The Beatles Swan Song
Where's John? Didn't really matter, did it? I'm delighted whenever Nancy gives us some Starostin news -- he's a brilliant critic, and a fluid writer as well. He is a guy I'd like to sit around listening to albums with, and that's not something I could say about a lot of music critics (Lester Bangs, for example). But I do, [...]
Starostin reviews “Abbey Road”
George Starostin, who by my calculations must sleep four hours or less per night to work an academic job and find time to review as many albums as he does. Indefatigable reviewer George Starostin, of the Only Solitaire blog, has just posted a review of the Beatles' Abbey Road. This one is part of his "Important Album Series," in which [...]
Try some, buy some
Donald Trump's use of "Revolution," though egregious, is far from the only time the spirit of John Lennon's been pressed into service to sell something. The Lennon commercial pasted below is objectionable on so many levels, not least dubbing and vocal impression (have they ever heard John talk?): https://youtu.be/4Ph4rZU0Ns4 And here's a 1992 Nike ad featuring "Instant Karma" (ironic, that): https://youtu.be/AmmpbSlr8UQ And [...]
Trump and the Beatles
This is just to say how disheartening I found it to hear the Beatles' "Revolution" played twice at Donald Trump's victory rally in New Hampshire last night. I realize that his use of the song is perfectly legal, and that it probably won't make a dime's worth of difference to the way anyone votes. And we seem long past the point where candidates even [...]
John and Yoko at the Fillmore
Frank Zappa tells an interesting story about John and Yoko and their guest appearance at Zappa’s 1971 live album concert at the Fillmore East. After briefly meeting them through a reporter, Zappa invited John and Yoko to come to the Fillmore that evening to jam with the band. Nervous but buoyed by cocaine, The Lennons played with the Mothers for nearly an hour [...]
The Lennon Audio Diaries
In the fall of 1979, John sat down with a tape recorder and began to tell his life story. But these Lennon audio diaries were a non-starter: in true Lennon fashion, he got bored after 1.25 minutes and let his thoughts drift to his usual preoccupations—Paul McCartney, his mother Julia, and his fear of professional redundancy. According to Rolling Stone magazine, the [...]
Ringo and Paul raid the costume box
Hey Dullblog readers, Today I share with you the greatest, most ridiculous Beatle pictures that might exist anywhere. What is the context for these? I have NO idea (I randomly found them on tumblr). And I love them so much BECAUSE I have no context for them. Please do not rain on my parade and explain them, unless your explanation is completely fictional and [...]
Explaining Beatlemania via Sex At Dawn
Nope, nothing sexual going on here. Commenter @King Kevin asked me yesterday whether I'd read the book Sex At Dawn, a fascinating and controversial attempt to explain contemporary human sexual behavior via “anthropology, archaeology, primatology, anatomy, and psychosexuality.” One of the book's primary contentions is that human females are as randy as males, if not more so -- and it [...]
I’m Down by Joe Strummer
"You tell lies thinkin' I can't see..." This morning, I awoke to find this gem in the comment queue from @O'Boogie... "Long time/first time — tangentially, there are some neat bits of Beatles flavoured trivia to London’s pub rock/proto-punk scene. Joe Strummer christened John Tiberi (pre-Clash manager of The 101’ers, later associated with the Pistols) “Boogie” because he’d smoke Winston [...]