You poor thing, my sister has the same thing and she's not doing great either. Beatles '64 was an emotional watch, I was surprised how much it moved me and I thought it was just me. Sananda Maitreya was called Terence Trent D'Arby in the late 80s and he was a phenomenal talent who looked like he was going to become the next Prince, but somehow it never happened. This is him in action in 1987 with his biggest hit Wishing Well: th-cam.com/video/ynIHsHYaig0/w-d-xo.html
@@stewartstafford My favourite part of Terence Trent D'Arby's interview was when he mentioned how The Beatles had inspired him [and so many people] to take up an instrument and follow their dreams, but acknowledged the suffering this caused as well. The focus is usually on the positive. It reminded me of some session musicians at the time being disdainful, saying that they blamed The Beatles for making every no talent kid think they could be musicians. [I do not mean to imply that Terence Trent D'Arby had no talent, not at all, it just reminded me of other negative comments on the subject.] Sure, it's a double-edged sword, but hasn't the musical landscape we grew up in better for having it?
Best part about the documentary to me was how it managed to make me feel very close and personal with the fans, crowd, and even the Beatles themselves. I got to know how it felt, from both perspectives of the band AND the fans.
The biggest strength of this film is that it did what no photo, previously released footage, or interview could do for me... it allowed me to put myself in the room. The footage and editing, the sound design, and just the composition of the documentary as a whole enables you to very quickly feel what it might've been like to be there. We tend to only show the most glamourous looking films and photos of them, but when we see things like -as you mention- the group bunkered together in The Plaza, I feel like even though it's all in B&W I can sense the energy in the room. I could even guess how the couches they were sitting on must've felt because of how good the footage was. We tend to dramatize the past and condense it. This documentary shows that this day indeed occurred in people's lives. That this was a day on this earth that everyone who was alive then woke up to experience, whether they were aware of what was happening on Ed Sullivan or not. When they're showing that young girl watching Ed Sullivan, you can see a guy in the background sitting on the couch who looks like he is almost begging for them to change the channel! Who knows what he did that day? But we do know that he was there, and he existed and lived in that time, and through the lens of the documentary, we can put ourselves (at least a little bit) into his shoes and think about what he may have been thinking that day.
Well then obviously you haven't seen the much-superior edits of the same footage: "What's Happening In The USA", or "The Beatles First U.S. Visit". (Or "The Beatles Anthology" for that matter). My god, I can't believe people are falling for this inferior piece of crap. They're laughing all the way to the bank. What a joke.
@@TTM9691 That's true and I would love to see What's Happening restored. However, this movie is not that movie. That movie allows you to experience what is going on with a greater immediacy, but it doesn't provide any context for those outside the culture. You can imagine you are travelling with The Beatles etc, and see their first impressions of America, but this movie allows you to understand America's reaction and THEIR first impressions of the Beatles within a cultural context without delving too deeply at a dissertation level -- except the McLuhan stuff, which should've been better edited/contextualized or dropped.
@@TTM9691all of these films can exist and serve a purpose. Having a new release thst includes the old footage doesn’t erase those docs. And it certainly doesn’t make newer works a joke. I’ve seen and owned the docs you’re talking about. But we aren’t talking about them right now, we’re talking about Beatles ‘64.
Hi Lars, I've watched most of your stuff and have enjoyed it. I'm an old english guy, who wound up living alone in Belgium. I grew up with the Beatles and saw them twice in my town when I was 12 years old. I have a couple of anecdotes and a few artefacts no-one has ever seen, would love to share them with you, Steve xx
I first got into the Beatles when I was 14 (I’m 25 now) and I felt very alone in my fandom because I wasn’t on too much social media and my only outlet was a tumblr blog. Documentaries like this make me feel very seen and warms my heart
you are fantastic i love your channel you make my day and always cheer me up sorry to hear you have been ill i hope you get better soon not only are you fantastic but a real legend merry christmas happy new year beeeep beeep beeep beeep thank god for lars land
Good review Lars. & Because the soundtrack was released, I put "This Boy" & "she loves you" in my top 20 personal weekly playlist two weeks ago. It's that good 😂
@@larsland I love Patreon but sometimes my money be funny. I've subscribed to great creators and go months without donating, then I show up again and they're like "Heyyyy welcome back"
Lars, I finally got a chance to watch your commentary (and I have yet to watch the documentary, but I'll get there, being a Beatles fanatic). As for your video....well done; very thoughtful, excellent job. I appreciate the sarcasm, the Ludens (I'm a school bus driver part time, so I use the cough drop regularly). By the way, I hope your doing better, but thanks for spreading the love; that's what The Beatles are all about. As someone, soon to be 67, I lived it; I recall watching them on Ed Sullivan. Today, nothing comes close, and I'm always exploring new music, however, today nothing jumps from the radio, the way "She Loves You", or "I Want To Hold Your Hand". As the guy in the film says..."It's like a light went on". Makes me want to watch "A Hard Day's Night " again which I've seen many times...at home and on the big screen, and it's fresh every time. Thank you though, for another great video, despite being sick, and filled with your narcissistic tendencies (wink wink). Now for a sandwich...and more of the frozen tundra here in Minnesota. Take care! Tim😊
Thanks Lars for making the effort to do this video in spite of being very sick. My immune system was shattered by all the chemotherapy I had. So occasionally I get knocked to the floor by stuff. So well done for doing this under less than ideal circumstances. Personally I think the documentary should have been called Beatles February 1964. It would have been nice to cover the whole year but there we are. Like when they came to my country Australia in June that year.
