Brian Wilson – Songwriter: 1969-1982
And for that reason…
I rate this movie, 4 out of 4 Beetles!
Note: And keep an eye out for May Pang’s book, Loving John, on Peter Ames Carlin’s bookshelf!
Tag Archives: Beatles Fan
Movie Review: Brian Wilson – Songwriter: 1969-1982
Filed under Beach Boys, Movie Reviews
Book Review: “Horse-Doggin'” by Dave Morrell
Author Dave Morrell is a guy you just love to hate! He’s the guy that had that job working in the WEA distribution center…touching, feeling, smelling, caressing, fondling and listening to all the new records that all us ordinary people had to wait to get our hands on! And he had the audacity to write a book about it!
After reading that Dave Morrell was to be a guest on Jude Kessler’s John Lennon Hour show on November 18, 2014, I decided it might be worth my while to find out who this guy is. Jude wrote that he was friends with John Lennon and had written a book called Horse-Doggin’. When I checked on Amazon, the Kindle version of Horse-Doggin’ was only 79 pages, presenting me with the opportunity to get the book and read it before his interview tonight.
If you like books with fluffy words and long drawn out descriptions of a look, a sunset or a song, this is not the book for you. Dave is very concise and direct with his words. There are no paragraphs with the same sentence written three different ways in this book! Just the way I like my books. He gets straight to the point of telling his stories without a lot of nonsense filler. Along the way through his post high school years, he attends to the very best concerts of 1972-1973, meets musical legends backstage and at parties and even shares and exchanges albums with John Lennon. He holds the very first Beatles convention in his bedroom and is often referred to as a Beatles Freak!
Wonderful book with wonderful stories. Not the best writing style…but it’ll get you through the night!
I rate this book: 3 out of 4 Beetles!
Filed under Beatles books, Beatles-freak, festival, John Lennon
Book Review: ‘Confessions of a Beatlemaniac’ by Dee Elias
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‘Confessions of a Beatlemaniac’ by Dee Elias
- ‘Confessions of a Beatlemaniac’ by Dee Elias
I had the pleasure of meeting Dee Elias at the Fest for Beatles Fans in Chicago and finding out about her book ‘Confessions of a Beatlemaniac: A true story of a fan who broke all the rules to meet the Beatles!‘ Without even reading a word, I got the impression that Dee’s story is going to become huge among other Beatles fans.
Though this book is currently listed on Amazon.com as being for ages 10 – 18, it’s definitely a multi-generational read. Taken from the pages of Dee’s diary when she was 14-16 years old, this book tells of the extent to which Dee, her friends and many other Beatlemaniacs would go to just to get close to the Beatles. This is the story of how she honed her technique by managing to meet other stars like Sonny & Cher and Simon & Garfunkel.
Why did she wait so long to tell her story? When I spoke with her at the fest, she said not only did she think no one would be interested, she also was still keeping her antics a secret from her parents 50 years later!
If you’re looking for a fun book directly from the heart of a true Beatle fan who was THERE, you’ll enjoy this quick (168 page) read. (And you absolutely won’t want to miss the story of Dee’s encounter with Billy J. Kramer!)
This book is available for Kindle at Amazon.com. Paperbacks are available exclusively through Dee’s website: www.ConfessionsOfABeatleManiac.com.
You can follow Dee on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Confessionsofabeatlemaniac
I rate this book: 4 out of 4 Beetles
Filed under Beatles books, Beatles-freak, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, reviews, Ringo Starr
Beatles ‘Twist and Shout’ hula hoop dance
A little something for your viewing pleasure. This is folksinger and hoop instructor Melissa Cox on the beach in New Zealand hoop dancing to the Beatles ‘Twist and Shout’
Filed under Beatles influence
Johnny come lately, the new kid in town…
“Everybody’s talking
There’s a new kid in town
People started walking
There’s a new kid in town” – Eagles
With the approach of the 50th Anniversary of the Beatles coming to the United States, it seems that new events, festivals and conferences are popping up everywhere to celebrate the occasion. And though the Fest for Beatles Fans is the biggest fest around, some of the others aren’t to shabby!
One of the biggest events will be at Penn State University in Altoona, PA on the weekend of February 7-9, 2014 and is called ‘It was 50 Years Ago Today: An International Beatles Celebration.’ This three day event isn’t a festival. It’s a conference. According to their website, “In addition to panels and presentations, the conference will include film screenings, musical performances, art and photography exhibits, and keynote addresses by leading Beatles critics and musicologists.”
The director of this event is Dr. Kenneth Womack, the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at PSU Altoona, and the author of: Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles, The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles, Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism, And the Fab Four and the soon to be released The Beatles Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: Everything Fab Four.
