The Beatles Anthology (1995) s01e05 Episode Script

[crowd cheering]
["Help!" playing]
Now I find I've changed my mind ♪
I've opened up the doors ♪
Help me if you can, I'm feeling down ♪
And I do appreciate you being 'round ♪
[music concludes]
Now, ladies and gentlemen,
honored by their country,
decorated by their Queen,
and loved here in America,
here are The Beatles!
[crowd cheering, applauding]
[Ed Sullivan] Here they come!
[John] Okay, Ring?
-Okay!
-[Ringo] Okay.
One, two, three!
["Twist And Shout" playing]
[crowd cheering]
Ah, ah, ah, ah ♪
-Ah, Whaah!
-Yeah! ♪
Shake it up, baby, now ♪
Shake it up, baby ♪
Twist and shout ♪
Twist and shout ♪
Come on, come on, come on,
come on, baby, now ♪
Come on, baby ♪
Come on and work it on out ♪
-Work it on out ♪
-Work it on out, ooh ♪
Well, you twist, little girl ♪
Twist, little girl ♪
You know you twist so fine ♪
Twist so fine ♪
Come on and twist
a little closer now ♪
Twist a little closer ♪
And let me know that you're mine ♪
Let me know you're mine ♪
Well, shake it, shake it,
shake it, baby, now ♪
Shake it up, baby ♪
Well, shake it, shake it,
shake it, baby, now ♪
Shake it up, baby ♪
Well, shake it, shake it,
shake it, baby, now ♪
Shake it up, baby, ooh ♪
Ah, ah ♪
-Ah ♪
-Ah, yeah! ♪
-[music concludes]
-[crowd cheering]
[Paul] It was the baseball stadium's PA.
We were just working off
the normal columns
which went,
"Ladies and gentlemen,
the next player is, uh"
you know.
And our stuff was coming out of this,
so it can't have sounded too good.
-[crowd cheering]
-Can you hear me?
[George] Vox made us special
big amplifiers for that tour,
and they were
like 100 watts. [chuckles]
We went up
from the 30-watt amp to this--
the 100-watt amp.
You know, that was miked up,
I think, um,
to the big speakers that they had round
Shea Stadium, so the
the audience weren't
necessarily listening to what was coming
from the stage. They were listening
to what was coming from the, uh,
-the PA system, really.
-[audience cheering]
We'd like to slow--
do a slow song now.
[speaking indistinctly]
And it's also off Beatles VI,
or something.
I don't really know what it's off.
I haven't got it. [chuckles]
It's a waltz, this one. Remember that!
-It's called "Baby's In Black".
-[audience cheering]
["Baby's In Black" playing]
Oh dear, what can I do? ♪
Baby's in black ♪
And I'm feeling blue ♪
Tell me, oh ♪
What can I do? ♪
She thinks of him ♪
So she dresses in black ♪
And though he'll never ♪
Come back ♪
She's dressed in black ♪
Oh dear, what can I do? ♪
Baby's in black ♪
And I'm feeling blue ♪
Tell me, oh, what can I do? ♪
I think of her ♪
-But she thinks only of him ♪
-But they think only of him ♪
And though it's only a whim ♪
She thinks of him ♪
Oh, how long will it take ♪
Till she sees the mistake ♪
She has made? ♪
Dear, what can I do? ♪
Baby's in black ♪
And I'm feeling blue ♪
Tell me, oh, what can I do? ♪
[crowd cheering]
Oh, how long will it take ♪
Till she sees the mistake ♪
She has made? ♪
Dear, what can I do? ♪
Baby's in black ♪
And I'm feeling blue ♪
Tell me, oh, what can I do? ♪
She thinks of him ♪
So she dresses in black ♪
And though he'll never ♪
Come back ♪
She's dressed in black ♪
Oh dear, what can I do? ♪
Baby's in black ♪
And I'm feeling blue ♪
Tell me, oh, what can I do? ♪
-[music concludes]
-[audience cheering]
[John] The next song
we'd like to sing
[speaks indistinctly]
[Paul] John was having a good time.
He was into his comedy, which was great.
And he But that was one of
the great things about John, you know.
If there was ever those
kind of tense shows,
uh, which there undoubtedly was,
you know, you you can't play
in front of that many people
for the first time
and not be tense.
But he-- his comedy would always
come in and he'd start
the, sort of, the faces
and the, sort of,
the shoulders'd start going,
you know. [chuckles]
It was very encouraging,
you know, 'cause, you know,
"Okay, that's good."
"At least we're not taking it seriously."
[Ringo] If you look at that footage,
and you see how we are acting
or reacting to the place
it's very big,
it's very strange.
I mean, I feel that, on that show,
uh, John cracked up.
I mean, he just went mad.
Not, not mentally ill.
I mean, just got crazy.
[John] We did "I'm Down".
So, you know, 'cause I did the organ
on the record,
I decided to play it on stage
for the first time. [chuckles]
I didn't really know
what to do 'cause I felt naked
without a guitar,
and George couldn't play
for laughing. You know,
I was doing it for a laugh.
