By Steve Marinucci
Published on December 8, 2000, San Jose Mercury News (CA)
REPORTER: ``Has success changed your life?''
GEORGE HARRISON: ``Yes.''
-- from ``A Hard Day's Night''
Flash back to 1964. You're in a movie theater, waiting for the feature attraction. A movie trailer begins on the screen:
Are you ready? Here they come! Brace yourself!!
The trailer advertises . . . Yes! ``A Hard Day's Night,'' the new movie by the Beatles!!!
Now, at the time, the Beatles were at the top of the world. Beatlemania ruled. But pop-star movies and teen movies, from the Elvis flicks to the ``Beach Party'' series, were not exactly Cinema. Why should the Beatles' movie be any different from the mindless promotional trash their predecessors turned out?
As for that trailer -- it contained few hints about what ``Hard Day's Night'' might really be.
The Fab Four had dominated the U.S. pop charts since they first arrived in the country for ``The Ed Sullivan Show'' in February. The movie -- intended to capitalize on their popularity and provide United Artists a soundtrack album -- was written quickly by Londoner Alun Owen. (Surprise: His Oscar-nominated script gave each Beatle a distinctive personality.)
From March 2 to April 24, 1964, ``A Hard Day's Night'' was filmed in black and white at Twickenham Film Studios in England. A Ringo Starr comment became the film's title. And when producer Walter Shenson (who died in October at 81) realized the film had no title song, John Lennon and Paul McCartney composed one on demand. Overnight.
When the film had its world premiere July 6 in London and its American premiere the following month, critics were ready to pounce. After all, it would give adults some potent ammunition to help stop, or at least slow down, the onslaught of the four Liverpool longhairs.
But wait. Here's New York Times critic Bosley Crowther: ``This is going to surprise you -- it may knock you out of your chair -- but the new film with those incredible chaps, the Beatles, is a whale of a comedy,'' he began. ``I wouldn't have believed it either, if I hadn't seen it with my own astonished eyes.''
He wasn't alone. The Village Voice, in its original 1964 review, gushed, `It's the `Citizen Kane' of jukebox movies.''
Director Richard Lester's use of handheld cameras and a loose cinéma vérité style was adopted by many. Without ``A Hard Day's Night,'' there probably wouldn't have been a TV series called ``The Monkees,'' since many of the film's techniques were used in that show.
Now it's back in theaters. Long circulated in videotapes of decreasing quality, ``A Hard Day's Night'' has been restored, both picture and soundtrack, to its best-ever quality. Although copies of deleted scenes have circulated (in a now out-of-print book and more recently, in the ``A Hard Day's Night'' CD-ROM), the re-released version has nothing new added.
But in a time when the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync are the rage, why care?
For one, younger fans can see what Beatlemania was really all about. From the frenetic opening where the Fab Four, the original boy band, are being chased by a mob of girls (even though John's laugh gives away that it's just an act) to the scream-filled concert at the end, the hysteria rarely lets up. It would seem that today's fans are a bit more controlled than in 1964.
Older audiences who saw the film in 1964 probably couldn't hear or understand many of the irreverent (and humorous) lines in the picture because of screaming audiences. With luck, it'll be different now.
As film critic Roger Ebert, himself a fan of the movie, has written, ``Today, when we watch TV and see quick cutting, hand-held cameras, interviews conducted on the run with moving targets, quickly intercut snatches of dialogue, music under documentary action and all the other trademarks of the modern style, we are looking at children of `A Hard Day's Night.' ''
NORM: ``I've got only one thing to say to you, John Lennon.''
JOHN: ``What?''
NORM: ``You're a swine.''
Friday, December 8, 2000
Wednesday, November 15, 2000
Shooting Stars: San Jose photo exhibit gives an insider's look at the greats of rock 'n' roll
SHOOTING STARS
SAN JOSE PHOTO EXHIBIT GIVES AN INSIDER'S LOOK AT THE GREATS OF ROCK 'N' ROLL
BY STEVE MARINUCCI
Published Nov. 15, 2000 in the San Jose Mercury News
Henry Diltz knows how to make the rock musicians he photographs feel comfortable. He's one of them.
