I don’t get the current fascination with zombies. I really don’t. Just Saturday, I saw at Barnes & Noble Shakespeare Undead, a zombie Shakespeare novel. I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which was amusing, but I liked Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, with no zombies but lots of steampunk, so much more. ThenContinue reading “On Zombies and the Beatles”
Tag Archives: The-Beatles
On You Never Give Me Your Money
Over the past twenty-odd years I’ve read a lot of Beatles books. My studies have ranged from Mark Lewisohn’s books on their recordings to biographies of the band like Philip Norman’s Shout! and Bob Spitz’s The Beatles to analysis of the music in Mark Hertzgaard’s A Day in the Life and Ian MacDonald’s Revolution inContinue reading “On You Never Give Me Your Money”
On Let It Be, Forty Years On
Forty years ago today, The Beatles’ Let It Be arrived, and an era came to an end. The band had already disintegrated in the summer of ’69. Paul McCartney announced that he had left the band in April, before the release of his solo album McCartney. It wasn’t just a Beatles album, it was theContinue reading “On Let It Be, Forty Years On”
On My Present Musical Mood
I’ve recently been on a Beatles kick. These things go in cycles for me; I’ll listen to the Beatles hardcore (or Lennon solo, or McCartney solo, or Harrison solo, or even Starr solo) for a month, and then I’ll not touch the Beatles for six months or so. Recently, the cycle kicked in. I can’tContinue reading “On My Present Musical Mood”
On Westwood One’s The Lost Lennon Tapes Radio Documentary
Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, I’ve recently been listening to The Lost Lennon Tapes, a 200-odd hour long documentary on the life and music of John Lennon that was broadcast on the Westwood One Radio Network in the late-1980s. I’ve known of the series for a long time, but I’d never heard it,Continue reading “On Westwood One’s The Lost Lennon Tapes Radio Documentary”
On Rainfall Against the Office Glass
On a day like today, with the sky overcast and rain falling, hitting the sixth floor glass and running in streaks downward, this song by the Beatles is completely appropriate: If the rain comes they run and hide their heads They might as well be dead If the rain comes, if the rain comes When the sun shines they slip into the shade (When the sun shines down) And sip their lemonade (When the sun shines down) When the sun shines, when the sun shines Rain, I don't mind Shine, the weather's fine I can show you that when it starts to rain (When the rain comes down) Everything's the same (When the rain comes down) I can show you, I can show you Rain, I don't mind Shine, the weather's fine Can you hear me that when it rains and shines (When it rains and shines) It's just a state of mind? (When it rains and shines) Can you hear me, can you hear me? sdaeh rieht edih dna nur yeht semoc niar eht fI (Rain) niaRContinue reading “On Rainfall Against the Office Glass”
On Rethinking “Hot As Sun”
Last night, WAMU, the public radio station in Washington, broadcast a documentary entitled The Beatles: One More Album, which examined what another Beatles album, after Abbey Road, might’ve been like. It wasn’t definitive in any way, but it was interesting. The early solo music of the four Beatles was discussed, from songs they tried outContinue reading “On Rethinking “Hot As Sun””
On The Beatles: One More Album
Forty years ago, it was “the break-up heard ’round the world.” The Beatles, the world’s greatest rock’n’roll band, the voice of a generation, were no more. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr — they appeared on the scene, as if from nowhere in February 1964 on The Ed Sullivan Show, they conqueredContinue reading “On The Beatles: One More Album”
On the Beatles and “Last Christmas”
People confuse me. Take, for example, some recent search phrases used to reach my website. “Did the Beatles record Last Christmas?” I’ve seen this in the WordPress stats several times in the past week. First of all, no, the Beatles did not record “Last Christmas.” The song wasn’t even written until 1984, when it wasContinue reading “On the Beatles and “Last Christmas””
On Oddball Christmas Albums
I have bought an underwhelming Christmas album on iTunes. I like Christmas music. For being a godless heathen, I enjoy listening to it year ’round. I have many different Christmas albums. Medieval and Renaissance-styled. Vince Guaraldi and other jazz standards. Celtic. Even some Beatle-esque Christmas albums, which I wrote about here a few years ago.Continue reading “On Oddball Christmas Albums”