Putting HuffPo’s Beatles Test to the Test
#12. This is not a sandwich. DEVIN McKINNEY • I’m the first Beatle Superfan to admit there’s a world of things I yet have to learn about them. That’s one reason Mark Lewisohn (look just to your right) is worth reading. So it’s with an ‘umble spirit that I report being both slightly let down and vaguely comforted, in a [...]
Mark Lewisohn Interviewed at Critics at Large
DEVIN McKINNEY • One of my colleagues at Critics at Large, Toronto-based arts critic Deirdre Kelly, has scored a dynamite interview with Mark Lewisohn, recently in T-Town for a screening of the Hard Day’s Night re-release and a book-signing. The interview is both substantial and delightful, especially for we who so eagerly consumed Tune In last December, who still see its vivid [...]
1967 Brian Epstein Interview with Murray the K
http://youtu.be/_0kHAqfGnfQ Taking a moment on this lazy Sunday to pass along a mildly interesting recording I found last night: the infamous 1967 Brian Epstein interview with WOR-FM's Murray Kaufman ("Murray the K") from March 1967. Brian was in the US announcing the addition of Robert Stigwood (and Stigwood's acts The Cream and The Who) to his company NEMS. The coolest bit comes [...]
The Black Album: Solo Beatles According to Ethan Hawke
Filmed over the course of 12 years, Richard Linklater's movie "Boyhood" is getting raves. Beatlefans will take particular note of the scene where a father (Ethan Hawke) gives his son (Ellar Coltrane) a mix of solo Beatles tracks, which he dubs "The Black Album." (Please note: this is not the stupendously lo-fi Let It Be-era bootleg, which managed to bring me down [...]
Update: George Harrison’s India photos (and John’s Spain ones)
Shooting Film has a lovely post collecting all of the fisheye selfies taken by The Quiet One in India in 1966. You should read the whole post, but I'll paste the whole set of George Harrison's India photos below. [h/t Dangerous Minds, whose ever-snappy writeup is here.] FISHEYES FOREVER: ...and as a special Dullblog bonus, here's another fisheye shot from the same [...]
Beatles Doc to Be Directed by Ron Howard
" ... and with a love like that, you know you shouuuuullllld ... " DEVIN McKINNEY • News comes through this morning, via Rolling Stone, that Ron Howard will direct a documentary about the Beatles' lifespan as a touring band, covering the years (approximately) 1960 to 1966. The film will be assembled, Anthology style, from existing footage from all manner [...]
The Beatles on Stella Street
The Beatles on Stella Street? Yes, indeed -- although I don't think impressionists Phil Cornwell and John Sessions' hearts are in those impressions. It's not John and Paul, but the idea of John and Paul. (George and Ringo are even sketchier, and Yoko...aiyiyi.) When they do people like Richard Burton, Michael Caine, or Larry Olivier (I can call him that because we [...]
Ringo on the Train Song
Starr, swaddled. After last night, I should've learned my lesson: no posting after your contacts dry out, it's just gibberish. But this just came over the Mojo Wire: Los Angeles Times man of music Randy Lewis asked our own Ringo Starr about the mysterious 42-second snippet that's been rocketing around Beatledom. It's the full track from A Hard Day's Night, [...]
The Beatles and the Dalai Lama
Yesterday, after reading Devin's lovely commemoration of everybody's favorite drummer (both here on Dullblog and on HiLobrow), I was quite tickled to find out -- via Facebook -- that Ringo shares a birthday with the current Dalai Lama. Then, after I'd written this entire post, I confirmed the birthdays and found that Facebook was wrong. The Dalai Lama, born in 1935 as Lhamo [...]