In 1963, Diltz was co-founder of the Modern Folk Quartet, a group that released several albums and, notably, a single, ''This Could Be the Night,'' produced by the legendary Phil Spector (who co-wrote the song with Harry Nilsson).
''We had a camper and were doing college tours,'' he says. ''We bought these little funky cameras, Japanese 35mm cameras, and started taking pictures like crazy of each other and everything we saw. When we got back to L.A., we had a big slide show. It was so exciting to see all those moments huge on the wall.
''I got bitten by the bug. I said I've got to take more of these pictures so we can have more of these slide shows. So I just started shooting pictures of everything all the time. And during that time, I starting photographing all my friends.''
Those friends included the Buffalo Springfield; the Hollies; Mama Cass Elliott; Crosby, Stills and Nash; and the Lovin' Spoonful (which, in the latter stages of its history included fellow Modern Folk Quartet member Jerry Yester).
Many of Diltz's pictures -- including those used on some of rock's most famous album covers -- will be on view Friday through Sunday at the Hyatt Sainte Claire, 302 S. Market St., San Jose, as part of a 20-city national tour. Limited edition prints will be available for purchase.
It was because of the Spoonful that Diltz began snapping photos professionally.
''My good old friend Erik Jacobsen, who produced them, had been my roommate in Greenwich Village back in my musician days. And he said, 'Hey, if you want to learn how to be a photographer, come and hang out with the boys all summer. We need a lot of pictures.' ''
The Spoonful had just had its first hit, ''Do You Believe in Magic;'' Diltz ended up spending a year with the band on the road.
He then was hired by such teen magazines as ''Flip,'' ''Tiger Beat'' and ''16'' to shoot the Monkees. ''I got to be real good friends with the Monkees,'' he recalls, noting that photographers back then ''were usually old guys. The Monkees didn't like that. I was their age, had long hair and wore love beads, so I fit right in with them.''
He also photographed many of those color pinups of the Partridge Family that the teen magazines seemed to need constantly.
Poster fodder
''These magazines were voracious, you know, for head shots to make posters and magazine covers. So my job was simple: to try to get as many great head shots of David Cassidy.''
The list of other subjects and events Diltz photographed is long and celebrated: Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and George Harrison (at the Concert for Bangladesh), Woodstock (the original and the two in the '90s), the Monterey Pop Festival, Michael Jackson, Richard Harris, Truman Capote, James Taylor, the Doors, Richard Pryor and Kurt Cobain.
Diltz has multitudes of wonderful stories about his photo shoots. For example, ''The Doors had called my partner, Gary Burden, to talk about photos for their new album. We had a meeting.'' Ray Manzarek, the Doors' keyboard player, ''spoke up and said, 'My wife and I saw this great hotel in downtown L.A. the other day called Morrison Hotel.' We said, 'Whoa, let's go check it out.' We drove down there and looked at it and, sure enough, it was fantastic.
''The next day, we brought the whole group down. We went in to take the picture and the guy behind the desk said, 'You can't shoot photos in here.' We went outside, and I noticed him leave the desk and get in the elevator. So Isaid, 'Quick, run inside.' So we did a quick roll of film in about five minutes and we were out of there.''
Shuffled trio
The cover for the first Crosby, Stills and Nash album shows the trio in a different order than their name.
The house on the cover ''was just sitting in Hollywood,'' Diltz says. ''Graham Nash noticed it one day. We just went out to shoot publicity photos. This was before they had even come up with a name. So we took the photo of them sitting on the couch, but they're in the wrong order. So a few days later we went back to reshoot them in the right order and the house was gone, a big pile of sticks shoved to the back of the lot.''
Diltz also was a longtime friend of Linda McCartney, who had been a rock photographer in the days when he was shooting the Spoonful. Diltz photographed Paul and Linda McCartney for a Life magazine cover. ''She called me one day from Malibu and asked if I could come out to their rented house and take photos for a songbook. I spent the afternoon photographing them and, at the time, their two little daughters.
''Then when we were through, they said, 'Well, we want to see these early in the morning because we're looking for a picture to use on the cover of Life magazine.''' Diltz describes Linda McCartney as 'very nurturing, intelligent, very warm, everything good.''
