Devin McKinney • Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Book Review: “Beatles vs. Stones”

By Devin McKinney|2016-12-01T17:40:34-08:00July 22, 2013|1968, Beatles vs. Stones, biography, books|

Beatles vs. Stones by John McMillian 288 pp. Simon & Schuster, 2013 Reviewed by Devin McKinney A character in Jonathan Lethem’s novel The Fortress of Solitude claims that every small-group dynamic found in fiction or in life is comprehensible via the Beatles model of organizational relationships: “The Beatles thing is an archetype, it’s like the basic human formation. Everything naturally forms into a Beatles, people can’t help it.” He illustrates this theory by applying it, convincingly, to Star Wars and The Tonight Show. (For the record, the archetypal roles—or “four sides of the circle,” as the title of a Beatles bootleg once [...]

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Devin after reading the preceding item

By Devin McKinney|2013-08-01T12:23:29-07:00July 17, 2013|The White Album|

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These happy days are yours and—?!

By Devin McKinney|2014-07-23T11:56:35-07:00July 12, 2013|1970s, 1974, John Lennon, Ron Howard, Television|

DEVIN McKINNEY • This comes by way of Tom Sutpen's If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats, which I've more than once called "the best blogsite there's ever been, ever." It appears under the heading "When Legends Gather." (For the irredeemably trivia-minded, I'm pretty sure that's Jerry Paris with half of his face cut off at the right side. He was Rob and Laura's neighbor on The Dick Van Dyke Show, plus he directed 200 eps of Happy Days.)

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Beatles, Stones, and serial killers

By Devin McKinney|2013-08-18T01:12:04-07:00July 8, 2013|Beatles vs. Stones|

Midnight Rambler DEVIN McKINNEY • A friend sent this link to a Guardian article titled “31 Songs That Changed My Life,” in which a variety of English creatives (actually, not enough variety—only six are women) name and briefly describe a song they found in some way determinative of their personal development. Per the EW “best album” commented on by Mike, I don’t like such lists yet I almost always look at them. This entry caught me: #15, by Scottish crime novelist Ian Rankin: Midnight Rambler by The Rolling Stones I have chosen this from my favourite Rolling Stones album: I’m [...]

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“Which Beatles Album Is Actually Their Best?”

By Devin McKinney|2013-09-02T08:07:17-07:00May 29, 2013|1968, The White Album|

DEVIN McKINNEY • For the enjoyment of anyone with the requisite interest and 45 minutes, here's myself and a friend, music writer Tom Kipp, debating the question at the Experience Music Project Pop Conference, EMP Museum, Seattle, this April 20 past. Can anyone here guess which album I picked? That's bon vivant Sean Nelson as our m.c., and H. B. Radke running the A/V.

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Fool’s Goldman: Reliving “The Lives of John Lennon”

By Devin McKinney|2013-08-13T22:41:29-07:00March 19, 2013|biography, books, John Lennon, Lennon|

DEVIN McKINNEY • Warning—there’s a lot of rant here, most of it to do with Albert Goldman but some of it just my articulated flailings about the nature of biography and criticism, writers and readers. But Michael asked, I answered, this is our blog, and we make the rules. So strap on your poncho and feel free to skip around. Reading the “Drugs and Differences” comments, I took special note when the ghost of Albert Goldman reared its shiny dome. He’s so easy to despise and so difficult to defend on any level, but I’m always curious about the case to be [...]

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It’s Yoko’s birthday. Let the abuse begin.

By Devin McKinney|2013-08-13T22:41:59-07:00February 18, 2013|john and yoko, Uncategorized|

DEVIN McKINNEY • Recommended reading on Yoko's birthday. (Anyone have party plans?) Even if it does come from the dread Slate, it's one of the few halfway objective assessments you're going to find on the Internet (kind of a dread place in general, sometimes).

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The less-than-best cover

By Devin McKinney|2014-07-23T11:57:26-07:00February 18, 2013|bootlegs|

DEVIN McKINNEY • Mike said he'd be curious to see this (see comments to "The best cover" below). It was purchased in a bodega on a dusty side street in Ariquipa, Peru, late 1990s. Far from the strangest item in my Beatles closet, but far from the least interesting. (I should specify: This is not properly speaking a bootleg, but a pirate edition—an illegitimate recycling of previously released material.)

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When I was a little boy, way back home in Liverpool

By Devin McKinney|2014-07-23T11:58:14-07:00September 15, 2012|John Lennon|

DEVIN McKINNEY • More John Lennon photo-animation, from The Gilly, this great Beatles Tumblr I done found.

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I’ve got a love-uh-ly bunch of coconuts

By Devin McKinney|2014-07-23T11:58:33-07:00August 22, 2012|1967|

DEVIN McKINNEY • The news comes through this morning that Magical Mystery Tour is to be released in remastered form on DVD and BluRay on October 9 in North America, a day earlier everywhere else. The remaster is more than welcome, with the advertised extras making the Deluxe Edition compulsory for the committed. (I just ordered mine.) There's been talk here of the music, but I don't remember any real discussion of the movie. What do people think of it? Anyone who hasn't seen it? I last saw it several years ago, having purchased a legit VHS edition briefly put out by [...]

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About Devin McKinney