Nancy Carr • Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Magical Mystery Band: The Beatles and God

By Nancy Carr|2016-02-17T10:41:20-08:00February 17, 2016|1964, Eastern religions, Guest blogger, India, rishikesh, Transcendental Meditation|

by Chris Dingman, guest Dullblogger I was born on April 3, 1964, the week The Beatles saturated the US pop charts like no act before or since, claiming the first five songs and fully fourteen percent of the top 100. But I wouldn’t hear them until some years later, when they would spark my first ideas of God. Chris Dingman -- you can read more about him and his projects at the end of this post. We tend to see Copernicus’s realization that the earth revolves around the sun instead of vice versa as the beginning of the end of [...]

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Starostin reviews “Abbey Road”

By Nancy Carr|2016-02-15T17:29:07-08:00February 15, 2016|1969, Abbey Road, Beatles Criticism, Beatles on the Web, George Starostin|

George Starostin, who by my calculations must sleep four hours or less per night to work an academic job and find time to review as many albums as he does. Indefatigable reviewer George Starostin, of the Only Solitaire blog, has just posted a review of the Beatles' Abbey Road. This one is part of his "Important Album Series," in which he is offering critical considerations of the "Top Albums of All Time" on the Rate Your Music site. Abbey Road currently sits at #7 on that site. I prefer the more comprehensive review of the album that Starostin posted in 2012 on his regular [...]

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Trump and the Beatles

By Nancy Carr|2016-02-11T14:52:59-08:00February 10, 2016|21st century references, Politics, The White Album|

This is just to say how disheartening I found it to hear the Beatles' "Revolution" played twice at Donald Trump's victory rally in New Hampshire last night. I realize that his use of the song is perfectly legal, and that it probably won't make a dime's worth of difference to the way anyone votes. And we seem long past the point where candidates even think about, let alone care, what the artists whose work they employ for political purposes would be likely to say about the platform their songs are being used to endorse. But at their best, the Beatles projected hope for a world that [...]

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“These Paper Bullets!”: The Fabs Meet the Bard

By Nancy Carr|2016-01-18T21:58:42-08:00January 18, 2016|AHDN, alternate history, Beatle-inspired, Beatlemania, Beatles fiction, comedy|

For everyone who's wondered what might have happened if Shakespeare had met the Beatles, These Paper Bullets! delivers "a modish rip-off of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing with a serious backbeat." I saw one of the last scheduled performances of the play, by New York's Atlantic Theater Company, and it was a delight. Despite a few wobbly bits, it stands on its own as a story—but it's also salted with plenty of in-jokes and references for Beatles fans. And the original songs, by Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, are outstanding. The play originated with the Yale Repertory Theatre, and its book was written by Rolin [...]

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David Bowie, Shine On

By Nancy Carr|2016-01-11T18:33:45-08:00January 11, 2016|David Bowie, john and yoko, John Lennon, Obituaries, Paul McCartney|

The news that David Bowie has died at age 69 has saddened people worldwide. He profoundly influenced musicians, fashion designers, and countless teenage kids who felt they were "weird" until they encountered his work. And he collaborated successfully with many other artists, including Brian Eno, Mick Jagger, and John Lennon, Bowie and John joined forces on the song "Fame," released in 1975, and were friends throughout the 70s. Today Yoko Ono paid tribute to Bowie, writing that "After John died, David was always there for Sean and me. When Sean was at boarding school in Switzerland, David would pick him up and take him [...]

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Comments and the spam filter

By Nancy Carr|2015-12-01T15:05:33-08:00December 1, 2015|comedy, Housekeeping|

Fished around in the spam filter today and retrieved two actual comments, one by ChelseaQW and one by Virginia Abreau de Paula –they’re now showing up in the appropriate threads. Everyone, if you submit a comment and it’s not posted within a few hours, please resend it. (Like George in "Blue Jay Way," we may be asleep—but there's also a chance the filter sucked in your comment. Either way, no harm in resending.) I made it to page 21 of 910 spam comment pages, folks. It’s no wonder the poor, hardworking thing shorts out occasionally and captures a real person’s remark—the inundation [...]

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Why Those Screaming Beatlemania Girls Matter

By Nancy Carr|2015-11-30T12:09:11-08:00November 30, 2015|Beatlemania, Beatles Criticism, books, pre-Beatles, Television|

Those videos of Beatlemania girls screaming have have always made me squirm. All that howling, weeping, and writhing bug me for multiple reasons. As a woman, they make me cringe because rock criticism defined itself against them: screeching gals over there, analytical guys over here. As a Beatles fan they make me wince because they (superficially) reinforce the argument made by many non-fans that the Beatles “were just a boy band.” At a time when Why-Can’t-The-Boomers-Just-Get-Over-The-Beatles-Already is a definite thing (see this Washington Post piece), it's worth asking: Really, why all that screaming? And why should any of us post-Boomers care? Measured [...]

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John and Paul, Friends and Rivals

By Nancy Carr|2015-10-15T12:42:31-07:00October 15, 2015|1969, Breakup, India, John and Paul, rishikesh|

This started as a comment on Mike's "Were John and Paul Lovers?" post. Though I wrote it before commenter Marcua's thoughts came in, we're expressing some similar ideas about the probable roots of John's post-India hostility toward Paul. I very much doubt that Lennon and McCartney were ever lovers. There's enough credible evidence that Lennon talked about and expressed interest in bisexuality for me to think he, at some point, recognized a degree of attraction to Paul. And there's enough from Paul ("he had beautiful hands," etc.) for me to think it might have gone both ways, if not as strongly. Could [...]

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Fest for Beatles Fans Chicago 2015

By Nancy Carr|2015-10-08T11:11:13-07:00September 29, 2015|Covers, Harrison family, Live, The Fest for Beatles Fans|

In the "better late than never" department, herewith some notes about attending a day of #ChiFest15 -- the first such I'd ever been to. My 16-year-old daughter accompanied me, and we met up with fellow Dullblogger Michael for part of the day. -- Nancy Carr Two Fest helpers -- the one in the white hat and sunglasses looked unnervingly like Yoko from some angles Events: A lot, and quite varied. Most fell into one of the following categories: authors talking about their books, people with some affiliation with the Beatles talking (often about their books), and a grab bag of alternatives (sing along contests, a FABratory of Beatles-related science, [...]

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Miley Cyrus’ Boobs Made Paul McCartney Uncomfortable

By Nancy Carr|2015-08-27T07:21:16-07:00August 27, 2015|Apple, Beatle-inspired, Fashion, Paul McCartney|

That title says it all, really. If you want to cut to the chase, start watching this clip from Jimmy Kimmel Live at about the 2:15 mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePCxz76qzr8 And in this photo of Cyrus, Jett, and McCartney at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Paul does a little . . . nonplussed. Say what you will about Miley, she's performing a version of 1960s freedom that the Beatles helped pioneer. She's done the Sgt. Pepper's cover album with the Flaming Lips, and I can just see her on the bus with Ken Kesey if she'd been a teenager [...]

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About Nancy Carr