Diltz's recent subjects include Christopher Stills (Stephen's son) and Eagle Timothy B. Schmit. He spends an equal amount of time doing non-rock work these days. ''I'll photograph anything that catches my eye or my fancy,'' he says.
Still, he's amazed by the calls he says he gets almost daily for past work that began as slide shows for his friends.
''It never occurred to me that I would have a big photo collection one day. I never thought it would turn into an archive.''
CAPTION: PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
Among the rock legends and luminaries photographed by Henry Diltz, clockwise from above, a photo from the Eagles' ''Desperado'' album cover shoot, [001115 SV 3E]
PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
Janis Joplin at Woodstock in 1969
[001115 SV 3E]
PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
Singer Joni Mitchell
[001115 SV 3E]
PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
And Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. Musicians are comfortable with Diltz behind the camera; he caught the photography bug while touring with the Modern Folk Quartet, which he co-founded in the '60s.
[001115 SV 3E]
PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
Paul and Linda McCartney
[001115 SV 1E]
PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
Photographer Diltz had five minutes at the Morrison Hotel to shoot this picture of the Doors, from left, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, Jim Morrison and John Densmore.
[001115 SV 1E]
PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
Before they had decided on a name, Diltz shot this out-of-order photograph of Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and David Crosby. The house had been razed by the time they returned to shoot the trio in proper order.
[001115 SV 1E]
SAN JOSE PHOTO EXHIBIT GIVES AN INSIDER'S LOOK AT THE GREATS OF ROCK 'N' ROLL
BY STEVE MARINUCCI
Published Nov. 15, 2000 in the San Jose Mercury News
Henry Diltz knows how to make the rock musicians he photographs feel comfortable. He's one of them.
In 1963, Diltz was co-founder of the Modern Folk Quartet, a group that released several albums and, notably, a single, ''This Could Be the Night,'' produced by the legendary Phil Spector (who co-wrote the song with Harry Nilsson).
''We had a camper and were doing college tours,'' he says. ''We bought these little funky cameras, Japanese 35mm cameras, and started taking pictures like crazy of each other and everything we saw. When we got back to L.A., we had a big slide show. It was so exciting to see all those moments huge on the wall.
''I got bitten by the bug. I said I've got to take more of these pictures so we can have more of these slide shows. So I just started shooting pictures of everything all the time. And during that time, I starting photographing all my friends.''
Those friends included the Buffalo Springfield; the Hollies; Mama Cass Elliott; Crosby, Stills and Nash; and the Lovin' Spoonful (which, in the latter stages of its history included fellow Modern Folk Quartet member Jerry Yester).
Many of Diltz's pictures -- including those used on some of rock's most famous album covers -- will be on view Friday through Sunday at the Hyatt Sainte Claire, 302 S. Market St., San Jose, as part of a 20-city national tour. Limited edition prints will be available for purchase.
It was because of the Spoonful that Diltz began snapping photos professionally.
''My good old friend Erik Jacobsen, who produced them, had been my roommate in Greenwich Village back in my musician days. And he said, 'Hey, if you want to learn how to be a photographer, come and hang out with the boys all summer. We need a lot of pictures.' ''
The Spoonful had just had its first hit, ''Do You Believe in Magic;'' Diltz ended up spending a year with the band on the road.
He then was hired by such teen magazines as ''Flip,'' ''Tiger Beat'' and ''16'' to shoot the Monkees. ''I got to be real good friends with the Monkees,'' he recalls, noting that photographers back then ''were usually old guys. The Monkees didn't like that. I was their age, had long hair and wore love beads, so I fit right in with them.''
He also photographed many of those color pinups of the Partridge Family that the teen magazines seemed to need constantly.
Poster fodder
''These magazines were voracious, you know, for head shots to make posters and magazine covers. So my job was simple: to try to get as many great head shots of David Cassidy.''
The list of other subjects and events Diltz photographed is long and celebrated: Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and George Harrison (at the Concert for Bangladesh), Woodstock (the original and the two in the '90s), the Monterey Pop Festival, Michael Jackson, Richard Harris, Truman Capote, James Taylor, the Doors, Richard Pryor and Kurt Cobain.