-["I'm Down" playing]
-You tell lies thinkin' I can't see ♪
You can't cry
'cause you're laughing at me ♪
I'm down ♪
I'm really down ♪
I'm down ♪
Down on the ground ♪
I'm down ♪
I'm really down ♪
Oh, how can you laugh
when you know I'm down? ♪
How can you laugh ♪
When you know I'm down? ♪
Man buys ring, woman throws it away ♪
Same old thing
happen every day, I'm down ♪
I'm really down ♪
I'm down ♪
Down on the ground ♪
I'm down ♪
I'm really down ♪
Oh, how can you laugh
when you know I'm down? ♪
How can you laugh? ♪
When you know I'm whoa-ow? ♪
[crowd cheering, applauding]
We're all alone
and there's nobody else ♪
You still moan,
"Keep your hands to yourself" ♪
I'm down ♪
I'm really down ♪
Oh, babe, I'm down ♪
Down on the ground ♪
Oh, I'm down ♪
I'm really down [laugh]
Well, how can you laugh
when you know I'm down? ♪
How can you laugh ♪
When you know I'm whoa-ow? ♪
[crowd cheering]
Ah, well, you know I'm down ♪
I'm really down ♪
Ah, yes, I'm down ♪
I'm really down ♪
I'm upside down ♪
-I'm really down ♪
-I'm really down, yaboo! ♪
Oh, I'm down ♪
I'm really down ♪
Oh, yes, I'm down ♪
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! ♪
-[both laugh]
Yes, I'm down ♪
I'm really ♪
Oh, I'm down ♪
I'm really down ♪
Whoa-ow! ♪
I'm really down ♪
Don't you know I'm down? ♪
I'm really down ♪
Ah, yes, I'm down, oh, babe, I'm down ♪
-[crowd cheering, applauding]
-[music concludes]
[John] Well, it was marvelous.
It was the biggest crowd
we ever played to.
It was the biggest live show,
I think, anybody's ever done, we're told.
And it was fantastic, you know.
[Neil Aspinall]
That was a good experience.
That was the
the first really big open-air,
"Wow! Look at this!" [chuckles]
Didn't think about it like
like that at the time.
I, personally, didn't realize
that it was the the first
really big open-air,
you know, 55,000 people.
I mean, now it's a kind
of a big crowd, even
56,000.
You know, 60,000 people.
-Told me it was 70. [chuckles]
-[crowd cheering]
-["Help!" playing]
-Help me if you can, I'm feeling down ♪
And I do appreciate you
being 'round ♪
Help me get my feet
back on the ground ♪
Won't you please,
please help me? ♪
[George] It was like we were--
We felt totally isolated
from the crowd, and it was like we were
just playing to ourselves,
even though you could see
these flashbulbs going off
and hear this screeching
going on the distance.
[John] It was a great experience,
you know.
I mean, it was just incredible,
the first one, you know,
all that just happening
going on, you know,
-everybody yelling and shouting.
-[crowd cheering]
Help me if you can,
I'm feeling down ♪
And I do appreciate you being 'round ♪
Help me get my feet
back on the ground ♪
[John] For us, it was just
a a drag, you know.
We knew that they wouldn't
hear anything
because it's just, you know,
like a riot and not
not sort of like a show, you know.
[Paul] I, personally, as I say,
I don't really think
it was that bad.
We were now a big band
that when we went "whoo"
and shook our heads,
everyone went mad.
It got a little boring.
I mean, it was great
when it first happened.
When you'd come on,
there'd just be nothing,
but "Wah!"
-You know?
-[crowd cheering, applauding]
Won't you please,
please help me? ♪
-Help me ♪
-Help me, ooh ♪
-[music concludes]
-[crowd cheering, applauding]
[Ringo] The realization,
you know, was really kicking in
that nobody was listening.
And that was okay at the beginning.
But, even worse than that is,
we were playing so bad.
We just became like lip syncing,
you know, miming.
And, uh, we didn't-- we almost-- we
Sometimes, things'd break down
and nobody'd know.
And so it was-- wasn't
doing the music any good.
And, you know,
why I joined The Beatles was
because they were
the best band in Liverpool.
Uh, and I always wanted
to play with good players.
That's what it was all about, you see.
First and foremost, we were musicians.
[crowd cheering, applauding]
They showed no signs of flagging as far
as their musical creativity was concerned.
On the contrary, they were becoming more
and more productive,
and the work they were giving me
was much more interesting.
They were finding
new frontiers all the time.
And their success gave them
confidence to do things
which they wouldn't dare do before.
-["Drive My Car" playing]
-Baby, you can drive my car ♪
Yes, I'm gonna be a star ♪
Baby, you can drive my car ♪
And maybe I'll love you ♪
And, uh, other people
were starting to arrive
on the scene that were
a little bit influential.
And I don't know really
whether we'd been influenced.
I think Dylan was
was starting to influence us
quite heavily at that point.
[John] When it got sort of, uh,
contemporary, as it were,
even if it was contemporary
influenced, I think, uh,
Rubber Soul
was about when it started happening.
Rubber Soul really was a matter of having
all experienced the recording studio,
and having grown musically as well,
but mainly having
experienced the studio
-and knowing the possibilities.
-[music concludes]
-["Girl" playing]
-Ah, girl ♪
Girl, girl ♪
[George] We were getting
more fine-tuned, really.
More of the same,
but fine-tuning it.
And I mean, we certainly knew
-we were making a good album then.
-[music concludes]
[John] I'm lying down.
[Paul, in RP accent] Okay,
take it from the top and run it.
-[John] Don't take it from the top.
-[Paul] I mean
[George Martin] Taking it from
the same place?
[Paul] Yes, okay.
-["If I Needed Someone" playing]
-If I needed someone to love ♪
You're the one that I'd be thinking of ♪
If I needed someone ♪
[Paul]
We always wanted every single record
to have a different sound.
