The Beatles ’64 movie - one of us loves it, the other doesn’t. Plus Rod’s tweets & Trump’s guitars

Reversing into tomorrow! This week’s news events given a vigorous once-over include …
… what will a Trump guitar be worth in 30 years’ time?
… the average age of a Glastonbury goer and how it sells its TV coverage.
… “the Beatles in America was like Cortez arriving in South America, the clash of two civilizations. How did this film manage to balls the story up so catastrophically?”
… Leonard Bernstein’s daughter’s dreams about George Harrison and the Fabs v the all-American alpha male.
… who should be next for a rock and roll blue plaque?
… the Beatles’ Ed Sullivan support act who became almost as famous as they did.
… why Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater is the most-streamed ‘60s track.
… Hendrix and the Isley brothers’ night in watching telly.
… and Rod Stewart’s genius for generating publicity.
Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: / wordinyourear

[@johngreen5293]

Loving David's rant about The Beatles ’64 movie! Wild horses wouldn't drag me to yet another Beatles film.

[@johnblaney8625]

Huzzah for Mr Hepworth. At last, somebody tells it like it is. Well said, sir!

[@lesliestevenson5261]

I didn't mind it, thought it was ok But there were some howlers. For anyone who has seen the tv show mad men, an episode ends with the playing of revolver and tomorrow never knows. Against the staid 60s as depicted in that show, the shock of that song really stood out. It provided someone like me who wasn't around then a bit of context. That was really well done I think. Just my opinion.

[@JJONNYREPP]

The Beatles ’64 movie - one of us loves it, the other doesn’t. Plus Rod’s tweets & Trump’s guitars 1840pm 5.12.24 all things double entendre suggests the '69 film was the better received of the two.... glad you guys still enjoy the beatles. i dont know of any other beatles fans, to be honest. when the chips are down and the conversation has failed someone slips a beatles track on the deck and parity is restored. remember that for xmas shindigs when the stresses and strains of the kitchenette break thru... strange but true. how crazy is that? .................................. regards your notions about the film's value: they're shit scared folk might think. simple.

[@julianciahaconsulting8663]

Tomorrow Never Knows was like a communique from an advanced species on another planet when it came out... I remember watching my sister and her friends gathering around the stereo expecting more lovable moptops music love songs and TNK coming on and this absolute stunned silence of those girls as it played - that was when the 60s really began for me, I cannot even think of what a song today would have to be like to be so revolutionary like TNK was in 66

[@julianciahaconsulting8663]

P.S. Tomorrow Never Knows gave birth to the Monkees that day - i bet the american TV producer of the Monkees prob saw a group of girls utterly shocked by TNK and thought "now heres a biz opportunity, lets do the beatles without all that weird shit"

[@JJONNYREPP]

@@julianciahaconsulting8663 Comments on ‘The Beatles ’64 movie - one of us loves it, the other doesn’t. Plus Rod’s tweets & Trump’s guitars’ it is the song that portends of things to come. or should have come. the Beatles broke up when it became interesting - i was hoping for more stuff akin to TNK and helter skelter. proper rock n roll, if you ask me. beatles had come full circle from the rock n roll covers they had performed on early albums to actual self penned rock n roll - the stuff in between merely filler and flannel. which, as you say, the girls adored in the sense of loveable moptops get all schmaltzy. that said, beatles ballads was a fine album. i used to own that... saw it in a flea market sale along with my mothers' gladys knight and the pips... can't really say owt..but... anyhow... i'm making some soup. home made. so forgive the hasty retort..

[@julianciahaconsulting8663]

@JJONNYREPP goats head soup?

[@mostynf]

One thing that struck me with the anecdote about the tv being dragged into the dining room after much pleading with the parents was the reminder of the pre-video recorder days when you had one chance to see something. If you missed it then that chance was gone. I remember that so much from being glued to Top of the Pops waiting for whoever to appear. I think the main thing I took from this documentary was how differently we consumed music and media back then compared to now.

[@michaeldunne3379]

I’ll watch anything about The Beatles and quite enjoyed Beatles ‘64, but it is basically a rerun of the Maysles’ documentary. It is worth it for the rejuvenated - via Peter Jackson technology - performance of Long Tall Sally alone.

[@danieladams9950]

Found David's apoplectic response to the Beatles doc hilarious. Went beyond his usual dry, wry or curmudgeonly reactions.

[@1idlehoffner]

Love the rant Dave, and, largely, I agree. The original documentary has lots of natural sound which is captivating

[@claudebonenfant6700]

I entirely agree with Mr. Hepwotth and I am 1st generation Beatlesfan who saw it happening in real time in Canada. Very disappointed by Apple Corps. They should have released the documentary with the additional 19 nineteen footage as is. This is a a documentary about a phenomenon as much musical as social and they f…it .

[@paulf6973]

Why didn't they just remaster 'The First US Visit' film and re-release that?