I highly recommend a couple of documentaries on the trip to you. “When the Beatles drove us wild” made by our ABC television network back in 2014. And restored footage of the Beatles Melbourne concert on that tour. I think that’s on you tube “one night only”. But yes the Beatles tour of our country was a chance for the guys to get there rocks off it seems with our girls ! Lol. But compared to other rock star behaviour it was pretty tame. Lol
Great flags on the window, the funny thing was I was going to ask how you’d managed to get the rainbow effect through your curtains. I thought maybe it was stained glass. Instead it was just class. Nice one Lars. 👍🏻
I wasn't expecting new stories. This documentary came pretty close to the incredible impact they had on everyone. The visceral impact was explosive for each person who first heard them. I think nothing can fully capture that impact. Nothing. It was a sea change for all of us and there isn't a way to fully explain that. This came somewhat close but, it cannot fully repeat that experience. You'd need a time machine. I loved this documentary for trying to bring that experience to people who were not there.
My love of the Beatles makes me watch all things Beatles. My grading scale goes from mildly awesome to majorly awesome. This doc was mildly awesome but I never complain about new Beatles stuff to see and or hear. Hope you get to feeling better and try and ignore negative comments. Some people just suck.
I’m one of those fans who thought it was “meh”, only because I already own this footage (and much more of it) in the First U.S. Visit DVD, which I think is still the more artful presentation. As a second generation fan (and we are definitely the invisible fanbase between OG’d and Gen Z), I can tell you that the First U.S. Visit was a HUGE deal when it came out. Reading the reviews about the revelatory footage in this one, I felt like I was living the Mandela Effect. As for the framing of the story, I may have been spoiled for choice by having heard similar stories in other documentaries too. But I get it. This is for newer fans and if this is someone’s introduction to The Beatles or The Beatles coming to America it’s not a bad place to start. For me that was the now-forgotten The Compleat Beatles documentary.
Yeah the more I watched the more I was like 😑. I watched it about seven times and the more examination proved how thin it really was. I’ve seen dozens of Beatles documentaries, as you have, and I think this doc was well-edited and presented. … which is fine and great but it’s not earth shattering. Pretty fluffy for almost two hours, yeah?
@@larsland Look, it is largely generational. If you are a young person, and you've never seen the First U.S. Visit and are just learning about it, this doc might be good for you. But please understand we old OG farts have actual memories of the Ed Sullivan Show, and we've been going to BeatleFests to see the Maysle Bros footage before they were called the Fest for Beatle Fans, OK!? We are bored to death with talking head interviews discussing what we already know. So many of us are taking a pass. Meh.
You're not wrong at all. "First US Visit" was fantastic (and also the very original: "What's Happening In the USA".) Plus they put it all in the Anthology as well. Which I hear they're going to re-release next year. So instead of waiting a year to do it right, they flood the market with more product. Totally embarrassing. They mutilated the footage, under the guise of "remastering", I just want to puke. Same thing with the albums, remixing them and making them sound worse and worse and worse. Unbelievable. And anyways, I'm a Beatle fanatic, but how embarrassing, in 2024, overhyping The Beatles when they don't need any hype. How cheesy. You're not wrong at all, this documentary is a total embarrassment. Yet again. What a joke.
For me it was The Compleat Beatles too. But that's an overview, whereas this gives you a bit more insight into America's first impressions, which is something I've seen talked about before, but this is the first time, I felt I could experience it.
