The Beatles Anthology (1995) s01e07 Episode Script

[crowd cheering]
-["Help!" playing]
-…not so self-assured ♪
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]
[John] I still believe
all you need is love,
you know, but I don't believe that, uh,
just saying it
is gonna do it, you know.
I mean, I… I still believe in the fact
that love is what we all need.
["Baby, You're A Rich Man" playing]
You know, I even get excited now
when I realize that's what it was for.
People putting flowers in guns.
San Francisco was just exploding.
Here was fabulous,
California, where we are, L.A.
Uh, it was just exciting times,
and all for this loving feeling, you know?
How does it feel to be
one of the beautiful people? ♪
Now that you know
who you are ♪
[George] The "love generation",
or whatever you want to call it,
they had this kind of thing
about how everybody
was gonna change the world.
Everybody was on such a buzz.
You know, I don't mean just the Beatles,
but the whole kind of planet was--
Um… At least San Francisco,
L.A. and London… [chuckles] …was.
It always seemed to be sunny.
You wore these far-out clothes
and these far-out little sunglasses.
-[music concludes]
-And, um, music.
The whole rest of it was just music.
And there were posters coming in
from San Francisco.
All these psychedelic posters
were great you…
Yeah, so, I mean, I--
Summer of Love's
a little bit too sort of easy,
but, yeah, some sort of golden summer.
["Eight Miles High" playing]
[George] I mean, everywhere we went,
people were…
um, smiling and, you know,
sitting on lawns drinking tea,
you know, festivals of music, and stuff.
I mean, you know, that Summer of Love,
a lot of that was bullshit, really.
It was all what the press was saying.
But there was definitely a vibe.
You know, in America,
we could feel what was going on there,
even though we were miles away,
you could just pick up the vibes,
you know, man. [chuckles]
Signs in the street ♪
That say where you're going ♪
Are somewhere just being their own ♪
Nowhere is ♪
There warmth to be found… ♪
[John] I was all for going there
and living on the Haight, you know?
I mean, in my head, I thought,
"Well, hell, acid's it,
and this is the answer. Let's go!
I'll go there, you know,
and make music and all that."
But, of course, it didn't come true.
In the end, George went over.
[George] I went to Haight-Ashbury
expecting it to be this brilliant place
and it was just full
of dropout kids on drugs.
It certainly showed me
what was really happening
in the drug cult.
It wasn't what I thought
of all these groovy people
getting-- having, uh,
spiritual awakenings and being artistic.
It was just… it was like the Bowery.
It was like alcoholism.
-[music concludes]
-It was like any, uh, addiction.
[birds chirping]
So… [clears throat]
…at that point, I'm… I'm…
I stopped taking it, actually,
the dreaded lysergic.
Um…
I had some in a… in a, uh…
in a little bottle,
and I put it-- it was liquid,
I put it on a microscope,
and I looked at it,
and it looked like rope…
[chuckles] …just like old rope,
and I thought, "Well, I…
I'm not gonna put that
in my brain anymore."
[John] I was influenced by acid
and got psychedelic, you know,
like the whole generation.
But really,
I like rock and roll, you know.
[Ringo] Just one of those things
that happened, you know, as life went on.
[Paul] We'd been into drugs, and we were--
the next step then is,
then you've got to try
and find a meaning, then.
[George] That's where
I really went for the,
um, meditation.
And there's this thing called a "mantra".
And the mantra is…
uh, through the mantra, you…
you can follow a technique
that helps you to transcend,
that is, to go beyond the waking,
sleeping, dreaming state.
So, I got myself to the point
where, okay, I need a mantra.
Uh, you know, where do you go?
You don't go to Harrods and get a mantra.
But then I met David Wynne,
who said-- showed me this picture,
and he said, "Oh, he's coming
to do a lecture at the Hilton.
He's called Maharishi."
So, I said, "Okay, I'll go."
I got some tickets, and then I thought,
"Well, I'll get some
in case the others wanna go."
[Paul] "Oh, yeah! All right."
So, we went along.
And I thought he made
a lot of sense, you know.
I think we all did,
because he basically said
that with a simple system of meditation,
20 minutes in the morning,
20 minutes in the evening,
no big sort of crazy thing,
you can improve the quality
of life and, sort of,
find some sort of meaning in doing so.
And after the lecture, we went,
because, you know,
that was one of the privileges
of the Beatles,
where you could get in anywhere,
so we got backstage,
met Maharishi, and, um…
You know, I said to him, uh…
"Got any mantras?" [chuckles]
"Give us a mantra."
And he said, "Well,
we're going to Bangor tomorrow.
You should come and get initiated."
I'm very happy about it,
that they heard my lecture last evening,
and they talked to me for about an hour
after the lecture.
They seem to be
very intelligent and alert.
[Paul] We'd sort of rung our mates,
"Hey, we're going up to…
He's great, this guy.
Oh, you ought to come and see him."
It's like a good book
you'd read. You'd try--
"Hey, have you… you ought to get it.
I'll get… I'll send you a copy!"
["Within You Without You" playing]
We were kinda like messengers.
We were like the advanced party.
We were like Christopher Columbus,
and we had to go out
and do some discovering,
and then pass on the information
to the ones in the next carriage behind,
like Mick Jagger.
[Paul] It was like a school, you know,
that they've taken over,
and then you sit around
and he tells you how to do it,
and you go up to your room and try
and do it, and of course, you can't.
We were talking… ♪
[Paul] For the first half hour, you know,
you're sitting there
and you've got a mantra
to meditate on,
and you're… and you're thinking, going,
"Oh, that was good. Bloody hell,
that train journey was a bit much,
wasn't it? Oh, sorry, mantra."
[humming] "Bloody hell, I wonder
what our next record's gonna be.
Well, you know, I've been trying--
Oh, no, stop, stop, stop."
And you spend all your first few days
just trying to stop your mind
dealing with your social calendar,
you know, whatever's coming up,
"God, he's a funny bloke, that Mah--
ooh, no."
