Sin #48: Beatlemania!

Imagine the roaring crowds in the stadium so mighty that they drown the music you’re playing or dozens of girls chasing you through the already crowded streets of London while you’re making your way to rehearsals. Back in 1964 it was a pretty ordinary ordeal for the ultimate Fab Four, The Beatles. John, Paul, George and Ringo rose to fame pretty quickly and delivered some of the best music ever recorded. In “A Hard Day’s Night”, we meet them at the peak of their careers in a movie that isn’t really a documentary but more of a fun reimaging of their public personas; John was quirky and cynical, Paul was more serious and responsible, George was playful and smart and Ringo was kind of a hipster doofus (to steal a line from “Seinfeld”). As we watch them avoiding rehearsals and frustrating their manager beyond his point of sanity we realize that these guys are having the time of their lives (the “Can’t Buy Me Love” sequence perfectly summarizes their ultimate sense of joy).

Even though The Beatles were involved in several movies, their most memorable remains “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Yellow Submarine” (“Help”, which reunites them with director Richard Lester, is a mess, the only thing worth are the amazing songs; buy the album instead). Even though more than four decades have passed since the release of “A Hard Day’s Night” it hasn’t aged a day. It remains relevant thanks to its playful tone and all the more fascinating because it proves that the band members had engaging personalities and held our interest, also because we now know about Lennon’s tragic demise (he will forever remain as one of the great heroes for his message of peace and tolerance).

“Yellow Submarine” was a completely different endeavor for The Beatles. First of all, they weren’t even involved directly on the production of the animated feature (the voices belong to other actors who are remarkably convincing playing them) and it was only when it was finished that they saw the true potential for the movie (they finally appear as themselves at the end cracking some jokes and having fun). “Yellow Submarine” is an exhilarating psychedelic trip that seems crammed with hundreds of details worth exploring with multiple viewings. We follow a fantastical journey on the submarine against strange and obnoxious creatures called blue meanies and how they are defeated by the Fab Four’s great songs (with a few detours like the encounter with the Nowhere Man).

In today’s world The Beatles have become a pretty recognizable brand (the proof of this can be seen with the release of Rock Band: The Beatles, which I got to admit, is a pretty fun videogame) but they remain, nonetheless, terrific musicians with a great legacy of rock and roll albums.