We never wanted to get
trapped in this "the Mersey beat".
-[music concludes]
-[John] Come in when I come in
and get out when we go out.
-[George] Is it "Help!"?
-[engineer] "Norwegian Wood".
No, "This Bird Has Flown".
Take 3.
[Paul] It was just around
that period when we were all
getting into various different
kinds of music,
and George's became Indian.
Um, I think all of us were listening
to sort of classical
and various types of music,
other than our own
and our rock and roll
kind of roots. Um,
and George just sort of moved
into the Indian thing.
I think he'd give you
a better explanation of
just sort of when it was.
During that year,
towards the end of that year anyway,
I kept hearing the name of Ravi Shankar.
I heard it about three times.
And about the third time I heard it,
it was some friend of mine,
um, who said,
"Oh, have you heard
this person, Ravi Shankar?"
["Raga" Indian classical music
playing]
[George] So, I went out
and bought a record,
and, um, that was it.
I just-- It felt like I
You know, it felt very familiar
-to me to listen to that music.
-[music concludes]
And so it was around that time
I bought a sitar.
I just bought like a cheap sitar in a shop
called India Craft in London.
And, uh, it was lying around,
I hadn't really figured out
what to do with it.
And when we were
working on "Norwegian Wood",
it just needed something, you know.
It just needed something.
And it was quite spontaneous,
from what I remember.
I just picked the sitar up
and kind of found the notes,
and I just kind of played it.
We just-- We miked it up
and we we put it on, and it just, like,
seemed to hit the spot.
["Norwegian Wood
(This Bird Has Flown)" playing]
I once had a girl,
or should I say ♪
She once had me ♪
She showed me her room ♪
Isn't it good,
Norwegian wood? ♪
She asked me to stay ♪
And she told me to sit anywhere ♪
So I looked around ♪
And I noticed there wasn't a chair ♪
They were getting more and more
interested in unusual sounds,
and, um, yes, I mean,
they they were trying out
new instruments and always coming to me
saying, "What what ideas
have you got for this?"
[John] Well, we'd be saying,
"Well, can we have
We'll only go 'ooh-ooh'
and 'eee-eee.'" And he'd say,
"Well, look, chaps,
-I thought of this this afternoon."
-[music concludes]
And we'd say, "Oh, great!"
[George Martin] And Rubber Soul was
an indication of the way
things were gonna go.
It's one of my favorite albums.
I think it's a great album.
Our whole attitude was changing, um
we'd grown up a little.
Uh, I think grass was really influential
in a lot of our changes.
Um
especially with with the writers
you know. So, because they were
writing different stuff,
uh, we were playing differently.
-["I'm Looking Through You" playing]
-I'm looking through you ♪
You're not the same ♪
[Paul] The title, Rubber Soul,
was kind of,
"Hey, man, it's got soul.
Hey, it's a lotta soul.
Lotta soul, that music."
It was a spoof on that,
you know.
Seemed nice and amusing.
Very us, you know, very wacky.
-Plastic soul, man. Plastic soul.
-[music concludes]
-["Drive My Car" playing]
-Beep, beep'm, beep, beep, yeah ♪
Beep, beep'm,
beep, beep, yeah ♪
Beep, beep'm,
beep, beep, yeah ♪
[George] I don't see
too much difference myself
in Rubber Soul and Revolver.
To me they could both be
-[music concludes]
-like Volume One and Volume Two.
-["And Your Bird Can Sing" playing]
-You tell me that you've got ♪
Everything you want ♪
And your bird can sing ♪
But you don't get me ♪
[George] They both were very pleasant
-and enjoyable records for me.
-You don't get me ♪
You say you've seen seven wonders ♪
And your bird is green ♪
But you can't see me ♪
-["Good Day Sunshine" playing]
-Good day Sunshine ♪
Good day Sunshine ♪
[Ringo] We were having more fun
in the studio from Revolver,
Rubber Soul.
As it was building up,
it was getting
more experimental.
The songs were getting better,
more interesting.
So, that's where we were going.
[George Martin] Where are you?
Paul, are you there?
-[Paul] Yes?
-[George Martin] Do you want 'em
to use the chords
without vibrato at all?
Do you wanna hear it?
-["Eleanor Rigby" playing]
-Ah, look at all the lonely people ♪
Ah, look at all the lonely people ♪
[George Martin] Their ideas now
were beginning to become
much more potent in the studio,
and they would start
telling me what they wanted,
and they would start pressing me
for more ideas.
[John] He'd come up with things like,
"Well, have you heard an oboe?"
"No. Which one's that?"
"It's this one."
"Yeah, that would be nice."
-So, it was really-- We grew together.
-[music concludes]
[John] Quite, quite brisk,
uh, moderato foxtrot.
[George Martin]
Move on, John,
whenever you like.
The red light's on.
[John] Is it?
Oh, of course. I couldn't see.
One, two, three, four
Oh, no! Stop! Stop! Stop!
-["I'm Only Sleeping" playing]
-Lying there ♪
And staring at the ceiling ♪
Waiting for a sleepy feeling ♪
[Paul] One day, a tape op got
a tape on backwards.
He went to play it,
and it was [vocalizing]
We go,
"Bloody hell! It sounds Indian!"
Please don't spoil my day,
I'm miles away ♪
[Ringo] We'd be well into the album
and we all knew that,
you know, I'd be doing
-a number somewhere,
-[music concludes]
just about three quarters
of the way through,
so we'd either say,
"Have you got a song?" you know,
or "We've got this for you."
