WORLD TOUR Day 32 - Liverpool, England
BEFORE: I'm on the move again, heading north out of London for this film about John Lennon as a teenager. Last night's film featured a theater troupe that performed Shakespeare plays in and around Liverpool, so that was an unexpectedly neat little lead-in for this.
Linking from "Nicholas Nickleby", Jim Broadbent was also in a 1995 adaptation of "Richard III" along with Kristin Scott Thomas (last seen in "The Other Boleyn Girl").
THE PLOT: A look at John Lennon's relationship with his stern aunt Mimi, who raised him, and his absentee mother Julia, who re-entered his life at a crucial moment in his young life.
AFTER: Some nights I don't quite know what to write, but tonight I may have trouble stopping...big fan of the Beatles, but who isn't? At first it might seem odd to make a film about Lennon as a rebellious teen - kind of like making a film about Albert Einstein's job as a patent clerk. (Or, as Patton Oswalt suggested, about that time he had really bad stomach flu...)
But stand back, I'm going to tie this into a theme - don't try this at home unless you've had the proper training. Lennon's childhood was in many ways very Dickensian - not that he grew up in a workhouse, but his father was absent, and a mysterious benefactor lived just a few blocks away. He was raised by his aunt and uncle, and didn't know his mother until the age of 11 or so, then getting to know her over the next few years. Their almost secret relationship was unorthodox, going on day trips and seeing movies together, at times here it almost looks like they were dating. But eventually some of the hard questions are asked, like "Where's Dad?" and then all the family secrets come to light.
Also seen here are the watershed moments, like Lennon learning to play the harmonica and banjo, then getting his first guitar, and having his various troubles with school authorities, some of which is typical "coming of age" material, and some not. But man, I got chills when John and Paul met, and Paul played "Twenty Flight Rock". I liked the parts where Lennon was seen struggling to learn chords, and he wasn't just portrayed as an instant guitar wunderkind. You're no guitar player unless you've got callouses.
NITPICK POINT: I'm not completely sold on the casting here. The kid who played McCartney looked more to me like a young George Harrison, or what I imagine a young George looked like, and the kid cast as George seemed even more out of place. The actor playing Lennon himself looked a bit too much like Jay Mohr in some parts, but what can you do? Casting will never be perfect enough for Beatles fans. (Still, were the Beatles' actual children even considered? That Dhani Harrison would be a lock to play his dad.) I've also read that there are a number of illegitimate kids who grew up in Liverpool and Hamburg that bear striking resemblances to the Beatles - go figure.
The irony of it all to me is that the Beatles (or the band's predecessor, The Quarrymen) wasn't originally designed to be "the greatest rock and roll band" ever. They were a skiffle group, with 2 banjos, a washboard and a bass, and they wanted to cover songs like "That'll Be the Day" and "Shake, Rattle & Roll". (You can see the Beatles' propensity for cover songs since all their early albums had at least one cover, of songs made famous by Carl Perkins or Buck Owens.) During the period portrayed here, they weren't writing or performing original material, just playing at school and local events to impress girls. For what happened next, go watch "Backbeat", which pretty much starts right after this one ends.
I spent some time last week ruining Led Zeppelin for my office-mates. By that, I mean that I played them two segments from the Howard Stern show in which a musicologist cued up Zep songs back-to-back with other 1960's rock and folk songs that sound amazingly similar. Like a Joan Baez song also titled "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You", or the intro to "Your Time Is Gonna Come" followed by the intro to Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy". And if you find an instrumental called "Taurus" by the band Spirit (who played some gigs with the Yardbirds in the early days), the resemblance to the opening of "Stairway to Heaven" is unmistakeable. On top of that, though largely uncredited, most people are aware of their heavy borrowing from the folk songs of Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon. SO, the truth is that Led Zeppelin really is the most successful cover band in the world, which is what The Beatles might have become if they hadn't learned the craft of songwriting.
(Which should be great news for the Rolling Stones, who would be eager to jump into the #2 best band position - they've certainly got the award for longevity. Except that if you break down the income of the Stones over the years, you've got album sales, touring sales, acting gigs, and the biggest slice of the pie, merchandising such as t-shirts. As Penn Gillette once said, "History will regard the Rolling Stones as t-shirt salesmen.")
I'm a big fan of "Backbeat", the definitive film about the Beatles' early days performing in Hamburg, where they played as a house band in strip clubs, jacked up on "pep" pills, learning how to speed up American rock songs to get them in before the next performer took the stage, and shagging like rabbits after. Take a listen at some of those early Lennon/McCartney hits, like "Please Please Me" or "From Me to You". They're all verse, chorus, verse, chorus, guitar solo and then wrap-up, all in under three minutes. That's how you DO it, man. The lads were so tight in 1963 and '64 that when they came to the U.S. they were booked into something like 300 gigs across the U.S. in just 10 days. Hope they brought the pep pills. Run in, do a tight 6-song set in 15 minutes, run out to the limo, and it's off to the next gig.
This is a reminder that I need to watch that documentary about George Harrison - it's on the list, but I cut it from the world tour chain because I figured it didn't represent just Liverpool, but George's life after that in other cities. I will get to it next year, I swear.
This is also a reminder that the best film about the Beatles may not have been made yet. If you look at this film as the first in a trilogy, with "Backbeat" as the second film, then the real deal biopic about the Fab Four's most famous years could still exist someday. But the music licenses could be a deal-breaker - putting just three or four Beatles songs would double, if not triple, the budget of a film like this one. So making that film would take three things: a big budget, bigger balls and the blessing of Lennon's estate. I don't think it's going to happen any time soon, but for anyone who thinks there are no worlds left to conquer in filmmaking, I beg to differ.
I suppose there's a theoretical fourth film waiting in the wings, depicting Lennon's life after the break-up of the Beatles, making solo albums, living with Yoko Ono (I don't know how that's even possible, I'd set the house on fire...) and the year he took off with May Pang, the failed attempts at getting the band back together (including the rumored "Saturday Night Live" close call), and... come to think of it, it doesn't end well. Scrap that whole idea.
Also starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson (last seen in "Shanghai Knights"), Anne-Marie Duff, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Sam Bell, David Threlfall (last seen in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"), Josh Bolt.
DISTANCE TRAVELED TODAY: 177 miles / 285 km (London to Liverpool)
DISTANCE TRAVELED SO FAR: 9,435 miles / 15,187 km
RATING: 7 out of 10 leather jackets
No comments:
Post a Comment