Latest Posts by flytotheway - Page 9
On this day 54 years ago (April 25, 1967), the Beatles began recording the song “Magical Mystery Tour”. The song would become the title of their third film, the surreal and psychedelic Magical Mystery Tour. The film was burned by critics, citing a lack of coherent plot line and sloppy acting. The movie was Paul McCartney’s attempt at motivating the band to work again after the untimely death of their beloved manager Brian Epstein.
56 years ago today (April 27, 1965) // The Beatles film the famous airport scene in Help! where the boys don disguises as they try to escape to the Bahamas. In an ironic twist of fate, Ringo, George, and John all came to resemble their disguises in real life many years later. This was also the first time the world saw John in his iconic “granny” glasses.
i could never really live without you
so come on back and see just what you mean to me
I'm so normal about Banshees of Inisherin
The Beatles behind the scenes of Help! In May of 1965
obessed with the bit where mal turns off the amp and george immediately goes to turn it back on and mals like well i tried 😋❤
JANUARY 30, 1969 “I love when Paul jumps up and down on the plank, to see if it’s going to hold his weight. He comes across being as hard as nails. They’re all complaining about the cold, but he’s wearing less clothes than anyone else. He’d like to do a two-hour set—impervious to any temperature whatsoever.”— Giles Martin
It’s just about a gang of weirdos who love each other singing from the literal rooftops and, for a few minutes, bringing colour to a grey city. It’s about how all good things must come to an end but by simply happening they’re still significant. It’s about the constant battle between art/people/LOVE against forces that want them to conform. It’s about how friendship can literally change the world. It’s about hope. It’s about the power of dreaming. It’s cold and their fingers are going numb and the uniformed police officers, ever-present in the background, are making them unplug their instruments. But they just plug them back in!!! Maybe they can’t finish the concert but they’re finishing the song if it’s the last thing they do and they’ll even crack some jokes while they’re at it. Poetic cinema…
GET BACK, PART III — Ringo doesn’t talk much, but when he says he’s not going abroad, they are not going abroad. And when he says “I wanna go on the roof”, they’re going on the roof. (x)
The Beatles recording session mistakes are pure gold and here are some of the best moments:
0:06: JOHN: That’s not it!!
0:57-onwards: *weird noises*
1:35: PAUL: And if you saw my love, I’d love her… *pfffff*
2:01: JOHN: There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done PAUL: I believe you, Johnny! JOHN: There’s nothing you can sing that can’t be sung. PAUL: There sure is! *continues random ‘Johnny’, ‘you’re right, boy!’*
2:20: JOHN: I’m ready to sing for the world, George. If you just give me the backing!
3:41: *loud guitars* JOHN: Little less of George! It feels I’m singing in a sock.
4:22: “RINGO!!”
4:36: PAUL: We’ll do it anyway, We’ll just blast that bit, that one bit.
5:47: JOHN: Don’t slow down, for Christ’s sake. Or I’m giving you no more drugs!
6:22: JOHN: I just can’t get anywhere near ‘light’ now.
6:34: PAUL: I’ll try to remember, John. And if I don’t it’s just too bad, isn’t it?
6:50: PAUL: George, what did it sound like? Were the bass doing a funny thing, did it sound any good or did it sound like just utterly crap? [..] I did it well, see. Told you! Meh, hello to you and see how you like it.
…and my personal favorite:
3:59: PAUL: Do that again. [to George:] You made a mistake. I KNOW YOU DID! GEORGE: No. *mumbling and grumbling*
THE BEATLES: GET BACK (2021) // George + Ringo (ep. 3)
The Beatles - “I Feel Fine” (1965)
January 26th, 1969 (Apple Studios, London): As the Beatles work on the arrangement for Octopus’s Garden’, Ringo tells Paul about the basis for the song, piquing George’s memory of what he was once told about octopuses. (Note: John’s on drums. This clip from the sessions is shortly followed by Heather sharing her personal octopus anecdote with John - which I can’t make out, unfortunately - and more animal banter.)
GEORGE: Hey, it was somebody – he was telling me octopuses go and pick up all the seashells. You know about that?
RINGO: Yes, that’s why I wrote it! ‘Cause the guides told me [about them] on the boat in Sardinia. [inaudible]
GEORGE: Yeah. [to Paul] You know about that? They collect all nice-looking things and make a garden around where they are and just with all their groovy things to sleep behind.
