LIFE misses the Beat

LIFE Magazine, or what’s left of it, has an online George Harrison tribute. There’s also a print edition of the LIFE tribute to George, but it has an error that kept me from buying the issue. It’s a particularly annoying error, that was probably repeated from Bob Spitz’s useless, mistake-filled book, The Beatles: The Biography. The error is that Pattie Boyd appeared in A Hard Day’s Night with her sister Jenny. This is incorrect. Jenny “Jennifer Juniper” Boyd was not in AHDN. The girl with Pattie was, of course, my friend Prudence Bury. The paragraph below was scanned from Hunter Davies’ book The Beatles, in which Pattie mentions her two sisters (Jenny and Paula), as well as Prue.

A couple of years ago I said that Prue’s hair stylist was her friend Vidal Sassoon. Here is a picture of Prue sporting a Sassoon cut. Vidal is on the right, and the man in the middle is Alexander Plunkett-Green, husband of fashion designer Mary Quant.

Running off a Cliff with the Beatles

Last week, TCM showed the movie Summer Holiday, with Cliff Richard. Directed by Peter (“Bullitt”) Yates, released in early ’63 and shot on location in widescreen and color, Summer Holiday is cute and silly fun. It has inspired bits of comedy, solid songs with Cliff and the always excellent Shadows, and great production numbers, but it can’t be called a Rock and Roll movie by any stretch.

Each [Cliff Richard] film inevitably also employs the ideological underpinning of the Hollywood musical. A genre such as the musical is not just a film type; it brings with it certain spectator expectations, certain structures, codes and conventions which combine in the musical to indicate its function as, in Richard Dyer’s phrase, a ‘gospel of happiness’. A Hard Day’s Night: The British Film Guide, by Stephen Glynn, Turner Classic Movies, 2005, p.7

http://youtu.be/Gbajf_rHzys

With four healthy, fun-loving boys driving a red London double-decker bus across Europe, and picking up four pretty, spirited girls along the way, I spit up my Trader Joe’s three buck chuck wine when one of the girls suggested, “Gosh, the boys have been so good to us, we should think of a way to show them our thanks.” But Summer Holiday isn’t that sort of movie, so off to dinner they all go, where everybody dances to choreography by Herbert Ross, who later directed Petula Clark in the remake of Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

Summer Holiday has a devoted following, and I enjoyed it a lot, but what interests me the most is that the movie premiered in London in February ’63, the same month that the Beatles’ second single, Please Please Me, was released in the UK.

‘The Young Ones’ and ‘Summer Holiday’ both proved the second top box-office earner at British cinemas for 1962 and 1963 respectively, and garnered much critical praise. By the time ‘Wonderful Life’ was premiered at the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square, on 2 July 1964, however, the spontaneity and freshness was judged to have gone. Ibid.

A Hard Day’s Night premiered at the Pavilion Theatre in London only four days after Wonderful Life, to universally rapturous critical praise and financial success.

What precipitated the sudden fall from grace? In truth, Cliff’s time had passed; there were new kids on the block and the boy from Lucknow, India, together with his traditional pop musicals, were about to be drowned out by the twist and shout emanating from Mersyside. Ibid.

I’m a Cliff Richard fan, and as I said before I really enjoyed Summer Holiday. The older I get the more I am able to appreciate things for what they are, rather than pay attention to what they are not, like that $3 Charles Shaw wine from Trader Joe’s. 😉 I feel the same way about another movie that provides a good contrast to the Beatles. In fact, it’s a Beatles movie itself, except it’s really a Bee Gees movie with Peter Frampton — Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band. The movie is as much an artifact of its year, 1978, as Summer Holiday is representative of 1963.

http://youtu.be/bFRt5TQdQCI

Thanks to a nudge from tastewar, I watched Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band on DVD, and if nothing else I’m not surprised the songs were produced by George Martin and engineered by Geoff Emerick, because the sound is really excellent. The story is ridiculous, but the songs are worth the visit. The Bee Gees and Frampton were huge stars when they agreed to make this movie. I don’t know if Robert Stigwood had a contract that forced them to do it, or if they simply wanted to be proxy Beatles, but the Bee Gees really nail a lot of the songs, although Frampton’s singing is a bit weak in spots.

