Category: Beatles

When They’re ’64

The Beatles ’64 documentary is quite good overall. Some of the footage shot by the Maysles brothers that’s seen in The First U.S. Visit DVD is used again here, but the focus is mostly on the chaos surrounding the Beatles and contemporary memories of the events. There isn’t too much overlap, so the two movies can be considered complementary.

I have a couple of quibbles. Why is Smokey Robinson given so much attention? Film clips with Marshall McLuhan’s observations on the media don’t really add anything to the narrative. I’d rather have seen a bit more attention given to Beatles manager Brian Epstein.

George Harrison, in a 30-year-old interview, questions how DJ Murray the K showed up and was then allowed to tag along with them. Apparently, Ronnie Bennett (later Spector) and the Ronettes, who the Beatles were fans of, got Murray into their hotel suite.

The irony is that Kaufman’s ridiculous claim of being the Fifth Beatle didn’t work where it mattered — in the ratings. Murray was out of a job less than a year later when WINS, getting clobbered by W-A-Beatle-C, switched to an all-news format. Sixty years on, 1010 WINS continues to be a news station.

On a tech note, I watched the first half of Beatles ’64 with the Roku stick on the porch TV. The remainder I watched with a new Fire TV stick.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQMRKRV5

I did that because I had become increasingly frustrated with the Roku remote. It started with trouble controlling the Samsung TV’s sound, eventually leading to times when the remote lost its link to the stick. Then, for no discernable reason, it would work perfectly again for a while, only to fail again.

Assuming the problem was exclusively within the remote, I saw a new one would cost $20. Noticing that Amazon had put its Fire TV sticks on sale for half price before Black Friday, and not having a 4K TV, I ordered the HD model for $18.

The funny upshot to this First World Problem is, my buddy Bismo told me he’s had exactly the same problem with the remote for his Roku-enabled TV. He ordered a new remote, but before it was delivered the original remote started working again, just as mine had.

We Shall Never Be Beatless

There is no record of Walt Disney saying anything about the Beatles. A Hard Day’s Night was released on August 12, 1964 and Disney’s Mary Poppins arrived on August 27.

I was eight when the Beatles arrived in America, and fourteen when Paul made the breakup official. Six short years, but in those years I went from being a little kid in the third grade to being an adolescent in the ninth grade.

“All of you youngsters out there,” as Ed Sullivan would say, may not even be aware of the Beatles, let alone appreciate their significance. But having lived through it and grown up with it, the effect and influence of THE BEATLES cannot be overstated.

“I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, ‘The Beatles did’.” – Kurt Vonnegut, 1997