A few of the respected 50+ experts set to appear at this conference are:
Mark Lewisohn – regarded as one of the world’s leading Beatles authorities, Mark is the author of the NY Times bestseller Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years, Volume 1.
Andy Babiuk – the foremost authority on the equipment used to create the Beatles’ music and the author of Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four’s Instruments from Stage to Studio. Andy is also a staff consultant to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH.
Walter Everett – the author of the Beatles As Musicians book series, Mr. Everett is also a member of the School of Music faculty at the University of Michigan and the author of The Foundations of Rock.
Jude Southerland Kessler – a Beatles expert, author and host of her own radio show, Ms. Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series. She has spent nearly 30 years researching John Lennon and the Beatles for her 9 book series., making her a leading expert on the topic of the Fab Four.
Dr. Kit O’Toole – For over 19 years, Dr. O’Toole has written music, concert, and book reviews, interviews, popular culture essays, and technology “how to” articles. Her work has appeared at: Blogcritics.org, Something Else Reviews, Blinded by Sound, Cinema Sentries, Seattle PI and Beatlefan magazine.
This is definitely set to be one of the most intellectual of all the Beatles events to be held in 2014! And what’s cool about their registration is that you not only can you sign up for which days you would like to attend, you can add your meals and accommodations to your package as you like!
For more information on this conference, along with a schedule of events & presenters, and registration, check out their website: http://www.altoona.psu.edu/beatles.
Short Story (ebook) Review: ‘Paul McCartney’s Coat and Other Stories’ by Michael White
This holiday, I got myself a Kindle Touch…thanks to the generosity of a friend who gave me an Amazon gift card. Wanting to put this new device to use immediately, I did a search for ‘Free books beatles’ under Kindle books. The ebook, ‘Paul McCartney’s Coat and Other Stories’ came up first on a very short list of only 3 books.
Let me first inform my readers that only the Forward is free. You can get a Sampler for 99 cents, but the entire book is $4.50. So…I ended up spending $5.49, but I have now learned a valuable lesson on what not to download to my Kindle.
Now for my review of just the first short story in this ebook:
If you’re a fan of short stories and/or fan fiction, you’ll enjoy reading this tall tale about a Beatles fan having a close encounter with the Fab Four at a pub in 1967 and his short ownership of Paul McCartney’s coat that was left behind in the pub and the discovery of Julian Lennon’s drawing of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds!
The author, Michael White, gives a footnote at the end of the his story saying that on the original drawing by Julian, the words “Lucy with diamond eyes” were crossed out and the words, “Lucy in the sky with diamonds” were written underneath. After doing a search on the interent, I couldn’t come up with any confirmation of this…even though it plays a huge part in telling of this story and I found it quite amusing how the author may have taken this fact and turned it into his own story! (Note: I’d appreciate it if anyone can confirm the story about the original picture.)
The story does contain quite a lot of typos, but I’ve been told this can happen when books are converted to Kindle editions. The reader may become impatient with several missing quote marks, run-on sentences and other small publishing errors.
Also, I guess one way to get attention for your new book is to put one of the Beatles names in the title or ‘Beatles’ itself. It got my attention and no, I didn’t read any of the other Mr. White’s other short stories, but I now have them handy in case I find myself waiting at a dentist office or such.
This book is available in it’s full Kindle editon at Amazon.com, but is only available in it’s free edition of the Forward from Barnes and Noble.
Because this story is fan fiction (and I’m not a fan of that genre) and because I felt that the author gets sidetracked on other topics to the point of feeling like he was just adding ‘filler’ to his story:
I rate this story in this book: 2 out of 4 Beetles
Filed under Beatles books, Fan Fiction, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, reviews, Uncategorized
Upcoming Beatles Documentary
I’m not going to sugarcoat this…this post is going to be a plea for help! This project has just 26 days left to be financed or the entire deal will fall through…and as Beatles Freaks, I just can’t IMAGINE any of us letting that happen.
This is about Freda Kelly, The Beatles’ secretary from the early Cavern Club days when they were playing to audiences of 30 people at lunchtime, all the way through their years of international popularity and stardom, and until they eventually broke up in 1970. Freda was only one of a handful of employees for The Beatles who lasted for the entire “Beatles Era.”
Freda has kept quiet all these years and is only now starting to come forward and tell her stories about all those years ago with the Fab Four. She wants her grandchildren to know what their grandmother did in her youth…and what a great story she must have to tell. I know I want to hear about it.
In order to make her documentary, the filmmakers must raise $50,000 by November 12, 2011 at 2:59 am. Currently, the total donated is $13,390 from 117 donors.
