1960s Archives - Page 9 of 19 - Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Beatles For Sale sessions

By Michael Gerber|2015-01-04T20:18:31-08:00November 4, 2013|1964|

Four little-known musicians from Liverpool, 1964 MIKE GERBER • We've linked to the devilishly delightful site Willard's Wormholes before, and in the process of fixing that link this morning, I found a wonderful something I just had to pass along. My love for 1964's Oh-Shit-Christmas-Is-Coming LP Beatles For Sale is almost as idiosyncratic as my affection for psychedelia.* Truth be told, I think my love began when I heard Malcolm McDowell's almost ominous descriptions of the period in "The Compleat Beatles". ("Haggard"..."windswept"...am I making this up? I distinctly remember it.) It's the backside of Beatlemania that I'm always more interested in. [...]

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Literary approaches to the Beatles; or, the difference between a book and a record

By Devin McKinney|2013-12-11T09:29:27-08:00October 30, 2013|1966, Beatles on the Web, books, Eleanor Rigby, John Gardner, Robin Wood|

DEVIN McKINNEY • Once, a long time ago, I tried to maintain, just for the record, a running tab of Beatles references or mentions that cropped up in the course of my day. During that period (the latter half of the 1980s), the daily references were not many; the group’s public profile was in a relative slough of despond, and looking back, we can pinpoint those years as equidistant between the first Great Beatles Revival (1976-78) and the second (1994-95). Though I lost the tabulation long ago (so much for “the record”), I can bet it would, if compared to similar checklists [...]

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All I’ve got is a photograph: Ringo snaps Miami fans

By Devin McKinney|2014-12-30T21:28:59-08:00October 27, 2013|1964, fans, Ringo, Ringo Starr|

DEVIN McKINNEY • Courtesy of Joe Bonomo, writer, professor, rock fan, comes this item. Ringo took this shot of fans from the back of the Beatles' limousine. He doesn't remember for sure, but he believes it was in Miami Beach on the Beatles' first trip there, February 13-22, 1964. The article in the Miami Herald has some great quotes from local fans, some of whom remember the Beatles' visit, and poses a mini-mystery of the kind I love. Someone objects that, since the kids are wearing jackets, this can't be Miami. But the writers do their research and discover that, indeed, there [...]

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Nik Cohn reviews Abbey Road, 1969

By Michael Gerber|2013-10-26T11:11:41-07:00October 26, 2013|1969, Abbey Road|

An outtake from Abbey Road (the cover, I mean) Dullblogger Ed (come back Ed! we miss you!) shared a link this morning: Nik Cohn's original review of Abbey Road for The New York Times. I always find hot-off-the-press reviews like this really interesting; for one thing, they give us a sense of how differently now-iconic bits of culture were seen at that time, which not only demonstrates how changeable things are—that there are pieces of work truly more in tune with a past or future than their time of creation—but also give us a clue as to how the texture [...]

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The Beatles (at the BBC) Again

By Devin McKinney|2013-09-12T15:00:14-07:00September 12, 2013|1962, 1963, 1964, BBC, bootlegs, Reissues|

The Beatles, with Pete Best on drums, rehearse for their first BBC appearance, Playhouse Theatre, Manchester, June 11, 1962. Photo by Mike McCartney. DEVIN McKINNEY • What a bounty this autumn brings us. In addition to the long (as in loooong) awaited first volume of the Lewisohn biography (the multiple iterations of which will blanket like sweet snow our Fall and Winter); Kevin Howlett's The Beatles: BBC Archives 1962 to 1970, which looks indispensable for the cover alone; and The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story, a new graphic novel by Vivek J. Tiwary (which I can only hope comes [...]

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Three Ways: Beatles write about landscapes

By Nancy Carr|2013-09-09T08:15:53-07:00September 7, 2013|1967, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Strawberry Fields|

NANCY CARR * In the late 60s the Beatles had three strong songwriters (and really, was that fair to other bands?), and thus three distinctive ways of treating the subjects they wrote about—landscapes, love, drugs, etc. (That's without getting into the significant variations within each songwriter's work). This time, I want to consider what Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison saw when they looked at landscapes. Lennon: "Strawberry Fields Forever" (released February 1967) The physical Strawberry Field, in Woolton Inspired by the grounds of the Strawberry Field children's home in Woolton, this song proved so powerful that Lennon's memorial in New York City's Central [...]

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The Beatles and David Frost

By Michael Gerber|2021-09-15T19:57:15-07:00September 1, 2013|1968, Obituaries|

This Was The Guy That Was David Frost has died, suddenly it seems while on a cruise ship, at age 74. The most prominent overlap between The Beatles and David Frost was, of course, his involvement in their 1968 promo film for "Hey Jude" and "Revolution," which I've embedded at the end of this post. But there's much more to say about it than that. Frost was a quintessential "mid-Atlantic man" in the Beatle and solo era, and his passing is another reminder to examine that time, and celebrate the blending of American and British pop culture which made it [...]

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John’s Vocals on Don’t Let Me Down

By Michael Gerber|2013-08-31T10:32:44-07:00August 30, 2013|1969, john and yoko, John Lennon, Yoko Ono|

Commenter Barb L. sent along this video of John's vocals on Don't Let Me Down, embedded below. (h/t openculture) http://youtu.be/X_1b0nZONes

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What if Brian Epstein Lived?

By Michael Gerber|2019-08-12T23:47:52-07:00August 22, 2013|1967, Brian Epstein|

TOO COOL CATS: George Martin and Brian Epstein, undated. (Before we begin: Any readers not familiar with the details of Beatles manager Brian Epstein's life might wish to watch this 1998 BBC documentary, "The Brian Epstein Story." It's the best potted history of the man.) MIKE GERBER • Commenter Annie said this in a recent comment: Question: George Martin is quite adamant in his ’78 book that the Beatles were definitely going to cut Brian loose. What do we think about that? I haven't read All You Need Is Ears, and it's not at the library down the street, so [...]

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Sid Bernstein obituary

By Michael Gerber|2013-08-21T15:49:58-07:00August 21, 2013|1964, 1965, Obituaries|

Paul McCartney and Sid Bernstein. MIKE GERBER • Sad news today: Sid Bernstein, one of America's first Beatlemaniacs and a man who helped orchestrate the peerless mayhem of 1964 and 1965, has died at 95. "The son of a Harlem tailor," wrote Bob Spitz, "he was convinced of The Beatles' greatness before he ever heard them sing a note…Bernstein reached into his own pocket to book no less a venue than Carnegie Hall for a group that had no hit record and no following in America." Then Capitol decided to really push "I Want To Hold Your Hand," Ed Sullivan [...]

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