7:39 I did not watch The documentary. Instead, I watched the Washington Coliseum concert. I love that concert footage... the battle for the good microphone. 😅
For some reason they would only turn on one mic at a time! Remember when it was Ringo's spotlight, so John moves his mic over to the drum kit, which makes sense since it HAD just been working for him. Paul goes over to his mic to make the introduction, so they switch on his mic and DON'T SWITCH IT BACK! Poor Ringo's voice could only just barely be picked up on the drum mic. What a shit show. So classic. But great performances!
@@Kieop when we see the end of B64 , they have the song "Roll over Beethoven" and we see the Washington Colisium footage is now fixed. When George sang the first verse you could hardly hear him. But now. Clear as a bell.
Sorry i didnt realise you’ve been under weather for so long i hope you feel better soon.. im Sure theres footage that ive never seen and i love jt when i see stuff thats new to me..
Lars, thanks for your review. It was nice that you emphasized the humanness of the Beatles. I could really feel your empathy for what those four guys went through. I don’t know if you’re a narcissist ( you might be). As a recovering Catholic, I recommend that you pray two “Hail Marys” and one “Our Father”. That should do the trick.😉
Makes me think of that Beatle lyric when it comes to modern day merchandise pushes from the big corps 'Money, that's what I Want'. Eventually everything that can be said imo now has about the Beatles. Thousands of books, reports, media releases, albums, deluxe releases, super deluxe releases, interviews from everyone to McCartney to Ringo's aunt's dog in the backyard. The well is dried up. I haven't read something new and confirmed (rumours aplenty - just ignore them) in probably a decade or more. This is why with Jackson's Get Back being an exception I have not purchased a Beatle related item for over two years now. But the big corps will keep putting out product. The quality won't be their highest concern (Jackson was a fan so it mattered) and they'll be doing it forever. Paul’s album McCartney 3 was released on at least 26 different coloured vinyl and then he did it with the reimagined album. Counting all official release versions of McCartney 3 on any physical media form - the most I have counted so far is sixteen McCartney III colour variants, and 10 different McCartney III Imagined double LPs. But now in total (excluding Reimagined) Yes. There are a total of 32 iterations already out there of this title across vinyl, CD, and cassette. That’s right and can be proven. It's a task and a half though - and doesn't include promos etc. For me this was a sick example of greed, and it is how the album got to number one in physical sales. Capitalism gone rife.
First at all thank you for your work, I had a trial cough this month and I was sick of it, I can't imagine how much dreadful was and still is it for you. Speaking about the documentary yes it's a well made documentary I think the same but because I am a beatles fan as you said was almost seeing the same and known narrative. It's a good introduction I just wish someone will do a particular and different documentary as it was Linving in the material world, maybe it's still not possible because there too many interests. In general I think there were some good stories and themes who deserved to be explored more, like their mental healths in that period, the entourage who was with them...the structure, the elements were all okay but the documentary lacked a little bit depth, after the wiev I had this feeling that they could do more: for example the restored films could last longer and the contexts explained. I was so surprised to see David Lynch never seen this man so excited before😂 the interviews were all interesting and diverse I love them
I think we needed some of The Beach Boys, someone direct on Capital Records to talk about how music changed around The Beatles! They had their own introduction documentary for the younger generation at the summer of this year in Disney + Because! Leonard Bernstein's extract is from his TV documentary Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution (1967) which ends up as the final tail of it with Brian Wilson playing "Surf's Up" after showing that scene that Leonard Bernstein got in the documentary. Ronnie Spector and Smokey Robinson were really good. I think we could have needed more mention of Capitol Records, how Brian Epstein got to do his deal and how exactly the agreement with Ed Sullivan and the label advertise "I Want to Hold your Hand", having archived interviews of George Martin and excerpts from "Cellarful of Noise" George explained it really great on the Anthology. One quote I felt missing from him was: "The people gave their money and they gave their screams, but the Beatles gave their nervous systems, which is a much more difficult thing to give." which probably would confirm The Waldorf incident and so many more otheir stressful moments for his mind.
No we didn’t. I think you missed the point of the documentary. It was about a point in time when America needed some light after the dark period following JFK and they provided it. If you want musical analysis read the book.
I wish they would have showed what happened to Muhammad Ali , The lads met with him on February 18th, 1964. Then on March 6, 1964 , he revealed his new name, Muhammad Ali, given to him by The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He stood up and would answer to a name that was not this. It angered folks then and it still (the practice) of naming yourself or saying how you identify or wish to be addressed is something that folks have a problem with.
