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The Beatles ’64
Featuring: The Beatles
Director: David Tedeschi
Disney+ (from November 29)
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The new documentary film about The Beatles begins with a few brief glimpses of John F. Kennedy’s time as US president. Talks about the future of the nation, with high hopes for civil rights and space travel, but it ends, as is well known, with the murder in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and the subsequent funeral. The mood in the United States was depressed. – It was like The Beatles came and turned on the light again, is said about hearing “She Loves You” for the first time towards the end of the year.
A brief summary for any young readers: After a year of increasing success in Europe, The Beatles arrived in the United States on February 7, 1964. To the airport that had been quickly renamed John F. Kennedy Airport, in memory of the president. You could probably say that The Beatles made a good contribution to raising spirits again: – America had been in a period of mourning. Maybe they needed someone like The Beatles. The joy we saw in the audience was as if they had been lifted out of their grief, says Paul McCartney now.
From Liverpool played on Ed Sullivan’s TV show
Young people in the Commonwealth went wild when the group from Liverpool played on Ed Sullivan’s TV show two days after arriving. 74 million people are said to have watched. The hysteria grew bigger and bigger. On April 5, The Beatles held the top five spots on the singles chart, with a total of 12 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100.
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The enthusiasm did not apply to everyone. For many, this seemed like the end of the world as they knew it. – Both Great Britain and the United States have associations for child protection and animal protection, but none for cruelty to adults, says a radio commentator. – Now it’s the Beatles (beetles). Next will be Spiders. I’m going to get out of show business before they come and disinfect, we hear from comedian Bob Hope. As regular readers of these pages know, it took eight years for David Bowie and his Spiders From Mars to become the new bigs. The biggest thing to happen since The Beatles.
“The Beatles ’64” is produced by Martin Scorsese
The documentary film “The Beatles ’64”, directed by David Tedeschi, produced by Martin Scorsese, shows us the extraordinarily happy frenzy that met The Beatles in those February days. We follow them from the moment they get off the plane and are greeted by hordes of screaming teenagers, mostly girls, with their ‘Welcome Beatles’ banners. Further back, someone is trying to make a mark with posters that say “Beatles unfair to bald men” and “England out of Ireland”. (Nine years later, after The Beatles disbanded, Paul McCartney and John Lennon each came out on top with the songs “Give Ireland Back To The Irish” and “Luck Of The Irish”. But that’s another story.)
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The new film leans heavily on the recordings that directors Albert and David Maysles made on the spot for The Beatles during these two hectic weeks. They were allowed to circle the four, like flies on the wall at press conferences, hotel rooms, trains, nightclubs and, most importantly, at TV shows and concerts.
These recordings were only barely shown on TV in the documentary “What’s Happening” in the same year, but received little attention since the group simultaneously released their own feature film “A Hard Day’s Night”. The Mayles films came into their own later, in the long TV series “Anthology”, in the documentaries “The First US Visit” in 1991, and “Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years” in 2016. The latter covered all the years The Beatles were on tour. As you know, it didn’t last many years, as they retired from the concert stages already in 1966. No one could hear what they were playing anyway.
David Lynch saw The Beatles
In addition, “The Beatles ’64” presents a number of interviews that put the events in perspective. New conversations with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, archive footage with John Lennon and George Harrison, but just as important are a number of statements from many of the others who were present. This is not the film to see the group on stage, but is nevertheless a good reminder of how strong an impression The Beatles made in 1964.
Read also: “Get Back” – eight-hour long documentary with The Beatles at their best
Among those who attended the concert in the Washington Coliseum was 16-year-old David Lynch, who later became a famous film director. – The music was fantastic. Like fire and water. You could not fathom the beauty of these tones. They appealed to both the intellect and the emotions. They made the heart swell to bursting point, so the tears flowed,” Lynch says, with, er, tears in his eyes.
One of the best things about this retrospective is seeing the enthusiasm of the supporters again. – I can’t understand it now, but at the time it was completely natural. We couldn’t control ourselves, says one of them 60 years later. A lot of stupid things have been said about all these girls who howl themselves hoarse, and their heirs around constantly new idols over the years, but they radiate a joyful energy that is always a joy to experience.