Diltz has multitudes of wonderful stories about his photo shoots. For example, ''The Doors had called my partner, Gary Burden, to talk about photos for their new album. We had a meeting.'' Ray Manzarek, the Doors' keyboard player, ''spoke up and said, 'My wife and I saw this great hotel in downtown L.A. the other day called Morrison Hotel.' We said, 'Whoa, let's go check it out.' We drove down there and looked at it and, sure enough, it was fantastic.
''The next day, we brought the whole group down. We went in to take the picture and the guy behind the desk said, 'You can't shoot photos in here.' We went outside, and I noticed him leave the desk and get in the elevator. So Isaid, 'Quick, run inside.' So we did a quick roll of film in about five minutes and we were out of there.''
Shuffled trio
The cover for the first Crosby, Stills and Nash album shows the trio in a different order than their name.
The house on the cover ''was just sitting in Hollywood,'' Diltz says. ''Graham Nash noticed it one day. We just went out to shoot publicity photos. This was before they had even come up with a name. So we took the photo of them sitting on the couch, but they're in the wrong order. So a few days later we went back to reshoot them in the right order and the house was gone, a big pile of sticks shoved to the back of the lot.''
Diltz also was a longtime friend of Linda McCartney, who had been a rock photographer in the days when he was shooting the Spoonful. Diltz photographed Paul and Linda McCartney for a Life magazine cover. ''She called me one day from Malibu and asked if I could come out to their rented house and take photos for a songbook. I spent the afternoon photographing them and, at the time, their two little daughters.
''Then when we were through, they said, 'Well, we want to see these early in the morning because we're looking for a picture to use on the cover of Life magazine.''' Diltz describes Linda McCartney as 'very nurturing, intelligent, very warm, everything good.''
Diltz's recent subjects include Christopher Stills (Stephen's son) and Eagle Timothy B. Schmit. He spends an equal amount of time doing non-rock work these days. ''I'll photograph anything that catches my eye or my fancy,'' he says.
Still, he's amazed by the calls he says he gets almost daily for past work that began as slide shows for his friends.
''It never occurred to me that I would have a big photo collection one day. I never thought it would turn into an archive.''
CAPTION: PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
Among the rock legends and luminaries photographed by Henry Diltz, clockwise from above, a photo from the Eagles' ''Desperado'' album cover shoot, [001115 SV 3E]
PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
Janis Joplin at Woodstock in 1969
[001115 SV 3E]
PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
Singer Joni Mitchell
[001115 SV 3E]
PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
And Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. Musicians are comfortable with Diltz behind the camera; he caught the photography bug while touring with the Modern Folk Quartet, which he co-founded in the '60s.
[001115 SV 3E]
PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
Paul and Linda McCartney
[001115 SV 1E]
PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
Photographer Diltz had five minutes at the Morrison Hotel to shoot this picture of the Doors, from left, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, Jim Morrison and John Densmore.
[001115 SV 1E]
PHOTO: HENRY DILTZ PHOTOGRAPHS
Before they had decided on a name, Diltz shot this out-of-order photograph of Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and David Crosby. The house had been razed by the time they returned to shoot the trio in proper order.
[001115 SV 1E]
Friday, April 21, 2000
A guitarist on the run: former Wings member stays busy with touring, TV, movies
By Steve Marinucci
Published April 21, 2000, San Jose (CA) Mercury News
A GUITARIST ON THE RUN
FORMER WINGS MEMBER STAYS BUSY WITH TOURING, TV, MOVIES
SEARCH for guitarist Laurence Juber's CDs in stores, and you'll find them filed in almost any rack, from ''rock'' to ''New Age.'' That gives some idea of the breadth of the English-born acoustic artist's talents and accomplishments.
The career of the 47-year-old musician, a former lead guitarist for Paul McCartney and Wings, includes working as a studio musician and scoring TV shows, as well as pursuing a solo career. His credits include TV's ''Happy Days,'' ''Home Improvement,'' ''Boy Meets World'' and ''7th Heaven'' and the movies ''Dirty Dancing,'' ''The Big Chill,'' ''Pocahontas'' and, most recently, ''Snow Day.''
