Beatles

The Library of Congress is full of wonderful treasures, and today it released a new chestful: a collection of interviews on topics such as sex, drugs and rock and roll. Included is Paul McCartney relating how pot and other drugs boosted the Beatles' creativity: “Sgt. Pepper owes a lot to drugs, to pot. That was us getting into that. It was rather innocent compared to what you talk about these days. It was very innocent. It was never seriously heavy stuff. Things got heavy later with one or two of us. Then, it was quite mild.

The Library of Congress is full of wonderful treasures, and today it released a new chestful: a collection of interviews on topics such as sex, drugs and rock and roll. Included is Paul McCartney relating how pot and other drugs boosted the Beatles' creativity: “Sgt. Pepper owes a lot to drugs, to pot. That was us getting into that. It was rather innocent compared to what you talk about these days. It was very innocent. It was never seriously heavy stuff. Things got heavy later with one or two of us. Then, it was quite mild.

I WILL RESIST all temptation to say it seems like onlyYesterdaybut the truth is that 30 years ago, I had already tired of the Beatles. Yes, it's true.In My LifeI've met only two people who weren't wild about the mop-haired songsters of my baby-boomlet era. It was one of the few things my Dad and I agreed on outside of family values (that's when a family not only talked about them but enforced them too.)Yeah, yeah yeahBoth my Dad and I agreed that they were talented songwriters and performers, and that at least two of them could genuinely carry a tune.

The melody is instantly familiar but the other sounds are not - horns boldly announce their arrival, the patient tempo crawls along and the voice is more Maryland than Liverpool. When the plea to stay kicks in - "Believe me when I beg you, don't ever leave me alone," he sings - the song's identity becomes clear. It's "Oh! Darling," the Lennon/McCartney classic, but this bouncing version comes courtesy of Yellow Dubmarine, a Rockville eight-piece that plays reggae versions of Beatles songs.

GEORGE HARRISON'S death last week from cancer had what one writer called a "cultural resonance." Not because he put his individual mark on the world, but because he was a Beatle. He and his three partners attained various levels of individual acclaim, but their import inheres in the Beatles phenomenon. Mr. Harrison had a wry and wise take on it: The Beatles were like a shirt or a costume he wore, a separate thing, in effect, something with a life of its own that endures. In death, his distinction comes from having been called "the quiet Beatle," the shy man immersed in Eastern religion.

Centuries collide at The Obladi hotel on Main Street, but instead of an explosion, a harmonic convergence was created by owners T. Garland and Zan Wilson.   What they made was a little piece of heaven. “We were going with the 1968 Beatles in India vibe,” says Wilson, pointing out the mural of henna-painted hands in the lobby and a sofa covered in wasabi-colored leather. Yes, their hotel is named after Beatles song “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” and, yes, the faces of George, John, Paul and Ringo grace the walls over fireplaces in each of the four guest rooms.

The operator of a 900-number for fans to vote for a Beatles reunion says it's for real. Well, sort of. He won't get that specific."They're being evasive now, but when they hit, they're going to hit hard," he mysteriously says of his company's unnamed employers, the promoters of the possible reunion. The ad from J.P.G.R. Inc. -- a sly evocation of John, Paul, George and Ringo -- appears in the Feb. 9 issue of Rolling Stone under this header: "BEATLES TOUR IN 1995.""Would you like to see the Beatles Get Back together for a 1995 world tour?

Years of speculation over whether the three surviving Beatles would ever get together again to make music ended yesterday when Paul McCartney released a statement announcing that he has recorded several new songs with George Harrison and Ringo Starr.It has been no secret that the surviving Beatles have been at work for some time on a 10-hour TV documentary, called "The Beatles Anthology." News of the project first emerged last February, with reports following that the three were working with an unfinished John Lennon demo to create a Beatles recording (Lennon died in 1980)

A two-time Oscar winner and four lads from Liverpool will be on the big screen at Baltimore's Senator Theatre this week, as owner Tom Kiefaber continues to mark the coming end of his family's 70-year run as operators of the city's last vintage, single-screen movie house. John Huston's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean stars Paul Newman as what, in the loosest of possible terms, could be called a frontier lawman. The 1972 farce turns the traditional notion of Western justice administered by tough, moral lawmen on its ear - Newman's Bean is a no-account crook until events in southwest Texas conspire to back up his whims and foibles with the force of law. (Roy Bean was a genuine historical figure who billed himself as "The Law West of the Pecos," but Huston's film makes few claims to historical accuracy.

