SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND

 

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is referred to as a jukebox musical. I would refer to it as a rock opera, which is narrated by George Burns and stars Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees. The Beatles' albums Sgt. Pepper's and Abbey Road provide the majority of the songs for the plot. It seems the original Sgt. Pepper's Band instruments are stolen by some bad guys and they must be returned to Heartland or the town's magic will disappear.

Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees (Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb) perform the majority of the songs in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but the movie also features performances by Aerosmith, Billy Preston, Alice Cooper, and Earth, Wind & Fire. The end finale, which sort of recreates the album cover, has a host of musical stars along with TV and movie personalities. There are way too many artists in that final scene to list, but if you're interested, you can find a list at this wikipedia page under Special Guests.

I had heard Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was a disaster of a film. I really couldn't figure out why it had gotten such bad reviews (other than people seemed to hate The Bee Gees essentially playing The Beatles). The movie seemed like a pretty innocuous musical based on the songs of The Beatles. At about the half-way point of the movie (somewhere near the disaster of Steve Martin singing "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"), I finally understood why the film doesn't get much love from people or critics....it became BORING, there just wasn't a strong enough storyline to propel the movie forward to the end. The only two saving graces in the second half of the film were Billy Preston's performance and the finale as discussed above. I guess the movie is worth checking out (something few did on its initial release), but I would recommend watching it in parts instead of trying to sit through the whole film at one time.

NOWHERE BOY

Nowhere Boy takes a look a John Lennon's life from 1946-1960 and his relationship with his mother and his Aunt Mimi, who raised him. We also briefly see John's Uncle George, who had a huge influence on molding Lennon's sense of humor. Aaron Taylor-Johnson looked somewhat like John (or at least like he could be Julian's brother), and that resemblance and being able to copy Lennon's speech cadence helped make his role believable. 

Nowhere Boy doesn't travel into Beatles territory, although there are subtle references in the film to events/places that appear later in Beatles' songs. As far as the music part of the film, it shows Lennon forming The Quarrymen, how he met Paul McCartney and Paul's friend, George Harrison, and having them join his band. At the end of the movie, John leaves for Hamburg and this is as close to The Beatles as the film gets.

As with any biopic, I'm sure there are probably inaccuracies in Nowhere Boy, but I'll leave those to the Beatles' experts to point out. I will say, I thought Thomas Brodie-Sangster was miscast as Paul, he appeared too young and too short of stature to play Paul. I came away from the movie with a better understanding of what made John Lennon the person he became as an adult. Even if you're not interested in John Lennon, you might still like Nowhere Boy, since it is an excellent family drama, one that just happens to be about a famous person. 

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

Across The Universe incorporates 34 Beatles' songs into the storyline. Some of the song lyrics are added for plot continuation and some are added as production numbers. Both serve their usefulness in telling the love story of Jude and Lucy.

There are only two musicians of note in Across The Universe - Joe Cocker and Bono. Joe Cocker, in one of my favorite parts of the film, plays three parts (a bum, an old hippie, and a pimp) during the song "Come Together". Bono, not one of my favorite people to begin with, comes off quite favorably in this movie in the part of acid purveyor Dr. Robert.

When I was in the sixth grade, we would take the top 40 list from the local radio station (WQOK) and weave the song titles into a story (For example "Goodbye Cruel World", I'm a "Lonely Teenager" who is going "North To Alaska".....). Maybe that's one of the reasons I'm so fond of Across The Universe, it reminds me of my youth. Of course, Across The Universe is much more sophisticated in its approach to using The Beatles' songs in the movie. There are also lots of references to other characters/events  relating to the history of The Beatles. If, like me, you're a Beatles fan or just like a good musical production, you'll enjoy this movie and I highly recommend it to anyone who falls into either category. I've already watched the film twice and will probably watch it again in the future.