Um… But it was good.
[Ringo] I was really impressed
with the Maharishi.
And I was impressed
because he was laughing all the time.
So, we listened to his lectures
and we started meditating
and we were given our mantras.
Um… Yeah, it was another point of view.
It was the first time we were getting
into sort of Eastern philosophies now.
You know, you just sort of sit there
and you let your mind go
wherever it's going,
doesn't matter what you're thinking about.
Just let it go.
And then you just introduce the…
the mantra or the… the vibration,
just to take over from a thought.
You don't will it or use your willpower.
…best to hold it there ♪
With our love,
with our love, we could… ♪
[George] I seem to recall
it was a phone call.
I don't know who took it.
Um, I think it might have been John
-who took the call.
-[music concludes]
Well, I don't know what to say, you know.
We've only just heard,
and it's hard to think of things to say.
But he was just
a beautiful fellow, you know.
-And it's terrible.
-[reporter] What are your plans now?
Well, we haven't made any, you know.
I mean, it's only just…
-we've only just heard, haven't we?
-[Ringo] Yes.
[Paul] That was kinda stunning,
'cause we were off on this,
sort of, "finding the meaning of life",
and there he was, dead.
Our friend has gone!
You know, uh, more our friend
than anything else.
You know, Brian was a friend of ours.
I heard it… I heard it
on the radio, actually,
on the car radio, that he'd died.
The local shopkeeper said,
"I'm sorry about the news."
I said, "What news?"
He said, "Your friend's died."
I spoke to him, uh, Wednesday evening,
the… the evening before we first, uh, uh,
saw Maharishi's lecture,
and he was in great spirits.
I understand that, um,
this afternoon, uh, Maharishi,
uh, conferred with you all.
Could I ask you what he…
what advice he offered you?
-[indistinct chatter]
-He told us-- uh,
not to get overwhelmed by grief and to…
whatever thoughts we have of Brian,
to keep them happy,
because any thoughts we have of--
have of him will travel to him,
wherever he is.
[Paul] We were all gutted, you know.
It was, um, it was…
it was a huge shock, of course,
'cause he was like one of our…
one of the people we'd known longest,
you know, and…
and a huge confidant of ours,
and we just knew him very well.
And, you know, when anyone dies like that,
it's just the shock of them
being wrenched out of the picture.
You go, "Oh,
I'm not gonna see him anymore."
I don't think there was anything sinister.
Later there came out all these, you know,
rumors that it was a sort of
very sinister circumstances,
but I think those are easy to do
after the event.
I sort of went around a couple
of days later and saw…
Brian had a butler, you know,
working for him,
and he didn't seem to feel
there was anything suspicious,
and he seemed to feel that, uh,
you know, he wasn't
in any sort of black mood.
He could have been. I don't know.
But my feeling was that, uh,
that it was an accident.
I don't believe that he committed suicide.
I believe it was an accident,
'cause the-- in those days,
everybody was topping themselves
accidentally
by taking uppers and…
or amphetamine and alcohol.
And that happens, you know.
I feel that happened with Keith Moon.
Just one too many.
"I can deal with it." Jimi, whatever.
Jim… Mama, all those people.
You know, I don't think
any of them set out to die.
Without Brian, the Beatles
wouldn't have happened
in the way that we know, at all.
But, of course, and… and… and he was--
They were his babies, they… they…
He… he lived for the Beatles.
[indistinct chatter]
Have you a tribute you'd like
to pay to Mr. Epstein?
Well, you know, we don't know what to say.
We loved him, and he was one of us.
So, you can't, you know--
You can't pay tribute in words.
[ "You've Got To Hide
Your Love Away" playing]
Here I stand, head in hand ♪
Turn my face to the wall ♪
If she's gone, I can't go on ♪
Feeling two foot small ♪
Everywhere people stare
each and every day ♪
I can see them laugh at me ♪
And I hear them say ♪
Hey, you've got to hide
your love away ♪
Hey, you've got to hide
your love away ♪
[Brian] 'Cause I'd been interested
in the theater and acting
a long time, and, uh,
I was immediately struck by their…
their… their music, their beat, and, uh,
their sense of humor, actually, on stage.
And, uh, it was there that,
really, it all started.
[music concludes]
[John] I didn't really have
any misconceptions
about our ability to do anything
other than play music.
I was scared, you know.
I thought, "We've fucking had it now."
There was a huge void.
We didn't know anything about,
you know, our personal, um…
business and finances and,
you know, he'd take--
just taken care of everything.
And I suppose… it was, uh…
it was chaos after that.
We were suddenly like chickens
without heads.
"What are we gonna do?
What are we gonna do?"
You know, that's where Neil
kind of stepped in
and tried to figure out
what was happening.
So, as far as I was concerned,
we had to get it together, you know?
And, but the other people
out there who were, um,
Brian's associates, if you like, you know,
accountants, lawyers,
all of that sort of stuff,
you know, I think it was, uh,
you know, suddenly maybe, you know,
the lunatics had now got hold
of the asylum, you know.
What… What were the Beatles gonna do?
[John] Paul made an attempt to carry on
as if Brian hadn't died, you know?
I think Paul had an impression
we should be thankful for
what he did, you know, for…
for keeping the Beatles going.
[Paul] I know John got a bit annoyed,
but in the absence
of anyone managing us,
what I think I was doing was sort of,
from within the group,
getting the group to self-manage.
It's possible that I was there
more than anyone.
You know, that I was… I mean,
when we did Magical Mystery Tour,
for instance, I ended up
kind of directing it, uh,
even though we said,
well, the Beatles
had directed it at the end.
["Magical Mystery Tour" playing]
The Magical Mystery Tour
is waiting to take you away ♪
Waiting to take you away ♪
Roll up ♪
Roll up for the Mystery Tour ♪
Roll up ♪
Roll up for the Mystery Tour ♪
Roll up ♪
We've got everything you need ♪
Roll up for the Mystery Tour ♪
-Roll up ♪
-Satisfaction guaranteed ♪
Roll up for the Mystery Tour ♪
[George] It was Paul's idea.