@@Kieop no, not in anyway. But it is important , especially for a documentary that is really about how the Beatles were part of societal change. It was happening , change was in the air.
I agree being disappointed by the documentary because of the Get Back effect and the marketing swirling around the release of this. I just expect a fly on the wall documentary of the recording of all of their albums and tours, restored and remastered in 4K, with endlessly revealing moments of creative discovery! (joking! - not really)
Ha! I forgot about that guy who was so into Beatles' collectibles that he bought a dress! Like you, I had expected to be disappointed and was pleasantly surprised to find that I loved it. I had watched some reviews in advance, since I don't have Disney and couldn't wait to hear the response. My bad. Most people seemed to want more Maysles footage and fewer interviews, often comparing it with Eight Days A Week. That's fair, I also wanted more Maysles footage. But after watching it, I couldn't figure out which "unnecessary" interviews they were referring to. I felt each interview contributed to the story in an insightful and engaging way. It delved into their impact on race, gender, music and culture in a way we haven't really heard compiled in this way before. Even the footage that we've all seen before was presented contextually in such a way that I felt justified its inclusion. And hell. I got to see some concert footage I hadn't actually seen before, though I'm sure it's been available. Man, Ringo looked ill on stage in Miami! Hangover? Food poisoning? Sunstroke?
I feel like the “talking head” critique regarding interviews comes off very old man yelling at clouds. Like just say you don’t respect context and opinions and move on.
I watched this movie with my parents and brother, and my brother said, "Beatles '64? Does that mean they're going to follow this up with a title for the Gamecube?" 😂
Baby's first Beatles doc for Americans. Well i am about to have a baby but not a the American type, so do i show baby this before or after the 1st series of Thomas the Tank Engine? On a less fun note, I wasn't at all surprised about the unpleasantness they exprienced at the embassy, seeing as good old British classism is still so prevelant here today. I can easily imagine some of the things that would have been said directly and indirectly that would have made George so upset. And it's easy to forget just how young they all were.
I really enjoy music from the early 60s, and I loved the contemporaneous accounts and especially interviews from their teenage fans. I found these way more interesting and illuminating than people's testimonials and reflections after the fact. Maybe it's just the historical researcher in me, but I love me some primary source material! Loved hearing from Ronnie Bennett and Smokey Robinson, though. While it's great that the Beatles were not shy about crediting the Black performers who influenced them, their role is more complex and fraught. I always like to say that they finished what Elvis started, and the rock music scene they left in their wake was one that completely sidelined Black and female musicians who originated the genre (not saying this is solely or necessarily their fault-the music industry execs and music journalists capitalized on Beatlemania to whitewash rock and roll and establish rock as a masculinist domain). The commentary on the Beatles' relative androgyny (for the time) was welcome, and it's something i find myself easily overlooking due to shifting norms. However, my gripe is that I have increasingly found that the notion that machismo requires men to suppress all of their emotions except for anger is reductive. While men's anger is easily harnessed and channeled into acceptable forms of violence, I find that men are granted plenty of space to express their aggrieved entitlement, their pain is taken more seriously, and their "sensitivity" is touted as ingenious. Especially in the realm of popular music, men's perspectives have overwhelmingly dominated, and songs that featured white men's woundedness and tears were extremely commonplace in the late 50s and early 60s (think the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Del Shannon and the like). So I found the segment with Betty Friedan extremely hollow and self-congratulatory (perhaps unsurprising given Friedan's work). But moreover, even men who choose to present themselves as less threatening or in less traditionally masculine ways are not automatically exempt from enacting misogyny. TL;DR: while it's good that the film touched upon racial and gender dynamics, its treatment of this subject matter is surface level and incomplete. Perhaps that's to be expected, but I wish we could expect a bit more. I enjoyed the music, though!
I was desperate to know what, one hit wonder Terrence Trent Darby thought of the Beatles. Now I finally know. Too many talking heads, not enough Beatles.
