Devin McKinney • Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Review: RAM (Paul McCartney Archive Collection)

By Devin McKinney|2016-12-04T18:27:45-08:00July 31, 2012|1970s, 1971, Paul McCartney, solo|

DEVIN McKINNEY • Can anyone think of another pop record whose qualities have been so vindicated, and whose reputation has been so rehabilitated, by time? Though I’ve fought bravely on this site against massed resistance (well, one or two people) to call it something just less than a masterpiece—can’t get past a certain emotional vacuity at the core of things—RAM is so bountifully queer and cleanly, gracefully executed, the beautiful song crowded by the gargoyle-ugly, that finally masterpiece doesn’t matter. I’ve loved RAM since I first heard it. It is Paul’s best solo record by a distance, and one of my favorites [...]

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Ah! Girl.

By Devin McKinney|2014-07-23T11:59:06-07:00July 27, 2012|Beatle-inspired, Beatles tributes, Uncategorized|

DEVIN McKINNEY • No reason.

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This …

By Devin McKinney|2014-07-23T11:59:11-07:00July 15, 2012|1960, Hamburg|

... is absolutely transfixing. From who knows where, via Kenwood.

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The Beatles Writings of Joshua Glenn: “Origin of the Pogo”

By Devin McKinney|2015-04-26T06:12:25-07:00July 1, 2012|comedy, Guest blogger|

The fourth in our series of guest appearances by Beatles scholar-investigator Joshua Glenn could be subtitled “or, Ringo Observed in his Natural Habitat.” Following on from ideas—or suspicions—about the secret lives behind familiar Beatles-associated faces first elaborated in “Big Mal Lives!,” Glenn uncovers the identity and unravels the agenda of the flamingo-like gentleman seen dancing sociably with, or at least in proximity to, Ringo in the nightclub scene of A Hard Day’s Night. Who but Glenn would have suspected this brief, rather happy scene was a window on the dark doings of anthropologists and punk rockers—the two most wantonly antisocial groups of [...]

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We all live in a white motorboat

By Devin McKinney|2014-07-23T12:00:04-07:00June 15, 2012|1964, 1965|

DEVIN McKINNEY • This exhibit of 1964-65 Beatlepics by Curt Gunther and Robert Whitaker begins today at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in Soho. It's supposed to run through the summer, so I hope it's still there when I go to NY next month for a friend's birthday. Maybe if we ask him real nice, Beatle Ed, the only HD co-founder who is still a Gotham resident, could stop in and give a report?

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“You Shoulda Been There” Dept.

By Devin McKinney|2014-07-23T12:00:27-07:00June 10, 2012|Beatles tributes, The White Album|

DEVIN McKINNEY • I'd love to know how Legault delivered "Revolution 9."From Polestar Poetry Series.

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The Beatles as wicked-looking innovators

By Devin McKinney|2016-02-07T19:42:18-08:00June 5, 2012|1963, Beatlemania|

Sometimes it’s good to go through the time tunnel and remember that once the Beatles were “the strangest group to ever hit the pop scene.” I was reminded of this when I happened across The Best of Boyfriend (ed. Melissa Hyland: Prion, 2008) in a bookstore. Boyfriend was a UK magazine for young women published from 1959 to 1966, and in addition to advice columns, clothing ads, and serial fiction, it featured stories and pictures of the latest musical groups. In early 1963 Boyfriend ran a spread on the Beatles, who had recently released “Please Please Me.” The anonymous writer sounds almost [...]

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The Beatles Writings of Joshua Glenn: “I’m Only Slacking”

By Devin McKinney|2015-04-26T06:14:12-07:00May 15, 2012|comedy, Guest blogger, Help, Let It Be|

In 2008, upon publication of The Idler’s Glossary, one of its authors, Joshua Glenn, engaged in an exchange of open letters with his co-author, Mark Kingwell—the topic of which, befitting the themes of the book, was the proper distinction between idling and slacking. In Glenn’s half of the exchange, our serial contributor illustrates the matter with apt and breezy reference to the Beatles, and even draws a productive contrast with the Rolling Stones (a band whose existence, for whatever reason, has seldom been acknowledged by anyone at Hey Dullblog). Lest it be felt that this discussion is of limited relevance, consider that [...]

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Greil Marcus: “You won’t outgrow this”

By Devin McKinney|2013-08-13T22:50:12-07:00May 7, 2012|Beatles tributes|

Greil Marcus, not outgrowing it. Simon Reynolds: . . . [I]t just struck me how rock 'n' roll early on was teenage music, and even when it got arty and a little bit more grown-up, it was still caught in that sixties live-for-now mindset. Like Jim Morrison counseling "learn to forget." Rock 'n' roll in the beginning was very much "don't know much about history," but then all of sudden you've got the Band doing "King Harvest" about the plight of farmers in the late 19th century, and a little bit later Randy Newman singing songs about slavery. Greil Marcus: [...]

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“Poor old Buddy”

By Devin McKinney|2013-08-13T22:50:42-07:00May 6, 2012|1972, john and yoko, John Lennon, solo|

DEVIN McKINNEY • Greil Marcus sends a link to this rare footage from 1972: John Lennon playing "Rock Island Line," with snatches of two Buddy Holly numbers, "Maybe Baby" and "Peggy Sue." Yoko provides handclaps for the first number (in rhythm!) and vocal interjections for the latter. But mainly it's just John's voice and raunchy guitar reaching out in time, coming back with a feeling you can see in his face. In return, I sent Marcus this photo I took on April 22, 2011, outside the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, where Buddy Holly played the night before his plane went [...]

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