Nancy Carr • Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

“Art of McCartney” tribute album mostly meh

By Nancy Carr|2014-11-25T07:56:03-08:00November 25, 2014|Beatles tributes, Bob Dylan, Covers, Paul McCartney, Uncategorized, Wings|

NANCY CARR * The recently released "Art of McCartney" tribute album could have been--should have been--so much better. Lots of songs and lots of artists, many of them big names. But the album suffers from two major problems: the track list is weighted toward songs that have been covered a lot (often better than here), and too many of the performers stick so close to the original arrangements that at times the effect is Karaoke Night at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For example, both Billy Joel cuts, "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Live and Let Die," are virtual reenactments of [...]

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Flaming Lips’ “With a Little Help from My Fwends”: Sgt. Pepper’s through a 21st century blender

By Nancy Carr|2014-11-03T10:09:08-08:00November 3, 2014|1967, Covers, Drugs, Flaming Lips, Psychedelia, Sgt. Pepper|

Watch up for that blue goo--it really gums up the songs. NANCY CARR * With a Little Help from My Fwends, the Sgt. Pepper’s tribute album from the Flaming Lips and a bunch of their buddies, is a frequently painful listening experience that is also revelatory. It’s just that much of what it reveals leads to depressing conclusions about how the 21st century is shaping up. This is a true cover album, in the sense that Booker T. and the MG’s McLemore Avenue is, and that Mojo magazine compilations of various people doing songs from Revolver or Yellow Submarine aren’t. [...]

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McCartney in Dallas: A World-Class Balancing Act

By Nancy Carr|2014-10-16T14:02:28-07:00October 16, 2014|"New" album, Live, Paul McCartney, solo, Wings|

NANCY CARR • My favorite moment of Paul McCartney's October 13 show in Dallas was a visual grace note. At the end of a song, as a stagehand came forward to take McCartney's Hofner bass and give him a guitar, McCartney held the vintage instrument up and balanced it one-handed, headstock down, body up. He looked at it, and the audience, teasingly, as if he might really let it fall. Seeing him let that elegantly long-necked bass—the same one he was playing 50 years ago in A Hard Day's Night—sway in the air was an astonishment. After a breathless second, the Hofner [...]

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George Harrison and Krishna: Devotional Display in Dallas

By Nancy Carr|2015-01-03T14:55:32-08:00October 15, 2014|Art, B.G. Sharma, Eastern religions, George Harrison, India|

NANCY CARR * While looking at the jade collection in the Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas earlier this week, I was surprised to hear "My Sweet Lord" playing faintly in the distance. A museum worker was moving pedestals around in a nearby gallery, preparing for a new exhibit: was she listening to the radio quietly? Or did I just have such an advanced case of Beatles-on-the-brain that the song was only in my head? Krishna, cowherds, and cows sheltering during a storm by B.G. Sharma No, the answer was upstairs, in the exhibit "Seeing and Believing: Krishna in [...]

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McCartney at Candlestick Park

By Nancy Carr|2014-08-22T15:21:12-07:00August 19, 2014|concert, Paul McCartney, solo, Wings|

NANCY CARR • Who can open a sold-out arena show with two songs he worked on that were released nearly 50 years apart? That would be Paul McCartney, who started his August 14 Candlestick Park concert with “Eight Days A Week” (1964) and “Save Us” (2013). McCartney closed down Candlestick in a rain of firework sparks and confetti, after playing 40 songs that often had the crowd singing, clapping, and dancing along. At this point it can be easy to take his shows for granted: you know certain songs will be played, that Roman candles will be set off during “Live and Let [...]

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Joshua Wolf Shenk on Lennon and McCartney (Take 1)

By Nancy Carr|2014-08-08T15:09:33-07:00August 8, 2014|books, John and Paul, Joshua Wolf Shenk, The White Album|

[Beloved HD readers: We're trying something a little new here, a call-and-response. This is my take on a recent piece in The Atlantic by Joshua Wolf Shenk on Lennon and McCartney. Soon Mike and/or Devin will chime in with posts of their own. -- Nancy Carr] What hath Malcolm Gladwell wrought? Thith. Hi Mike and Devin, I just finished reading Joshua Wolf Shenk’s Atlantic cover story on the Lennon/McCartney partnership, and while it has its flaws, I'm glad to see John and Paul presented as full collaborators. How crazy is it that it's necessary to argue that the entire Lennon/McCartney songbook [...]

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Jude Southerland Kessler’s Lennon books: not nonfiction

By Nancy Carr|2014-06-29T20:08:49-07:00June 29, 2014|books|

Jude Southerland Kessler, author of series of books on the life of John Lennon. NANCY CARR • As the Beatles’ story is told and retold, the line between fact and fiction can grow vanishingly thin, and that’s why this interview with author Jude Southerland Kessler alarms me. She’s currently promoting volume three of a projected nine-book Lennon project she hopes will be “John’s ultimate biography.” Kessler is writing Lennon’s life in novelistic style, basing the narrative on fact while fleshing out conversations and scenes. Here’s what concerns me: she insists her books are equivalent to conventionally researched and presented biographies, and [...]

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Beatles in Austin

By Nancy Carr|2014-06-03T07:39:49-07:00June 3, 2014|Beatle-inspired, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Sgt. Pepper|

"We're coming to take you away -- FOREVER!" "Yoko, I've a feeling we're not in Manhattan anymore." NANCY CARR * My recent stroll down South Congress in Austin proved again that the Beatles are everywhere. I especially liked Sgt. Pepper's Day of the Dead Club Band at the Mi Casa folk art shop. The prize for sheer oddness goes to the St. Vincent De Paul thrift shop, which has John Lennon, rendered in chalk, presiding over the linen department. And "smile even if you don't want to" strikes me as one of the mottoes Paul McCartney lives by. [...]

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Those McCartney e-tickets may be stolen

By Nancy Carr|2014-05-06T04:01:08-07:00May 6, 2014|Beatles merch, Beatles on the Web, concert|

NANCY CARR * Paul McCartney's "Farewell to Candlestick Park" show, on August 14, is generating some crazy reselling action—tickets for the sold-out show are being hawked for up to 20 times face value. If you're looking for tickets, take a tip from my recent experience and do everything possible to ensure you're not buying stolen tickets that have been cancelled and will be worthless at the gate, as happened to U2 fans some years ago. After I bought tickets from Ticketmaster through the American Express presale last Thursday, my email was hacked: and so soon after I bought them, it looks like someone [...]

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Lewisohn’s “Tune In” Extended Edition back in print

By Nancy Carr|2014-08-01T11:53:24-07:00April 28, 2014|books, Housekeeping, Mark Lewisohn, Tune In|

Update for anyone who didn't seize a copy of the two-volume, extended version of Vol 1 of Mark Lewisohn's definitive biography of the Beatles: due to popular demand, it's been reprinted and is in stock in the U.K. You can buy a copy here. My advice is not to sleep on this, if you're interested. I wouldn't bet on another reprint.

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About Nancy Carr