It was basically a charabanc trip,
which people used to go on
from Liverpool to see
-the Blackpool Lights.
-[music concludes]
And they'd get, you know,
loads of crates of beer
and an accordion player,
and all get pissed and-- basically,
and just go--
"pissed" in the English sense,
meaning drunk.
And, uh, just go
to see Blackpool Lights.
And it was kind of like that. It was…
Uh… it was a very flimsy kind of thing.
-[director] Take 9.
-[crew member] Okay!
Oh, baby,
you made me love you ♪
I didn't wanna do it,
I didn't wanna do it ♪
You made me love you ♪
And all the time you knew it ♪
I guess you always knew it ♪
-You made me very happy, baby ♪
-You made me very happy, sometimes ♪
[Paul] We knew
we weren't doing a regular film.
We were doing a crazy roly-poly
'60s film, we--
"I am the eggman, you are the…"
You know,
and I just wandered off to France
and did that, um,
"Fool On The Hill" stuff,
just one morning with
a couple of mates, you know.
It wasn't quite union.
-["The Fool On The Hill" playing]
-Day after day ♪
Alone on a hill ♪
The man with the foolish grin
is keeping perfectly still ♪
But nobody wants to know him ♪
They can see
that he's just a fool ♪
And he never gives an answer ♪
But the fool on the hill
sees the sun going down ♪
And the eyes in his head
see the world spinning 'round ♪
Well on the way,
head in a cloud ♪
The man of a thousand voices
talking perfectly loud ♪
But nobody ever hears him ♪
Or the sound
he appears to make ♪
And he never seems to notice ♪
But the fool on the hill ♪
[George] But, you see,
there was always good songs.
There was a couple of good songs,
and there was a few funny scenes.
I mean, the scene that, to me,
that stands out is the one
of John shoveling the spaghetti
-onto the woman's plate.
-[music concludes]
[George] I… I mean, that was the best bit
-of the movie for me.
-[indistinct chatter]
Mud… in 45 minutes? [pants]
I can hardly get my breath.
[Paul] That was an actual dream he'd had.
It's intake, Jessie…
[Paul] And so, he'd come in, you know,
and he'd sort of say,
"Hey, I had this wild dream
last night.
I'd like to do it.
I'm a waiter" you know.
And so, we'd just put them in,
you know, and, uh,
it was very haphazard.
You know, looking back on it,
it's how you learn, kind of thing.
-by your mistakes, you know.
-[laughs]
-Remember.
-[laughs]
[chews loudly]
I don't care! This is the way
he would have wanted it.
[Paul] But I think, you know,
in the end, it became out…
I think it's quite interesting now,
looking back on it as a period piece.
And people like Spielberg,
I've read that people like him
have sort of said,
"When I was in film school,
we really-- that was a film
we really took notice of"
Like an art film, you know,
rather than a proper film.
But of course, we then released it, um,
got it shown on the BBC on Boxing Day.
And, of course, they showed it
in black and white, and so…
It was hated.
You know, they all had
their chance then to say,
"They've gone too far.
Who do they think they are?
What does it mean?"
They hated it.
At least the people who wrote
in the newspaper hated it.
You know, they, um…
Don't forget that
with all the success we'd had,
every time something came out,
a new record or… or whatever,
they'd all try
and slam it so that, you know,
because once they've built you up
that high, you know,
all they can do
is knock you back down again.
I mean, that's… that's
what happens. That's life.
If you look to your left,
ladies and gentlemen,
the view is not very inspiring.
Ah, but if you look to your right…
-["Flying" playing]
-[Ringo] So, that was really slated,
but, of course,
when people started seeing it
in color… uh, they realized that it was…
it was a lot of fun.
You know,
especially that aerial ballet shot.
You know, we went all over Iceland,
sent a… [chuckles] …guy out filming.
[Neil Aspinall] You know, in reality,
we hadn't done it,
uh, as professionally, you know,
as it… as it could have been done, right?
But it was our first go
at that sort of stuff, you know,
and it was in a very, uh,
traumatic period
-of everybody's career, if you like.
-[music concludes]
We did the best we could, and I think,
under all the circumstances,
it… it really turned out
very well, you know.
["I Am The Walrus" playing]
[John] And now, we're gonna play
a track from, uh, Magical Mystery Tour,
which is one of my favorite albums
'cause it was so weird, and, uh,
it's "I Am The Walrus".
It's also one of me favorite tracks
'cause I did it, of course,
but also 'cause it's one of those
that has enough little bitties
going to keep you interested
even a hundred years later.
I am he, as you are he,
as you are me ♪
And we are all together ♪
See how they run,
like pigs from a gun ♪
See how they fly ♪
I'm crying ♪
Sitting on a cornflake ♪
Waiting for the van to come ♪
Corporation tee-shirt ♪
Stupid bloody Tuesday ♪
Man, you been a naughty boy ♪
You let your face grow long ♪
I am the eggman ♪
-Ooh ♪
-They are the eggmen ♪
Ooh ♪
I am the walrus
Goo-goo g'joob ♪
Mister City policeman sitting ♪
Pretty little policemen in a row ♪
See how they fly,
like Lucy in the sky ♪
See how they run ♪
I'm crying ♪
I'm crying ♪
I'm crying ♪
I'm crying ♪
Yellow matter custard ♪
Dripping
from a dead dog's eye ♪
Crabalocker fishwife ♪
Pornographic priestess ♪
Boy, you been a naughty girl,
you let your knickers down ♪
I am the eggman ♪
They are the eggmen ♪
I am the walrus
Goo-goo g'joob ♪
[music concludes]
Yeah, we thought it was okay.
I think, looking back on it,
I think we were quite pleased with it. Um…
At the time, it was all right.
You know, it wasn't the greatest thing
we'd ever done.