RINGO: Yeah.
GEORGE: [laughs] It’s great.
can we all just stop a minute and consider how extremely ready for hot girl autumn john lennon was in september 1966?
what would you do if this darling amie sent you a telegram saying:
Come too quickly. Stop. Try again. Stop. Am waiting in Paris. Stop me if you’ve heard it. Stop. Stuff yourself with artichokes and live. Stop. Don’t stop. Stop.
It would get me out of my stoner dome, I tell you what.
John Lennon Official Instagram page.
WFH boredom knows no bounds.
January 13th, 1969 (Twickenham Film Studios, London): During a discussion on how the rest of the group should move forward after George’s departure on the 10th, John wonders if they should get George back at all, suggesting his role as a Beatle is replaceable (unlike his own or Paul’s), and likens this unkindly to how Ringo first replaced Pete Best. Paul notes that John has been the top buck in getting himself heard (and getting his way) since the inception of the group (which John protests) and quickly reassures Ringo when he wryly declares himself to be little more than rabbit food for the group.
Paul admits that both he and John have done one over on George, albeit unconsciously as an effect of the competition and unaware of how it may have hurt George in the process, but John argues that he’s known since early childhood how manipulative he himself can be, and has tried to curb it to little avail.
PAUL: See, I’m just assuming he’s coming back, you know. I tell you, I’m just assuming he’s coming back. RINGO: If he wants— JOHN: What if he isn’t? PAUL: If he isn’t, then… if he isn’t, then it’s a new problem. RINGO: He would like the four of us to sit down. JOHN: It’s like we’ve said— PAUL: Yeah. RINGO: He wants the four of us to actually— JOHN: See, if we want it – if we do want it, I still won’t tour, man, but I do want to— PAUL: But you seem to – you seem to think— JOHN: But if we do end up deciding we want it, as a policy, I can go along with that. Because the policy has kept us together. RINGO: But the thing is that if we want him— JOHN: If we want him, because we want him – but the thing is, like George said, it’s that The Beatles, to me, isn’t just limited to the four of us. I think that I, alone, could be a Beatle. [to Paul] I think you could. [to Ringo] I’m not sure whether you could, because you’re doing… Well, like, but I’m just telling you what I think! I don’t think The Beatles revolve around the four people! It might be like a job— PAUL: But you know what, John, I’ll tell you one thing— JOHN: [to Ringo] It’s like you joining the band instead of Pete. It’s like – to me, it is like that.
PAUL: Tell you what— [inaudible] Let me tell you what I think. [pause; inaudible] —thing is this. [to John] You have always been at the front of the chute. Now, there have been some secondary rungs, but George has been third rung— RINGO: And I’ve been the cabbage. PAUL: [immediately] Never. JOHN: [dismissive] No, we haven’t— PAUL: No, just, no – listen here. You’re the rabbit, he’s right. JOHN: But not always, though— PAUL: [anxious] No, listen here – listen – always! But! But! [pause] I do think – no, I do think that as grim as it all is, that [George]’s right. And I do think that like our sole approach is exactly what he’s been saying. And that our brains sort of… con him. It’s all nothing. I do think that is a – I mean— [stumbling] As a first way out, I can’t really even say that, but I do think, you know, that when you get right down to it— JOHN: Yes. PAUL: ’Cause the moments of clarity, that I’ve just been – are just so innocent, and so simple, that all my connive, and all my – urge, or— [inaudible] JOHN: But don’t give me like – ’cause I’ve at least been aware of my conniving since fourteen. Real aware of it. PAUL: Sure. JOHN: And before that. You realize that I’ve known I’ve been conniving from – from Dovedale, you know that. I’ve been aware of that. Just because – I don’t know whether it’s him. It’s not him. It’s just me. That I’ve realized where it’s nowhere – but the thing is, I only know where it is when I’m in the middle of all of it— PAUL: Yeah. JOHN: —that I am sort of at it again. And that’s why I’ve had to fight for the last three years. And I’ve done it – the other way. Just – rather than allow myself to connive, I thought, “Stop it now. Stop it.”
Photos of The Beatles included in a fans scrapbook from the 60s.
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR (1967)
this is like the only song where ALL FOUR BEATLES SING
Cynthia & John Lennon during a fishing trip on Star Island in Miami Beach, FL | 15 February 1964