[@Nickel1147]

Because it was Sean and Olivia's project. I suspect the original will be released after clean up by Peter Jackson

[@thepartimemusician65]

You chaps are so good at this

[@samguberman2288]

The Maysels brothers film is utterly jaw dropping excitement, sadly I've not seen Beatles 64 yet but I'll get the dvd. Looking forward to the interview with original fans. And the clip of the family watching their Ed Sullivan first performance from the Beatles is priceless.

[@GurungyNoHamuster]

Very gratified to hear that Heppers was as livid as myself. There's no excuse for it. I wonder if Macca was thrilled?

[@ianlaker9161]

I broadly agree with Mark here. A lifelong Beatles fan, I watched it all and was left slightly disappointed. I actually got a bit bored with the relentless footage of the guys imprisoned in their hotel room which would have reduced the original footage even more had it been excluded! The live sound and footage was excellent, especially that version of Long Tall Sally. Paul's vocal was outstanding. It's performances like that, when a band all in their early 20s are so well drilled from those days of slugging it out in Hamburg as teenagers, that made them so great. In fact I think the Hamburg days might have given greater context to their early maturity and impact.

[@julianciahaconsulting8663]

it was all those marathon hours of playing in Hamburg that put t he beatles way out ahead of their competition for sure....can u imagine a new band playing 12 hours shifts 8 days a week - or whatever insane number of hours every week - in seedy bars now?

[@PaulEmery-ue8pk]

Love you guys. The best going.

[@ainsleyperry5192]

Beatles '64, the whole thing should have been given to Peter Jackson a Director who knows what he's doing with documentary film and his work with the Beatles. The rejuvenated Beatles performance of Long Tall Sally shows what could have been done. Cheers, Chris Perry.

[@richbailey8174]

My wife and I watched it ....we thought it was a big nothing. They just mixed up the expanded version of the Beatles First Visit to the US with the Washington DC show film which was already available. Mixed in were old clips from the Anthology film and the now obligatory "Head shot" interviews. Some of those were interesting. Each segment used from the "First Visit" was too long and many of them weren't any good. They show at least 2-3 scenes of girls trying to get into the hotel where they were staying. There were many odd and out of place clips, like the one with Leonard Bernstein "conducting" a tape of "She Said She Said". There didn't seem to be a guiding "theme". It was more like they took a bunch of random stuff from KZbin and mashed them together at random by a high school AV class!

[@Raydahr-5]

One more fascinating discourse by the two gentlemen from the English music press this time eulogising how brilliant The Beatles are live at The Washington revolving stage, boxing stadium. Straaange this how tables turn. I am old enough to remember British (maybe not mr Hepworth nor Ellen) music scribes putting down said Beatles'ian marvellous stage act. "The Beatles were bad live. The Stones were the real thing." Of course, The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl put paid to that falsehood once and for all. Just thought you wanted to be reminded of this fact. Keep up the good work.

[@apollomemories7399]

I'm not so sure if your memory is serving you well.

[@julianciahaconsulting8663]

What i would like to see one day is Apple giving one or two of these super hardcore beatles fanatics - like a few of them here on youTube - keys to the film and audio archives...and let them do their thing instead of bringing in some old pro to do that (peter jackson exempted)....some of the fan made documentaries about the fabs or john and pauls relationship are mind blowing with the obscure footage they somehow managed to find & the sheer magnitude of work some of these hardcores do in their homemade beatles docs is beyond incredible.....

[@moonlightbay4814]

Credence Clearwater Revival's 'Fortunate Son' has featured in many movies, TV shows, adverts and documentaries and, most notably games. It's used in many games in which you can refight the Vietnam War. It's also very prominent in "Forrest Gump'.

[@MACEASY2]

David Hepworth is so grumpy, typically for someone his generation assuming 'we' all know the Beatles history. Thankyou Mark Ellen for being more measured and good humoured, and of course as usual correct.

[@apollomemories7399]

Bollocks. If you can't take it from the horse's mouth, well don't eat it. Or do you just want to be spoon-fed? Grow up.

[@foxbasealpha]

Not enough of The Beatles’ musical appearance on Ed Sullivan was shown in the doc. Also no mention of them having the top five songs on the charts at the same time nor much devoted to their second tour to North America later in August and September. Lastly, why no footage of their performance at Carnegie Hall? Does any exist?

[@apollomemories7399]

No film of Carnegie Hall. Only newsreel of fans outside the venue and film of Lennon upon arrival at the elevators as seen on the 'Here, There & Everywhere' DVD of 2009 on the Odeon label.

[@honkynel]

Hendrix and Handel. A twofer!

[@Ben_Mdws]

‘64 was just all over the shop. It seemed to have no real structure, which was bizarre. The interviewee choices seemed quite random and pretty insubstantial.

[@anthonycraig1458]

None of the reviews of Beatles 64 have convinced me that it's worth subscribing to Disney. Sounds like it's just about everything I would hate about a documentary. I'll stick with the original DVD of The First US Visit. Should have just remastered & extended that for blu ray.

[@andydixon2980]

The Maysles original film 'The Beatles, their first U.S visit' is a much better film/document. As the Maysles saw it. Scorsese was just in this for a cash in, and to take the glory.