I defend it on the lines
that nowhere else do you see a performance
of "I Am The Walrus".
That's the only performance ever.
So, things like that, I think,
are enough to make it
an interesting film.
[John] If you think it was good, keep it.
If you don't, scrap it.
-["Hello, Goodbye" playing]
-You say yes, I say no ♪
You say stop,
and I say go, go, go ♪
Oh, no ♪
You say goodbye,
and I say hello ♪
Hello, hello ♪
I don't know
why you say goodbye ♪
I say hello ♪
Hello, hello ♪
I don't know
why you say goodbye ♪
I say hello ♪
I say high, you say low ♪
You say why?
And I say I don't know ♪
Oh, no ♪
You say goodbye
and I say hello ♪
Hello, goodbye,
hello, goodbye ♪
Hello, hello ♪
I don't know
why you say goodbye ♪
I say hello ♪
Hello, goodbye,
hello, goodbye ♪
Hello, hello ♪
I don't know
why you say goodbye… ♪
[Paul] I think that's got it.
[Ringo] I think we've got
something there, George.
[classical Indian music playing]
[reporter] Far from the noise
and pace of city life
in the cool, clear air
of Rishikesh, North India,
Pathé News reports
from the meditation retreat
of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,
the man who, through
transcendental meditation,
is currently bringing peace
of mind to the Beatles.
[George] Rishikesh is an incredible place.
It's like, 99% of the population
of Rishikesh
-are all renunciants.
-[music concludes]
[birds chirping]
And it's right in the foothills
of the Himalayas.
It's where the Ganges flows
out of the Himalayas
into the plains of Kurukshetra,
it's called,
the plains between Delhi
and the Himalayas.
[John] I mean, we were
really away from everything.
It was like a sort of…
recluse holiday camp,
you know… right at the foot
of the Himalayas.
It was like being up a mountain,
but they call it the foothills,
-hanging over the Ganges.
-["Across The Universe" playing]
Words are flowing out
like endless rain into a paper cup ♪
They slither wildly
as they slip away across the universe ♪
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy,
are drifting through my opened mind ♪
Possessing and caressing me ♪
Jai Guru Deva ♪
Om ♪
Nothing's gonna change
my world ♪
Nothing's gonna change
my world ♪
Nothing's gonna change
my world ♪
Nothing's gonna change
my world ♪
Images of broken light
which dance before me ♪
Like a million eyes ♪
They call me on and on
across the universe ♪
Thoughts meander
like a restless wind inside a letterbox ♪
They tumble blindly
as they make their way ♪
Across the universe ♪
Jai Guru Deva ♪
Om ♪
Nothing's gonna change
my world ♪
[Ringo] You know, it was
pretty exciting, you know.
We were in this
really spiritual place and, uh,
we were meditating a lot, uh,
having seminars by Maharishi.
And it… it was pretty far out.
[Paul laughs] It was very much
like a kind of summer camp.
-[music concludes]
-[Paul] You would get up in the morning,
you would go down
to a little communal breakfast.
Food was veggie,
which is kind of good for me now,
but thinking back on it, it was…
I was still meat-eating then,
so it was… it was all right, though.
It was sort of curries
and stuff, you know.
[Ringo] The food was…
was impossible for me because,
you know, I am allergic
to so many different things,
that I took two suitcases with me,
one of clothes and one of Heinz beans.
There's a plug for you.
[John] And we sat in the mountains
eating lousy vegetarian food
and writing all those songs,
you know, we wrote tons
of songs in India.
"Dear Prudence"
certainly got written there.
-Mia Farrow's sister was…
-[birds chirping]
Well, she sort of hibernated,
meditated and hibernated.
-["Dear Prudence" playing]
-[chuckles] We saw her, I think,
twice in the two weeks I was there.
Everyone would be banging on the door,
"Are you still alive?"
Dear Prudence ♪
Won't you come out to play? ♪
Dear Prudence ♪
Greet the brand new day ♪
The sun is up, the sky is blue,
it's beautiful, and so are you ♪
Dear Prudence ♪
Won't you come out to play? ♪
[Paul] I wrote a couple of little things.
I had a song called "I Will".
["I Will" playing]
Who knows
how long I've loved you? ♪
You know I love you still ♪
Will I wait
a lonely lifetime? ♪
If you want me to, I will ♪
For if I ever saw you ♪
I didn't catch your name ♪
But it never really mattered ♪
[music concludes]
[hums, vocalizes]
Remember going down
to a film show in the village?
-What was that?
-Did you write anything, George?
Obviously not.
Did you write anything
when you were there?
I wrote "Sour Milk Sea".
-I wrote a number of songs…
-Did you?
…which I've never recorded to this day.
I wrote one called "Dehra Dun".
Why don't you play it for us, George?
-[chuckles]
-Uh… [sighs]
-I don't know if I know it.
-[ukulele playing]
Dehra, Dehra Dun… ♪
No.
Dehra, Dehra Dun,
Dehra Dun, Dun ♪
-Dehra, Dehra Dun…♪
-Oh, I remember that.
Dehra Dun, Dun ♪
Dehra, Dehra Dun,
Dehra, Dun, Dun ♪
[vocalizes]
Many roads can take you there,
many different ways ♪
One direction takes you years,
another takes you days ♪
Something like that, I don't remember.
Dehra, Dehra Dun… ♪
[George] You know,
there was a lot of things there
that was actually stuff
the Maharishi had said,
like that song,
"Come on, come on", you know,
"Come on, it's such a joy",
whatever that song…
"Everybody Got Something To Hide
Except For Me And My Monkey".
[clears throat] Well, uh,
apart from the bit about the monkey,
that was just what Maharishi
used to always say, you know.
["Everybody's Got Something To Hide
Except Me And My Monkey" playing]
Come on, come on ♪
Come on, it's such a joy
Come on, it's such a joy ♪
Come on, let's take it easy
Come on, let's take it easy ♪
Take it easy ♪
Take it easy ♪
Everybody's got something to hide ♪
Except for me and my monkey ♪
[Paul] Somehow… or other,
a helicopter came.