TWO OF US

While Aidan Quinn was no where near pretty enough to portray Paul McCartney and Jared Harris' red tinged beard was disconcerting at times, they both did a great job of portraying their respective subjects in Two Of Us. This disclaimer is placed at the start of the movie: "This fictional film is not endorsed by any person depicted herein and neither such persons nor their families, heirs or related parties have participated in the making of this film. Legend has it that in 1976 - six years after the bitter breakup of The Beatles - Paul McCartney paid a surprise visit to John Lennon at his apartment in New York City. This film makes no attempt to document what may have occurred at such a meeting. Rather, it is a work of fiction in appreciation of two blokes from Liverpool, and the gifts they gave us." If this disclaimer had been placed at the end of the movie, it would have allowed the viewer to fantasize what was being shown was the truth, instead of immediately letting you know what you were about to see had very little basis in fact.


As soon as I read the disclaimer, I thought this just sounds like a piece of fan fiction and upon further investigation I found the following notation "the screenplay was written by longtime Beatles fan and Beatlefest attendee, Mark Stanfield." I give props to the writer, the director, and the actors, because what is basically two guys talking at each other for ninety minutes with fabricated dialogue was still able to hold my attention. This is due to the facts that both the characterizations and dialogue rang true. The only minus point to Two Of Us is that it doesn't contain any Beatles songs since the producers couldn't get clearance rights. Instead we hear Peter Frampton on the radio, John and Paul singing Tumbling Tumbleweeds together at a piano, Blue Suede Shoes playing in the background in one scene, and a reggae band in Central Park doing a version of Sh-Boom.

There are a couple of clips from the movie on youtube, but I couldn't find a trailer. Instead I'm including The Beatles song that is the namesake of Two Of Us.

THE RUTLES - ALL YOU NEED IS CASH

One of my current favorite TV shows is Fringe and the main arc in that series concerns an alternate universe that exists parallel to ours. That other universe is sort of like ours, but has some slight variations. The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash is like watching a documentary from an alternate universe. The characters seem familiar, the songs sound almost like what I'm used to hearing and the history of the group sounds mighty familiar. The only thing that keeps me from being completely convinced that this isn't from another universe is a few spots of broad humor that play out through the movie. These spots sort of give off a Monty Pythonesque: wink, wink, nudge, nudge, which is understandable considering Eric Idle conceived, wrote, co-directed, and stars as Dirk McQuickly (Paul McCartney) The Rutles.

The other three Rutles are Stig O'Hara (George Harrison) played by Rikki Fataar (The Beach Boys drummer), Barry Wom, shortened from Barrington Womble (Ringo Star nee Richard Starkey) played by John Halsey, and best of all Ron Nasty (John Lennon) played by Neil Innes of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Neil not only made a great John Lennon, but also composed the songs for the movie, which are as enjoyable as the original Beatles' songs.

In The Rutles, we have songs such as: "Get Up And Go," "OUCH!", "Hold My Hand", "Piggy in the Middle", "Doubleback Alley" and more. The amazing thing that Neil Innes did is that he didn't just copy the original songs and exchange the lyrics for something silly, but instead he wrote new songs with lyrics that simply remind you of the original songs when you hear them. The songs in The Rutles are so good that listening to the soundtrack is like listening to a "lost" Beatles album.

Anyone that is a fan of The Beatles should enjoy The Rutles. John Lennon and Yoko Ono let it be known that they got a kick out of The Rutles even though the movie really skewers them with Nasty and Chasity's meeting at The Pretentious Gallery, plus their Shower-In For Peace. George Harrison even makes an appearance in The Rutles as an interviewer. With his short gray hair and mustache, I'm sure he could walk the streets without being noticed. An interesting fact from the commentary track is that during the filming of The Rutles, George "the interviewer" was pushed aside, so some fans could ask The Rutles if they were Beatles! I have read that Sir Paul didn't find the movie all that amusing, but that could just be hearsay.

Mick Jagger and Paul Simon are featured in The Rutles, lending even more credence to the fact that you're watching a real documentary. Mick talks about The Rolling Stones rivalry with The Rutles among other things and Paul Simon talks about being on the record charts with The Rutles.