Juber also has recorded with Eric Clapton, John Mayall, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Clint Black, Roger Daltrey and three of the four Beatles -- McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.
Juber will perform at San Jose Stage on April 29 with finger-style guitarist Duck Baker in the Downtown Arts Series. He will also make several other area appearances, including a performance April 28 in Monterey and broadcasts Thursday (7 to 9 a.m.) on the Greg Kihn show on KUFX-FM (104.9) and 11 a.m. April 28 on KAZU-FM (90.3).
Some fans know Juber's work from the Wings album ''Back to the Egg'' and the singles ''Goodnight Tonight'' and ''Coming Up.''
After Wings broke up in 1981, Juber moved with his wife and two children to the Los Angeles area to concentrate on studio work and composing.
Speaking of the time he spent with McCartney, Juber says, ''I found him very easy to work with. The job description was pretty clear. I was there to play lead guitar and to be responsive to (McCartney's) creative direction, with the freedom to be able to make my own contribution.''
He describes McCartney and his late wife, Linda McCartney, who was also in Wings, as ''easygoing.'' Juber got together with McCartney late last year in Los Angeles during the former Beatle's promotional appearances for his current album, ''Run Devil Run,'' and at a benefit concert for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. ''He's a great performer,'' says Juber.
Juber's own most recent CD, ''LJ Plays the Beatles'' (Solid Air Records), features his beautifully intricate acoustic-guitar arrangements of Beatle songs, including a few not often performed, such as ''Martha My Dear'' and ''You Won't See Me.'' In June, the disc will be in stores; until then it is available only via the Internet (at www.acousticmusicresource.com and www.laurencejuber.com).
Even though the idea of recording Beatles tunes might seem a natural for Juber, he released more than a dozen other records before getting around to that one. What made him finally do it?
''People kept asking me for it,'' he says. ''And I've been playing some of these arrangements for a long time. I've always included a Beatles tune (in my show). It's my heritage.''
Juber's wife, Hope, is the daughter of ''Brady Bunch'' and ''Gilligan's Island'' creator Sherwood Schwartz. She played various roles on several episodes of ''The Brady Bunch,'' including Greg's girlfriend, Rachel. Juber makes light of this in his own autobiography, writing that he ''married Greg Brady's girlfriend.''
''It got to the point,'' he says, ''where Hope said she wasn't going to be happy until I did the (Beatles) album. And I said, 'If I'm going to do it, you're going to produce it.' She and I had worked on the previous album (''Altered Reality''). We really enjoyed working together. Once we decided to do it, we started in September and delivered it in February.''
Juber's upcoming projects include work on an Al Stewart album, set for release in September.
His appearance at San Jose Stage is co-sponsored by Fiddling Cricket Concerts and the South Bay Guitar Society. Juber also will be making a free in-store appearance at 8 p.m. Thursday at Compact Disc Land, 477 University Ave., Palo Alto. And on April 29, he will give a guitar clinic at Palo Alto's Gryphon Stringed Instruments (2 p.m., 211 Lambert Ave., 650-493-2131, $30).
Published April 21, 2000, San Jose (CA) Mercury News
A GUITARIST ON THE RUN
FORMER WINGS MEMBER STAYS BUSY WITH TOURING, TV, MOVIES
SEARCH for guitarist Laurence Juber's CDs in stores, and you'll find them filed in almost any rack, from ''rock'' to ''New Age.'' That gives some idea of the breadth of the English-born acoustic artist's talents and accomplishments.
The career of the 47-year-old musician, a former lead guitarist for Paul McCartney and Wings, includes working as a studio musician and scoring TV shows, as well as pursuing a solo career. His credits include TV's ''Happy Days,'' ''Home Improvement,'' ''Boy Meets World'' and ''7th Heaven'' and the movies ''Dirty Dancing,'' ''The Big Chill,'' ''Pocahontas'' and, most recently, ''Snow Day.''
Juber also has recorded with Eric Clapton, John Mayall, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Clint Black, Roger Daltrey and three of the four Beatles -- McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.
