Nancy Carr • Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Ethical Reflections on John/Paul

By Nancy Carr|2024-04-22T15:14:27-07:00January 14, 2020|Beatle myth, Beatles fiction, fans, John and Paul, Linda McCartney, Uncategorized, Yoko Ono|

I’m writing this because the discussion on the “Were John and Paul Lovers?” post has been niggling at me for a while now. Though it was published more than six years ago, it's one of Hey Dullblog’s most viewed and most contentious posts. And because Michael Gerber and I read every comment as it goes through moderation, we're aware of movements on the blog in a way others may not be. Given the persistent interest in this topic, I've decided that it’s worth articulating my thoughts about it in more depth. Backstage at Hey Dullblog can get complicated I want to [...]

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George Starostin on music today

By Nancy Carr|2019-11-12T07:51:43-08:00November 12, 2019|Uncategorized|

Longtime readers of Hey Dullblog will recall that I've posted about Starostin's music reviews before. He's prolific, insightful, and unafraid to swim against the tide -- though he's never a contrarian for controversy's sake. His reviews of the Beatles catalog are well worth reading. His original site is here, and the site he is currently updating is here. On September 1 of this year Starostin posted a lengthy essay entitled "Music: Where The Hell Is It Heading To (Twenty Years After)?" Hard to believe that it's been two decades since Starostin published his first long essay about the state of music, but [...]

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Willy Chirino, “My Beatles Heart”

By Nancy Carr|2019-08-07T11:00:44-07:00August 7, 2019|Beatle-inspired, Beatles tributes, Covers, Covers, Uncategorized|

Willie Chirino's 2011 collection of Fab Four songs, My Beatles Heart, is one of the few cover albums I listen to regularly all the way through. Chirino is a Cuban-American musician, singer, and songwriter who lives in Florida and was involved in the salsa-based "Miami Sound" back in the 1970s and 80s. I'm not familiar with much of his other music, but I highly recommend My Beatles Heart. I love the way Chirino uses Latin rhythms and instrumentation on these covers and the creativity he shows in referencing other Beatles songs within a cover. On the "Yellow Submarine" version below, for instance, [...]

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“Yesterday,” the film: slight but fun

By Nancy Carr|2019-08-07T00:51:32-07:00July 24, 2019|alternate history, Beatle-inspired, Film, Movies, Uncategorized|

"Yesterday" is wildly implausible, to a degree that makes "Back To The Future" look like a serious exploration of the theory of relativity. It's a sheer waste of time to ask yourself any of the innumerable questions raised by the macguffin that is the film's premise. But if you're willing to suspend your disbelief, it's a pretty fun romp. That's my take, anyway: opinions are certainly divided. Great credit must be given to the cast. Himish Patel's intense likability makes scenes work that really shouldn't. Kate McKinnon steals every frame she's in, as an evil music executive. And Ed Sheeran is believably [...]

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Lennon and McCartney’s “lost reunion,” by David Gambacorta

By Nancy Carr|2019-06-25T11:11:23-07:00June 25, 2019|1974, Beatles in LA, bootlegs, Breakup, Chris Carter/Breakfast With the Beatles, Harry NIlsson, John and Paul, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Uncategorized, Unreleased/Outtakes|

Posted at the excellent aggregator and original writing site Longreads is David Gambacorta's exploration of the 1974 California jam session John Lennon and Paul McCartney engaged in -- the last time they would play together. Most Beatles fans will be familiar with the history Gambacorta recounts, but it's nice to see it laid out succinctly. Gambacorta does turn up a few facts that were, at least, new to me: for example, it's not clear what happened to the master tapes made that night. And the piece is well worth reading for the recent comments Gambacorta got from several people, including Elliot Mintz, [...]

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McCartney Talks Carpool Karaoke

By Nancy Carr|2019-06-21T11:14:32-07:00June 21, 2019|Interviews, Live, Liverpool, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Television, Uncategorized|

The Paul McCartney episode of Carpool Karaoke has been so wildly popular (about 130 million people have watched it on YouTube or Facebook, and it spawned an extended version as well) that it's hard to imagine that the show almost didn't happen. But it's true. McCartney and Corden in the car. I saw McCartney play at Globe Life Park in Arlington, TX on June 14 (another three-hour marathon, featuring 38 songs), and the tour program includes a lengthy interview with the following exchange: You made even more headlines when your appearance on Carpool Karaoke went globally viral, generating millions of views. And [...]

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Above Us Only Sky: New “Imagine” Documentary

By Nancy Carr|2020-09-10T11:20:33-07:00May 13, 2019|john and yoko, John Lennon, Julian Lennon, Movies, solo, Yoko Ono|

"Imagine" is already the most well-examined John Lennon album, but the new A&E documentary Above Us Only Sky is well worth watching. Here's the network's description: "This special traces the untold story of the making of John Lennon's 1971 album "Imagine." Utilizing never-before-seen footage of Lennon and Ono from their private archive, the special delves into the depth of the creative collaboration between the couple and explores how the art, politics and music of the pair are intrinsically entwined. Features interviews with the people who witnessed the period first hand including Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon, David Bailey (photographer), John Dunbar (Gallerist who [...]

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Charles Manson Is Dead

By Nancy Carr|2020-09-10T11:21:32-07:00November 20, 2017|1968, Obituaries, Paul Is Dead (PID), The White Album|

Manson, wannabe musician. Charles Manson, who used a paranoid reading of the Beatles' "White Album" to spur his followers to murder, is dead at 83. Alas, the kind of fear-mongering false narrative that he helped pioneer is very much alive. Like the mixers of the toxic social media soup we're all swimming in today, Manson specialized in us-vs-them stories, especially racist ones. He didn't really care if they were true; he cared that they were effective. He was one of the origin points of the "alternative facts" conspiracy theory. Manson was also relentlessly narcissistic, convinced that the Beatles were sending [...]

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Interview with Jay Goeppner of the the Beatle Brothers

By Nancy Carr|2021-07-23T07:28:33-07:00August 28, 2017|Beatle-inspired, concert, Covers, Covers, Interviews, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, The Fest for Beatles Fans|

Chicago-based singer Jay Goeppner pours his fervent love for the music of the Beatles, and John Lennon, into every performance. His voice, and his energy onstage, are almost eerily similar to Lennon's. I've seen several of his Beatle Brothers shows, and can testify that the only time I've gotten a stronger Beatles vibe was at Paul McCartney's concerts, since rock and metal concerts have always been my favorites and I even look for metal concerts near me every time I can. I caught up with Jay by phone recently, as he was returning from a last-minute road trip to fill in for [...]

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A George Harrison summer playlist

By Nancy Carr|2017-06-02T08:57:43-07:00June 2, 2017|Covers, Eastern religions, George Harrison|

The Best of Dark Horse came up on my iTunes shuffle the other day, and I was struck by how many George Harrison songs can go with a sunny, breezy day. George has a (not wholly undeserved) reputation as the dour Beatle, but here's a playlist of his solo songs that I think make for good summer listening. 1. "Blow Away" (1979) -- A great hook ("Blow away, blow away, blow away!") and lyrics that sound like a sequel to "Here Comes the Sun": All I got to do is to love you All I got to be is, be happy All it's got to take is [...]

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About Nancy Carr