Despite your illiness and your "narcisstic personality", you deliver a great episode. All kiding aside, I enjoyed Beatles '64. I loved hearing more from the fans, Ronnie Spector(RIP), cleaned up footage and some great music. So cool that David Lynch saw the Beatles in DC, which is banger of a show. Sananda Maitreya is the artist formally known as Terence Trent D'arby. Who was big in the late 80's. R&B fused with rock. Took a lot of cues from the Beatles' psychedelic period. I was surprised to see him. Also cool to see people of color represented. I loved seeing footage of the Gonzalez family watching Ed Sullivan. I'm mexican american and grew up hearing the Beatles through my dad. To have been able to experience Beatlemania in real time. Great job, once again
That sananda or however you spell it is Terence trent derby.. In 1988 he was litrally everywhere.. Well okay not litrally. But litrally on TV and radio like all the time.. He was being hailed as the new prince and then.. (poof) litrally nothing ...... LITRALLY
i think the inclusion of the thoughts of the musicians the boys held in such high esteem is a highlight. can you imagine receiving respect from Smokey Robinson. omg. that guy's one of the original author's of how to write an intelligent emotive pop song and no messing. thanks for pushing through with the video. i loved the many faces of Lars approach. i didn't laugh: kind of smiled at the charge of narcissism. someone called me a eunuch in an exchange on comments once. i didn't have this 😢 sort of had this face 🙃 now it's this fsce😛. he had s(🎺)t for brains so fair exchange. the white album video is gonna be TH-cam gold i know it.
Excellent video, I hope you get over this cough, I am dealing with it too. I think the big problem is that it was advertised as a "package" The music is almost what this Doc is about. It is about the Beatles being part of an agent of change, even if they were not aware of it. It maybe should have even been named something different , Like "JFK , The Beatles and the shift:1964" but you can't sell as many Vinyl box sets with a title like that. Beatles fans (Male particularly) cannot share what they feel is "theirs" when It is "ours". The fact that some dudes cannot deal with women, minorities having part of this thing we call fandom. I love that the Beatles themselves seem to not really be able to explain it all. And seeing Paul and his photos and memories, and his not even being able to understand it all. I wrote a mini review I would love to send it to you some how, maybe I will just post it here.
Absolutely agree. Marketing kinda let down the whole deal. I think after everything and seeing it so many times, my overriding feeling is: “that’s it?”
@larsland but now that I've seen it a couple of times it is really good. I understand them wanting to make a splash both on d+ and with the 64 vinyl set. But many Beatles fans that can't think beyond their own opinions are missing out.
Hey, hello! I just wanted to point out that the train footage was shot during the trip from New York to Washington. On a side note, do you have The First US Visit DVD? If so, how do you compare it to the recent documentary?
Ok cool… this doc was so chronologically out of order that I had no idea. and I do but haven’t watched it recently. I’ve seen a lot of docs so they kind of blur together and I wouldn’t be able to give you a good answer 😢.
The First U.S Visit is about three thousand times superior, if that's what you want to know. I mean, it's not even close. Not only is The First U.S. Visit superior, there's a whole second Bonus feature that's an hour and a half of even more footage, narrated by Albert Maysles. This documentary is pathetic, needless and they did an absolute atrocious job with the footage, specifically the audio. So....my advice is to get "The Beatles First U.S. Visit" somehow. God forbid they re-release it! We certainly won't see it now! It's been supplanted by this piece of crap!
I’m sure you’ve seen ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’. Directed by Robert Zemeckis produced by Steven Spielberg. If not, check it out. Would make a nice aperitif…
I deleted my stupid reference. I only used that word because you said it so often in the new video. I’m sorry you had to endure anyone who used it seriously.
I am not conflicted at all. Considering the amount of talent involved in the production, the amount of footage available to them and the budget they had, it was really quite disappointing.
I'm completely infuriated by this pathetic cash-in piece of crap when there are three superior versions of the same footage already cut: "What's Happening The U.S.A.", "The Beatles First U.S. Visit" and "The Beatles Anthology", not to mention the Bonus feature on "First U.S. Visit" that had a whole extra hour and a half of footage, narrated by Albert Maysles himself. What a total piece of garbage. Not only that: they ruined the footage and ruined the audio with all their idiotic software garbage, they removed all the ambient sound, it's a completely piece of crap.
While ambient sound adds to the authenticity of the experience, it can interfere with your ability to make out what people are saying. I guess someone could go in, remove the sound and transcribe everything then go and put the sound back for the full effect.
While ambient sound adds to the authenticity of the experience, it can interfere with your ability to make out what people are saying. I guess someone could go in, remove the sound and transcribe everything then go and put the sound back for the full effect.
Subscriber here. I like the content, but the editing style is often a bit much for me. Just so many edits! I have an autoimmune problem too, btw. It's miserable, so you have my sympathies.
Sorry i didnt realise you’ve been under weather for so long i hope you feel better soon.. im Sure theres footage that ive never seen and i love jt when i see stuff thats new to me..
