The Problem With Being a Genius
In catching up on recent comments, I ran across a couple that suggested Hey Dullblog judges Paul McCartney more harshly than it does the other Beatles; and one of the persistent conversations here for the last couple years is an anti-Paul bias in the media (I suppose we are part of the media?). Why doesn't Paul get his due? commenters ask. Is [...]
George Starostin on music today
Longtime readers of Hey Dullblog will recall that I've posted about Starostin's music reviews before. He's prolific, insightful, and unafraid to swim against the tide -- though he's never a contrarian for controversy's sake. His reviews of the Beatles catalog are well worth reading. His original site is here, and the site he is currently updating is here. On September 1 of [...]
Robert Freeman, Photographer of the Beatles
On this busy Sunday (busy for me at least), let us pause for a moment to remember Robert Freeman, the man responsible for many of the most iconic images of the Beatlemania years. Freeman took the photos for With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles for Sale, HELP, and Rubber Soul, plus a proposed cover for Revolver that, if you ask [...]
Best Beatles Mashups
I must admit that I love a good Beatles mashup, and after Stephen Kroninger shared the following one today, I thought: "What are the best Beatles mashups? This sounds like a job for the Dullblog Commentariat!"Put your faves in the comments; if I like 'em, I'll move 'em to this post. https://youtu.be/3QdPI238qh0 Whole Lotta Helter Skelter (Beatles & Led Zeppelin) The one [...]
Geoffrey Giuliano Goes Off
Commenter Gibson pointed me to this cri de coeur from Beatle author Geoffrey Giuliano on the perils of "thinking about the Beatles a little too much." It tickled me immensely, and some of you will have strong feelings, I'm sure. I look forward to hearing them in the comments. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go back to frying chicken. 🙂 [...]
Soviet Hippies
In our recent conversation regarding Revolver and Pepper the historical setting of The Beatles in general and those albums in particular have come up a lot. How much should historical context matter when judging an artistic work? Should it matter at all? Does something as squishy as historical importance trump more concrete metrics like sales or popularity, or even more nuanced ones [...]
In Defence of Revolver
There's cool as we know it, then there's the 1966 Beatles. About a month ago Michael Gerber posted an essay that argued with disconcerting eloquence and insight that Sgt. Pepper is objectively better than my all-time favourite record, Revolver. I feel compelled to respond with a few words about the album I’m sworn to defend. If you haven’t read Mike’s excellent piece [...]
Lennon and…John?
I don't know about you, but this always felt like a real friendship to me. Commenter @Hologram Sam dropped this into a comment thread but I thought it was worth making into a post. In Elton John's new autobiography, Me, he tells of a meeting he had with Yoko Ono in the early 80s (had to be some time before January 1984, [...]
George Harrison’s Last Interview
Ran across this yesterday for the millionth time and wanted to share; George was an interesting dude. A month later, he was diagnosed with throat cancer—making this George Harrison's last interview. George's core struggle is right here. He spoke the wisdom, saw and felt that it was true, but (for example) smoked so much he died at 58. I suppose there are [...]