On a spring weekend less than a decade ago, three bandmates and I piled into a van, rattled up the New Jersey Turnpike and depiled into the Meadowlands.We were there for the annual "Beatlefest," a combination coming-together and excuse for mega-merchandising. Our goal was to perform three Beatles tunes during the band contest.It could have been any other kind of popular culture festival, except that wide-eyed teens and young adults inside the convention hall sported mop tops and Beatles ties and ogled every Beatles T-shirt and tongue depressor.

Centuries collide at The Obladi hotel on Main Street, but instead of an explosion, a harmonic convergence was created by owners T. Garland and Zan Wilson.   What they made was a little piece of heaven. “We were going with the 1968 Beatles in India vibe,” says Wilson, pointing out the mural of henna-painted hands in the lobby and a sofa covered in wasabi-colored leather. Yes, their hotel is named after Beatles song “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” and, yes, the faces of George, John, Paul and Ringo grace the walls over fireplaces in each of the four guest rooms.

"I'm interested in expressing myself in a way that will mean something to people in any country, in any language, and at any time in history. " From "Lennon Remembers" John Lennon would have been 70 tomorrow. The movie "Imagine" will be aired as the tiresome, hagiographic view of Lennon persists. Cynics will dismiss the birthday as another pathetic occasion for baby-boomer nostalgia about the 1960s. Some enthusiasts will remind us that Lennon was a rebel with a cause — to be in a great rock band.

As summer winds down, Marylanders can rev up for one more huzzah in the form of Abbey Road on the River, said to be the largest Beatles tribute festival in the world, which lands at National Harbor this week. The five-day event, staged originally in Kentucky, is expected to draw large crowds to the Potomac riverfront from Thursday through Labor Day. "We're going to have five stages and over 40 bands, and we'll be screening two movies," said event producer Gary Jacob, adding that the plan is to make the festival an annual event in the area.

Gerry Kreml, the advance voice of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, died of Alzheimer's disease complications Dec. 4 at her Catonsville home. She was 91. Attired in a leopard-print coat, Mrs. Kreml swept into Baltimore newspaper offices, television and radio stations with handfuls of circus passes in the 1970s. She would typically begin her greeting with, "Darling. How have you been? It's so-o-o-o good to see you. Wait 'til you see the circus this year." She broke gender barriers as a circus promoter who drummed up business weeks ahead of the greatest show.

When it comes to cover bands, Sid n Susie are a notch above the rest. The duo features Susanna Hoffs, singer and guitarist for The Bangles, as well as singer/songwriter Matthew Sweet. Together, they recorded an album of '60s songs called "Under the Covers Vol. 1" in 2006. This year, they followed it up with "Under the Covers Vol. 2," which features '70s covers. Sid n Susie will perform Sunday at the Birchmere in Alexandria, and Monday at Rams Head On Stage in Annapolis. Here, Hoffs talks about meeting Sweet and how they selected the songs for their two albums.

The Beatles' London: A Guide to 467 Beatles Sites Interlink Books, $20: It appears that the Beatles left their collective footprints on every inch of London. With this remarkable guide, authors Piet Schreuders, Mark Lewisohn and Adam Smith have certainly done their homework. From Soho and Islington to Chelsea and Kensington, as well as the outer regions, the guide features detailed information on where the Beatles lived and played and where some of their most well-known photographs were taken.

"A Day In The Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles," by Mark Hertsgaard. Illustrated. 434 pages. New York: Delacorte Press. $23.95More than a few writers have suggested that history is bunk, but nowhere is that more the case than in rock history. Page through almost any rock and roll reference, and eventually you'll come across some form of falsehood in the text.Although the distortion can be deliberate, as in score-settling bios like Albert Goldman's "Elvis" or Stephen Davis' "Hammer of the Gods," most misinformation is more innocent in origin.

Beatlemania was sweeping America on Sept. 13, 1964, when photographer Morton Tadder strode into the Baltimore Civic Center, climbed onto his little magnesium ladder in the middle of the sea of screaming fans and began shooting the band playing onstage. Tadder, on assignment for the London Express, shot two rolls of film before he realized the band wasn't the Beatles, but a warm-up act. "I had no idea," he says. "Once you got past Frank Sinatra, I was lost." But when the Beatles finally came on, he shot about 10 more rolls of film.

ALLEN KLEIN, 77 Managed Beatles, Rolling Stones Allen Klein, a cunning record executive whose clients included the Rolling Stones and the Beatles and who was known as the "toughest wheeler-dealer in the pop jungle," but whose ego and temperament also contributed to the breakup of the Fab Four, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan of complications from Alzheimer's disease. Mr. Klein was an accountant by trade and fell into musician and record company management by accident. Through his company, Abkco, Klein built his reputation on shrewd attention to financial detail.