I uploaded this and started feeling sick again! 🎉 😑 please pray for me or whatever lol
You poor thing, my sister has the same thing and she's not doing great either. Beatles '64 was an emotional watch, I was surprised how much it moved me and I thought it was just me. Sananda Maitreya was called Terence Trent D'Arby in the late 80s and he was a phenomenal talent who looked like he was going to become the next Prince, but somehow it never happened. This is him in action in 1987 with his biggest hit Wishing Well: th-cam.com/video/ynIHsHYaig0/w-d-xo.html
@@stewartstaffordhey thanks for this extra info!! I’ll check it out.
@@stewartstafford My favourite part of Terence Trent D'Arby's interview was when he mentioned how The Beatles had inspired him [and so many people] to take up an instrument and follow their dreams, but acknowledged the suffering this caused as well. The focus is usually on the positive. It reminded me of some session musicians at the time being disdainful, saying that they blamed The Beatles for making every no talent kid think they could be musicians. [I do not mean to imply that Terence Trent D'Arby had no talent, not at all, it just reminded me of other negative comments on the subject.] Sure, it's a double-edged sword, but hasn't the musical landscape we grew up in better for having it?
@@stewartstafford yes!
I always get so happy when I see a new Lars video has been uploaded
aw!
Best part about the documentary to me was how it managed to make me feel very close and personal with the fans, crowd, and even the Beatles themselves. I got to know how it felt, from both perspectives of the band AND the fans.
The biggest strength of this film is that it did what no photo, previously released footage, or interview could do for me... it allowed me to put myself in the room. The footage and editing, the sound design, and just the composition of the documentary as a whole enables you to very quickly feel what it might've been like to be there. We tend to only show the most glamourous looking films and photos of them, but when we see things like -as you mention- the group bunkered together in The Plaza, I feel like even though it's all in B&W I can sense the energy in the room. I could even guess how the couches they were sitting on must've felt because of how good the footage was. We tend to dramatize the past and condense it. This documentary shows that this day indeed occurred in people's lives. That this was a day on this earth that everyone who was alive then woke up to experience, whether they were aware of what was happening on Ed Sullivan or not. When they're showing that young girl watching Ed Sullivan, you can see a guy in the background sitting on the couch who looks like he is almost begging for them to change the channel! Who knows what he did that day? But we do know that he was there, and he existed and lived in that time, and through the lens of the documentary, we can put ourselves (at least a little bit) into his shoes and think about what he may have been thinking that day.
Good comment!
Well then obviously you haven't seen the much-superior edits of the same footage: "What's Happening In The USA", or "The Beatles First U.S. Visit". (Or "The Beatles Anthology" for that matter). My god, I can't believe people are falling for this inferior piece of crap. They're laughing all the way to the bank. What a joke.
@@TTM9691 Cope and seethe chud, joyful outlook has arrived
@@TTM9691 That's true and I would love to see What's Happening restored. However, this movie is not that movie. That movie allows you to experience what is going on with a greater immediacy, but it doesn't provide any context for those outside the culture. You can imagine you are travelling with The Beatles etc, and see their first impressions of America, but this movie allows you to understand America's reaction and THEIR first impressions of the Beatles within a cultural context without delving too deeply at a dissertation level -- except the McLuhan stuff, which should've been better edited/contextualized or dropped.
@@TTM9691all of these films can exist and serve a purpose. Having a new release thst includes the old footage doesn’t erase those docs. And it certainly doesn’t make newer works a joke. I’ve seen and owned the docs you’re talking about. But we aren’t talking about them right now, we’re talking about Beatles ‘64.
Hi Lars, I've watched most of your stuff and have enjoyed it. I'm an old english guy, who wound up living alone in Belgium. I grew up with the Beatles and saw them twice in my town when I was 12 years old. I have a couple of anecdotes and a few artefacts no-one has ever seen, would love to share them with you, Steve xx
You made the documentary more worth the watch ngl thank you for your review on it!!
Aw thanks!
I first got into the Beatles when I was 14 (I’m 25 now) and I felt very alone in my fandom because I wasn’t on too much social media and my only outlet was a tumblr blog. Documentaries like this make me feel very seen and warms my heart
Love that!
I'm sorry you're sick and I hope that you're feeling 100% better soon!
Thank you!
you are fantastic i love your channel you make my day and always cheer me up sorry to hear you have been ill i hope you get better soon not only are you fantastic but a real legend merry christmas happy new year beeeep beeep beeep beeep thank god for lars land
Good review Lars. & Because the soundtrack was released, I put "This Boy" & "she loves you" in my top 20 personal weekly playlist two weeks ago. It's that good 😂
one of my patrons just asked me to do a video on the new soundtrack! it's on my list.