[@themacraecase4323]

Not sure about Scorsese cashing in (doesn't need it). But suspect when he got involved, he thought that Ringo would be a bit more informative than just showing his late 60s outfits. When Marti asked him whether he'd seen any NY Film Noir before the Beatles arrived there, Ringo just mumbled 'no.' And Macca is there to plug his photo exhibition.

[@JJONNYREPP]

The Beatles ’64 movie - one of us loves it, the other doesn’t. Plus Rod’s tweets & Trump’s guitars 5.12.24 1845pm i like the idea of your mate DH storming into the office and trashing the desks and chairs as he rants about the shit movie he's just been forced to watch. not having seen this movie... i am left to wonder.

[@andydixon2980]

@@themacraecase4323 Lili Fini Zanuck directed the great "Life in 12 bars' about Eric Clapton. No talking heads, more focus on the subject through his music and audio interviews of people close to him. Personally I think she would have done a better job than Scorsese, but it's all subjective.

[@Nickel1147]

The original documentary is by far better. Seems this was made by Sean and Olivia.

[@allanforrester2612]

As for Rod at Glast, are the naysayers oblivious to the fact that the younger end of festival goers may well be familiar with The Human Bogbrush from their parents', or even grandparents' listening habits? It could well give them a nostalgic thrill for tgeir recently departed childhoods. Anyway, who could take umbrage at Maggie Mae or I Don't Wanna Talk About It and the like?

[@apollomemories7399]

and some might say he's not made a decent record since 1973.

[@QuesoWatt]

Ron Nasty got into trouble for claiming to be bigger than Rod (although I applaud David Hepworth for departing in that lofty vehicle, high dudgeon).

[@AnthonyMonaghan]

The 2016 Ron Howard film "The Beatles: Eight Days a Week" was a better film....

[@gloriab7801]

Yeah, whatever, but what about the infinitely more interesting Drambuie mystery ? The only rationale I can come up with, is that you must have a fan in their marketing department. We demand an explanation by god.

[@Smudgie]

So did Dave like it?

[@FiveLiver]

Had to look up Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son. It sounded a little bit familiar but not an outstanding track to me.

[@FiveLiver]

Ed Sheeran - Shape of You. Never heard of it, didn't like. KZbin official video has 6,376,563,485 views and 33 million likes. We live in an era of music poverty, where 'the kids' are so grateful for ANYTHING.

[@apollomemories7399]

So, you didn't think Fogerty's vocal was outstanding? What's wrong with you?

[@FiveLiver]

@@apollomemories7399 Is this the 'Fortunate So'n? Do you reslly think this would be the most streamed record of the 1960s? Behind 'Tears' by Ken Dodd? C'mon.

[@apollomemories7399]

@@FiveLiver Well, I'm obviously not quite as up to speed on the 60's scene as yourself. I've taken careful note on Ken.

[@francisanosissi1]

If the guitars are found to be extremely good by musicians..they will hold value ..respray?..

[@margaretjbuckley]

Let's face it, Rod Stewart headlining Glasto is infinitely better than some of the shite they've had on in the last 10-15 years, I mean, Beyonce, Kanye, Jay-Zzzzzzzzzz😴 The middle-aged Guardian reading trendies must've loved getting down with the kiddies.🙄

[@apollomemories7399]

I have to agree despite Rod not making a decent record since 1973.

[@margaretjbuckley]

@@apollomemories7399 The three muppets I mentioned haven't made a decent album between them, EVER!

[@unchattytwit]

The Trump guitar will be worth sweet fanny Adams in decades hence because it'll either be a Totalitarian State or a desolate, devastated planet. Rod Stewart might still be going though!

[@mattgaskell945]

The Maysles brothers original film is far better than this one. It captures the excitement of the visit and the music. The ‘64 film is a mess. The tempo drops too much and the non-Beatles footage and narrative is mostly awful and irrelevant tosh. Aren’t we done with the Beatles doing Ed Sullivan now? Time for other stories to be told.

[@PaIaeoCIive1684]

Unpopular opinion, but the Beatles only got interesting when they became more experimental musically in '66 with Revolver. Rubber Soul the year before -- fine album though it was -- wasn't a great leap forward from Help! IMO. Tomorrow Never Knows wouldn't have evolved without the drug culture and cross-fertilisation of ideas with the Byrds, Dylan, Beach Boys and others.

[@JJONNYREPP]

The Beatles ’64 movie - one of us loves it, the other doesn’t. Plus Rod’s tweets & Trump’s guitars 1832pm 5.12.24 after the fact the beatles or proto beatles seem far more interesting - refer to the hamburg years. those guys seemed bored by the time they'd made it big.

[@danieladams9950]

@@JJONNYREPP Disagree. Rubber Soul is the start of Chapter 2.

[@JJONNYREPP]

@@danieladams9950 Comments on ‘The Beatles ’64 movie - one of us loves it, the other doesn’t. Plus Rod’s tweets & Trump’s guitars’ 0723am 7.12.24 chapter what? what was chapter 1?