too, though that is mentioned less). It's come up several times, and indeed the original post mentions that younger fans don't connect with John because they think he was a hypocritical asshole. Can't argue with that; "All You Need Is Love" does sound different coming out of the mouth of a "hitter." But [...]

Lennon, no saint, mid-miracle. I haven't been thinking a lot about The Beatles or John Lennon lately, which is why you haven't seen me around here. But today being John Lennon's 80th birthday, I was awakened with this article from Esquire.com in my Twitter feed: "The Difficulty of Remembering John Lennon Today," by Alan Light. "Why does John Lennon, for decades one of the world’s most beloved figures," Light writes, "seem to be coming under increased scrutiny, and getting a more critical look, from younger generations?" The article makes some interesting observations and you'll enjoy it, but the answer is [...]

Being immortalized in wax is a particularly harsh price of fame, don't you think? Even the dummies reproduced on the cover of Sgt. Pepper (surely the best of a bad lot) seem to have at best a distant relationship to their human counterparts. But this one, provided by friend and fellow Beatlefan Stephen Kroninger, takes the cake. If you have better (or worse), put 'em in the comments. This dubious quartet resided in Louis Tussaud's House of Wax in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, famed throughout Britain as the world's worst wax museum. It was closed in 2013; Jean, Paol, Jorge, and Ringoo—along with [...]