Let It Be Archives - Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Beatles in the 1970s: Melting and Crying

By Nancy Carr|2022-04-18T14:03:34-07:00April 13, 2022|1970s, books, Breakup, Let It Be|

I'm an inveterate haunter of used bookstores. I love the physicality of books, and seeing how publishers chose to present subjects at particular places and times. Today I give you two 1970s finds, both British paperbacks, that feature melting or crying Beatles. This edition of The Beatles Lyrics was published by Omega in 1975 and features an introduction by (cringe) Jimmy Saville. Though the book includes no cover illustration credit, commenter Dan pointed out that it appears in Alan Aldridge's The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics (it's in volume 2, published in 1971), and commenter meaigs further noted that the illustration is by John Holmes. This is [...]

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The Beatles, “Let It Be,” and “Get Back”: “Trying to Deceive”?

By Nancy Carr|2021-10-22T09:59:45-07:00October 22, 2021|1970s, Abbey Road, Beatles Criticism, Breakup, Let It Be, Movies|

Michael G's post "Let It Be, Get Back, and History as Art" and the comments on the site have raised so many interesting points about Lindsay-Hogg's 1969 film and Peter Jackson's forthcoming one that I wanted to say a bit more about why I'm looking forward to Jackson's film, but also not expecting it to be the whole truth. A lot of that expectation derives from considering historical context, so let's get into the wayback machine for a minute. In 1975, Barclay James Harvest released the song "Titles," taken from their album "Time Honoured Ghosts." The vast majority of the song does consist [...]

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Peter Jackson’s “Get Back”: Now Thanksgiving on Disney Plus

By Nancy Carr|2021-06-21T07:11:00-07:00June 21, 2021|1968, 1969, Breakup, Documentaries, Get Back, Let It Be, Movies, Uncategorized|

Peter Jackson's "Get Back," which was expected to be released in theaters this September, is now going to be a six-hour documentary on Disney Plus, premiering during Thanksgiving weekend. Variety reports that "each episode is approximately two hours in length, rolling out over three days, November 25, 26 and 27, 2021, exclusively on Disney Plus." So, more footage, but to watch it you'll need a Disney Plus subscription. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.

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Rob Sheffield on the Beatles’ breakup and Peter Jackson’s upcoming film

By Nancy Carr|2020-09-10T10:56:56-07:00September 2, 2020|Allen Klein, Breakup, Brian Epstein, Documentaries, Film, Let It Be|

This piece by Rob Sheffield (whose most recent book is Dreaming The Beatles) just came out in Rolling Stone. Sheffield uses the lens of the new Peter Jackson documentary due out next August and put together from the same sessions that yielded Let It Be to consider, again, just why the Beatles came apart as and when they did. There's nothing especially new in Sheffield's analysis, but he deserves credit for making some good points trenchantly. Peter Jackson, of "Lord of the Rings" fame. Sheffield summarizes the situation thus: "In the end, it’s really a story about four friends trying to hold [...]

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Let It Be: A Missed Opportunity

By Michael Gerber|2015-10-07T12:48:48-07:00April 22, 2014|1969, Documentaries, Film merde, Let It Be|

Is Mike man enough to withstand the awesome depressive POWER of this film? Last Thursday I happened to rent a DVD of "Let It Be," and I did so mostly out of surprise that it was on the shelf at all. I'd seen it only once before, in the summer of 1981, paired with "A Hard Day's Night" at the pot-scented Tivoli Theatre in St. Louis. Maybe it was Lennon's recent death, or having watched the young Fabs in full flood directly before, but I still remember the funereal aspect of the evening's second half, something even the sweet smell [...]

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Which Beatles album is actually their last?

By Ed Park|2013-08-03T04:37:33-07:00June 22, 2013|1969, 1970, Abbey Road, Let It Be, Uncategorized|

Bare feet, ouch! Paul suffers for his art. Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone: So let's argue: Which album truly counts as the grand finale? The case for Let It Be: It came out in 1970, which was after 1969. The case for Abbey Road: (1) virtually all of Let It Be was in the can before the Abbey Road sessions even began; (2) Abbey Road feels more like a classic Beatles record; (3) "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was the last time all four played in the studio together; (4) the last song on Abbey Road is called "The End"; (5) except for "Her Majesty"; (6) rebounding from the Let [...]

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Two takes on the Beatles

By Michael Gerber|2012-07-04T16:49:00-07:00July 4, 2012|Hey Jude, Let It Be|

I collect cover versions of Beatles songs, because I'm fascinated by the variety of artists who have recorded them and the range of instrumentation and styles they employ. Many covers are just okay, some are outright bad, a few are great, and others are pretty well unclassifiable. The two covers I want to share with you today offer very different takes on elements of the Beatles' work that might be described as transcendent.One of the more improbable Beatles cover albums is Dutch musician Louis Van Dyke's pipe-organ-only Louis Van Dyke Plays Lennon-McCartney. I discovered this album through Dave Henderson's book The Beatles Uncovered (Black Book [...]

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The Beatles Writings of Joshua Glenn: “I’m Only Slacking”

By Devin McKinney|2015-04-26T06:14:12-07:00May 15, 2012|comedy, Guest blogger, Help, Let It Be|

In 2008, upon publication of The Idler’s Glossary, one of its authors, Joshua Glenn, engaged in an exchange of open letters with his co-author, Mark Kingwell—the topic of which, befitting the themes of the book, was the proper distinction between idling and slacking. In Glenn’s half of the exchange, our serial contributor illustrates the matter with apt and breezy reference to the Beatles, and even draws a productive contrast with the Rolling Stones (a band whose existence, for whatever reason, has seldom been acknowledged by anyone at Hey Dullblog). Lest it be felt that this discussion is of limited relevance, consider that [...]

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The Nagra Reels

By Ed Park|2015-09-19T00:11:23-07:00March 6, 2012|1969, Let It Be|

Friend Levi points me to his friend's blog, "They May Be Parted." I like how particular it is—it's devoted to the Get Back sessions.

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More on the Rooftop Concert

By Devin McKinney|2022-07-24T12:49:59-07:00January 31, 2008|1969, concert, Get Back, Let It Be|

DEVIN McKINNEY • This is an anniversary worth remembering—partly because it reminds us that next year's is the 40th. As Nature Intended is the essential Get Back boot from the great "second wave" of Beatle illicits that hit the market in the early '90s. But then came the third wave—and that crested, and conceivably was capped for all time, by The Complete 2 CD Rooftop Concert, issued on the Yellow Dog label in 2000. It is beyond comprehensive, surrounding the event from all angles and allowing us to hear-"see" it in something like documentary totality. Disc 1 has the complete concert itself, [...]

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