["Yellow Submarine"
Songwriting Work Tape playing]
In the place where I was born ♪
No one cared, no one cared ♪
And the name that I was born ♪
No one cared, no one cared ♪
[Ringo] Well, like all the tracks
I did in those days,
it was written by Paul and John.
[Paul] Can you read that?
[John] Yeah, I can read it
okay now, Paul.
Right right.
You can play on your track
and I'll play on mine.
["Yellow Submarine"
Songwriting Work Tape playing]
In the town where I was born ♪
Lived a man who sailed to sea ♪
I actually don't know
where they got the idea
for it from.
And I just remember lying in bed,
just that moment
before you're going asleep,
-that little twilight moment
-[music concludes]
when silly ideas
come into your head anyway,
and then I just thought of this thing,
"Yellow Submarine." Yeah, you know
"We all live in a"
-["Yellow Submarine" playing]
-Yellow submarine, yellow submarine ♪
Yellow submarine ♪
We all live in a yellow submarine ♪
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine ♪
And our friends are all aboard ♪
Many more of them live next door ♪
And the band begins to play ♪
We all live in a yellow submarine ♪
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine ♪
We all live in a yellow submarine ♪
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine ♪
By then I'd started
writing myself, but, uh
-[music concludes]
-[laughs]
it used to be just hard, you know,
to bring your songs in
when you had Lennon
and McCartney. And, uh
And it used to be a bit of a joke, really,
because I would bring
these songs I'd written in,
and they'd all be rolling
on the floor laughing
because, you know, I'd rewritten
an old standard again. [laughs]
You know, I was great at rewriting
Jerry Lee Lewis songs. [laughs]
[George] I didn't have too many songs.
I've always had a couple of ones
I was working on or thinking about,
and in the later years,
I did have a huge backlog,
but in the mid '60s I think,
you know, I didn't have too many.
Well, I think George
went through the same problem
I went through at first,
of presenting his songs. Uh
But, you know,
that didn't really last long.
And then he started coming up
with great songs, you know.
Which one of his was on Revolver?
-["Taxman" playing]
-Let me tell you how it will be ♪
There's one for you,
nineteen for me ♪
'Cause I'm the taxman ♪
Yeah, I'm the taxman ♪
[George] Well, that was the point
where you discover
you're paying more money
to the taxman.
You know, you just get so happy
that you've finally
started earning money.
And then you find out
that I mean, in those days,
we paid 19 shillings
and sixpence out of every pound.
You know, that's when there
was 20 shillings in a pound.
And that was with supertax,
and surtax and tax-tax,
and stuff, and,
you know, it was ridiculous,
uh, you know, a heavy penalty
to pay for making money.
[music concludes]
And, you know, they said,
"Look, when you're dead,
you're gonna pay taxes." I remember that.
"What? You can't even, you know?"
"No. Death duties." "What?"
And so, you know, he came up
with that great thing,
"They tax the pennies on your eyes".
-["Taxman" playing]
-Now my advice for those who die ♪
Taxman ♪
Declare the pennies on your eyes ♪
Taxman ♪
'Cause I'm the taxman ♪
Yeah, I'm the taxman ♪
And it was on Revolver that,
of course, we have the track
"Tomorrow Never Knows",
-which was a great innovation.
-[music concludes]
[John] That's me in my, uh,
Tibetan Book of the Dead period.
And the expression
"Tomorrow Never Knows"
was another
of Ringo's malapropisms,
which was like
"Hard Day's Night", you know.
And so I gave it a throwaway
title because I was a bit
self-conscious about
the heavy philosophical lyrics
of "Tomorrow Never Knows".
[Paul] John had this song
which was all on the chord of C,
which, in our minds, was okay.
It was like Indian music's
all on one chord,
it's a perfectly good idea.
Um, I was wondering how George Martin
was gonna take it, 'cause it was a bit
of a radical departure, you know.
At least we'd had three chords
and maybe a change
for the middle eight even, you know.
Suddenly, this was just John
-strumming on C, rather earnestly.
-["Tomorrow Never Knows" playing]
Turn off your mind
relax and float downstream ♪
It is not dying, it is not dying ♪
Lay down all thought
surrender to the void ♪
It is shining, it is shining ♪
That you may see
the meaning of within ♪
[George] In those days,
there was no technology
like there is now.
I mean, there was two guitars,
bass, and drums, and that was it.
If we did stuff
in the studio with the aid of,
um, recording tricks,
then we couldn't
just reproduce them on stage.
Like nowadays you could-- you could do
"Tomorrow Never Knows",
have all the loops
up there on a keyboard,
kind of emulator stuff,
and you could have as many
piano players and drummers
and, you know, orchestras,
whatever you wanted.
But in those days, that's it.
We were just a little dance hall band,
and we never really thought
of augmenting ourselves.
The hard stuff was
the complicated harmonies.
-[music concludes]
-Yeah, it was hard to do 'em
live on stage.
Like, for instance, "Nowhere Man",
-or that kind of thing.
-That was good.
"Nowhere Man" was okay, wasn't it?
It was hard, though.
It was okay, but it was hard.
-One, two, three, four ♪
-["Nowhere Man" playing]
-He's a real nowhere man ♪
-[crowd cheering]
Sitting in his nowhere land ♪
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody ♪
Doesn't have a point of view ♪
Knows not where he's going to ♪
Isn't he a bit like you and me? ♪
Nowhere man, don't worry ♪
Take your time, don't hurry ♪
-Leave it all ♪
-[band members vocalize]
'Til somebody else lends you a hand ♪
[music fades]
[George] Somewhere
between albums and tours,
there was a day
where I had a dentist, anyway.
