portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Saturday, January 06, 2018

THE BEATLES - 'EIGHT DAYS A WEEK'



I finally caught up with Ron Howard's '
Eight Days a Week' Beatles film last night on the tv here and it left me sad, or rather maudlin somehow, but celebrating the joyousness of the early days too. When it ended I was reminded quite how much I miss both John and George . . . . . . generally a 'good film' worth the effort and enjoyable, a fan's tribute I felt and worthy of bathing in that light for a while if not quite blockbuster exhilaration but hey! It's The Beatles! 
I was also struck by quite how truly phenomenal they were. Society had no idea what actually hit them from the get go to being hauled off in a meat truck at Candlestick Park in San Francisco for the last gig. The humour the self reliance but also humility when Paul is asked about their influence upon culture his response is priceless. When John is asked what they are up to and the general response was 'Havin' a laff!" 
Being of an age where I almost took them for granted at first and my brother bringing home the first few albums I rebelled and tried to find my own sounds (Lovin' Spoonful for pop and blues standards as we have mentioned before) but then 'Rubber Soul' and especially 'Revolver' made me stop and think, 'What's going on?' to reassess what our 'brothers' were singing about as we grew up alongside them. I did watch both films when they came out and have mentioned this before but the affect of Hard Day's Night and Help cannot be underestimated to me. 




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Also this made me question 'What was the first film you ever saw?'
In my case a vivid and lifelong favourite though as I now learn not when it came out but actually taken by my dad to the cinema when I was but still in single figures growing up on the banks of the River Mersey
The Answer?

FANTASIA!


Study for 'Fantasia' and another hero was born!


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