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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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There's a funny written segment in Alex Robinson's graphic novel Box Office Poison where the struggling fiction writer is exploring an alternate universe; one where Paul McCartney is the Beatle who got shot instead of John Lennon. Naturally that means that McCartney is the dude who gets lionized by everyone. I think I'd read that comic.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141
Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Not much between despair and ecstacy
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141 |
Just to show that not everyone got the Beatles.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141
Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Posts: 24,141 |
Re: The Beatles in comics. Anybody else remember the Teen Titans issue from the late '70s, which focused on two pop music acts, Peter McCarthy & Flyer (a.k.a. Paul McCartney & Wings) and the Woodworkers (a.k.a., the Carpenters)? In the end, it was revealed that both groups were actually the same group operating under different disguises. Only a middle-aged square could have written that issue.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
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Time Trapper
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Or Batman #222, which is a take-off on the whole "Paul Is Dead" thing.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141
Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Posts: 24,141 |
Never read the Batman issue, though I did read about it. As I recall, it's the three other band members who have died and the fourth one who survives to cover up their deaths.
One thing that has always bothered me (from seeing the cover): Why is this mystery worth the time of the Dynamic Duo?
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
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Originally posted by He Who Wanders: Never read the Batman issue, though I did read about it. Easily fixed.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Oct 2003
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Great find, Eryk. It reminds me of when "Paul Mcarthy and the Flyers" and the "The Woodworkers" - Wings and Carpenters parodies appeared in the Teen Titans. Does anyone else remember that one?
There was also the 2008-2009 Vertigo mini "Greatest Hits" about the 1960s super-hero team The Mates - who closely parrelled the Beatles. It was a fun read.
Beauty's where you find it. Not just where you bump and grind it.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141
Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Not much between despair and ecstacy
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141 |
Thanks for posting the link, Eryk. It was fun to read!
My imediate reaction is that it's a piece of the period: The Beatles were so darned important that Batman and Robin just had to get involved in solving the mystery.
However, the story is also quite inventive. It begins with Dick in college and talking with some college chums about something that college chums would likely have been discussing circa 1969/70. From there, it turns into a real mystery with a surprising plot twist. I still don't think Batman would have deigned to investigate it (except, perhaps, to go along with Robin's teenaged obsession with a pop group), but he's not the central character; Robin is.
Loads of fun, in any case.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Aug 2003
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I picked up George Harrison's "Brainwashed" and Paul's "Driving Rain" yesterday. I have only had time to listen to a few tracks but they seem pretty cool. Do we have a "Beatles Trivia" thread?
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
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Well, they do give Bruce a bit of a motivation with the "major shareholder in Eden Records" bit. Making sure his investments are on the up and up is a pretty standard Bruce storyline, especially during that period.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141
Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Hm. I missed that reference. Not unusual, as it was something the kid in me wouldn't have related to.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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For some reason I really latched onto that line. I liked the fact that they went for "Eden" rather than more obvious references like "Orange" or "Lemon" as the name for the record company.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
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Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Well, since Adam and Eve were supposed to have eaten an apple, which caused them to be expelled from the Garden of Eden, it's not so unusual a reference.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Yeah, that's clearly the connection, but it's not the first one I would have made when looking for a substitute for "Apple".
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141
Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Not much between despair and ecstacy
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I wonder if the writer thought that his youthful audience would draw the connection. I mean, some of the references in the story are superficial: Oliver Twists = British = the Beatles; Glennon = Lennon; and so forth. So, perhaps the writer thought he was being clever by substituting Apple for Eden.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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I think that's why it stood out for me. It seemed a lot more subtlely clever than most of the other ones.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141
Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Not much between despair and ecstacy
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I see your point. The Apple/Eden reference requires a familiarity with Judeo-Christian religion. Could it be that the writer drew on such familiarity? Or, conversely, did the writer assume that the average reader wouldn't pick up on it?
To me, the reference seems obvious; however, I was raised Catholic. Had I been reading this story in 1970, I would have picked up on that reference a lot quicker than I would have picked up on the Beatles analogues. In some ways, it's odd to combine a pop culture mythology (the Beatles) with a religious motif (Eden); in other ways, it's fitting: the Beatles have taken on an almost godlike status.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
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I wonder if the average kid in 1970 would've even known that the Beatles record company was called "Apple"? That seems like a pretty basic fact to those of us at least moderately well-versed in rock history, but I don't have a really good sense of how familiar the fact would've been to the average person at the time.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141
Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Not much between despair and ecstacy
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141 |
I imagine that anyone who bought Beatles records would have drawn the connection. Apple Records featured a large, green apple on its labels.
One of the earliest records I (still) have is Wings's "Live and Let Die," which features that label.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 25,675
space mutineer & purveyor of quality sammitches
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space mutineer & purveyor of quality sammitches
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 25,675 |
" And I Love <strike>Her</strike> Him ", the Shirley Horn* cover. [happy sigh] Nothing's more smokin' hot than Shirley Horn. *(1934-2005)
Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on DeviantArt! Drop by and tell me that I sent you. *updated often!*
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 16,853
Time Trapper
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Apple was pretty big news back in 1968. The Beatles had their own record company - anything the Beatles did was big news. Was that the first time a band had established their own label? Abbey Road was the first Apple album I remember, but there would have been some singles released before that.
Despite that, I don't know if I would have gotten the Eden reference at the time. It took years before "Jo Nah" clicked.
Holy Cats of Egypt!
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 12,761
Time Trapper
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Time Trapper
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How many Beetles free days?
No where near enough.
Never like'd em', never will.
Though, Harrison was really great on his own and with the Willbury's.
Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
Something pithy!
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 12,761
Time Trapper
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Time Trapper
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Wow, that really read much snarkier than I ever intended. Sorry bout that.
Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
Something pithy!
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141
Not much between despair and ecstacy
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Not much between despair and ecstacy
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 24,141 |
Hm. I always figured you for a charter member of the Allan Sherman Fan Club, Rick. Originally posted by He Who Wanders: Just to show that not everyone got the Beatles.
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Re: How Many Beatles-Free Days?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 12,761
Time Trapper
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Time Trapper
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Heh. Pretty cool. I don't downplay or diminish their accomplishments or relevance, I just don't like their sound or what it spawned by way of the "british Invasion".
There are a couple of songs by them I like, but it turns out that Billy Preston had a major hand in them.
I just lean towards the hard stuff, as evidenced by Zep. I don't really like the Stones either, and I've always hated the Who. Tastes are subjective. I grew up with so much differnent stuff by way of music, from Freddie Fender to the Doors that the "british" stuff in the beetles vein just left me cold.
Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
Something pithy!
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