Swinging London Archives - Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Charles Taylor on A Hard Day’s Night

By Michael Gerber|2014-08-12T09:54:34-07:00August 10, 2014|1964, AHDN, Beatles Criticism, Swinging London|

Some boys have trouble expressing affection. Charles Taylor has written a marvelous appreciation of "A Hard Day's Night" for the Los Angeles Review of Books. He just gets so much right here, and it's stuff that I've felt myself but never read anywhere else. Here's the opener to get you started: HOW WOULD YOU REACT if there appeared in front of you a flesh-and-blood vision of everything you ever dreamed life could be? What if you could, at the same time, be your distinctive self and an irreplaceable part of a greater whole? What if that greater whole showed you [...]

Michael Caine Impressions

By Michael Gerber|2014-07-03T22:06:11-07:00July 7, 2014|comedy, Swinging London|

Doing impressions of Michael Caine, Swinging London institution and drinking buddy of John Lennon, has become a bit of a cottage industry in Great Britain. The slow-burning meme was kicked off (apparently) by comedy great and drinking buddy of Ringo Starr Peter Sellers in 1974...And I agree: for reasons I don't quite understand, I can't get enough Michael Caine impressions. Hear for yourself, but be warned -- they're addictive. http://youtu.be/-qIy1DmGLWI

Michael Caine, Friend of Lennon

By Michael Gerber|2015-01-18T16:27:27-08:00April 30, 2009|Swinging London|

Everyone who saw this blacked out from the coolness. One of the few people as cool as The Beatles (is that heresy?) talks to New York about the Sixties, with a brief mention of our guys. An interesting nugget: "The sixties wasn’t drugs, you see. What ended the sixties was drugs." Here's the full snippet: Who was your first musical influence? Growing up there was only classical music on BBC Radio. We had to listen to the American Forces Network in Germany, which played pop songs, or the pirate radio boats off the coast. There was all us tough guys [...]