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Beatles ’64

by 61 Comments

29/11/2024

Four young fellas from Liverpool and their popular beat combo. You might have heard of them.

“Today, Disney+ announced that Beatles ’64, an all-new documentary from producer Martin Scorsese and director David Tedeschi, will stream exclusively on Disney+ beginning November 29, 2024. The film captures the electrifying moment of The Beatles’ first visit to America. Featuring never-before-seen footage of the band and the legions of young fans who helped fuel their ascendance, the film gives a rare glimpse into when The Beatles became the most influential and beloved band of all time.

On February 7, 1964, The Beatles arrived in New York City to unprecedented excitement and hysteria. From the instant they landed at Kennedy Airport, met by thousands of fans, Beatlemania swept New York and the entire country. Their thrilling debut performance on The Ed Sullivan Show captivated more than 73 million viewers, the most watched television event of its time. Beatles ’64 presents the spectacle, but also tells a more intimate behind the scenes story, capturing the camaraderie of John, Paul, George, and Ringo as they experienced unimaginable fame.

The film includes rare footage filmed by pioneering documentarians Albert and David Maysles, beautifully restored in 4K by Park Road Post in New Zealand. The live performances from The Beatles first American concert at the Washington, DC Coliseum and their Ed Sullivan appearances were demixed by WingNut Films and remixed by Giles Martin. Spotlighting this singular cultural moment and its continued resonance today, the music and footage are augmented by newly filmed interviews with Paul and Ringo, as well as fans whose lives were transformed by The Beatles.

Beatles ’64 is directed by David Tedeschi and produced by Martin Scorsese, Margaret Bodde, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon, Jonathan Clyde, Mikaela Beardsley, with Jeff Jones and Rick Yorn serving as executive producers.

Coinciding with the film’s Disney+ release, seven American Beatles albums have been analog cut for 180-gram audiophile vinyl from their original mono master tapes for global release on November 22 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe. Originally compiled for U.S. release between January 1964 and March 1965 by Capitol Records and United Artists, these mono albums have been out of print on vinyl since 1995. Meet The Beatles!; The Beatles’ Second Album; A Hard Day’s Night (Original Motion Picture Sound Track); Something New; The Beatles’ Story (2LP); Beatles ’65; and The Early Beatles are available now for preorder in a new vinyl box set titled The Beatles: 1964 U.S. Albums In Mono, with six of the titles also available individually.”

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Comments

  1. Leaving aside the vinly obligation, what could be better?

    We’ve been blessed in recent years with many fantastic music documentaries (Get Back, The Rooftop Concert, Summer of Soul, Amazing Grace etc.), here’s hoping this adds to them.

  4. This will be great to watch, I love that era with all the witty responses to dumb questions from reporters and the general mayhem.

    Reference to The Ed Sullivan Show reminded me of Mike Edison’s very readable book “Sympathy for the Drummer: Why Charlie Watts Matters”, in which he gives an alternative take on the Beatles in America. In the great Beatles/Stones debate he stands squarely on the Stones’ side, but this is a fine bit of writing (and sorry it is so long).

    He writes: “When the Beatles first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, about eight months before the Stones got the nod, the most subversive thing about them is that the grownups were already in on it.

    “The ‘sixties’, such as they were, had not yet taken hold. The Beatles weren’t part of any sort of counterculture, they were part of the establishment – they came adult-approved. This wasn’t about revolution, this was the wholesale embrace of product.

    “They had already been on television numerous times, and had done their thing shaking their moptops and cracking a few jokes for an approving Queen of England at a Royal Command Performance – not an easy gig to get. They were smart, not coming to America until they had a bona fide No. 1 hit. Everything was planned, programmed, and not at all punk – they were cute and lovable, and anyone who didn’t get it was just an old square, a hater. But there was no danger. Elvis the Pelvis had been in and out of the army and was now busy making increasingly absurd movies, and Little Richard had found God. The first rock’n’roll crisis had faded, and somehow the Negro menace had not taken over America.

    “Oldsters hurrummphed at these Beatles because they had hair that crawled over their collars, but these were the squares and stiffs who’d get hip fast or who’d end up on ice, their relevance having about the same life expectancy as a pig in a slaughterhouse.

    “The Beatles were actually quite well groomed. Even their bangs were perfect. And when they first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show the depth of their sexuality, at least publicly, ran to ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’.

    “And this always kills me: among the songs they played for Ed Sullivan and America on their big coming out was ‘Till There Was You’, a selection from the popular Broadway musical The Music Man – the same hoary shit that gave us cornpone crud like ’76 Trombones’.

    “It was not rock.

    “It was not roll.

    “It lilted, and if you are wondering how this snuck in to their show or to whom they were pandering, please let me tell you: grownups, that’s who, fucking grownups. It was a nod and a wink toward safety, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

    “The Beatles were middlebrow – meaning, in this case, that anyone could watch them and feel hip – and middle-class approved, which is why so many suddenly inspired young people were able to buy guitars the very next day. Because their parents approved, and their parents were the ones with the dough.

