It’s been 50 years and one month
since The Beatles played their last concert in public – a blustery night in
Candlestick Park on the western shore of San Francisco Bay. After five plus years of constant touring,
the four musicians were hurried away from 50,000 screaming fans in the back of
a van, their bodies heaving to and fro as the steel truck sped across the grass
and through outfield gates towards the exit.
It was at that point, according to Paul McCartney, the four bandmates
realized playing for crowds wasn’t worth it – the steady grind from city to
city, the terrible sound systems and the constant din of teenagers shouting
louder than the music they played convinced them to cease touring for good. The world’s greatest band - the group that was
and remains a cultural phenomenon like no other – called it quits, opting
instead to pursue loftier goals inside the recording studio.
Ron Howard’s new documentary, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, was
released this month, both in theaters and online via Hulu. The film focuses on the Fab Four’s touring
years, beginning in their days in Liverpool clubs, through Hamburg, across
England and Europe and as they arrived in New York City in February, 1964 to
throngs of fans at the newly named Kennedy Airport. Using still photos, news clips, handheld
movies and newly found footage discovered by fans after Howard’s public plea
for anything Beatles-related, Eight Days
a Week captures the frenzied crowds, the crying girls, the bewildered
police and the staccato voices of old fashioned radio reporters saying things
like, “This Beatlemania has swept the nation,” and, “Why do your fans scream so
much?” To which the four Beatles
replied, “We don’t know!” as they laughed and mugged for the cameras.
Much of the sound from those
concerts was remastered for the film, and listening to performances of “She
Loves You” from 1963 in London and “You Can’t Do That” from a show in
Melbourne, Australia in 1964 are fascinating.
Ringo Starr, his suit coat still buttoned, slams away at a drum kit that
looks like you’d find it near a dumpster after a yard sale in Penacook, and you
can see the sweat running down John’s, Paul’s and George’s make-up caked faces
as they wail away on “I Saw Her Standing There.” I learned The Beatles’ refusal to play at a
segregated concert at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida had a lot to do
with forcing large southern stadiums to rethink their segregationist approach,
and hearing Whoopi Goldberg describe her surprise trip to see the band at Shea
Stadium as a young girl obsessed with The Beatles is touching.
Howard does a skillful job of sharing
something new about The Beatles, not an easy task for the most documented,
filmed and dissected group in modern musical history. I consider myself a true Beatles fan –perhaps
not a Fab Four musicologist, but I know all the music, all the words and details
about George’s love life that teeter on unnecessary. My friend Sean and I would listen to hour
after hour of the White Album, Revolver, Live at the Hollywood Bowl, Beatles
for Sale and all the others from grade school up through high school and
college. I still listen to them at least
once a day, and every song I hear – from “I Feel Fine” to “I’ve Got a Feeling”
to “Tomorrow Never Knows” still makes me grin.
Watching this film showed me scenes I’d not caught before and outtakes
of songs I’d never heard. Watch when
George holds a transistor radio to his ear in the Plaza Hotel or learn about
how John felt about his career and the band’s trajectory while making the film Help – all of it compelling to any
Beatles fan or fans of popular music and culture.
The four Beatles as well as their
producer George Martin, their manager Brian Epstein and their road managers and
roadies help paint a picture of the sheer speed at which the band went from a
local favorite to a worldwide force in a handful of years. Howard keeps the lens on touring and
performances, showing their growing disenchanted with life on the road and how,
only three months removed from their last concert in San Francisco, they
started working on what many consider the greatest album of all time – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a
concept Paul created as a way to distance himself and the others from the idea
of The Beatles as a thing bigger than themselves.
At one point in the film, a
reporter interviews Paul, asking, “So what kind of impact do you think you’ll
leave on Western culture?” Paul stops,
thinks for a second and responds, “It’s not culture – it’s a good laugh.” I’d suggest it’s a lot of both – popular culture
in its highest form and more than a good laugh – more like a smile ear to ear
as we get to listen to what they left behind forever.
The
Beatles: Eight Days a Week is available on Hulu and is showing for a limited
time at Red River Theatre in lovely downtown Concord. The film is rated PG but should be shown to
toddlers and infants so that they might develop an appreciation for the best
music ever written, despite Ringo’s incessant cheekiness.