Juber will perform at San Jose Stage on April 29 with finger-style guitarist Duck Baker in the Downtown Arts Series. He will also make several other area appearances, including a performance April 28 in Monterey and broadcasts Thursday (7 to 9 a.m.) on the Greg Kihn show on KUFX-FM (104.9) and 11 a.m. April 28 on KAZU-FM (90.3).
Some fans know Juber's work from the Wings album ''Back to the Egg'' and the singles ''Goodnight Tonight'' and ''Coming Up.''
After Wings broke up in 1981, Juber moved with his wife and two children to the Los Angeles area to concentrate on studio work and composing.
Speaking of the time he spent with McCartney, Juber says, ''I found him very easy to work with. The job description was pretty clear. I was there to play lead guitar and to be responsive to (McCartney's) creative direction, with the freedom to be able to make my own contribution.''
He describes McCartney and his late wife, Linda McCartney, who was also in Wings, as ''easygoing.'' Juber got together with McCartney late last year in Los Angeles during the former Beatle's promotional appearances for his current album, ''Run Devil Run,'' and at a benefit concert for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. ''He's a great performer,'' says Juber.
Juber's own most recent CD, ''LJ Plays the Beatles'' (Solid Air Records), features his beautifully intricate acoustic-guitar arrangements of Beatle songs, including a few not often performed, such as ''Martha My Dear'' and ''You Won't See Me.'' In June, the disc will be in stores; until then it is available only via the Internet (at www.acousticmusicresource.com and www.laurencejuber.com).
Even though the idea of recording Beatles tunes might seem a natural for Juber, he released more than a dozen other records before getting around to that one. What made him finally do it?
''People kept asking me for it,'' he says. ''And I've been playing some of these arrangements for a long time. I've always included a Beatles tune (in my show). It's my heritage.''
Juber's wife, Hope, is the daughter of ''Brady Bunch'' and ''Gilligan's Island'' creator Sherwood Schwartz. She played various roles on several episodes of ''The Brady Bunch,'' including Greg's girlfriend, Rachel. Juber makes light of this in his own autobiography, writing that he ''married Greg Brady's girlfriend.''
''It got to the point,'' he says, ''where Hope said she wasn't going to be happy until I did the (Beatles) album. And I said, 'If I'm going to do it, you're going to produce it.' She and I had worked on the previous album (''Altered Reality''). We really enjoyed working together. Once we decided to do it, we started in September and delivered it in February.''
Juber's upcoming projects include work on an Al Stewart album, set for release in September.
His appearance at San Jose Stage is co-sponsored by Fiddling Cricket Concerts and the South Bay Guitar Society. Juber also will be making a free in-store appearance at 8 p.m. Thursday at Compact Disc Land, 477 University Ave., Palo Alto. And on April 29, he will give a guitar clinic at Palo Alto's Gryphon Stringed Instruments (2 p.m., 211 Lambert Ave., 650-493-2131, $30).
Sunday, January 30, 2000
Hello ... goodbye; two ex-Beatles reunite for a day in fictional film
By Steve Marinucci
Published Jan. 30, 2000, San Jose (CA) Mercury News
HELLO . . . GOODBYE
TWO EX-BEATLES REUNITE FOR A DAY IN FICTIONAL FILM
TWO OF US
9 and 11 p.m. Tuesday, 8 p.m. Thursday, 10 p.m. Saturday, VH1
(star) (star) (1/2 star)
ROLL UP. Roll up for the radical history tour.
It's 1976. The four Beatles had broken up as a group and officially gone their separate ways six years earlier. Paul McCartney is being interviewed and is asked an often-repeated question about the chances of a Beatle reunion.
His answer: ''You never know.''
Then, on April 24, while in New York City, McCartney decides to drop in unannounced at the Dakota, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono live.
So begins VH1's ''Two of Us,'' a speculative day in the life of the two former Beatles. Aidan Quinn ('An Early Frost'') and Jared Harris, Richard's son (''Lost in Space'') star as McCartney and John Lennon. Quinn has the voice, not the look, while it is the opposite with Harris. It takes some serious squinting to accept either as Lennon or as McCartney.