The only people The Beatles knew in the US were The Ronettes, whom they had met during their visit to England the previous year. Ronnie Spector says that the English group were in practice in prison in their hotel rooms. The Ronettes took them to Harlem, where not many people knew who they were. Whether that’s where we’ll see them partying in a nightclub to the tunes of Barrett Strong’s “Money” is unclear. They obviously had a bit of a break between all the official assignments.
Read also: “Baby I Love You” – Ronnie Spector was a singer for eternity
Smokey Robinson and the Isley Brothers
Less pleasant was an official reception at the British Embassy in Washington. The ambassador gave a pleasant speech, but the staff treated the group condescendingly, almost like intruders. – We didn’t give a flying fuck, says Paul McCartney today: – They worked at the embassy. We rock around the world.
The film has some observations that are exciting in a larger perspective. Most obvious is the reminder of how important black soul music and rhythm & blues were to The Beatles in the beginning. In a radio interview, they are asked what hopes they have for the visit to the USA? They reply that they hope they can meet The Miracles and The Isley Brothers.
Ronald Isley tells about when they found out that there was a group in England who imitated their “Twist And Shout”: – “Oh shake it up baby…”. We were so happy! Paul McCartney said that if it hadn’t been for The Isley Brothers they would still be in Liverpool, recalls Isley.
Read also: Smokey Robinson is one of soul music’s greatest voices
On the same occasion, we also get a new interview with Smokey Robinson, who says that he had already seen The Beatles on stage at the time. After a performance with The Miracles in Liverpool, he visited the Cavern club in Liverpool, where he heard them play songs he recognized from back home, but with their own Beatles sound. He didn’t know anything about the fact that they had also recorded his own “You Really Got A Hold On Me”.
– No whites of this size had said they liked black music before, says Smokey Robinson, who signs off by singing “Yesterday” as nicely as just that, in a later edition of the TV show to Ed Sullivan. An exquisite experience, even if you thought you never needed to hear “Yesterday” again. May I also take this opportunity to recommend that everyone play Marvin Gaye’s version of “Yesterday”?
The Beatles dressed like their black role models too. There has never been a better dressed white boy pop group. John Lennon’s angle on this (much later) was that their success was due to The Beatles washing black soul, rhythm and blues whiter than Elvis Presley. They also had good self-awareness.
Smokey Robinson says it’s the girls in the audience that make show business go round. They are not afraid to show emotion, while the boys hold back. Boys should be strong and tough, and at least never cry. – I like that the girls are out there and express themselves as they do, he says. In the film, this is elaborated on by two prominent feminists, who both believe that The Beatles broke down gender role patterns:
The author and activist Betty Friedan rejected the prevailing male role, which she believed to be brutal, muscular and military. – The Beatles say no, I don’t have to be like that. The songs show emotions. They are strong enough to be soft, a new kind of man, said Betty Friedan in black and white.
“The Beatles ’64” is a time machine
In Colors of the Present, Jane Tompkins, professor of feminist literary criticism, substantiates these views. – They were clearly boys, but with their hair and clothes they stood out as tender and careful. The difference between men and women was not as prominent as it had been with Elvis Presley. They did not play on the masculine against the feminine. The Beatles were very inclusive, Tompkins thinks.
All this was hardly thought out and calculated on the part of The Beatles. “Beatles ’64” is a wonderful reunion of four boys in their early 20s, who take a new world by storm, and have as much fun as they can on the road, as boys do. George going to bed up luggage rack on the train ride from New York to Washington? What are you giving me? Had the shelf fallen down, the story of The Beatles as we know it could already be over.
Read also: The last song of The Beatles is a wistful sigh
Towards the end, Paul McCartney is asked what he would say to the others if they were here today, – I would have said that I love them. Because boys never said that to each other in Liverpool, if we weren’t brothers. But we were brothers, he says. Just as sensitive and emotional as before.
It is sad to think that two of these boys left the world far too soon, John Lennon in 1980 and George Harrison in 2001. The good thing is that the adventure continues, 60 years later, for the other two. Ringo Starr (84) releases the new country album “Look Up” in January, produced by T Bone Burnett. The single “Thankful” with Alison Krauss is out now. Paul McCartney (82) is at the end of this year’s “Get Back” tour, but has still not signaled that this is “The End”. “The Beatles ’64” is a time machine back to the excitement and optimism of the beginning.