One night, John and his wife,
Cynthia, and Pattie and myself
-were having dinner at this guy's house.
-[music concludes]
Now, this fella, for some reason or other,
had obtained lysergic acid
diethylamide-25,
-which at that time was, uh
-["Doctor Robert" playing]
It was, uh, it was not illegal.
It was a legally obtained
medication. [chuckles]
But we didn't really know about it.
We-- I
I seem to recall
that I'd heard vaguely about it,
but I didn't really know what it was.
[John] And he just put it
in our coffee, or something,
you know. And we went
He was saying,
"I advise you not to--"
He didn't know what it was.
It was just a sort of,
you know, it's all the thing
with the sort of
the middle-class London
swingers, or whatever,
had all heard about it,
and they didn't know
it was different
from pot or pills,
and they gave us it.
And he was saying,
"I advise you not to leave."
And we thought he was all,
trying to keep us
for an orgy in his house,
and we didn't want to know, you know?
It was-- became like
a bit see seedy to me.
It looked like he was tryna, like,
get something happening in his house.
There was some reason
he didn't want us to go.
And then he was saying,
"Okay, leave your car here."
"I'll drive you, and then
you can come back later."
I said, "No, no, we'll go."
And we got in my car, and we drove.
And this guy came as well in his car.
We got to the nightclub
[John] You know, we were just insane.
We got in the lift, and we all thought
there was a fire in the lift,
it was just a little red light.
And we were all
screaming like hell,
and we were all
hot and hysterical,
and we all-- It arrives on the floor,
'cause this was a discotheque,
that was up a building,
you know.
We get-- and the lift stops
and the door opens,
and we're all [screams]
It felt like the elevator was on fire
and that we were going
into hell or something.
But we were all
in hysterics and, like, crazy.
And then we got out at the top
and everything was okay.
And I suppose, you know,
we sat there probably for hours and hours.
I ended up driving everybody home.
It was like day daylight,
and I was driving this Mini
with John, and Cynthia,
and Pattie in it.
And we were going, like,
I seemed to remember
we were doing 18 miles an hour. [chuckles]
And I was really concentrating.
Because some of the time
it just felt normal, like, as though
-everything was okay, and then
-[music concludes]
before you knew where you were,
suddenly, it was all crazy.
But I really was frightened
of that kind of stuff,
'cause it's it's what you're taught
when you're young,
you know, "Hey, there's--"
"Watch out for them devil drugs."
["Day Tripper" playing]
[Paul] When acid came round
we'd heard that you're never the same.
It alters your life
and you never think the same again.
And I think John was
rather excited by that prospect.
I was rather frightened by that prospect.
Got a good reason ♪
For taking the easy way out ♪
Got a good reason ♪
For taking the easy way out now ♪
She was a day tripper ♪
One way ticket, yeah ♪
It took me so long to find out ♪
And I found out ♪
[Paul] So, I delayed, and I was seen to
sort of stall a little bit,
I think, within the group.
It was, uh, you know, 'cause
it was a lot of peer pressure.
I mean, talk about peer pressure,
The Beatles?
She took me half the way there ♪
She's a big teaser ♪
She took me half the way there now ♪
She was a day tripper ♪
One way ticket, yeah ♪
It took me so long to find out ♪
And I found out ♪
[Paul over radio]
Seeing as this show is the last, uh,
Saturday Club Show before--
-[John] We'll ever do.
-[music concludes]
[Paul laughs] The last Saturday Club
before Christmas, we'd like
to take the opportunity
of wishing everybody
a very happy Christmas
from all of us, and say thank you
to everyone who sent in
all the cards this week,
and all the other weeks.
And I'd like to say,
"I hope you have--
all of you have
a happy Christmas
and a very happy New Year."
-["Love Me Do" playing]
-Love, love me do, oh ♪
-["Please Please Me" playing]
-Last night I said these words to ♪
-["From Me To You" playing]
-Is there anything that you want? ♪
Whoo, Oi! ♪
-["She Loves You" playing]
-She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
-["I Want To Hold Your Hand" playing]
-I wanna hold your hand ♪
["Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" playing]
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, hah ♪
Crimble, bah ♪
[laughs]
[Brian Matthew] Well, it's nice
of you to drop in and talk to us
this Christmas Day, lads, and--
[John] Oh, we weren't doing anything.
-[Ringo] No
-[Paul] Not at all,
Brian, no. It's a Merry Christmas
-to to you.
-no work on Christmas Day,
-you know what it's like.
-[Brian Matthew] Thank you. No?
Well, we can't ask you
to work today, obviously.
-[John] No.
-[Ringo] It's not allowed.
Penny in the pound.
[Brian Matthew] Oh? Well,
we'll play your record.
Um, does it matter which side we play?
[Paul] Uh, "We Can Work It Out".
The B-side.
-[John] Yeah. "We Can Work It Out".
-[overlapping chatter]
[Brian Matthew] Sort it out
amongst yourselves then.
-Oh, yes, all right then.
-[John] Have you got it?
[Brian Matthew]
Yeah, we've got it right here.
-[John] Oh, good. Will you sell us it?
-[Ringo] I haven't got it.
[Brian Matthew]
I'm putting it on now!
