Beatles tributes Archives - Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Cirque de Soleil’s “Love” at the Mirage

By Nancy Carr|2020-09-10T10:58:03-07:00June 30, 2020|Beatle-inspired, Beatles tributes, concert, Covers, Covers, Live, Sgt. Pepper|

Back on March 7, my husband and I saw Cirque de Soleil's Beatles-themed show Love at the Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas. I've been meaning to write this post for a while now, but the way things snapped shut right after that trip due to covid-19 has made it hard to figure out what to say about the experience. Please bear with this somewhat rambling account. I'd wanted to see the show for quite a while, and my husband proposed that we finally just go to Las Vegas for a weekend. We could combine seeing Love with catching up with [...]

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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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Beatles Drum Chronology

By Michael Gerber|2015-11-26T12:08:40-08:00October 28, 2015|Beatles tributes|

A candidate we can believe in A friend (thank you Joey Green!) forwarded this amazing film of Australian Kye Smith going through the drum parts of the Beatles' catalogue in one wonderful five-minute spurt. ("Control yourself, you'll spurt.") Bonus points to Kye for putting "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane" before the Sgt. Pepper tracks in his Beatles drum chronology; demerits for not ending with the drum solo from "The End." This video was originally surfaced by Mark Fraudenfelder at BoingBoing.net, and it only took three or four comments for some guy (and you KNOW it was a guy) to dis [...]

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George Starostin on “McLemore Avenue”

By Nancy Carr|2015-04-21T13:36:47-07:00April 21, 2015|Abbey Road, Beatle-inspired, Beatles Criticism, Beatles tributes, Covers|

We got the front . . . . NANCY CARR * My favorite music reviewer, the indefatigable George Starostin, has just published this review of Booker T. and the M.G.'s McLemore Avenue. He calls it "the first authentic case of musical cosplay in pop/rock history," and I have to concur, though I enjoy the results more than he does. I certainly agree with Starostin's assessment of Abbey Road as exerting an "otherworldly" power: . . . and the back! "It is cozy for me to know that, of all Beatles albums, it was Abbey Road that struck [...]

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Ringo honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

By Devin McKinney|2015-04-15T09:28:43-07:00April 15, 2015|awards, Beatles tributes, Ringo, Ringo Starr|

DEVIN McKINNEY • As the karmic wheel turns: balancing out my snarky but I think accurate estimation of The Magic Christian (see the panel to your right), comes today from Salon this informed, comprehensive, well-written, and generally right-on appreciation of Ringo Starr’s truest talent and most immeasurable contribution: his musicianly drumming. Authored by Patrick Berkery, a journeyman drummer who writes for Modern Drummer and has played with War on Drugs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and others, it comes upon the announcement that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will, during the April 18 induction ceremonies, bestow upon Ringo its Award [...]

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“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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Merch, Mind Games, and the Serious Proximity Buzz

By Michael Gerber|2021-12-09T03:57:18-08:00March 11, 2014|anniversaries, Beatle-inspired, Beatles tributes, Guest blogger|

JAMIE BRYAN • “It’s the center of the earth,” Lennon said famously. And so inevitably Beatlemania returned to New York, bringing 60s-era good vibes not only to the cavernous convention spaces of Manhattan’s Grand Hyatt, but even to its sterile, airport-style lobby bar. Where the locals were gleefully engaging in a quaint little custom they picked up from Peter Minuit, the fleecing of the rubes. The "OB-LA-DI OB-LA-OLIVES" were $6. The chef's selection of artisan charcuterie and local cheeses ("MAXWELLS SILVER PLATTER") was $16. A buck less got you either the "MAGICAL MYSTERY HUMMUS" or the "FREE AS A BIRD WINGS". All branding [...]

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“I’ll have whatever Yoko’s having”

By Michael Gerber|2014-02-10T11:31:48-08:00February 10, 2014|1964, Beatles tributes|

I hate Beatle cheese worst of all cheese. So, much to my surprise I loved CBS' "The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles." And perhaps my favorite part were the cutaway shots to Yoko late in the evening, which showed her doing a couple of weird, great dance moves. There was a slow swim through the seas of consciousness, a sort of arm-waving move--what else? It was thoroughly awesome, and reminded me that the only real sticking point (she'll be relieved to know) between me and Yoko is how serious she always is. But it's truly never too late to [...]

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The Beatles Invade America: CBS News celebrates the 50th Anniversary

By Devin McKinney|2022-05-09T09:02:59-07:00February 5, 2014|1964, Beatles on the Web, Beatles tributes|

DEVIN McKINNEY • To mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ arrival in America, a mere two days away, CBS News plans a live multimedia event from the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, site of a certain world-claiming triumph on February 9, 1964. In anticipation of both anniversary and event, CBS has amassed an impressive collection of video and audio chronicling the happy invasion, and commissioned a number of new pieces from Fab Four scholars, chroniclers, and analysts—among them John McMillian, Larry Kane, Bruce Spizer, and (eep!) yours truly. (The title of my squiggle, “From moptops to hippie chic,” is not [...]

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The Beatle Brothers at Fitzgerald’s: four hours of passion

By Nancy Carr|2013-12-21T16:29:22-08:00December 21, 2013|Beatle-inspired, Beatles tributes, concert, Covers|

Great mural outside, great music inside NANCY CARR * Last night I saw the Beatle Brothers at Fitzgerald's in Berwyn, IL, giving the crowd the ultimate Christmas gift for Beatles fans—four hours of covers played with expertise and passion, featuring the best Lennon and McCartney vocals I've heard outside the real thing. Far more than any dress-up-like-the-Beatles-band, Phil Angotti and Jay Goepnner, along with their stellar crew of backing players, put across the emotional intensity of the music. Their spontaneity and obvious love for the music they're performing made last night's show fly past, though they started playing a little after 9:00 [...]

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