    “When the Stones hit The Ed Sullivan Show, Mick looked like he had just rolled out of bed and thrown on the first thing he could find, and who knows who or what he left tangled up in his dirty sheets. It was a radical departure from the Beatles, who were so over-groomed they looked as if they were about to be trotted off to the Westminster Dog Show to collect their ribbons.

    “When the Beatles played Chuck Berry, it was adorable, family fun. When the Stones played Chuck, they sounded like they were committing a crime.”

    • A pedant writes – it was actually the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret at that Royal Variety show. And I think I’m right in saying that the trip was planned before they made no 1.

      However, the point is well made, but it was the only way to get seen. Before the went to the US, they did kid’s TV, the Palladium, Variety shows and so on, anything to get seen and heard, but that was all there was until RSG. Their compromises, however, paved the way for the Stones.

    • That’s a revisionist account, if ever I read one.
      As NigelT says they paved the way for the Stones, to which I would add that I sincerely doubt that the Stones were thinking we don’t want any of that fame and fortune, we just want to play our music in small venues.
      If the Beatles were so bland and whitebread in their eyes, why would Andrew Oldham have got John and Paul to demonstrate to Mick and Keith how to write a song? And why did they accept the demonstration and then go on to record the song that John and Paul wrote?

      • Once they kicked the doors down those that came after could take more chances, except Macca seemed to want to maintain that conservative, old fashioned element when they no longer had to, which you either see as ill advised or to his credit I suppose.

        • There’s a misconception that McCartney was the most “conventional” Beatle. He was the one with the broadest musical taste and knowledge, that’s all. He wasn’t just writing those songs to pander to an older generation, he had a genuine love of those older styles due to his upbringing in a musical family.
          Whereas Lennon was the one who talked most about the avant-garde, McCartney was the one who put his money and support into it.

          • I’m not denying he believed in those things but it gave the effect of a rather safe, tame approach that was hard to reconcile with the more experimental stuff. I think we all know McCartney was the one who really got into the avant garde but you wouldn’t know it from his songs so much.

            • A lot of it came down to the innate curiosity and restlessness of John and Paul in their personal lives, expressed in distinct ways. Both sought out freaks and artists and reacted in their own ways. McCartney went all into the counterculture, lending cash and personal support, led by chums like Fraser, Dunbar, Asher etc and exposed to all manner of groovy folk. Lennon led a more introspective existence, culminating in his mid 60s torpor.

              Lennon’s relative lack of formal restraint led his inner voyaging making its way onto vinyl in more immediate style than McCartney who was tempered by his own sensibilities. Paul was up for Delia Derbyshire from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to score ‘Yesterday’ til George Martin talked him out of it. He met up with Berio to try and understand primitive electronica and abstraction in music. He wanted to make an experimental album (egged on by Lennon) in 1965 called “Paul McCartney Goes Too Far”. He came up with the loops on his tape machine for Tomorrow Never Knows, and spurred Lennon’s acid-addled imagination into life for Pepper.
              So that combo of Lennon’s emotional outpourings and Paul’s formal experiments all worked out pretty well!

      • Epstein was always keen on pushing them as all round entertainers. Hence the somewhat baffling selections for the Decca audition on the 1st day of 1962 and probably a carefully curated selection for their first major appearance on US TV. However Macca seemed to really like this kind of stuff as seen later with his excursions into early music hall style tunes.

        • To his credit, the Frog Song hitmaker remained the music hall old-time song and dance man for years, but got into all yer experimental music and stuff way ahead of John and George. In ’65 he wanted George Martin to get the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to score ‘Yesterday’.

  6. The First US Visit is an excellent documentary from this era. Seems much of the footage will be from there, so I am not terribly excited about this. The Ed Sullivan shows, Washington DC concert etc. All well documented and a little over familiar so I wonder if we will learn much that is new. Worst case it will be like the live documentary from Ron Howard a few years ago. Enjoyable, but anaemic and aimed at a very wide audience. No doubt Lewisohn will have part 2 of his trilogy ready to go to coincide. I joke of course, don’t think that is anywhere near finished

      • I also fear that Robert A. Caro (who is 89 today – Happy Birthday Mr Caro!) may not finish the final volume of the magnificent biography of Lyndon Johnson that he’s been working on for forty-five years.

        • Seconded. Mr C’s LBJ bio is effectively as good a history of US politics in the 20th century as we are going to get.

          Since his last vol took 500-plus pages to cover the period between JFK’s assassination and LBJ’s first state of the union address six weeks later, hard to see him covering the latter’s extraordinary first (and only) full term in one volume though.

          Sad to see how far US politics has sunk when you see what’s been put before the electorate this time around

  7. I learned today that Drive My Car was about Cilla Black. Epstein suggested that her then boyfriend Bobby might want to have a go at this singing lark but Cilla put her foot down, insisting that she was the star and he was to be manager/driver.

