Me and my sister watched the Beatles' Ed Sullivan appearances, and Sis (and later me) bought each LP the day they came out. My sister had a great seat to see the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, as one of her girlfriends' fathers was a record industry bigwig. The Beatles were the first rock-and-roll band I liked, and my mania to hear them had me constantly listening to L.A.'s rock-and-roll station KFWB...which in turn got me liking all rock music. In other words, blame the Beatles for putting me on the path from a classical guy to an I-like-everything guy.
What does it take to be a die hard Beatles fan?
I am the first to admit that I am a Beatles fan. And might even say that I am die hard. A recent film and recent album has me questioning the latter.
Peter Jackson's film "Get Back" and the 2022 "de-mixed" release of "Revolver" were both somewhat over the top for even a long time Beatles fan.
I had difficulty getting through both the film and the album.
Yes, it was pretty cool to get an inside look at the prep for the famous rooftop concert. But it became tedious to listen to all the "bla bla" in the studio and the endless fiddling of non Beatles songs.
Not to mention all that time "practicing" in the studio to come up with 3 or 4 songs.
And it was cool to hear the de-mixed versions of Revolver material, but 63 tracks with much relatively meaningless stuff took me 2 days to get through.
I certainly can appreciate the attraction to the behind the scenes things.
But neither the film or the album gave me much insight into who these guys are were/are.
The film was especially disappointing.
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I was born AFTER the Beatles disbanded. But I have all their original Albums (not the BBC,etc) and they get regular play in my system. I like they music making and that makes me a fan. I have never watched their documentary nor any other film. Maybe that is the difference between fan and die-hard fan 🙂 |
@jasonbourne71: The copy of Magical Mystery Tour you want is the German pressing on either HOR ZU or Apple (unless you actually like "mono reprocessed for stereo" sound of the Capitol LP). They are the only true stereo LP pressings of that "thrown together" non-album album. I have the German Apple LP, and as it was originally released in England: a gatefold cover housing two 7" discs, which contain only the music on side 1 of the LP. I too saw the group on Ed Sullivan, then went to see them at The Cow Palace in S. San Francisco. And was disappointed. Not a very good live band, honest. ;-) Though I am rather critical of The Beatles (and even more so their solo work), I truly and deeply love Rubber Soul and Revolver, two of my all-time favorite albums. I expect to finally meet Mazzy at the hi-fi show in Seattle next month, but may keep the fact that I saw The Beatles live to myself. I don't want to spoil his weekend. ;-) |
Going through my record collection this Sunday morning I came across a nice pristine 1967 Capitol pressing of Magical Mystery Tour - with the invoice from the eBay seller I bought it from: $18..50 + $4.00 shipping. This was about five years ago so before eBay added sales tax. I will treasure this copy more than any new made-from-a- digital file 180 gram reissue! |
accepting ’Get Back’ as a very good or great film or even worth the time does not make or break one’s Beatles fandom qualifications. i see this documentary as a table full of excesses which i visit and consume at my own speed. from time to time i watch more of it, but may never finish. yet i listen to Beatles music all the time and hold them in the highest regards. i was 11 years old when the Beatles were first on the Ed Sullivan show, and since that night, i have been fully on board. the creative magic that happened for that decade or so, was a freak of nature. sure; we can play ’what if?’.......such is life. i celebrate what they have done to make my life more full and enjoyable, and expect to continue to appreciate them. agree ’Get Back/Let it Be’ was not their best, but a few months later they were in top form for Abbey Road. maybe these sessions were just the warm up for that tour de force magic. i am unabashedly a 'glass half full' die hard Beatles fan. and accept it all including the warts. |
I forced myself to watch all nine hours of that boring, boring movie. And the music heard merely reaffirms my opinion of the Let It Be album: Dreadful, absolutely unlistenable. They peaked with the Revolver album. That damn sitar ruined George as a guitarist, Ringo’s drumming got very sluggish as time went on, and John & Paul increasingly wrote apart not together (they really needed each other, the whole being vastly greater than the sum of it's parts). Their breakup was imo long overdue. |