Guide to British Music of the 1960s
March 2004
DVD Review
The Beatles - The First US Visit
An earlier Making Time DVD review covered the Beatles first feature film, A Hard Day's Night. This is the real thing. In 1964, the Beatles had become very popular in the UK, raking up a string of classic hit singles. Now it was time to tackle the massive US market. This film is a documentary of this visit filmed by the Maysles brothers. The main film has originally been released as What's happening in 1964. Apple re-edited it and released it on video in the 1990s. The new DVD release is another re-edit with additional features such as a documentary on the making of the film and interview with Albert Maysles. It's a behind the scenes of behind the scenes! The brothers had been given two hours notice of the Beatles' arrival at La Guardia. It must have been like finding a pot of gold when they were granted all areas access.
The Beatles gave the film crew wide access and, as a result, this is an excellent record of the Beatles off-stage in their early career. During the course of the visit the band played the famous Ed Sullivan show three times as well as a performance at the Washigton Coliseum. Most of the latter concert is included on the DVD. All of the performances are included here in full. This covers tracks such as Twist & Shout, Please Please Me, I Saw Her Standing There, All My Loving as well as the hit singles I Wanna Hold Your Hand, She Loves You and From Me To You.
Ringo and George appear to be the most open of the band, chatting with fans on the train and always ready with a quip. Lennon seems slightly detached while Paul McCartney is more of a thinker. Brian Epstein is also featured as is Murray the K, the New York DJ who promoted the Beatles heavily. One of the most interesting scenes is where the film crew, banned from the Ed Sullivan Theatre, take the cameras into a nearby apartment and film a family watching the show. This highlights the excitement that the Beatles' visit generated.
Where does A Hard Day's Night fit in? Basically, this documentary is much the same as the classic film. It shows just how accurate the film way in portraying the everyday lives of the Beatles. It correctly captured the humour, even if it was scripted for the film.
This is highly recommended and not just for Beatles fans. (Who isn't?). This is a record of a defining moment in popular music history.