It landed down by the Ganges.
This was on the banks
of the Ganges in Rishikesh.
And it was like, one of us,
"One of you can go up
for a quick ride with Maharishi.
Who's it gonna be?"
"Me, sir! Me, sir! Sir-- Sir!"
And, of course, it was John.
John always would, uh, vzzz.
-[music concludes]
-He was good at that, you know?
So, it got to be him anyway.
And I was saying, why--
Later, I was saying,
"Why were you so keen, like,
to get up with Maharishi?"
He said, "Tell you the truth", he said,
"I thought he might slip me
the answer." [laughs]
It's very John! [laughs]
Everybody's got something to hide ♪
Except for me and my monkey ♪
I gave myself, uh, a set period,
and then if it was gonna be something
we really had to go back for…
-[music concludes]
-I was thinking of going back, you know.
But at the end of my month,
I was quite happy,
and I thought, "This is…
this'll do me. This is fine.
If I want to get into it heavy,
I can do it anywhere."
That's one of the nice things about it.
It's like you don't have to go
to church to do it.
Do it in your own room.
I didn't come back, um,
with the others anyway.
I don't recall. I think Ringo
probably came back quickly.
He just went for
a couple of weeks, just like,
just to put his toe in the water
and see what it was like, maybe.
We were there four months,
or George and I were.
We lost 13 pounds
and we looked a day older.
[interviewer] Did you, uh…
Do you think this man's on the level?
I don't know what level he's on,
but, uh,
we had a nice holiday in India
and came back rested
to play businessmen.
[airplane engine whirring]
[Neil Aspinall]
Whose idea was Apple?
I don't know. It was sort of around,
I think, before Brian died.
I think, actually, the idea for
Apple was the accountants' idea.
"You must diversify." One of those.
I was still in India when it started.
I think it was basically, um,
John and Paul's, uh,
madness, ego, running away
with themselves or with each other.
The big theory was
that we'd put all our affairs
into sort of one bundle.
We'd have it as our own company, Apple.
It would be a record label.
All the things we'd ever wanted to do.
It's just trying to mix business
-with enjoyment.
-Pleasure.
'Cause we're in business, you know.
We find ourselves in business.
[interviewer] Are you the directors?
-Are you the director of this?
-Yeah. Yeah.
But, like, all the profits
won't go into our pockets.
They'll go to help people,
but not like a charity.
The sole purpose of Apple was not to…
People didn't have to beg anymore.
Artists, if they had a valid idea,
we would front them.
And, you know,
we had a publishing company,
a record company, and we would…
[coughs] …we could use that
in these companies.
But, you know,
we should have had a big sign,
"You don't have to beg".
Because we got screwed
in business all the time, and, uh,
you know, how you have
to go down on your knees.
That was the famous one
that John said, you know,
"We don't want people to have
to go down on their knees."
But we wanna set up a system whereby
people who just want to make
a film about anything
don't have to go on their knees
in somebody's office, probably yours.
[Neil Aspinall]
Well, what we did, you see,
we did this mad thing of, like,
and maybe put an ad in the paper,
or something, saying,
"Send us your tapes
and they will not be shown
straight into the waste paper basket."
You know, "We will answer."
And we just got inundated with tapes,
and poetry, and scripts, and, phew!
And, in actual fact, I don't
really think we got any bands
or any artists by that method.
We never really got much
from the send-in tapes,
but because people knew
we were interested, we got,
for instance, Peter Asher
brought along James Taylor.
["Something In The Way
She Moves" playing]
And I feel fine anytime
she's around me now ♪
She's around me now
almost all the time ♪
And if I'm well you can tell
she's been with me now ♪
She's been with me now
quite a long, long time ♪
And I feel fine ♪
I think Mal Evans found, uh,
Badfinger.
["No Matter What" playing]
No matter what you are ♪
I will always be with you ♪
Doesn't matter what you do, girl ♪
Ooh, girl, with you ♪
-[music concludes]
-I produced Doris Troy, and I produced,
uh, a record by Jackie Lomax.
["Sour Milk Sea" playing]
Get out of Sour Milk Sea,
you don't belong there ♪
Get back to
where you should be ♪
Find out
what's going on there ♪
Mary Hopkins came
from the, uh, Hughie Green,
you know, whatever his show was called.
Opportunity Knocks.
["Goodbye" playing]
When the song of lonely love
invites me on ♪
I must go to his side ♪
-Goodbye ♪
-Goodbye ♪
-Goodbye ♪
-Goodbye ♪
Goodbye, goodbye, my love, goodbye ♪
It might have been exciting
for everybody else…
[music concludes]
…and for people
that came in from the outside.
For me, it was, um…
a lot of hard work setting it up
and, uh, a lot of chaos.
[Paul] We were just guys goofing off,
having a lot of fun,
trying to get things under our control.
That was basically
what we were trying to do,
which a lot of people do now.
They have their own companies,
they… they take lawyers to meetings
and get good deals and things, you know.
It was the start of all of that,
but it was a pretty haphazard start.
We had a lot of ideas of
"We could do this and we could do that",
but when it came down to it, really,
the only thing we could do was write songs
and make records and be Beatles.
[narrator] Once upon a time,
or maybe twice,
there was an unearthly paradise
called Pepperland.
-["Yellow Submarine" playing]
-In the town where I was born ♪
Lived a man who sailed to sea ♪
And he told us of his life ♪
In the land of submarines ♪
So we sailed on to the sun ♪
Till we found
the sea of green ♪
And we lived beneath the waves ♪
In our yellow submarine ♪
[Paul] The first thing when we heard
people were gonna do a cartoon,
"Have a man who sailed to sea
and went to the land of submarines."
Sounds like a pretty good story.
"Go down under the water, see this thing,
-meet all the people who live there."
-[music concludes]
But we were into kind
of psychedelic stuff with Pepper
and those kind of things.