And here goes the needle on the record.
[John] Now.
-["We Can Work It Out" playing]
-Try to see it my way ♪
Do I have to keep on talking
till I can't go on? ♪
While you see it your way ♪
Run the risk of knowing
that our love may soon be gone ♪
We can work it out,
we can work it out ♪
Think of what you're saying ♪
You can get it wrong and still
you think that it's all right ♪
Think of what I'm saying ♪
We can work it out ♪
And get it straight or say goodnight ♪
We can work it out,
we can work it out ♪
[George] Well, the mania, you know, was,
uh, as we've talked about,
was pretty difficult to get around,
and out of convenience
we decided, you know,
we're just not gonna go in
and go into the TV studios
to promote our records so much.
It was too much of a hassle.
What we'll do is just go
and make our own little films,
and we'll put them out.
What was happening was that,
um, we really couldn't fit in
all the live, um, television shows
that people wanted us
-to do around the world
-[music concludes]
you know,
whether it was Shindig!
Ed Sullivan Show,
Top of the Pops,
Thank Your Lucky Stars
-["I’m Looking Through You" playing]
-and then stuff in France
and Germany,
Australia, you know.
So, to accommodate those people,
we decided that if we just made,
uh, we called 'em promo films,
you know, we
we made a promo film
of the individual songs,
and sent that to the TV stations
round the world,
then that would fulfil
that obligation, you know,
or that would do the job.
But you have changed ♪
I'm looking through you,
you're not the same ♪
[Ringo] Well, the idea was
that we didn't have to go out.
We felt, "This is a great idea.
We can send the movies."
"We can send the film out there."
I don't think we even thought
of calling them, like, "videos".
They were just going on TV.
We felt this was a great ruse.
[laughing] "Let's do these,
and we can stay home."
You're not the same ♪
-[music concludes]
-[static]
Now, ladies and gentlemen,
here's a feature
taped for us in England,
by Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney,
John Lennon
and George Harrison.
-Hello, Ed, how are you?
-Hello, Ed!
-Hello, Ed!
-Ed!
All right? Well, I'm sorry
we can't be there in person,
you know, to do the show,
but everybody's busy these days
with the washing, and the cooking.
And, uh, we hope you like it.
And, uh, one's called "Rain",
and one's called "Paperback Writer".
-["Paperback Writer" playing]
-Paperback writer, paperback writer ♪
Dear Sir or Madam
will you read my book? ♪
It took me years to write,
will you take a look? ♪
It's based on a novel
by a man named Lear ♪
And I need a job, so I want
to be a paperback writer ♪
Paperback writer ♪
It's a dirty story of a dirty man ♪
And his clinging wife
doesn't understand ♪
His son is working for the Daily Mail ♪
It's a steady job ♪
But he wants to be a paperback writer ♪
Paperback writer ♪
[George] So, I mean, that was the idea.
We'd send 'em to America,
also because we thought,
"Well, we can't go everywhere,
we'll send these things out
to promote the record."
And, uh, obviously, like, these days
-now everybody does that. It's just
-[music concludes]
um, part of your promotion
for a for a single.
So, I suppose, in a way,
we invented, um, MTV.
-["Rain" playing]
-I can show you ♪
That when it starts to rain ♪
When the rain comes down ♪
Everything's the same ♪
When the rain comes down ♪
I can show you ♪
I can show you ♪
Rain ♪
I don't mind ♪
Shine ♪
The weather's fine ♪
[John] I'd made the basic track.
I would take a seven
and a half rough mix home.
I was so stoned out my mind
on marijuana
that I got back to the house,
and as I usually do,
I listened to, immediately,
what I'd done that day.
I put it on. Somehow,
I'd got it on backwards
and I sat there transfixed
with the earphones on,
with a big hash joint, just listening,
and the whole thing was backwards.
That's the first record
with backwards music on it.
Before Hendrix, before The Who,
before any fucker!
[John's vocal playing backwards]
[lyrics continue playing backwards]
Rain ♪
Rain ♪
Rain ♪
-[music concludes]
-[airplane engine rumbling]
["Got To Get You Into My Life" playing]
I was alone, I took a ride ♪
I didn't know what I would find there ♪
Another road where maybe I ♪
Could see another kind of mind there ♪
Ooh, then I suddenly see you ♪
Ooh, did I tell you I need you ♪
Every single day of my life? ♪
We were locked up in the hotel
for a long time
-[music concludes]
-with various merchants
coming around and showing us ivory
and stuff like this, you know,
'cause people go to Tokyo and do shopping.
We couldn't really get out the hotel.
But John and I actually got out,
right, and, uh, made it down
to the local market, right?
And it was great, you know.
We were, um, looking at things
and buying things,
and then, uh,
the police came and got us,
and said, [chuckling]
"Naughty boys!"
[George] We were only allowed out
at the time for the concert
when it was worked out
like a military maneuver, you know.
"At, uh, 5:30 precisely
we will knock on your door."
Which was on the schedule
as the exact time.
And then they said,
"You will now line up outside the room."
"At 5:32, we will leave the door."
"We will now walk to the lift."
"5:33, we will be at the elevator."
The elevator takes,
like, you know,
a minute eight to get down.
[chuckles]
"5:35, we'll be down in the car park."
As we went to the gig,
they had the fans organized
with police, uh, patrols
-on each corner. So, there weren't fans
-["She Said She Said" playing]
just haphazardly
waving along the streets,
any had been gathered up and,
you know, herded onto a corner,
and they were allowed
to wave from there.
