Ravi works George out
Reader Rupa S. pointed me to this great clip of George Harrison and Ravi Shankar from 1968 (before George decided to stick to guitar). RIP, Ravi Shankar. Glad to be alive at the same time you were. http://youtu.be/t79aI-I6ucA
Did Yellow Submarine beget The Simpsons?
Simpsons writer Josh Weinstein argues so in this (hotly debated) article for The Guardian. Without Yellow Submarine there would never have beenThe Simpsons, no Futurama, no South Park, no Toy Story, no Shrek. No animated anything that enables us to laugh at ourselves while being highly entertained. Naturally, I want to believe him. In my opinion, The Beatles (and -related) are that clear, burbling spring from which all good things flow. Of course the comments are alive with internet types, people who obsessively leapfrog each other in truth-owning appeals to obscure authority, who defiantly declare that Yellow Sub was/is shite and the REAL breakthroughs were the [...]
Gran and The Giggler in Granta
Commenter Dorinish tipped us off to this lovely Beatle-related short story in Granta.
Prudence and the Penis: A Mystery
We know who wrote it. But who is on the Dear Prudence drum track? DEVIN McKINNEY • Mike's Facebook posting of isolated tracks from "Hey Bulldog" led me to seek out other examples of stripped-down Beatlesongs. This is among the more interesting, for both the music and the controversy. The mystery of the Dear Prudence drum track Did Ringo play the outro drums on "Dear Prudence"? One tends to forget that Paul is credited with drumming this track (recorded during Ringo's brief angry White Album hiatus), because its climactic passage is so utterly Ringoesque. (Plus, recordings like "The Ballad of [...]
More on Lennon and McCartney
The Beatles during their "Mad Day Out," 1968 Shenk's series in Slate provoked this interesting post from my good friend, the progressive pundit Jonathan Schwarz. Check out the comments section, too--I left one, and it's usually very vigorous. BTW, enjoy the thematically appropriate "Mad Day Out" pic.
All your life
Paul McCartney performs a rare version of Blackbird in this video from 1968. http://youtu.be/3uqGCqMYaHQ
White Album Not All That, Writer Claims
Nik Cohn & Ben Ratliff DEVIN McKINNEY • Here, via Rockcritics.com, is a New York Times podcast from September, half of which is devoted to a talk between music critic Ben Ratliff and pop-crit originator Nik Cohn on the remastered version of the White Album (which Ratliff deliciously informs us is currently #16 on the LP charts, "right below Lady Gaga"). Cohn, who was the Times's London correspondent on pop matters circa 1968-70, trashed the Beatles' masterpiece in their pages (see the December 15, 1968, headline bannering this post); now he has softened somewhat, admitting subtleties and qualities precluded at [...]
“Revolution 1” In The Head
If only you were here to confirm or deny... DEVIN McKINNEY • Mike asked what I thought of the “Revolution 1” Take 20 RM1, so called, that's been burning up Beatleland. I’ve been loving and chewing on this piece of mystery meat since the weekend, and at first assumed it was genuine. Why not: Remember the stripped-down masters of those four Sgt. Pepper songs that appeared almost a year ago? Those were just as crisply digitized, just as thrillingly intimate in their four-track nudity, and no one has credibly claimed they are not genuine. So I figured it was more [...]
10-minute "Revolution"
I love it when the sleeves can't keep up with the group.— MG ED PARK • Dullblog scout Eric brought this find to our attention—from EW's Popwatch: Over the past couple of days, Beatles fanatics have been chattering about an amazing outtake that recently leaked onto the Internet. The 10-minute-plus recording of "Revolution" (embedded below) offers a fascinating look at the wildly ambitious plans the band originally had for the song, eventually included in much shorter form on The White Album. "As someone who's heard, I'd say, 99.8 percent of the Beatles music that has leaked onto bootleg, this is [...]
Hey Jude
http://www.youtube.com/v/YXG83p2nkHw