The Rutles have their own web site: The Rutles Tragical History Tour and it includes lots of photos, history of the band, lyrics to all of their songs, album covers, and even a trivia game. So if you want to visit some more into that alternate universe that includes The Rutles, click on the link provided above.

There are lots of Rutles clips to enjoy on youtube, below is a video from The Rutles animated movie "Yellow Submarine Sandwich". It should be noted that The Rutles employed the same artists who did The Beatles "Yellow Submarine"

HELP!

I decided I would re-watch Help because it had been so many years since I had seen it. What I found out was that I had NEVER seen Help in its entirety. I've seen different clips from the movie, but for some odd reason I had not seen Help from start to finish, no matter what I had previously thought.

At least I'm pretty sure I've seen "A Hard Day's Night" :-) You know what they say about the 60s, IF you can remember them, you weren't there!

I don't imagine I need to go over the plot, but just in case, here's a brief synopsis: Ringo has received a ring in the mail from some fans, who are part of a cult that needs the ring for a sacrificial ceremony. The cult cannot complete their sacrifice without the ring and they set out to steal it. When their attempts fail and they find that the ring is stuck on Ringo's finger, the cult decides Ringo will have to be the sacrificial victim. Along with the cult chasing after Ringo, there is also a mad scientist played by Victor Spinetti who wants the ring for its perceived power. The remainder of the movie revolves around Ringo and The Beatles being chased by this crazy assortment of characters.

The Beatles said they took their inspiration for Help from The Marx Brothers and you can definitely see that influence. There are also a lot of James Bond influences to be seen, which is understandable considering how big the Bond Movies were at the time.

I can't imagine anyone who doesn't like The Beatles or British humor not enjoying Help. The movie includes eight songs and lots of great quips, what more could you want. As for myself, I'm now going to go ponder what other movies I think I've seen, but really haven't :-)

MY DINNER WITH JIMI

Back when me and my friends were "hip", we didn't think a lot about The Turtles. Their songs were pleasant enough, but when it came time to buy an album (because you know, 45's were for like teenyboppers) we went with Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Doors, The Mothers of Invention, Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, etc. Years have passed and I realize that I only liked some of those groups/artists because it was the "hip" thing to do. After watching My Dinner With Jimi, I now have more appreciation for The Turtles, although I still think that they are a better "singles band" rather than an "album band".

I knew nothing about this movie, but ran across the title one day while scrolling through Netflix. The description "Howard Kaylan found fame as the lead singer of the 1960s band The Turtles, as depicted in this autobiographical screenplay. We meet Kaylan (Justin Henry) and his bandmates just as they triumph with their single "Happy Together." The band then heads off to England, where their friend Graham Nash (Steven Soldevilla) introduces them to The Beatles and Kaylan later dines with Jimi Hendrix (Royale Watkins) -- an event that changes his life." intrigued the hell out of me. I not only put it on my rental list, but moved it straight to the top. My Dinner With Jimi did not disappoint, it was everything and more that I thought it would be.

My Dinner With Jimi begins with The Turtles at a magazine promo shoot. John Corbett is the photographer in an almost non-recognizable role. We get introduced to each of The Turtles as they get their photos taken. The magazine writer who is at the shoot to do the accompanying story tells them: "Hope your looks don't hold you back." This goes with some of the commentary on the dvd when Howard Kaylan says he could always buy nice clothes, but it he good never buy "thin".

The Turtles are experiencing their biggest hit single "Happy Together" (which knocked The Beatles "Penny Lane" out of the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100). They're playing the Whiskey A-Go-Go and The Doors are their opening act. There's a great scene after the concert when The Turtles go to Canter's Deli. At the deli we find Frank Zappa and Mama Cass Elliot sitting at a table together, plus Jim Morrison is drunk and walking on tables and being a general goofball. I was also delighted to see the late Wendie Jo Sperber, my favorite actress from from I Wanna Hold Your Hand, in the role of Louella the waitress.

