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Mad Men, The Eleanor Rigby Experiment
One of the most exciting elements of the latest season of Mad Men was how the series creator, Matthew Weiner, somehow scored the rights to broadcast an actual Beatles song on his show. The Beatles had never allowed their actual recordings to be directly featured in a television show, and have rarely allowed the privilege…
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Nancy Sinatra, You Only Live Twice, Mad Men Season Finale
Mad Men is a hell of a show. When it first premiered, I was intrigued because I loved the Sopranos, and knew that Matthew Weiner, one of that shows head writers, was behind its creation. At first I wasn’t hooked. I thought many of the characters were overly stylized and inauthentic. I also thought much…
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Yellow Submarine Week, Eleanor Rigby
When the Yellow Submarine movie came out in 1968, the Beatles were already edging away from the psychedelic movement they helped flower across the world. In 68, the Beatles were recording the “White Album,” a record more psychedelic in the abstract than the literal. All and all they were inching back towards their rock and…
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John Lennon's "She Said, She Said" Home Demos
I’ve discussed the subject of “She Said, She Said” before when discussing the Black Keys’ excellent cover version of the classic psychedelic Beatle rocker. Right now, I have something a little tastier, John Lennon’s acoustic home demos of the song. Through a magical few minutes, the clip below cuts together all of John’s early takes…
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The Black Keys, She Said She Said
The Black Keys are guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney. Together they have forged a highly successful blues rock revivalist band that are the darlings of the upper tiers of the indie rock world. I’ve always like them, but have not extensively combed through their catalog. Perhaps I’ve finally found a reason to. The…
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Give My Regards To Broad Street, Yesterday, Here There and Everywhere, Wanderlust
I’m not ready to say goodbye to Paul’s terrible movie, in fact watching this makes me want to see the whole thing. I might have seen the whole thing laid out on youtube, and if it is, expect the entire film posted on my website soon with humorous remarks dashed about. Anyway, despite the movie…
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Paul McCartney, Give My Regards to Broad Street, Eleanor Rigby
I’ve never seen Give My Regards to Broad Street, but from what I’ve read, its pretty awful. Apparently, it was Paul McCartney’s ego run amok, thinking he could replicate the success of “A Hard Day’s Night” with another movie about a “day in the life” of…Paul McCartney. The movie was a huge waste of money,…
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The Beatles, Rain
No, I’m not talking about the horrible Beatles cover band Broadway show thing, I’m talking about the 1966 B single of “Paperback Writer.” I’m posting “Rain” because I’ve met 4 people in the last two months that had NEVER heard of the song before, which to obsessed Beatle lunatics like myself, is just unfathomable. Perhaps…
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John Lennon, Instant Karma
Part 71 of my youtube countdown begins in a flash with John Lennon’s 1970 release “Instant Karma.” “Instant Karma” is one of the fastest released songs in rock history. John wrote it in the morning, recorded it in the afternoon, and released it ten days later. The urgency of its release convinced karmic minded George…