I feel fine (The Beatles)

Wie geht's?

I'm fresh from watching The Beatles '64 on Disney+. It's a new documentary produced by Martin Scorsese and the current keepers of the Beatles flame (Sean, Paul, Olivia and Ringo).

Unashamedly, I got very emotionally involved as I watched because it touched on some core memories - of joy, wonder, love, shock, appreciation.

Memories I have written about before - especially around my reaction to the fabs appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

The documentary starts by putting The Beatles 1964 tour of America in context with a series of clips about John F Kennedy. He was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and The Beatles world tour reached America in August 1964.

I certainly remember the assassination, as the shock waves rippled their way to 18 Korma Ave., Auckland, New Zealand. A paper clipping was kept and the funeral images are seared into my brain.

The Beatles '64 world tour started in Denmark in June and went to The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, England, Sweden and back to England, before heading to America in August. Thirty concerts during those three months. They worked their socks off!

The documentary just concentrates on the American part because they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show twice and the world was never the same again.

As one interviewee says - the world was darkness, The Ed Sullivan appearance happened, and the light went on.

I loved the interviews, both archival and new.

Paul in '64 disagrees when an interviewer, trying to sum up the Beatles influence uses the term 'western culture'. Paul says, "It's not culture, it's a laugh".  

What I noticed again and again in the film were the smiling faces of the boys and their audiences, all the people having a laugh.

The Beatles unleashed a torrent of joy. One interviewee says the music touched her heart. She says, "I could relax".

I definitely felt that as I watched as they, impossibly young, performed on Ed Sullivan and in Washington, and reflected on how fate led me to the lounge at 18 Korma Ave., to watch their original appearance.

The awe is still there and I'm so grateful that my time on the planet has intersected with John Paul George and Ringo.

Love and peace - Wozza