Do the Beatles Still Matter? Does Mingering Mike?
Marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' invasion of the US, Entertainment Weekly mused whether the Fab Four still have any relevance -- and offered a "surprising" answer. Meanwhile, a "digger" at a used record store has uncovered a huge collection from singer Mingering Mike, who actually doesn't even exist.

On Feb. 9, 1964, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show, making their live US debut. In the Feb. 13 2004 issue, EW magazine asked its readers, rhetorically, "We don't have to tell you what a profound impact that had on pop culture, do we?"

Of course it launched the 60s, long hair and long songs, but the average EW reader is apparently 34 years old and was not around to experience the revolution directly. What do they make of the anniversary? What SHOULD they make of it?

EW's answer is obvious, although they claim (somewhat disingenuously, to seem out of step with their core readers, perhaps) that it is surprising: the kids who still love the Beatles have it right. The Beatles changed everything. (Hey, who knew?)

The article locates some young people who find no influence of the Beatles in today's music and others who don't care about them, but the consensus is that they're Fab again, almost as a cult band this time around.

Sidebars include:

• a list of "10 Beatles Songs that Changed the World" (Strawberry Fields, of course, but also Revolution, Helter Skelter, Help!, A Day in the Life)
• an interview with hip-hop artists who credit the Beatles' studio wizardry and ingenuity with setting the stage for all of hip-hop's recording techniques
• a bizarro world in which the Beatles never existed. (Five Monkees, no Sundance Film Festival, Yoko breaks up Led Zeppelin)

Read more at Entertainment Weekly's site (magazine subscription or AOL keyword "Entertainment Weekly" required), including the 10 songs that changed the world, the sidebar "Think Hip Hop started in the Bronx?", and the speculative "Imagine: A World without the Beatles"

Rare album "diggers" Dori Hadar and Frank Beylotte recently visited a Washington, DC flea market and found a crate full of LPs credited to Mingering Mike, dated 1968 to 1976. Funny thing was, the LPs were made from cardboard, not vinyl, and the album covers were merely hand-painted to look like real albums. The spines were painted and numbered, the backs had liner notes, some had gatefold sleeves, and some even had shrink-wrapping and price labels on them.

A little extra digging at the flea market revealed that whoever created the phony LP art also created some actual cassette and 8-track recordings. Some detective work ensued, leading to their finding the artist who created all the whimsical albums.

Although the artist (who wishes to remain anonymous) has written over 4000 songs in his life, he has never released a real album. He had "fantasized an entire career on cardboard," according to a recent article in the New York Times. The tape recordings used telephone books for drums and wax paper for trumpets. He spent as long as a week creating each of the dozens of album covers.

The artist had lost all his possessions, including his fantasy collection, after falling behind in his rent and having everything in his rented storage space auctioned off.

What motivated him? A love of music. He personally owned thousands of albums and singles, real ones. Now his fantasy art work will probably find its way into a folk art museum, a real one.

Read the New York Times article [fee required]

Learn more about Mingering Mike at Soulstrut.com, the diggers' web site, a Mingering Mike forum and photos (Additional Mingering Mike information at the Stargeek blog)