When watching this movie it must be remembered that it was made only a few years after the wild and crazy Tommy, and there’s also no avoiding a comparison with Across the Universe, Julie Taymor’s generally well-received 2007 film. This clip is I Want You (She’s So Heavy).

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Is that version better than, or even as good as, the same song as presented in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band?

[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/2011/Oct/BeeGeesFrampton.flv 563 240]

Rutles redux

I’m working on some too-ambitious posts that are getting away from me, so I’m letting them sit in the drafts bin for a while. In the meantime I’m just going to enjoy some books, music, and movies.

I’m listening to Neil Innes’ Rutles follow-up, called Archaeology, and it’s really good. Innes displays an uncanny ability to be insightful and funny at the same time, while turning a catchy tune that turns Rock and Roll musical conventions on their side. He could be called a completely unique talent if not for Ray Davies. Give a listen to Hey Mister!

Innes does an inspired twist on McCartney’s When I’m Sixty Four, called Back in ’64. This is the closing of the second Rutles mockumentary, Can’t Buy Me Lunch.

http://youtu.be/LZiWqI3lZqE?t=2m30s

An Innes-cent man

You know about the Rutles, I’m sure. You must. The Rutles is a Beatles parody by Monty Python’s Eric Idle and a tremendously talented and funny musical chap named Neil Innes, whose Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (later just the Bonzo Dog Band) had a spot in Magical Mystery Tour, performing their legendary dirty ditty, Death Cab for Cutie.

http://youtu.be/jfHPs_1KUW4

Neil Innes appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, singing the ballad of Eric Idle’s “Brave” Sir Robin. Innes then did a BBC comedy sketch show with Idle called Rutland Weekend Television. RWT was most notable for introducing the Rutles, with Idle playing the George part (he switched to being Paul) and Innes as John.

[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/Beatles/Rutles.flv 400 300]

The Rutles film re-appeared on Saturday Night Live, and it was such a big hit that Lorne Michaels produced a TV movie with the faux four called All You Need is Cash. The parody adhered so closely to the Beatles story that it made the reality of it seem all the more unreal.

All of the Rutle songs are by Neil Innes, and they don’t just capture the sound and feeling of the Beatles. Innes managed to deconstruct the Lennon-McCartney magic and turn it inside out, while being both scathing and reverential. Lyrics like “nature’s calling and I must go there” are brilliant and hilarious.

I’ve been wanting to do a Neil Innes post for some months, but I have to do this one right now, because I will be seeing Innes perform tonight, at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Prue Bury, by Ringo Starr

It’s Easter, and a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lovely and wonderful Prudence Bury. As promised, here is a very special picture of Prue. It was taken by Ringo Starr on the set of A Hard Day’s Night.

The caption reads, “This gorgeous girl is Pru Berry. She plays my girlfriend in our movie. Too bad it’s only make believe!” Amen to that! Ringo was actually paired with Tina Williams for the famous hair-combing publicity photos, and Prue was with Paul. She was 22 at the time, and Prue says of this portrait, “I love it, I look grown up!!” (Oh, the lure of evil ciggies to make one appear grown up!)

Prue had told me that Ringo was “snap-happy” with his camera during the filming of A Hard Day’s Night, and she said that he had taken some snapshots of her. (The sequence where Ringo went “parading” around town was built around him taking pictures.) Prue and I have been wondering if Ringo’s pictures had appeared anywhere, and the answer is yes. They’re in Ringo’s Photo-Album, published in 1964. Hover over the image below to see the back cover.

I have scanned the entire magazine and it’ll be featured later. My thanks go to noted Rock journalist Marcus Gray, for finding this treasure. I’ve seen many Beatles-related items, but I’d never spotted this one before. Marcus is the leading expert on The Clash, having written two books on the legendary British Punk Rock band — one a comprehensive and authoritative biography, the other a definitive study of their landmark album London Calling. Having been a Clash fan myself, I have both tomes and they are in my must-read stack. Marcus is also, to his credit, a Prue fan.