Yesterday’s Washington Post had an article on Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles. He died of a drug overdose, forty years ago today. He was thirty-three. You read a book on the Beatles, and he’s there, in the background. Usually, it’s something salacious about his personal life — Brian was a homosexual in aContinue reading “On Brian Epstein”
Category Archives: Beatles
On Reading “The Twelfth Album”
I wrote earlier in the month about putting together “God,” the Beatles album from Stephen Baxter’s alternate history story, “The Twelfth Album.” The Wikipedia article on the story gave the track line-up, and it was easy to put together the playlist in Windows. But I hadn’t read the story. Thankfully, I found a used copyContinue reading “On Reading “The Twelfth Album””
On “God”
About ten years ago Stephen Baxter wrote an alternate history story entitled “The Twelfth Album.” Its premise? Two guys, going through a dead coworkers effects, discover a mysterious, impossible LP — a Beatles album entitled “God.” The cover was elementally simple: just a black field, with a single word rendered in a white typewriter fontContinue reading “On “God””
On Weird Fandom Questions
Stolen from novelist David McIntee: Name six of your fandoms without looking below the cut, then answer the questions. Okie-day! I’m interpretting “fandom” broadly—I like bands, I like books, I like television shows. So, broad definitions here. My six are: Hellboy The Beatles Doctor Who The Lord of the Rings Star Trek Boston Legal AndContinue reading “On Weird Fandom Questions”
On Today’s Birthdays
Today we celebrate three important birthdays. Robert Heinlein was born one hundred years ago today. I’m not a fan–I find Heinlein’s work to be racist and misogynistic, nor has it aged particularly well–but his influence over science fiction cannot be denied. I think, in his honor, I’ll read Larry Niven’s short story, “The Return ofContinue reading “On Today’s Birthdays”
On Fifty Years Ago Today
Something monumental happened on July 6th, 1957. John Lennon met Paul McCartney. It was at the Woolton Church fete. Wikipedia has the story: On Saturday 6 July 1957 [The Quarrymen] played at St. Peter’s Church garden fête. In the afternoon they played on a stage in a field behind the church. After the set, IvanContinue reading “On Fifty Years Ago Today”
On a Whole Lotta Beatles
This may be excessive. I have twenty-seven hours of the Beatles on my computer’s hard drive. Twenty-seven hours. That’s more than a day! A day of Beatles! And then some! The thirteen albums they released between Please Please Me and Let It Be, plus the assorted singles, only total twelve hours. The albums of theContinue reading “On a Whole Lotta Beatles”
On a Cool Judge
When I was in college I’d play a little game with the papers I’d write–I’d sneak in Beatles lyrics. Sometimes it was a little challenging to find the right lyric to fit a paper on, say, the SDI ballistic missile defense program. Sometimes it would work. Sometimes it wouldn’t. But it was a game, andContinue reading “On a Cool Judge”
On Green Day's "Working Class Hero"
I have a few John Lennon tribute albums. One came out about ten years ago, an album called Working Class Hero. Q did one in honor of John’s sixty-fifth birthday. Neither could I recommend. There’s something about John Lennon’s solo music that doesn’t lend itself to cover versions. Some have said that Lennon did theContinue reading “On Green Day's "Working Class Hero"”
On the Sgt Pepper Anniversary
Yesterday, in honor of the 40th-anniversary of the release of Sgt Pepper, I listened to the album, both the original and two cover versions, several times. I listened to it before I went to work. 🙂 I wore my Sgt Pepper tie to work. I listened to it again when I got home from work.Continue reading “On the Sgt Pepper Anniversary”