So, let me break this down for you: If the next 7,324 fans gave just $5 to this cause, they could make this film! And you can’t tell me that they aren’t 7,324 Beatles Freaks out there that are dying to hear the inside stories from Freda! You can give more if you’d like…you can give less…that’s up to you. But I believe that we are capable of raising this money in the next 26 days. And there are bonuses…such as, if you give $25, you will get a copy of the DVD when it’s made (there are more gifts for different donation levels, but I thought this was the most enticing for those with limited income).
All together now….come together, right now…
Donate here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1215635909/good-ol-freda
Please share this post on Twitter, Facebook and other social media to help this cause.
Filed under Beatles-freak, Documentary, George Harrison, John Lennon, movies, music, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Uncategorized
Song Review: “Look to the One” by The Vals
I love this band.
Wait…that wasn’t strong enough…
I LOVE THE VALS!
Okay…that was much better.
Phew…now on with the review.
The Vals are from Belfast, Ireland and appeared in my inbox about 2 years ago when they told me what huge Beatles fans they were and how influenced their music has been by the Fab Four. At first, I thought they were just another band looking for attention, but I went to their site and gave their single “Yesterday Today” a listen. The song will give you chills! They soon released their first album “Sticks and Stones” in October 2009 which I had fully intended on reviewing but for some reason, I never found the time. The album is amazing for a debut album…there is no doubt it is on my list of favorite albums along with my Beatles collection. There is no mistaking that these guys too are Beatles freaks!
Now this band has released a new single, “Look to the One” and I’m not going to miss this opportunity to let the world know exactly how talented this group of musicians is. An upbeat song, with a sound reminiscent of John Lennon. I’ve embedded the video to this new song into this review, but I highly recommend taking a listen without the visual imagery if you want to truly get into this song. These are the types of songs you pop into your car stereo and all your friends ask, “Who’s this?!”
Did I say I love this band? I LOVE THE VALS! I just wish I could give them more support and bring them to the U.S.. The people at SXSW Festival in Austin, TX, actually turned The Vals down last year to appear at the festival. I think this was a huge mistake on their part and a big loss for the fans that attend the festival. Hey…SXSW! Get on the ball and bring The Vals to the U.S.A.!
You can become a fan of The Vals on Facebook.
I rate this song, this band and all their music: 4 out of 4 Beetles
Filed under Beatles influence, Beatles-freak, music, reviews, Uncategorized
Book Review: A Date With A Beatle by Judith Kristen
A Date With A Beatle by Judith Kristen
This was my second attempt at reading A Date With A Beatle. I had bought the book at the Fest for Beatles Fans in NJ in 2010. The first time through, I managed to get to page 61 of this 171 page book about a young girl’s attempt to meet George Harrison. I’ll give my first impression report and in the end…I’ll give my overall impression after actually finishing this book.
I picked up this book after meetin Judith Kristen and her husband at The Fest. Knowing that the first editions of Jude Southerland Kessler‘s self-published novel on John Lennon now sell for up to $1000, I figured I’d pick up a 1st edition copy of ‘A Date With A Beatle‘ as an investment. After reading the first 19 very short chapters of this book, I just cringed. Something just didn’t sit right with me about how a woman could remember such detail after 45 years. It was then I saw in the front of the book, “This book is partially fictionalized”. Then it made sense to me that I wasn’t quite sure how much was made up and I felt duped! I put the book down for over a year.
Last week, I decided to pick this book up again and finally review it, knowing full well that this could turn out really bad for any future dealings with Ms. Kristen or her husband since we’ve been known to be seen in the came circles.
Once again…I struggled. After only 1o chapters, I felt like this was work, but I championed on…determined to finish and review it. I tried to anaylize why I was struggling with the way the story was being presented and then it hit me that Judith Kristen is also a children’s book author and I believe that in her own way…she dumbed down this book a bit much. Or maybe it’s the attempt to write it in her voice as it was when she was 16. Or maybe it was the over-the-top conversations between her and her friends and police officers. Finally, I can say I finished it.
I can honestly say that by the her last attempt to meet George Harrison in the story in this book, she had me hooked. The ending is whitty and will make you smile. I am glad I read it…and the latest edition has a beautiful new cover from Beatles artist Eric Cash. I’ve also read that Ms. Kristen has been invited to Beatles Week in Liverpool later this month and then will start a book tour of German where her book has now been published in German. Best of luck to her!
You can buy her book on Amazon.
I can believe I’m about to say this….but…
I rate this book: 3 out of 4 Beetles
Filed under Beatles books, Beatles-freak, George Harrison, music, reviews
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