  9. Deram’s comment (waaaay above) notwithstanding:

    Is anyone planning to buy the “1964 US Albums in Mono 8LP vinyl box set, analogue-cut from original master tapes on 180g audiophile vinyl with in-depth essays on the history of each album”?

    • Not me. And originals (or 70s reissues) are actually pretty easy to find over here, along with the Canadian only albums, Twist and Shout and Long Tall Sally. I think they missed a trick by not putting them out in mono as the UK mono albums box now costs a ridiculous amount. Glad I have one.

      • They are in Mono @dai..?

        There are many and varied reasons why I have no interest in these, but primarily because I have the Capitol CD boxes with the original US mix versions, and each disc is mono and stereo. But this is surely mainly aimed at US buyers who have an obvious nostalgia for the original LPs they grew up with. I think Apple deserve a bit of credit for making these available as the mono LPs have been out of print for a long time.

          • Well, the “1964 US Albums in Mono 8LP vinyl box set, analogue-cut from original master tapes on 180g audiophile vinyl with in-depth essays on the history of each album” seems to be in mono – were you referring to something else, Dai?

            • Oh yeah, appears I was confused. Sorry. I was thinking of the A Hard Day’s Night release that came out (UK only) on Albums Day or whatever it is called. That was stereo, a missed opportunity to not make the recent mono version more widely available

              I think the US mono versions are just fold downs, rather than separate mixes like the UK ones

    • Without looking it up, aren’t many of the Capitol albums remixed with artificial reverb and the like? And the tracklistings don’t match the UK editions.

      I have the In Mono (UK) vinyl box and it sounds absolutely fab, far better than couple of original mono pressings I have, and far better than the stereo.

      If you’re in the market for the US albums on vinyl, buy it while you can.

      • Often quite different albums especially in this era. Shorter and with singles included, unlike most UK albums. Basically getting more material to sell before their bubble bursts. And yes added reverb. UK ones sound way better for me.

        * 12 Capitol albums released up to end of 66 compared to 8 in the UK

  10. A fantastic film with copious unseen – well, I hadn’t seen it and I doubt many others had – footage.

    It’s incredible how much The Beatles gave.
    Were they ever asked?

    Random phone calls, DJs, hangers-on etc. make the whole thing seem even more crazy off stage than on. It was those (older) people who appear infinitely more sinister than the fans. The fans were great. Hysterical – who wouldn’t be, it’s The Beatles – but great.

    I’m amazed it took George until 29th August 1966 to declare he wasn’t a Beatle anymore, I’m not sure I’d have made it to March 1964.

    I wonder who the people from the British Embassy event were who were so thoroughly obnoxious to them? Why would they have been like that? Jealousy? Paul’s summary of their place in the world compared to his group’s was spot on, and it pertains to this day.

    • Fabulous film in every sense.

      Amazing given the Maysles’ standing as documentary film makers so much of this footage has not been seen/ edited together before.

      Hard to think that John Lennon would be gone sixteen and a bit years later.

    • I agree. Having finally got round to watching, it’s a glorious documentary. Is it just me or did Lennon seem somewhat detached? We see a lot of the other three goofing around but he appears to not want to be involved. His later interviews were very telling.

      When The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, they’d recorded and released two albums and five singles. The Stones had released just two singles, one of which was a Beatles song. Their debut LP was months away. They were operating in a different time zone. This documentary proves The Beatles were not as adult approved as Edison claims. They were also sexual but in a less overtly masculine way. The Stones benefited from following in their wake and were able to push things that bit further.

    • This is a travesty of a film. Watch The First US Visit released on DVD 20 years ago for the real version. Doesn’t tell you what Terence Trent Darby thought about them at the age of 2 but who really cares?

        • A ‘travesty of a film’??? What a ridiculous thing to say. The only travesty is that it hasn’t had a cinema screening.

          Are you George?
          And I don’t mean Harrison.

            • Both documentaries were shot by Albert and David Maysles. The first includes a lot more of The Beatles in action on stage and in the studio. That’s probably why you prefer it. I have a copy of the 1991 DVD but I think it was originally shown in 1964. 64 uses more of the off stage footage and includes more from the fans and more about what else was happening in America at the time. Plus, of course, interviews recorded much later. The two documentaries serve different purposes.

              • There was an original TV film broadcast in 64 with a different title. The First US Visit DVD was expanded from that with more from Ed Sullivan and the Washington gig, and the last DVD had some more footage as extras. The latest one obviously has additional contemporary footage shot by the new director, but some had obviously been shoehorned in from other sources. Like McCartney promoting his book and regaling us with his She Loves You story for the 1000th time. Maybe they have different purposes, but I think the original expanded documentary is a classic of it’s sort, where as the new one is a bit of a mess which isn’t really sure what it wants to be

  11. Just watched it and found it enjoyable. Several interviewees made it all about themselves I notice – but I guess that comes with the territory. My other thought was how often the band talk about the craziness happening *at* them as if they are incredulous observers. They don’t come across as naive, even though they were pretty young at the time. They knew what was happening, encouraged it and made the most of it – and then they stopped a couple of years later when it stopped being fun.

    .

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