So, they wanted more
of that kind of stuff.
Um, so it was up to them anyway,
so we went along with that.
And they had all the
Sea of Holes and all that stuff,
which I think, seeing it now,
is pretty good,
you know, it's quite interesting, really.
Oh, no, I loved the film, you know.
I thought it was really innovative.
It's great animation.
Sea of Holes still, to this day, holds up.
The Blue Meanie syndrome.
-[Chief Blue Meanie] Anti-Music Missiles?
-[Max] Nah!
[Chief Blue Meanie]
The Dreadful Flying Glove?
[Max] Nah!
Today, Pepperland goes blue.
Fire!
[screams]
Yeah, I liked the film.
I think it's a classic film.
I'm not sure why we never did
our own voices,
but probably the actors
probably did it better anyway.
You know, 'cause you needed
to be more cartoon-like.
I mean, our voices were
pretty cartoon-like anyway, but,
you know, the exaggeration that you've got
with the other actors' voices,
I think it suits it.
Yes, they do look very nice, don't they?
-Yes, they do.
-They do, though, don't they?
-Yes, they do.
-Don't dey dough?
Dough?
Oh, la… Dat dough?
What's the matter, fellas?
Blue Meanies?
[in exaggerated accent] Well, that's where
all of that stuff came from, you know,
that sort of terrible
fake Liverpool accent. "Hello."
The thing with that film
that still blows me away is that,
like, the first year it was out,
I had all these kids coming up
to me saying,
"Why did you press the button?"
[laughs]
'Cause, you know, I press that
button and get shot out,
and kids from all over the bloody
world were shouting at me.
"Why did you press the button?"
Now, whatever you do,
don't touch that button.
-Which button?
-That one.
This one?
[screams]
[Fred] Oh! That was the panic button.
That film does go for, uh,
every generation, every baby.
You know, a three, four-year-old
goes through Yellow Submarine.
Hey! Look at John, will ya?
What's the matter, John, love?
Blue Meanies?
Newer and bluer Meanies
have been sighted within the vicinity
-of this theater.
-[gasps] Oh.
-There's only one way to go out.
-How's that?
-Singing!
-One…
-Two…
-Three…
Four!
["All Together Now" playing]
One, two, three, four
Can I have a little more? ♪
Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten ♪
I love you ♪
A, B, C, D
Can I bring my friend to tea? ♪
E, F, G, H, I, J, I love you ♪
Bom bom bom bom pa-bom ♪
Sail the ship ♪
-Bom pa-bom ♪
-Chop the tree ♪
-Bom pa-bom
-Skip the rope ♪
-Bom pa-bom
-Look at me ♪
All together now ♪
All together now
All together now ♪
All together now
All together now ♪
All together now
All together now ♪
All together now
All together now ♪
All together now
All together now ♪
All together now
All together now ♪
All together now ♪
-[cheering]
-[music concludes]
["Happiness Is A Warm Gun" playing]
She's not a girl who misses much ♪
Do-do-do-do-do-do, oh yeah ♪
She's well-acquainted with
the touch of the velvet hand ♪
Like a lizard
on a window pane ♪
The man in the crowd ♪
With the multi-colored mirrors
on his hobnail boots ♪
Lying with his eyes ♪
While his hands are busy
working overtime ♪
A soap impression of his wife
which he ate ♪
And donated
to the National Trust ♪
[John] Yoko was having
an art show in London
at a gallery called Indica Gallery,
and I heard this was going
to be a happening,
so I went down the night
before the opening.
Also, the first thing
that was in the gallery,
as you went in, there was a…
a white step ladder,
and a painting on the ceiling,
and a spyglass hanging down.
I walked up this ladder
and I picked up the spyglass,
you're balancing there,
and in teeny little writing,
it just said, "Yes". If it said "No",
or, you know, "Aha!"
-Something sarcastic.
-Something nasty,
like, you know, "rip-off", or whatever.
I would have left the… the gallery,
but because it was positive,
it said, "Yes",
I thought, "Okay, it's the first show
I've been to that's
said something, you know, warm to me."
So, then I decided to see
the rest of the show,
and that's when we met.
["Two Virgins" playing]
[indistinct vocalizing]
[John] Uh, the naked album cover,
that was the…
one of the first things we did.
[Ringo]
They showed me this cover art,
and I… and I… I pointed to The Times.
"Oh, you've even got The Times in it",
like his dick wasn't out, you know.
And, uh, and I said,
"Oh, come on, John. You know, you know…
You know, you're doing
all this stuff, you know.
It… It may be cool for you,
but, you know,
we have to answer, you know.
It doesn't matter, one of us,
whichever one of us
does something,
we all have to answer for it."
And he says,
"Well, Ring, you only have to
answer the phone." [chuckles]
So, "Okay, fine."
We felt like two virgins.
That's what the album was called,
because we were in love, just met,
and we were trying to make something.
[Paul] She and John had
kind of a very intense romance,
you know, when they got together,
and, uh, she, being
kind of a conceptual artist,
you know, he was fascinated by all that.
She's a very strong woman,
a very, um, independent woman,
and John, I think,
always liked strong women.
They were, uh, from that point on,
never to be seen without each other.
You know, for the next
few years, at least.
[John]
Everybody seemed to be paranoid,
except for us two, who were in
the glow of love.
You know, everything's clear
and open when you're in love,
and everybody sort of
was tense around us,
and, you know, "What is she
doing here at the session?"
or "Why is she with him?"
And all this sort of madness
is going on around us
because we just happen to want
to be together all the time.
[Paul] The trouble was for us,
um, it encroached on our
framework that we had going.
Basically, it'd only ever been
the four of us in the studio,
maybe with, uh,
Neil and Mal as the two roadies,
or George Martin up in
the control room often,
he only ever came down
occasionally,
or an engineer came down
to fix a mic, but that was it.
In our whole recording career
that had been the setup.
