Category: Beatles

‘A Hard Day’s Night’ on CD-ROM

Way back in January 1994, I ordered my first “serious” desktop computer. It was MS-DOS 5 with Windows 3.1, on a 40 MHz AMD processor with 4 MB of memory, a 160 MB drive, generic Tseng ET4000 video card, and a 14″ SVGA CRT. I installed a Soundblaster 16 card with a proprietary SCSI interface for a Panasonic CD-ROM drive that used caddies.

One of the first CD-ROM’s I had (which, come to think of it, might have been a gift from Denro), was “The Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night, the complete uncut movie”. It was put out by the Voyager Company, known for its high quality Criterion label of LaserDisc videos. My LD copies of “A Hard Day’s Night” and “HELP!” are both from Criterion.

I was thrilled with this new technology! I could actually watch the movie on my computer, albeit in extremely compromised quality, with the script automatically following along. Here are some sample screens.

A Hard Day\'s Night CD-ROMA Hard Day\'s Night CD-ROM

A Hard Day\'s Night CD-ROMA Hard Day\'s Night CD-ROM

A Hard Day\'s Night CD-ROMA Hard Day\'s Night CD-ROM

Enlarged, the screen caps show the actual video image size. I’ve scaled up one of the MOV files from the CD to 320×240. It runs at a measly 16 fps, but this was hot stuff in 1993, with online streaming video still a long way off. Note that even here, in this limited presentation, “I Should Have Known Better” sounds better than on the Miramax DVD!

[MEDIA=67]

A Hard Disc’s Night

There is supposed to be yet another video release coming of the Beatles movie, A Hard Day’s Night. That’s good, because the DVD is excessively cropped for widescreen format, it pushes the contrast too hard and, for the songs, the sound is terrible compared to the 1987 release on the defunct LaserDisc format. Here’s the comparison.

Prue Bury with Pattie Boyd on the AHDN LD…
[media id=63 width=512 height=408]

…and on the Miramax AHDN DVD.
[media id=64 width=512 height=312]

Here’s something you may not know. The scene in the baggage car wasn’t filmed on the train. Prue Bury told me…

All the singing on the train was shot in the studio,with someone shaking a carriage about!!

According to Mark Lewisohn in “The Complete Beatles Chronicles”…

Wednesday, March 11, 1964:

On this day, working from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm, the group filmed on a set resembling a train guard’s van, where they played cards and also mimed to ‘I Should Have Known Better’, later edited into the film’s train sequences.

Here is “I Should Have Known Better” as presented on LD…
[media id=65 width=512 height=408]

… and on DVD.
[media id=66 width=512 height=312]

Addendum: It seems the “new” AHDN DVD is only on Blu-Ray, and only in Canada, and it’s the same questionable video transfer from the Miramax DVD. But the sound is supposedly greatly improved.

http://www.beatlesnews.com/blog/the-beatles/200909070938/a-hard-days-night-to-be-released-on-bluray-dvd.html

I suppose the best all-around video version of “A Hard Day’s Night” is the original DVD release, which explains why it’s going for a premium on Amazon Marketplace.

http://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Hard-Days-Night/dp/B000LCF3HM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1254061928&sr=8-4

“I know it’s America here… I’ve noticed.”

The Beatles flood continues. In a perfect world, when the Beatles arrived in the United States for the first time they would have been followed by a film crew. What’s that? They were?? Incredible!

[MEDIA=62]

There’s a lot more footage available on YouTube, but here are ten interesting minutes I’ve edited, starting with their arrival on Friday, and ending when they left the Plaza Hotel suite on Sunday for CBS studios, and their famous appearance on Ed Sullivan’s variety show.

  • At the airport press conference John says “we need money first” before they can sing. Later, Paul and Ringo seem to have no recollection of John’s quip.
  • The reporters took the Beatles as a joke. It seems silly now that their hair was such a big deal.
  • The boys appeared excited seeing themselves on TV.
  • Walter Cronkite can be heard closing his CBS broadcast with news of the Beatles’ visit. Cronkite was one of the first American newscasters to feature the Beatles in 1963.
  • The boys seemed genuinely tired from jet lag, discussing the time difference and the prospect of going out later. A hard day’s night.
  • John really was very cutting when he felt he was suffering fools. Murray “the K” Kaufman, with his toupee, had no idea that “wacker” meant “a stupid person.”
  • “Cyn” is, of course, John’s wife Cynthia. She’s told to watch Channel 2 at 8.
  • John plays around with a mouth organ. Three years later, the tune would become the opening to “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
  • Love the Pepsi transistor radios.

John, Paul, George, Ringo, Peter, Paul, Mary… and Ed

My sister Jean pointed out a photograph I didn’t recall seeing before, of Peter, Paul, and (the recently departed) Mary with the Beatles. The date was April 17, 1964, and the place was a posh club in London called Les Ambassadeurs, where some scenes in “A Hard Day’s Night” were filmed.

It must have been a brief meeting, because the shooting schedule was so hectic that even Ed Sullivan was given the bum’s rush. An interview in the club’s garden that he filmed for his variety show lasted only a minute and a half. But for his trouble Sullivan was sent an exclusive preview clip of the movie, that didn’t make the final cut, of the Beatles performing “You Can’t Do That.” I posted it over a year ago, at this link.

Mono-a-mono


Geoff Emerick with his Grammy for engineering “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

Why all the talk these many years about “Sgt. Pepper” in mono? Here’s an A/B comparison. Both of these 90-second excerpts from “She’s Leaving Home” are in mono, but one of them is the original 1967 monaural mix from the new CD set, and the other has been folded into mono from the 1987 stereo CD.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/SEP/ShesLeavingHome_SMAS.mp3]
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/SEP/ShesLeavingHome_MAS.mp3]

1965 comic book predicted the iPhone

Denro visited today, which is always fun, bringing with him the new mono Beatles CD set. We listened to “Sgt. Pepper’s” and realized that mono is indeed the best way to hear the Lonely Heart’s Club Band. The experience really was as if we were hearing it almost for the first time.

I always expect Dennis to bring a stack of old comic books, and he didn’t disappoint. One story in particular caught my eye. Take a look at this drawing.

Gil Kane drew this picture of a smartphone in 1965! He really nailed it in every way. Very impressive.