@@larsland I love Patreon but sometimes my money be funny. I've subscribed to great creators and go months without donating, then I show up again and they're like "Heyyyy welcome back"
@@marcofalzone6469moneys rough, liking commenting and subscribing here is a big deal! 😊 that’s all I really want.
@@larsland you got it
Lars, I finally got a chance to watch your commentary (and I have yet to watch the documentary, but I'll get there, being a Beatles fanatic). As for your video....well done; very thoughtful, excellent job. I appreciate the sarcasm, the Ludens (I'm a school bus driver part time, so I use the cough drop regularly). By the way, I hope your doing better, but thanks for spreading the love; that's what The Beatles are all about.
As someone, soon to be 67, I lived it; I recall watching them on Ed Sullivan. Today, nothing comes close, and I'm always exploring new music, however, today nothing jumps from the radio, the way "She Loves You", or "I Want To Hold Your Hand". As the guy in the film says..."It's like a light went on". Makes me want to watch "A Hard Day's Night " again which I've seen many times...at home and on the big screen, and it's fresh every time.
Thank you though, for another great video, despite being sick, and filled with your narcissistic tendencies (wink wink). Now for a sandwich...and more of the frozen tundra here in Minnesota. Take care! Tim😊
Thanks Tim!
You're very welcome....looking forward to the White Album video, and how could not be long, there's alot to cover.😊
Thanks Lars for making the effort to do this video in spite of being very sick. My immune system was shattered by all the chemotherapy I had. So occasionally I get knocked to the floor by stuff. So well done for doing this under less than ideal circumstances. Personally I think the documentary should have been called Beatles February 1964. It would have been nice to cover the whole year but there we are. Like when they came to my country Australia in June that year.
I started reading a book about their Australia trip before watching this doc but kinda got too sick to finish it. It was interesting!
I highly recommend a couple of documentaries on the trip to you. “When the Beatles drove us wild” made by our ABC television network back in 2014. And restored footage of the Beatles Melbourne concert on that tour. I think that’s on you tube “one night only”. But yes the Beatles tour of our country was a chance for the guys to get there rocks off it seems with our girls ! Lol. But compared to other rock star behaviour it was pretty tame. Lol
Great flags on the window, the funny thing was I was going to ask how you’d managed to get the rainbow effect through your curtains. I thought maybe it was stained glass. Instead it was just class. Nice one Lars. 👍🏻
No stained glass, just queer! :) 😊
I wasn't expecting new stories. This documentary came pretty close to the incredible impact they had on everyone. The visceral impact was explosive for each person who first heard them. I think nothing can fully capture that impact. Nothing. It was a sea change for all of us and there isn't a way to fully explain that. This came somewhat close but, it cannot fully repeat that experience. You'd need a time machine. I loved this documentary for trying to bring that experience to people who were not there.
I see everyone’s opinions on it and they’re all valid. Being disappointed makes sense. Being thrilled makes sense.
My love of the Beatles makes me watch all things Beatles. My grading scale goes from mildly awesome to majorly awesome. This doc was mildly awesome but I never complain about new Beatles stuff to see and or hear. Hope you get to feeling better and try and ignore negative comments. Some people just suck.
this is a good scale.
I’m one of those fans who thought it was “meh”, only because I already own this footage (and much more of it) in the First U.S. Visit DVD, which I think is still the more artful presentation.
As a second generation fan (and we are definitely the invisible fanbase between OG’d and Gen Z), I can tell you that the First U.S. Visit was a HUGE deal when it came out. Reading the reviews about the revelatory footage in this one, I felt like I was living the Mandela Effect.
As for the framing of the story, I may have been spoiled for choice by having heard similar stories in other documentaries too.
But I get it. This is for newer fans and if this is someone’s introduction to The Beatles or The Beatles coming to America it’s not a bad place to start. For me that was the now-forgotten The Compleat Beatles documentary.
Yeah the more I watched the more I was like 😑. I watched it about seven times and the more examination proved how thin it really was. I’ve seen dozens of
Beatles documentaries, as you have, and I think this doc was well-edited and presented.
… which is fine and great but it’s not earth shattering. Pretty fluffy for almost two hours, yeah?
@@larsland Look, it is largely generational. If you are a young person, and you've never seen the First U.S. Visit and are just learning about it, this doc might be good for you. But please understand we old OG farts have actual memories of the Ed Sullivan Show, and we've been going to BeatleFests to see the Maysle Bros footage before they were called the Fest for Beatle Fans, OK!? We are bored to death with talking head interviews discussing what we already know. So many of us are taking a pass. Meh.