So, you'd go along the street,
then there'd be a little, "Eee!"
And you'd go a few more
hundred yards and, "Eeek!"
It was very strange.
The audience were very nice.
I mean, they are reserved,
but they were up on their feet,
or they tried to be,
but in those days,
you know, there was police
all around the stadium
with telephoto lenses,
and anybody who stood up
and looked like they were gonna,
um, you know,
run towards the stage
or something,
they took a photograph of them.
So, the the people there
were very restricted
in what they could do
and how they could respond to us.
But it it was a warm reception.
It was very nice, but, uh, a bit clinical.
[in Japanese] Ladies and gentlemen,
thank you for your patience.
This is the long-awaited
Beatles performance,
and we would like you
to give them a big cheer.
However, please do so from your seats.
Let's welcome The Beatles
with a big round of applause.
[in English] Ladies and gentlemen,
we present let's welcome The Beatles!
[crowd cheering]
[guitar tuning]
["Rock And Roll Music" playing]
Just let me hear some of that
rock and roll music ♪
Any old way you choose it ♪
It's got a backbeat you can't blues it ♪
Any old time you use it ♪
Gotta be rock and roll music,
if you wanna dance with me ♪
If you wanna dance with me ♪
I've got no kick against modern jazz ♪
Unless they try
to play it too darn fast ♪
And lose the beauty of the melody ♪
Until they sound just like a symphony ♪
That's why I go
for that rock and roll music ♪
Any old way you choose it ♪
It's got a backbeat you can't blues it ♪
Any old way you use it ♪
Gotta be rock and roll music ♪
If you wanna dance with me ♪
If you wanna dance with me ♪
-[crowd cheering]
-[music concludes]
The close harmonies on things
like, uh, "Paperback Writer"
and "Nowhere Man" were, um,
very hard to do on stage
'cause you've just empty--
and there was no, sort of, guitar notes
-to take it off, you know, so
-[George] Well, we had, um,
eight-track by then,
I think that was the problem.
-And so, we would
-Yeah.
had the luxury of double-tracking.
And then also we were tryna compete
with the Beach Boys
and Pet Sounds, and all that.
-I think it was around that--
-[Paul] Hmm.
Well, when was Pet Sounds?
It was about--
[Paul] It was all that [vocalizes]
-they used to do.
-Yeah, so
-That was very Beach Boys.
-all our voices were really
like double-tracked,
Paperback writer ♪
[clears throat]
[bass voice]
Paperback ♪
Yeah, that's the way it goes, yeah.
And, you know, there was no way
of doing it on stage, really.
-["Paperback Writer" playing]
-Paperback writer ♪
Paperback writer ♪
[George] We'd get to the point
where it was particularly bad,
and then we'd kind of do our "Elvis legs"
-[music concludes]
-and wave to the crowd
and they'd all scream,
and then it'd cover that. I, uh,
think Paul already said that.
The screaming did cover
a lot of, um, worrying moments.
-["Yesterday" playing]
-You know, the scream used
to cover a multitude of sins,
and those shows it wasn't there.
For the first time in a long time,
the audience were listening.
There was no big screaming.
It came as a bit
of a surprise because, uh,
you know, everybody suddenly realized
they were out of tune, or singing out--
You know, they had to get
their act together.
Why she had to go ♪
I don't know, she wouldn't say ♪
I said something wrong ♪
Now I long for yesterday ♪
Yesterday ♪
Love was such an easy game to play ♪
Now I need a place to hide away ♪
Oh I believe in yesterday ♪
Mm, mm, mm, mm ♪
Yesterday ♪
-[music concludes]
-[crowd cheering]
Yeah, I mean, this is a thing
which we never really talked about,
but everywhere
we were going in these days,
it was a demonstration
of one thing or another.
-[indistinct clamoring]
-[George] In Japan,
there were student riots going on.
Plus, people were demonstrating
because the Budokan
was supposed to be
a special spiritual hall
and only reserved for martial arts.
[Ken Gary] Some Japanese say
that your performances
will violate the Budokan,
which is devoted to traditional
Japanese martial arts,
and you set a bad example
for Japanese youth
by leading them astray
from traditional Japanese values.
What do you think of all that?
The thing is that if somebody
from Japan, if a dancing troupe
from Japan goes to Britain,
nobody tries to say in Britain
that they're violating
the traditional laws, you know,
or that they're
trying to spoil anything.
All we're doing is coming here
and singing because we've been asked to.
It's better to watch singing
than wrestling, anyway.
I don't know what martial arts
has got to do with spirituality,
but maybe it does.
But, you know, I mean,
only violence and spirituality,
but not pop music.
You know, in any town we went to
someone always had a grievance.
Uh, something was wrong.
The Philippines was almost like a mistake
-from the very beginning.
-I hated the Philippines.
-["Think For Yourself" playing]
-And as soon as we got there
it was bad, bad news.
It was one of those places
where you sort of knew
they were waiting for a fight.
It was a negative, very negative vibe,
the moment we got off the plane,
so we were kind of, like,
a bit frightened.
We got in this car, not even with Neil.
The guy just drove off with us four,
and our bags were on the, um, the runway.
They left them on the runway,
and those little briefcases
had the marijuana in them,
right? So, uh I had to, uh
While while the confusion
was going on, and all the rest,
I just sort of put them
in the boot of the limo
I was gonna be in, right,
and, uh, and just said,
"Take me to where
you've taken the Beatles."
