Will The Beatles Ever Die (1967)

 

Will The Beatles Ever Die?

Written By Go Magazine

Go Pop Annual '68

1968

    Shortly before Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band tootled on its fifes, beat on its drums, marched around the corner, and straight into the hearts of Beatles fans all over the world. The same fans were asking the question, "Is it the end of the road for The Beatles?"

     At that time, the question was not nearly so unjustified as it might now appear; little had been heard from the acknowledged monarchs of pop for many weeks. A few stories had filtered out of London about what they were doing, but the very secrecy surrounding the four seemed to suggest all was not well. The first fearful whispers about the future of the Beatles were heard toward the end of 1966. The US tour during the fall of that year had not been the resounding success everyone had anticipated. Attendances at most of the cities they had played were lower than they had forecast, and so after they returned to England, rumors began... "The Beatles are breaking up." 

    This was quickly denied in London when the boys' management office said: "The boys are not splitting up, although they are working on individual activities at the moment. They'll be writing material for their next movie together. "

    One of the forecasts made at that time has so far been proved to been completely accurate. The forecast was that the Beatles had decided to call a halt to all concerts and personal appearance tours. What the forecast did not cover was the exact reason for this decision. Only when Sgt. Pepper arrived was the reason for this thinking made clear: the Beatles, as the world has known them, were gone. The new Beatles had arrived, and in doing so, had proved themselves to be among the number of the world's finest musicians of any era

     Sgt. Pepper showed the complexity of the Beatles' thinking, and this very complexity decreed that probably never again would they be able to capture in live performances the material they had put on record, and obviously, having reached such a level of recording perfection, they had no intention of undermining its effect by appearing on stage with three guitars and a drum kit. So Beatles fans breathed again. The kings had not abdicated. They were back, bigger and better than ever before. One could hardly have blamed the foursome had they decided to rest on their newly won laurels. Instead, they plunged into the most challenging commitment of their entire career. They decided to write, film, edit, and produce their own full-length movie suitable for screening as a television spectacular. Thus was Magical Mystery Tour born.

     Shortly before its premiere showing on Britain's National Network, The Beatles agreed to answer questions about the Tour and why they had decided to follow this path to further their career, and this is what they said.

 Q: How did Magical Mystery Tour come about? And why did you decide to handle your own production and direction? 

John: At the beginning of 1967, we realized that we wouldn't be doing any more concert tours because we couldn't reproduce on stage the type of music we started to record. So stage shows were to be out. We wanted something to replace them. Television was the obvious answer.

George: The point is, we can send a television show all over the world to be seen in countries we visited and in countries we've never played. Everyone everywhere can see Magical Mystery Tour while we're getting on with something else--- our next LP album, for instance.

 Ringo:  It was Paul's idea to make a TV show about a bus tour. He thought it up as long ago as April, when he was having a week's holiday in America. He started to work out the song "Magical Mystery Tour" on the flight back to London. Afterwards, we got down to talking about the things in detail. 

Paul: As we came close to the filming time, we realized we all had very specific ideas about the show. The best way to make sure things came out just the way we were picturing them was to direct and edit ourselves, just hiring the essential technicians to do what we wanted them to do. So if we are not satisfied with anything in the finished film, we have only ourselves to blame. 

Q: This was your first experience making a film. What were the problems? 

Paul: That was the marvelous thing....there weren't any real problems! For the first couple of days, when we set out with this big bus full of people, we took things easy, let the ice break slowly, let everyone get to know what it was all about. Things just came together after that. Of course, we weren't using the right jargon when we talked to the sound men and the camera crew, and they felt a bit strange to begin with. After a while, they got to the stage where they were as enthusiastic as the rest of us. The main thing was to get rid of all the traditional tensions and hang-ups, cut through the red tape, and get everybody interested in the whole effort. 

Q: How much of the film is truly spontaneous and unscripted? 

John: Well, from our point of view, we knew most of the scenes we wanted to include, but we bent our ideas to fit the people concerned. Once we got to know our cast, if somebody just wanted to do something we hadn't planned, they went ahead. If it worked, we kept it. There was a lovely little five-year-old girl, Nicola, on the bus. Because she was there, and because we realized she was right for it, we put in a bit where I just chatted to her and gave her a balloon. 

Q: Did any one Beatle come out as overall director?

 George: Not really, although, if you want to be exact about it, I suppose John and Paul did more in that line than Ringo and me. On location, we split the unit once or twice to do two scenes at once. Paul and Ringo went off to do a scene on the bus; John and I stayed behind to work on a separate scene. 

Q: Is it a show aimed at children or at your own fans?

 Ringo: It's aimed at the widest possible audience. There are different levels of entertainment in it. Magical Mystery Tour is for children, their grandparents, Beatle people, the lot. There are interesting things to look at and interesting things to hear. 

Q: Does this venture indicate that the Beatles want to move into film production?

Paul: If Magical Mystery Tour is successful, it means we'll use the same techniques to make the Beatles' next cinema film, and more television shows. It doesn't mean we want to direct non-Beatle films.

 Q: From the beginning to the end, how much time did the production take?

John:  Although we had an outline of ideas months in advance, all the real organization was done during the 10 days before we started the film. Filming took two weeks, apart from one or two odd extra bits we put in at the last minute. Then for the past six weeks, we've been working on the editing, sitting all day in a tiny room in Soho watching strips of film and cutting them about. Recordings were done at the same time.

     During that question-and-answer session, the Beatles gave the reasons for filming Magical Mystery Tour. They did not say when, if ever, they intended to go back into the recording studio to make a follow-up album to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Make no mistake: Magical Mystery Tour is not, and was never intended to be, a follow-up to the album of music from the show; it was simply that, and not a complete entertainment package like Sgt. Pepper.

     But then, even if the direct question had been put to them, it is a matter of conjecture as to whether they would have supplied a direct answer. As most people know, The Beatles have a very strong sense of humor, and when they do not consider the time is ripe for a straight answer, they will often offer a humorous explanation instead.