Nevertheless, fans, curious over what revelations about Lennon and McCartney might be included, will likely find themselves drawn to the film, which is peppered with references to Beatle trivia. Maybe part of the reason is that the film's producer, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, also produced the Beatles' movie ''Let It Be'' and the Rolling Stones' ''Rock and Roll Circus,'' which featured Lennon and wife Yoko Ono. Fans may wonder how close, if at all, Lindsay-Hogg gets to showing us the real personalities of the two former Beatles.
When Lennon opens the door to his Dakota apartment and sees McCartney standing in the hallway, his first reaction, typically cryptic, is to call his former songwriting partner ''the ghost of Christmas past.''
After some initial wariness on both sides, the two, without either spouse in sight, recall old times with cautious affection, and at times, anger. (Lennon says his wife is off on a business trip with son Sean to buy some cows, while Linda McCartney is with the children. Neither is seen in the film.)
Their conversation reveals that Lennon, still hurt over his troubled youth, is content to be without a record contract. ''I've given up the game. I've finally gotten control of my own life and I'm not going to give that up.''
McCartney, however, loves working. ''I'm doing quite well without you,'' he says. ''Yeah, you and your silly love songs,'' retorts Lennon, referring to the McCartney song doing well in the charts.
Harris' Lennon is mostly caustic, portrayed as a househusband seemingly under the control of Ono, who has introduced him to a macrobiotic diet and numerology. Quinn's McCartney is surer of himself, and although defensive with his old mate, he seems to be longing for the friendship that used to be.
Although VH1 says a meeting never took place on the date the film is set, Lennon himself, in a Playboy magazine interview conducted just before he died, said Paul indeed visited him on the 24th, the date of a ''Saturday Night Live'' broadcast in which producer Lorne Michaels made the now-famous offer, not totally in jest, to pay the Beatles $3,000 if they would sing three songs.
''Oh, yeah. Paul and I were together watching that show,'' Lennon said. ''He was visiting us at our place in the Dakota. We were watching it and almost went down to the studio, just as a gag. We nearly got into a cab, but we were actually too tired.''
However, whatever else went down on that date in this movie is the product of writer Mark Stanfield's imagination. Most of what transpires is relatively believable -- with one glaring exception. During an improvisational piano session, the pair gets into a Western rhythm and end up singing, of all things, ''Tumbling Tumbleweeds.'' It's so completely out of character that one can only wonder if Lindsay-Hogg is giving viewers a bit of a revelation or completely putting them on.
A few things in the preview tape, labeled as a working version of the film, will certainly catch the attention of viewers should they make it to the final version. Those exterior shots that look like the Dakota, including,incredibly, the gate near where Lennon was killed in 1980, were actually filmed in Canada. There are several lines of adult dialogue, which were common from the oft-strong-tongued Lennon, but are unusual on basic cable.
The preview tape also featured two McCartney songs on the soundtrack -- ''Silly Love Songs'' and ''Here Today.'' A VH1 spokesman said the script was submitted to McCartney's organization, and those songs will be included only if approved by McCartney. But a spokesman for McCartney's MPL Productions says McCartney is not endorsing the program and that review copies sent to the press with the McCartney songs were not authorized, so don't look for them in the televised version. (No other Beatle music was included.)
In the end, even if ''Two of Us'' is mostly a fantasy, seeing the two old friends back together in the film should strike a sentimental chord with anyone who ever liked the Beatles.
It's like hearing ''Free As a Bird'' and ''Real Love'' for the first time again. Who cares if it's not a real reunion?
Just the thought is nice.
Published Jan. 30, 2000, San Jose (CA) Mercury News
HELLO . . . GOODBYE
TWO EX-BEATLES REUNITE FOR A DAY IN FICTIONAL FILM
9 and 11 p.m. Tuesday, 8 p.m. Thursday, 10 p.m. Saturday, VH1
(star) (star) (1/2 star)
ROLL UP. Roll up for the radical history tour.
It's 1976. The four Beatles had broken up as a group and officially gone their separate ways six years earlier. Paul McCartney is being interviewed and is asked an often-repeated question about the chances of a Beatle reunion.