One section of My Dinner With Jimi concerns how Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman are about to get drafted and they get advice on how to flunk their physicals. The advice mainly has them taking massive amounts of drugs plus not sleeping or bathing before they go and being as uncooperative as possible at the draft board. The draft board sequence in My Dinner With Jimi ranks right up there with Arlo Guthrie's in Alice's Restaurant.

When The Turtles get to England they hook up with their friend Graham Nash, who also has Donovan hanging out at his house. Everyone gets stoned and they listen to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", which won't be released until the next day. After listening to the album Graham takes them to The Speakeasy Club so they can meet The Beatles, who they idolize. Look for the real Howard Kaylan in a cameo as the greeter/doorman at the club.

Inside the club The Turtles find Paul McCartney under the table taking photos, Ringo Starr being his usual laid back self, and George Harrison seeming to be a little embarrassed by the antics of Paul and the sharp tongue of John Lennon. Lennon is drunk and full of insults for The Turtles. Jim "Tucko" Tucker is really crushed by The Beatles and flees the club followed by the other Turtles. There is some conflicting information about Tucker in the movie and what is on the commentary. What truth I can glean is that he definitely did leave the Turtles and didn't play music again. Whether it was due to his disappointment in meeting his heroes or the fact that he couldn't take touring is unclear.

Howard remains behind and before he can reenter the club, he's approached by someone wanting his autograph. He's shocked to find out that it's Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones. In tow with Brian is Jimi Hendrix and the three go back into the club for a meal, but Brian gets sidetracked by some girls and Howard winds up alone with Jimi. I'll let you watch the movie yourself to see how this dinner goes, but will tell you that it starts great, but ends badly.

Since the title is My Dinner With Jimi, it's appropriate that one of the strongest performances in the movie comes from Royale Watkins portrayal of Jimi Hendrix. He really captures that cool laid back vibe that Hendrix always seemed to emit. Although Royale has made a handful of movies and TV shows, he's best known as a stand up comic.

The commentary made a big deal out of how they tried to make everything look as close to possible to how it looked in real life, including the club The Speakeasy. They even used Howard's old house in one scene. While I will agree that everything had the right look of the late 60s, I'm puzzled about the bad wigs and especially about the sideburns used on Justin Henry who plays Howard. In the recreation of The Turtles appearance on The Smothers Brothers Show, the sideburns can actually be seen coming loose. This is the only minor quibble I have with My Dinner With Jimi. Overall, I found the movie very enjoyable and would highly recommend it to anyone.

If you would like to see the trailer: My Dinner With Jimi.

Below is a video of The Turtles in 1967 on The Smothers Brothers Show

I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND

Three girls from New Jersey set their sites on going to New York to see The Beatles who are going to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. Pam (Nancy Allen) wants to go to bed with one of The Beatles as her last fling before getting married. Grace (Theresa Saldana) wants to get some photos of The Beatles to start a career as a photographer and Rosie (Wendie Jo Sperber) just wants to see The Beatles, she's the representative of the pure fan.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand was Robert Zemeckis's (Back To The Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump) debut directorial effort. And he only got the chance because Steven Spielberg promised to step in and take over the directing if the movie wasn't going so good. Zemeckis also co-wrote the script.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand really captures the essence of Beatlemania Hysteria. All of the actors are believable with only Eddie Deezen, sometimes being a little over the top. The scene with Nancy Allen and her "love attack" on The Beatles hotel room is one you won't easily forget, especially between her and Paul's bass guitar. I won't say anymore about it since I don't want to give too much away.

The real standout among the cast is Wendie Jo Sperber, she really makes you believe that she is one more rabid Beatles fan. I was sad to find that she had died in 2005, but at least we have her portrayal of Rosie in I Wanna Hold Your Hand on film to treasure for years to come.

There's different little references to Beatles songs throughout the movie, but my favorite is that over and over many of the characters say "Yeah Yeah Yeah". All the songs on the soundtrack are Beatles songs and the movie is able to have The Beatles in I Wanna Hold Your Hand, without actually having them in the movie, an example of which I'm including below