Greil Marcus: “You won’t outgrow this”
Greil Marcus, not outgrowing it. Simon Reynolds: . . . [I]t just struck me how rock 'n' roll early on was teenage music, and even when it got arty and a little bit more grown-up, it was still caught in that sixties live-for-now mindset. Like Jim Morrison counseling "learn to forget." Rock 'n' roll in the beginning was very much [...]
All that time
Greil Marcus "When I became record reviews editor, I made it clear to him after a few months — nobody had done the job before me — that the record review section was an independent republic within the country of Rolling Stone. That meant that nobody else could tell me what to review or what a writer could say. They could [...]
“Poor old Buddy”
DEVIN McKINNEY • Greil Marcus sends a link to this rare footage from 1972: John Lennon playing "Rock Island Line," with snatches of two Buddy Holly numbers, "Maybe Baby" and "Peggy Sue." Yoko provides handclaps for the first number (in rhythm!) and vocal interjections for the latter. But mainly it's just John's voice and raunchy guitar reaching out in time, coming back [...]
The Beatles Writings of Joshua Glenn: “Big Mal Lives!”
Part 2 of our series highlighting the Fab scholarship of Joshua Glenn requires a leap of the kind every agile imagination should be willing to take now and again. The flight is high, the loft long, and the landing safe. Best you simply begin. Let me only say that, though his findings seem incredible, given the givens of Beatle history as conventionally [...]
"Perfect Beatles Double Bill" on Salon
Several nowhere boys ED PARK • Just saw this on Salon—a very good review of the Scorsese documentary on George and of "Nowhere Boy." I love that the author, Erik Nelson, describes himself as "a card-carrying Beatlemaniac, with a mail-order degree in advanced Moptopology." This is my favorite paragraph: "A much scruffier and ultimately more revealing insight into the Beatles [...]
Lines for George
George Harrison, looking tough in this self-portrait. I had some thoughts re the recent George-is-overrated brouhaha...but I'm lazy, so instead I dug up this obituary I wrote for The Paper That Shall Not Be Named, over a decade ago (gulp!). The Man Who Wasn't There Ed Park published: December 04, 2001 I. About 23 times a year, by his count, the [...]
Christ! The Beatles In Memphis
The before-show press conference, backstage, Mid-South Coliseum. DEVIN McKINNEY • I'm a bit ashamed to say it's taken me this long to listen to something I've had on the shelf for a few years—the audience recordings of the Beatles' afternoon and evening shows at Memphis's Mid-South Coliseum, midway through their final tour. The evening show is the famous one: Near [...]
Beatles and Batteries: Anthony Pomes on slide
DEVIN McKINNEY • My mother, of all non-Beatles-fixated people, sent me the video below: I'm still investigating how she came by it. She asked if I'd ever heard of the musician (Anthony Pomes), his band (Mostly Moptop), or their live show ("Let it Be[fore and After]). "No" on all three, but I really like the sound Anthony makes in this brief instructional [...]
Let us now praise VERY WHITE people…
1963: The Beatles (and Nell?) relax in the sun in Weston-Super-Mare during a week’s appearance at the local cinema. MIKE GERBER • This photo's Beatleness caught my eye, but my love of Python made me post it. An extra scoop of cosmic ice cream to the first person who makes the connection in the Comments... Friend Shirley Tulloch made the [...]