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Wow. Original Beatles manager Brian Epstein on What’s My Line? in 1964. Host John Daly mistakenly identifies him as “Barry.” Epstein was allegedly the inspiration for Baby, You’re a Rich Man, the song used so effectively at the conclusion of The Social Network.
“How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?”:
Tags: Brian Epstein, The Beatles
The Beatles in 1964, three years before they became shopkeepers.
The Beatles and Steve Jobs famously feuded over the Apple name, and the Fab Four even had an Apple store–the Apple Boutique–while Jobs was still in grade school. British Pathé was on hand for the groovy opening on Baker Street in London. George and John dropped by to mug for cameras and greet shoppers, who were adorned in everything from furs to monocles. Psychedelic fashions and inflatable furniture were for sale, and writer Kenneth Tynan was among the notables to show up. Watch it here.
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Tags: George Harruson, John Lennon, Kenneth Tynan, Steve Jobs, The Beatles
Paul and Ringo are hoping to delay a Beatles reunion for as long as they possibly can.
I briefly got my hands on this Beatles double-LP rarities collection cleverly known as A Knight’s Hard Day. It was published by Apple Records sometime in the ’60s, though there’s no exact date stamped on the discs or cover. There’s a Japanese version selling on eBay right now for $33, but there’s little other info about the record online.
The albums have alternative versions, recorded in 1963 and 1964 at a variety of venues, of Beatles classics like “Can’t Buy Me Love.” But these are slightly different versions aimed at hard-core fans and not brilliant re-imaginings that you absolutely need to hear. There are also covers of classics, including “Youngblood,” “Lucille” and “Too Much Monkey Business.” Perhaps what’s most entertaining is that in one of the interviews with the Fab Four, which was recorded during the Australia-New Zealand tour of 1964, Ringo Starr apparently farts and then is teased with gusto by John Lennon. Not as interesting is the rather generic back cover copy:
“While compiling this series of albums we have come across some strange oddities, some of which have presented us with huge problems in order to give you what we always promised: The finest collection of alternative takes ever compiled in a listenable format.”
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Tags: John Lennon, Ringo Starr, The Beatles
One really long scarf for four people. Seems impractical.
Got my gnarled, ink-stained hands on a copy of Beatles Film Festival, a pretty flimsy 1978 magazine about the celluloid side of the Fab Four. It’s basically a bunch of photos, some lyrics and a few old interview comments. But there is one brief article of interest about the Magical Mystery Tour.
The Beatles didn’t make a lot of creative missteps, but the Magical Mystery Tour film is like the most boring, most annoying drug experience ever. It was supposed to be a loosely constructed series of road trip scenes alternating with videos of the group performing songs. It instead made the quartet seem like they were out of touch and lost in their own excesses. The inane attempt at avant garde style was universally panned when originally shown on the BBC.
Even in 1978, McCartney was rationalizing this disaster in a really self-delusional way. An excerpt from the magazine article titled “Paul McCartney Talks About Magical Mystery Tour”:
In 1978, Paul McCartney thought "Magical Mystery Tour" would be beloved in the future, but it still sucks.
“The Mystery show was conceived way back in Los Angeles. On the plane, you know, they give you those big menus and I had a pen and everything and started drawing on this menu and I had this idea. In England they have these things called ‘mystery tours.’ And you go on them and you pay so much and you don’t know where you’re going. So the idea was to have this little thing advertised in shop windows somewhere called Magical Mystery Tours. Someone goes in and buys a ticket and rather than being the kind of normal publicity hype…well, it was magical, really…the idea of the show was that it was actually a magical run…a magical trip.
I did a few little sketches myself and everyone also thought up a couple of things. John thought of a little thing and George thought of a scene and we just got them all along with the coach, and we said, OK, act an off-the-cuff kind of thing.
At the time I thought: ‘Oh Blimey,’ but…eh…it started out to be one of those kinds of things like The Wild Ones, you know, Marlon Brando…at the time it couldn’t be released! The interest in it came later. The interest started to grow, you know. Magical Mystery Tour was a little bit like that…well, whatever happened to it…that’s a bit magical itself. Like the Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus. You know, what happened, to that, you know, I mean, I’d like to see that. So all these things work out well. You’ve got to be patient: everything like that works out well. I think it was a good show. It will have its day, you know.”
Tags: Paul McCartney, The Beatles
