THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511170497
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
AFTER THE BEATLES performed before 56,000 screaming fans in Shea Stadium in 1965, a year in which the group had the top five recordings on the Billboardcharts, John Lennon paused to reflect on the Liverpudlians' smashing success.
``You can be big-headed and say you'll last for 10 years or more. Or you can think to yourself, `We'll be lucky if we last three months.' ''
Here it is, 35 years since Lennon and Paul McCartney started the Silver Beetles, which became the Silver Beatles and eventually the Beatles, and the world is still listening to their music.
The Beatles did not come and go in three months. They stayed together long enough to become popular music's most famous group. Some say the Beatles changed the culture, leading the way to the liberated 1960s and moving ``us from innocence to acid,'' as Newsweek wrote this month.
It has been reported that the remaining Beatles have been offered $100 million to do 10 concerts.
Until that happens, ``The Beatles Anthology'' is their reunion. The story unfolds in six hours starting tonight at 9 on ABC and continuing the same time Wednesday and Thursday. It's no hard-nosed ``CBS Reports'' kind of documentary, but rather a good-natured celebration of the success of what McCartney called ``a great little rock and roll band that jelled.''
And there is a bonus for watching: The first new recordings by the Beatles in 25 years.
``Free as a Bird,'' will be heard at the conclusion of Part 1 of the anthology, and ``Real Love'' is scheduled for Wednesday. Beatlemanics will get goose bumps just seeing the surviving Beatles together again in one room, reminiscing.
The look and feel of ``The Beatles Anthology'' is casual and loose. McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr simply face the camera and speak what is on their minds. There is no narration because, rumor has it, they could not agree on a script.
Lennon, who was murdered nearly 15 years ago, is summoned from the grave by way of old clips and tapes. His voice is blended with those of his former mates in the new recordings.
Most compelling is Part 3, which addresses the breakup of the group in the spring of 1970, soon after the recording of ``Abbey Road.'' It was not Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, who drove the four apart, although Starr admits freely that he resented having her in the studio.
The Beatles dissolved, suggests Harrison, because they were no longer making magic together. ``The game was up,'' he says. Indeed, it was. When ``Let It Be,'' a film about the recording of their final album, premiered in London in May 1970, none of the Beatles attended.
For a decade, though, the magic was there, as you will see in the clips, tapes, newsreels and home movies included in ``The Bearles[sic] Anthology.'' The band's early days in Germany. Their 1964 American invasion and landmark appearance on ``The Ed Sullivan Show.'' The greater triumphs that followed.
In their early days, the Beatles paid homage to Norfolk-born Gene Vincent by singing in his ``Be-bop-a-lula'' style and dressing like him. It may surprise you to learn that the Beatles also had high praise for Bing Crosby, and included songs from the Broadway musical ``The Music Man'' in their performances.
There are many moments in these six hours worth holding onto. McCartney matter-of-factly explains that ``Yesterday'' was written one day when he awoke ``with this tune in my head.'' Starr confesses that he thought of leaving the group because he felt he wasn't appreciated. And there is that concert at Shea Stadium, when the Beatles grossed $304,000 in one day.
``The Beatles Anthology'' also has its fine little moments. Starr remembers the time he was left home with tonsilitis and replaced by Jimmy Nichols on a tour of the Far East. Starr was one of four drummers, following Pete Best and Andy White, who played in the group's first studio session.
You see them all here.
And you hear from those around the Beatles who suggest that their popularity bordered on worship. If not, why did people bring their sick and dying and physically handicapped to the concerts?
``Everywhere they went, they were brought cripples,'' said producer George Martin. It was Martin who took White over Starr. ``And the scars are still there,'' he says.
Best was asked to leave, the Beatles explain, ``because he wasn't turning up for the gigs on time.'' Stu Sutcliffe was the bass guitarist for a year until he gave up music to study art.
Is this six hours of primetime TV all you ever wanted to know about the Beatles? Not really. None of the women in their lives are heard from, although Ono did cooperate with the producers. There isn't very much sensational here, unless you count John and Yoko's nude photograph on an album cover.
The Fab Three admit to using drugs. No bulletin there, although it is enlightening to hear how some of the busts went down.
There is much here to please viewers. Jools Holland, the pianist for the group Squeeze, tossed the questions at the Beatles for their on-camera interviews.
He said it isn't just the Beatles' story. ``It is your story, my story, everyone's story who grew up with the Beatles and learned from them.''
What the Beatles were all about, said Harrison, were songs. ``There were always the songs. The good songs.'' ILLUSTRATION: ABC PHOTO/Apple Corps LTD
Above: From 1961 to '62, the Beatles played lunch and evening
sessions at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.
Inset: In 1964, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George
Harrison returned to England to record ``Beatles for Sale'' after
taking America by storm.
Photos
APPLE CORPS LTD.
In February 1964, the Beatles appeared on ``The Ed Sullivan Show.''
Their manager, Brian Epstein, is at far left.
MONTE FRESCO
On Aug. 22, 1969, the group gathered at Lennon's new home in Surrey
for their last photo session.
by CNB