Posts From Colin Fleming

The Beatles’ First American Show: The Gig They Dreamed Of

After playing ‘The Ed Sullivan Show,’ the Beatles performed their first real U.S. gig in Washington., D.C.

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10 Career-Spanning (and Unique) Beatles Guitar Solos

They are rarely hailed as a band known for their guitar solos. But sorting out which ones stand apart from the rest is a pleasing task.

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‘The Great Lost Kinks Album’: Revisiting an Overlooked 1973 Delight

Although compiled to satisfy a contractual obligation, the collection of stray tracks is “a corner of the room worth spending some time in.”

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‘Get Back’: The Beatles’ Album That Was, Wasn’t And Is

When you listen to the LP as a cohesive experience, it feels like a genuine concept album—these guys being what they were.

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The Beatles’ Decca Audition: An Invaluable Lesson in Failure

Try to please everyone, and you please no one, including yourself. For the Beatles, January 1, 1962, was the day that the lesson was learned.

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The Beach Boys’ Sweet ‘Wild Honey’ Beat: A Masterpiece of the Fading Year

The 1967 album emphasizes the collective and its vision, rather than that of an auteur with attendants helping to carry out his grand design.

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Liverpool Get-Together: The Most Touching Show The Beatles Ever Gave

This was like having friends over for a boozy party, minus the booze, and in a theater instead of a parlor.

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Seeing It Said: Confessions of a Former Nick Drake Fraud

He left behind three albums, a talent he believed he had lost, and the pain he could neither escape nor overcome.

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The Laughing Beatles: Innocence, ‘If I Fell,’ and a 1964 Night in Vancouver

‘When they hit the stage, the Beatles could make it appear that they were part of your group, but also apart in their own world.’

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