His answer: ''You never know.''
Then, on April 24, while in New York City, McCartney decides to drop in unannounced at the Dakota, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono live.
So begins VH1's ''Two of Us,'' a speculative day in the life of the two former Beatles. Aidan Quinn ('An Early Frost'') and Jared Harris, Richard's son (''Lost in Space'') star as McCartney and John Lennon. Quinn has the voice, not the look, while it is the opposite with Harris. It takes some serious squinting to accept either as Lennon or as McCartney.
Nevertheless, fans, curious over what revelations about Lennon and McCartney might be included, will likely find themselves drawn to the film, which is peppered with references to Beatle trivia. Maybe part of the reason is that the film's producer, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, also produced the Beatles' movie ''Let It Be'' and the Rolling Stones' ''Rock and Roll Circus,'' which featured Lennon and wife Yoko Ono. Fans may wonder how close, if at all, Lindsay-Hogg gets to showing us the real personalities of the two former Beatles.
When Lennon opens the door to his Dakota apartment and sees McCartney standing in the hallway, his first reaction, typically cryptic, is to call his former songwriting partner ''the ghost of Christmas past.''
After some initial wariness on both sides, the two, without either spouse in sight, recall old times with cautious affection, and at times, anger. (Lennon says his wife is off on a business trip with son Sean to buy some cows, while Linda McCartney is with the children. Neither is seen in the film.)
Their conversation reveals that Lennon, still hurt over his troubled youth, is content to be without a record contract. ''I've given up the game. I've finally gotten control of my own life and I'm not going to give that up.''
McCartney, however, loves working. ''I'm doing quite well without you,'' he says. ''Yeah, you and your silly love songs,'' retorts Lennon, referring to the McCartney song doing well in the charts.
Harris' Lennon is mostly caustic, portrayed as a househusband seemingly under the control of Ono, who has introduced him to a macrobiotic diet and numerology. Quinn's McCartney is surer of himself, and although defensive with his old mate, he seems to be longing for the friendship that used to be.
Although VH1 says a meeting never took place on the date the film is set, Lennon himself, in a Playboy magazine interview conducted just before he died, said Paul indeed visited him on the 24th, the date of a ''Saturday Night Live'' broadcast in which producer Lorne Michaels made the now-famous offer, not totally in jest, to pay the Beatles $3,000 if they would sing three songs.
''Oh, yeah. Paul and I were together watching that show,'' Lennon said. ''He was visiting us at our place in the Dakota. We were watching it and almost went down to the studio, just as a gag. We nearly got into a cab, but we were actually too tired.''
However, whatever else went down on that date in this movie is the product of writer Mark Stanfield's imagination. Most of what transpires is relatively believable -- with one glaring exception. During an improvisational piano session, the pair gets into a Western rhythm and end up singing, of all things, ''Tumbling Tumbleweeds.'' It's so completely out of character that one can only wonder if Lindsay-Hogg is giving viewers a bit of a revelation or completely putting them on.
A few things in the preview tape, labeled as a working version of the film, will certainly catch the attention of viewers should they make it to the final version. Those exterior shots that look like the Dakota, including,incredibly, the gate near where Lennon was killed in 1980, were actually filmed in Canada. There are several lines of adult dialogue, which were common from the oft-strong-tongued Lennon, but are unusual on basic cable.
The preview tape also featured two McCartney songs on the soundtrack -- ''Silly Love Songs'' and ''Here Today.'' A VH1 spokesman said the script was submitted to McCartney's organization, and those songs will be included only if approved by McCartney. But a spokesman for McCartney's MPL Productions says McCartney is not endorsing the program and that review copies sent to the press with the McCartney songs were not authorized, so don't look for them in the televised version. (No other Beatle music was included.)
In the end, even if ''Two of Us'' is mostly a fantasy, seeing the two old friends back together in the film should strike a sentimental chord with anyone who ever liked the Beatles.
It's like hearing ''Free As a Bird'' and ''Real Love'' for the first time again. Who cares if it's not a real reunion?
Just the thought is nice.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)