Evolution of Strawberry Fields Forever
If you don't know the blog Dangerous Minds, go take a look. I find it essential reading, and check it nearly every day. This morning they posted a YouTube video which lovingly traces the evolution of Strawberry Fields Forever, which I've embedded below. You'll doubtless recognize the tracks (from It's Not Too Bad, Anthology and other places), but it's a nice piece of [...]
"The mopheads or whatever"
Yoko Ono and an apple, 1966. Browsing in a used bookstore last night, I came across this quote in Rolling Stone Raves: What Your Rock & Roll Favorites Favor (1999): Yoko Ono: "No, I didn't know any of [the Beatles' music when I met John Lennon.] I had heard about the band, the mopheads or whatever. I knew that they [...]
Brian Epstein and Bullfighting
RUFFLES!: Was this the portrait in Brian's bathroom? This morning I discovered this interesting article on Brian Epstein's love of bullfighting. Below is a picture of one of his favorites, "El Cordobés," also called "La Quinta Beatle."
"Reminiscing"
Ran across this oldie this evening in my ramblings, and flashed on something from my reading: John Lennon, lolling in some Midtown bed with May Pang in the late 70s, claiming that this was one of "their songs."I remember finding it very sweet that, even after the strange intense life he'd led, John Lennon OF THE BEATLES, could get hooked on some [...]
"I’m 15 and I feel like 80"
Well, sister, I'm 43 and feel like 15. Or 180. It changes from moment to moment. Spending time with the folks sure makes me feel young. They're coming of age at this point, and require personal care. I was a bit worried at first because they didn't want to move out of the house, but after some research I learned about Home [...]
The connections
What does Magical Mystery Tour have to do with Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange? Read on...
Counterpoint on Magical Mystery Tour
For everyone who loves "Magical Mystery Tour" (the film) or has come to appreciate it over the years, there's someone who still hates it -- Jim DeRogatis, a Chicago critic who broadcasts on NPR's WBEZ, is a case in point. If you're interested in reading his vilification of the movie (and a lot of the album), you can do so here: http://www.wbez.org/blogs/jim-derogatis/2013-01/revisiting-one-beatles’-worst-mistakes-104650Here's the [...]
Marvelous mystery tour
Some nice Beatles references in Jonathan Lethem's "My Marvel Years," about Jack Kirby (and Lethem-as-comics-reader), over at the London Review of Books: Nevertheless, if you (I mean, I) accept my premise that the mid-to-late 1960s Fantastic Four were the exemplary specimens as I'm explaining what's out there, the Revolver and Rubber Soul and White Album of comics, and if you further grant that pulling against the tide of all of [...]