bootlegs Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Before "Toot and a Snore"

By Michael Gerber|2014-12-30T20:12:54-08:00February 4, 2013|1974, bootlegs, John and Paul|

The act you've known for all these years, in Santa Monica, 1974. Here are some photos from Retronaut.com — the last photo of John and Paul — taken at Peter Lawford's old beach house here in Santa Monica. Whenever I want to bask in some ghosts (Marilyn and Jack! Marilyn and Bobby! Nilsson and Baron Von Moon!) I bike down six blocks; the house is right on the PCH. It's surprisingly small; glamour required less square-footage back in those days. Anyway, according to Retronaut, these were taken in March 1974, at the time of the infamous "A Toot And a Snore" [...]

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Manhattan Beatles

By Michael Gerber|2014-07-23T11:58:23-07:00September 7, 2012|bootlegs|

This Beatles image is from the wall opposite Bleecker Bob's record store at the corner of 3rd and MacDougal in Greenwich Village. I took it this past spring, just after buying a copy of the "Black Album" (comprised of Let it Be session bootlegs). Now Bleecker Bob's is, lamentably, about to close, another casualty of lagging interest in physical media and rising rents. Depending on the day and hour, I see this mural as either a reminder of good days now past or a testament to music's enduring presence. I do love the expression on the Beatles' faces (except for George, who looks a [...]

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Piracy means no new Beatles?

By Michael Gerber|2015-02-09T09:31:38-08:00June 20, 2012|bootlegs|

[Update August 2013: I just found this elegant little video from a group trying to discourage music piracy. It's Beatles-authorized, and makes the point that "[l]oving The Beatles is a shared experience." And I'd add a sweet, life-affirming one, too. How many of those do we have anymore? That's why we do Dullblog.] http://youtu.be/K0_MeHq8o-o As an admitted collector of Beatle bootlegs, you might think that I have a free-and-easy attitude when it comes to downloading music. But I don't, and why I don't was expressed very nicely by Niall O'Conghaile over at Dangerous Minds: "I may be wrong, but I believe that [...]

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Christ! The Beatles In Memphis

By Devin McKinney|2013-09-13T13:54:38-07:00April 28, 2012|1966, bootlegs, concert, John Lennon|

The before-show press conference, backstage, Mid-South Coliseum. DEVIN McKINNEY • I'm a bit ashamed to say it's taken me this long to listen to something I've had on the shelf for a few years—the audience recordings of the Beatles' afternoon and evening shows at Memphis's Mid-South Coliseum, midway through their final tour. The evening show is the famous one: Near the end of "If I Needed Someone," the third song, a cherry bomb was thrown onstage and exploded. I remember reading that three teenagers, adolescent mischief-makers with no malign intent beyond literally making a noise, were detained by security. I [...]

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As I go round and round in circles

By Devin McKinney|2013-08-13T22:55:00-07:00March 31, 2012|books, bootlegs|

DEVIN McKINNEY • This seems terribly solipsistic of me—and it is—but Mike asked about this a long time ago and commenter Craig asked about it lately and I got curious for a look back and here it is and it might entertain a couple of you and for the rest at least provide one answer to the question, “What did Mike Gerber mean when he subtitled this blog ‘People Who Think About the Beatles Maybe a Little Too Much’?” A-way back in the Clinton years, I was writing a book about the Beatles and began idly compiling the track list for an [...]

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My complicated feelings about Beatlegs…and yours?

By Michael Gerber|2014-07-23T12:53:32-07:00March 17, 2012|bootlegs|

Forgive me if this post is a bit hasty—I sat down to write my parody Downturn Abbey, which I'm doing for St. Martin's on a brain-busting turnaround, but…I was in the middle of replying to Craig's nice comment on the previous post, and an issue occurred to me, one probably pretty central to this blog yet something I don't recall us ever discussing. It's this: What do you think about Beatles bootlegs? Do you collect them? Do you feel kinda bad about listening to "illegal" recordings? A major find. I collected Beatles bootlegs pretty obsessively from 12-16. I would head to the same [...]

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More vinyl bootleg memories…

By Michael Gerber|2013-08-03T19:14:52-07:00April 20, 2011|bootlegs|

Sessions (Odeon Fake): One of my favorite Beatlegs as a kid. After my earlier post, a commenter over at my Facebook page joggled my memories a bit more. I thought it might be fun to ask everybody, "What were your favorite Beatles bootlegs?" Not necessarily the best, but the ones that played the biggest role in your fandom? In my teenaged years (1980-87), my most beloved vinyl boots were The Beatles at the Beeb 3-lp set, Hahst Az Son, Beatles Not For Sale, Strawberry Fields Forever, File Under: Beatles, and a version of Sessions (the abortive Anthology precursor). (The links [...]

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My teenage years in handy YouTube format

By Michael Gerber|2013-08-03T19:22:11-07:00April 19, 2011|bootlegs, comedy|

I spent about ten years of my life holed up in an attic obsessively listening to Beatles bootlegs (that's what we had to do, back in the days before Anthology, BBC, and remasters) on vinyl (that's what we had to do, back in the days before mp3s and Purple Chick torrents). I studied them like Torah; not only did they satisfy my lust for new Beatle music, bootlegs were one of the few things that sounded perfectly fine on my JC Penney stereo. None of my pals really understood why I did this, and I never understood why they DIDN'T. Listening to [...]

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