[Ringo] And again, you know,
I used to just ask John,
"What's this about?"
-And I said…
-["Blackbird" playing]
[Ringo] "You know,
it's… what is happening here?
Yoko's at all the sessions", and, uh…
And he told me straight,
you know, he said,
"Well, you know when you go home
to… to Maureen
and you tell her
how your day was, you know,
takes you like two lines
'Oh, we had a good day in the studio.'"
And he says, "Well, we know
exactly what's going on."
You know, that's how they started to live,
every moment together, which, uh,
was something Barbara and I
took up when we got married.
We were absolutely,
moment by moment, we…
we were together.
-[John] Yes, sir! That's my baby!
-[Paul] One, two, three, four!
["Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" playing]
Desmond has a barrow
in the marketplace ♪
-[music concludes]
-[speaking gibberish]
The F-sharp minor sounded out of tune.
-["Good Night" playing]
-[Ringo] Dream. Come on, now.
It's time you little toddlers were in bed.
I'm having no more messing.
You've been out to the park all day.
You've had a lovely time.
Now, it's time for bed.
Are we ready? Daddy'll sing a song.
-Now, it's time… ♪
-[John] Sorry, sorry.
-It was me.
-[John] If you can do that again,
-I'll be ready for you to sing the song.
-Yeah.
Of course, I did have moments
of turmoil on the White Album
'cause I left. I left the group.
["Blackbird" playing]
Blackbird fly ♪
Blackbird fly ♪
Into the light of a dark black night ♪
Blackbird singing in the dead of night ♪
During that period, I think
everybody was getting cheesed off,
but yeah, Ringo did leave.
Um, I can't remember exactly why.
I just remember he was suddenly,
one day, I think,
Neil or somebody said,
"Oh, Ringo's gone on holiday."
[laughs]
I felt two things.
I felt I wasn't playing great,
and the other three were really happy,
and I was an outsider.
And so, you know,
I came to this decision,
"Fuck it, I'm… I'm leaving."
And so, I went to see John,
who was living in my apartment
in Montagu Square.
I knocked on the door
and I said, uh, you know,
"Hi", we went in. I said,
"I'm leaving the group because,
you know, I feel like, you know,
unloved and out of it
and I'm not playing well
and you three are really close."
And he said, "I thought it was you three."
[chuckles] So, okay.
And then I went over to Paul's
and knocked on his door.
Said, uh-- I said the same thing.
I said, you know,
"I'm leaving the band.
I… I feel, you know,
you three guys are really close
and I'm out of it."
And he said, "I thought it was you three."
[chuckles]
[Paul] I mean, you know,
that's… that's what it's like in life.
You go through life, you don't--
you never stop and say,
"Hey, you know what?
I think you're great."
Well, I don't think we'd ever
done any of that with Ringo.
It'd always just been,
"Yeah, he's great. He's good."
And he… he felt insecure,
so we had to-- and he… he left.
So, we had to kind of go and sort of say,
"No, you're great, man. You're the best."
And then he sort of-- he said,
"Oh, thank you."
I think he was pleased to hear that.
And I came back and went in the studio,
and George had had it
decked out with flowers,
just flowers everywhere,
and John had sent me telegrams saying,
"You're the best rock drummer!
Come on home!" [chuckles]
And, uh… and I just felt good
about myself again.
And we'd-- you know,
we'd got through that little crisis.
[Ringo] One bad bit over
on behalf of me, sir.
-[Paul] What, another one?
-[Ringo] One bad bit in that one.
-[Paul] Eh?
-[Ringo] A bad bit.
[Paul] Oh yeah.
[Ringo] In one of the breaks,
I got a bit… [speaks indistinctly]
You know, and I knew we were
just in a messed-up stage,
all of us, uh, then.
You know, it wasn't just me.
It was the whole thing was going down.
-["Rocky Raccoon" playing]
-And started mocking at the time ♪
[Paul] I wanna hear that, boy.
I wanna hear that.
I think
it's a very good album myself,
and I think it stood up.
But it wasn't a pleasant one to make.
But again, you know, sometimes
those things work for your art.
-["Helter Skelter" playing]
-When I get to the bottom ♪
I go back to the top of the slide ♪
Where I stop
and I turn and I go for a ride ♪
Till I get to the bottom
and I see you again ♪
[Ringo] "Helter Skelter"
was just a track we did
in total madness
and hysterics in the studio.
You know, sometimes you just
had to shake out the jams.
[Paul] We just tried to get it
loud with guitars.
Can't we have them sound louder,
the drums louder?
And that was really
all I wanted to do,
make a very loud,
raunchy rock and roll record
with the Beatles, which it is.
Tell me the answer.
Well, you may be a lover ♪
But you ain't no dancer ♪
[Paul] We did it so long and so often,
that on the end of it,
Ringo did have blisters.
And I think, he said--
at the end of some take,
you can hear him,
"I've got blisters on me hands."
-[music concludes]
-[Ringo] I've got blisters
on my fingers!
["I'm So Tired" playing]
I'm so tired,
I haven't slept a wink ♪
I'm so tired,
my mind is on the blink ♪
I wonder, should I get up
and fix myself a drink? ♪
No, no, no ♪
[George] There was a lot more
individual stuff.
For the first time,
I think people were accepting
that it was individual.
Like, I remember being…
having three studios operating
at the same time.
You know, Paul was doing
some overdubs in one,
and John was doing something
in another one,
and I was doing horns
on something else in another studio,
-because…
-[music concludes]
…maybe they'd set a release date
and time was running out.
-["Sexy Sadie" playing]
-You'll get yours yet ♪
-[George] John?
-[John] Yeah? Yes?
[George] Can we start again?
[John] Okay. Okay, Robert.
[music concludes]
-[engineer] Take 29.
-[John] Reach for this one.
Were any of them any good?
A mind-bender.
[studio member]
Sorry, George. What did you say?
[George] I said, there's no point
in Mr. Martin being uptight!
-[Paul] Right. Right.