I was thinking, "God,"
you know, "this is it."
"We're gonna get busted."
Um, and they took us away
and drove us down
to the Manila harbor
and put us on a boat,
took us out to this kind
of motor yacht
that was anchored
out in the harbor. [chuckles]
I never really understood that.
I never really understood why
they got put on this boat.
I just remember Brian Epstein
really flustered.
And he must have been with,
well, maybe the, uh,
Philippine promoter or somebody,
agent or something,
and he was like yelling
and shouting,
and he appeared on the scene,
and then there was all yelling going on.
And then they took us back
off the boat,
put us back in a car
and drove us to a hotel suite.
And then we did a concert.
-[music concludes]
-The concert, again, had a big problem
-["If I Needed Someone" playing]
-because
Brian Epstein had made a contract
for a stadium, or or a situation
of so many people,
I don't know how many thousand people.
Maybe, uh, you know, two or
two to five thousand people,
something like that. When we got there
it was like the Monterey Pop Festival.
I mean, it was just millions.
There was 200,000 people in that site.
[Ringo] And we did the show,
and I didn't know--
Personally, I didn't know anything about
that Madame Marcos
had invited us to dinner.
We don't normally get invited.
Like, usually it's silly ambassadors
who want to see us
around the place.
But, you know, so somebody just set it up,
and he had to go along with it
and we didn't know about it.
"It is indeed a great honor.
Uh, but it's our day off,
so we can't go.
And we're very firm about that
'cause we don't get many days off.
We're not stuffing in some sort
of royal reception, you know."
We put the TV on.
[laughs] And there was
this horrific TV show
of Madame Marcos screaming,
you know, "They've let me down!"
And, uh, all these shots
of the cameraman took the camera onto
like these empty plates and up
into these little kids' faces
all crying 'cause The Beatles
hadn't turned up.
And the TV commentator's saying,
"And they're still not here yet."
And, you know,
"The Beatles are," you know,
"supposed to be here."
And we sat there in amazement,
couldn't believe it,
and we just watched ourselves
not arriving at the presidential palace.
Now, I don't recall much
of what happened after that
until the newspapers arrived.
And the TV news and everything,
it was "Beatles 'Snub' First Family".
So, then things started to get
really weird, uh, you know.
"Come on, get out of bed,
get packed, we're getting out of here!"
And, uh, as we started
to get to the car,
we really had no help.
You know, we got downstairs,
was, like, one motorbike.
You know, after this huge
motorcade brought us in,
uh, there was just this one guy.
And we get to the airport,
and there's chanting,
people hating us all the way.
So we got there, and we got,
uh, put into the transit lounge,
and then we got pushed around
from, uh, one corner of the lounge
to another, you know.
[John]
"You treat like ordinary passenger!"
-"Ordinary passenger."
-Yeah. [chuckles]
They were saying, kicking us.
We said, "Ordinary passenger?"
"He doesn't get kicked, does he?"
[chuckles] And so,
they started knocking over
our road managers, and things,
and everyone's falling all over the place.
That started worrying you,
when the road manager got knocked over?
Yeah. And I swear there was 30 of 'em.
What do you say there were?
Well, I saw five
in sort of outfits, you know,
that were sort of doing
the actual kicking and--
-and booing, and shouting.
-Did you get kicked anywhere?
No, I was very delicate
and moved every time
they touched me.
[all chuckle]
And that was it. We got out of there,
and it was such a relief.
But I felt such resentment.
But it was really frightening.
It's probably the most frightening.
But I've never been back,
actually. [laughs]
["The Word" playing]
Say the word and you'll be free ♪
Say the word and be like me ♪
Say the word I'm thinking of ♪
Have you heard the word is love? ♪
It's so fine, it's sunshine,
it's the word love ♪
In the beginning I misunderstood ♪
But now I've got it the word is good ♪
Spread the word and you'll be free ♪
But the nice thing about it was
that in the end,
when we found out that it was Marcos
and what he'd been doing
to his people,
and that it was Imelda,
and what she'd been doing,
and the and the rip-off
that the whole thing,
apparently, allegedly, was, um,
we were kinda glad
to have done it. So, great!
We must have been the only people
who'd dared ever, uh,
-sn-- uh, snub Marcos.
-[music concludes]
When they got
out of the country, they said,
"Never again." you know, "This is it."
And they said then
they said to Brian then,
they would not tour again.
Brian said, "Sorry, lads,
but we've got something fixed up
for the Shea Stadium."
"Cancel it!" "I can't cancel it."
"You've gotta cancel it.
We're not doing any more."
And he said,
"Well, if we cancel it,
you're gonna lose
lose a million dollars!" Whoops.
[John] One, two, three, four ♪
["And Your Bird Can Sing" playing]
You tell me that you've got
everything you want ♪
And your bird can sing,
but you don't get me ♪
You don't get me ♪
You say you've seen seven wonders ♪
And your bird is green,
but you can't see me ♪
You can't see me ♪
When your prized possessions
start to weigh you down ♪
Look in my direction,
I'll be 'round, I'll be 'round ♪
You tell me that you've heard
every sound there is ♪
And your bird can swing,
but you can't hear me ♪
You can't hear me ♪
When your bird is broken,
will it bring you down? ♪
You may be awoken,
I'll be 'round, I'll be 'round ♪
You tell me that you've got
everything you want ♪
And your bird can sing,
but you don't get me ♪
You don't get me ♪
[music concludes]
[John] That was it, wannit?