-[George] You know,
we're all here to do this,
and if you wanna be uptight…
[George Martin]
I don't understand you, huh?
[George]
I mean, you're very negative!
["While My Guitar Gently Weeps" playing]
Still my guitar gently weeps ♪
[music concludes]
Let's hear that back.
["Mother Nature's Son" playing]
All day long, I'm sitting
singing songs for everyone ♪
[music concludes]
[Paul] And this is one of them.
[George]
I'll just be singing to guide you.
[Paul] Yes, fair enough.
[George] Two, three, four…
["Piggies" playing]
In their sties
with all their backing-- ♪
Fuck.
-[Paul] One, two, three.
-["I Will" playing]
Who knows how long
I've loved you? ♪
[Ringo] Can you turn it down
in my cans a bit?
-["Julia" playing]
-Julia ♪
Julia ♪
Julia ♪
[music concludes]
[John] The last mistake
was entirely when I just took
me mind off it for a second.
We always tried
to make things different,
and I think things were
always different anyway,
because, you know,
just in a matter of months,
we'd changed in so many ways,
you know? Um…
so there was… there was
no chance of it ever being,
you know, like the previous record.
And all the experience
that had happened in India
and stuff since Sgt. Pepper
was all embodied in that album.
["Yer Blues" playing]
Yes, I'm lonely ♪
Wanna die ♪
[John] I wasn't interested
in following up Sgt. Pepper,
and, uh, I don't know whether
the others were or not,
but I know that what I was going for
was to forget about Sgt. Pepper,
you know, that was Sgt. Pepper
and that's all right, fine,
it's over, and just get back
to basic music.
["Back in the U.S.S.R." playing]
Flew in from Miami Beach
B.O.A.C. ♪
Didn't get to bed last night ♪
[Ringo] Sgt. Pepper did its thing,
it was the album of the decade,
of the century, maybe.
It was very innovative, great songs.
I'm glad I was on it.
But the White Album,
we ended up being more of a band again.
And that's what I always love.
I loved being in a band.
["Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"
playing]
Why don't we d-do it
in the road? ♪
Why don't we do it
in the road? ♪
Ah ♪
[George] It became apparent
that there was more songs
than would make a single album.
[Paul] I think it's a fine little album,
and I think the fact
that it's got so much on it
is one of the things that's cool about it.
-["Good Night" playing]
-[John] The songs, and most of it,
is just as good as anything we recorded.
[Ringo] And there was lots
of group activity going down.
I love the White Album.
Good night ♪
Good night, everybody ♪
Everybody, everywhere.
Good night ♪
[George Martin]
When they did the White Album,
I thought we should have made
probably a very, very good
single album out of it,
rather than making a double album.
Well, no, I… I agree.
We should have put it out
as two separate albums,
the White and the Whiter Album.
Uh… a lot of information
on a double album.
But, you know, what do you do
when you've got all them songs
and you wanna get, um,
you wanna get rid of them
so you can do more songs?
You know, there was a lot of,
uh, you know, ego in that band,
and, um, there was a lot of songs
that should have just maybe
been elbowed or made into B-sides.
I think it's a fine little album,
and I think the fact that
it's got so much on it
is one of the things that's cool about it,
'cause it's… they're very varied stuff,
you know, "Rocky Raccoon",
"Piggies", um,
"Happiness Is A Warm Gun",
that kind of stuff, you know.
Uh, I think it's a fine album.
You know, I'm…
I'm not a great one for that.
You know, "Maybe it was too many of that."
What do you mean? It was great.
It sold.
It's the bloody Beatles'
White Album! Shut up!
["Revolution" playing]
Waah! Woo! ♪
You say you want a revolution ♪
Well, you know ♪
We'd all love to change the world ♪
You tell me that it's evolution ♪
Well, you know ♪
We'd all love to change the world ♪
But when you talk about destruction ♪
Don't you know that
you can count me out -- in ♪
Don't you know it's gonna be
all right ♪
Don't you know it's gonna be
all right ♪
You know it's gonna be
all right ♪
Hey! ♪
You say
you got a real solution ♪
Well, you know, we'd all love
to see the plan ♪
…shooby doowah
bom shooby doowah ♪
You ask me for a contribution,
well, you know ♪
We're all doing what we can ♪
♪… shooby doowah, bom shooby doowah ♪
But if you want money for
people with minds that hate… ♪
[George] We were outspoken,
you know, the…
the Cromwell kind of figures
in the establishment
were trying to get their own back on us.
Brian Epstein died,
so they tried to say,
"Okay, well, everything they've done
since he died is crap."
You know, just the typical kind
of silly stuff.
Like, everything goes in a cycle,
and once it starts going down,
as anybody can tell you,
you know, when you get
knocked to the ground,
then they…
they start kicking you, you know?
And that's the kinda thing that happened.
The world was a problem, but we weren't.
You know, that was
the best thing about the Beatles.
Until we started to break up,
so like White Album and stuff,
then it… even the studio got
a bit tense then.
[John] We broke up,
then made the double album.
That was the disintegration.
You tell me that it's institution ♪
Well, you know ♪
You know, it was like
the wind-down to a divorce.
You know, a divorce
usually doesn't just happen, you know,
-there's… months and years of misery.
-[music concludes]
["While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
playing]
I look at you all ♪
See the love there that's sleeping ♪
While my guitar gently weeps ♪
I look at the floor ♪
And I see it needs sweeping ♪
Still my guitar gently weeps ♪
I don't know why nobody told you ♪
How to unfold your love ♪
I don't know how
someone controlled you ♪
They bought and sold you ♪
I look at the world
and I notice it's turning ♪
While my guitar gently weeps ♪
With every mistake
we must surely be learning ♪
Still my guitar gently weeps ♪
I don't know how
you were diverted ♪
You were perverted too ♪
I don't know
how you were inverted ♪
No one alerted you ♪
I look from the wings ♪
Of the play you are staging ♪
Still my guitar gently weeps ♪