You're not wrong at all. "First US Visit" was fantastic (and also the very original: "What's Happening In the USA".) Plus they put it all in the Anthology as well. Which I hear they're going to re-release next year. So instead of waiting a year to do it right, they flood the market with more product. Totally embarrassing. They mutilated the footage, under the guise of "remastering", I just want to puke. Same thing with the albums, remixing them and making them sound worse and worse and worse. Unbelievable. And anyways, I'm a Beatle fanatic, but how embarrassing, in 2024, overhyping The Beatles when they don't need any hype. How cheesy. You're not wrong at all, this documentary is a total embarrassment. Yet again. What a joke.
@@jackeppington6488 did you watch my video because I literally said everything you said lmao
For me it was The Compleat Beatles too. But that's an overview, whereas this gives you a bit more insight into America's first impressions, which is something I've seen talked about before, but this is the first time, I felt I could experience it.
7:39 I did not watch The documentary. Instead, I watched the Washington Coliseum concert. I love that concert footage... the battle for the good microphone. 😅
A war for the books
For some reason they would only turn on one mic at a time! Remember when it was Ringo's spotlight, so John moves his mic over to the drum kit, which makes sense since it HAD just been working for him. Paul goes over to his mic to make the introduction, so they switch on his mic and DON'T SWITCH IT BACK! Poor Ringo's voice could only just barely be picked up on the drum mic. What a shit show. So classic. But great performances!
@@Kieop when we see the end of B64 , they have the song "Roll over Beethoven" and we see the Washington Colisium footage is now fixed. When George sang the first verse you could hardly hear him. But now. Clear as a bell.
Sorry i didnt realise you’ve been under weather for so long i hope you feel better soon.. im
Sure theres footage that ive never seen and i love jt when i see stuff thats new to me..
Lars, thanks for your review. It was nice that you emphasized the humanness of the Beatles. I could really feel your empathy for what those four guys went through.
I don’t know if you’re a narcissist ( you might be). As a recovering Catholic, I recommend that you pray two “Hail Marys” and one “Our Father”. That should do the trick.😉
They don’t let me pray anymore. Even the lord above is like “I’m good.”
Makes me think of that Beatle lyric when it comes to modern day merchandise pushes from the big corps 'Money, that's what I Want'. Eventually everything that can be said imo now has about the Beatles. Thousands of books, reports, media releases, albums, deluxe releases, super deluxe releases, interviews from everyone to McCartney to Ringo's aunt's dog in the backyard. The well is dried up. I haven't read something new and confirmed (rumours aplenty - just ignore them) in probably a decade or more. This is why with Jackson's Get Back being an exception I have not purchased a Beatle related item for over two years now. But the big corps will keep putting out product. The quality won't be their highest concern (Jackson was a fan so it mattered) and they'll be doing it forever.
Paul’s album McCartney 3 was released on at least 26 different coloured vinyl and then he did it with the reimagined album. Counting all official release versions of McCartney 3 on any physical media form - the most I have counted so far is sixteen McCartney III colour variants, and 10 different McCartney III Imagined double LPs.
But now in total (excluding Reimagined) Yes. There are a total of 32 iterations already out there of this title across vinyl, CD, and cassette. That’s right and can be proven. It's a task and a half though - and doesn't include promos etc.
For me this was a sick example of greed, and it is how the album got to number one in physical sales. Capitalism gone rife.
First at all thank you for your work, I had a trial cough this month and I was sick of it, I can't imagine how much dreadful was and still is it for you. Speaking about the documentary yes it's a well made documentary I think the same but because I am a beatles fan as you said was almost seeing the same and known narrative. It's a good introduction I just wish someone will do a particular and different documentary as it was Linving in the material world, maybe it's still not possible because there too many interests. In general I think there were some good stories and themes who deserved to be explored more, like their mental healths in that period, the entourage who was with them...the structure, the elements were all okay but the documentary lacked a little bit depth, after the wiev I had this feeling that they could do more: for example the restored films could last longer and the contexts explained. I was so surprised to see David Lynch never seen this man so excited before😂 the interviews were all interesting and diverse I love them
I think we needed some of The Beach Boys, someone direct on Capital Records to talk about how music changed around The Beatles!
They had their own introduction documentary for the younger generation at the summer of this year in Disney +
Because! Leonard Bernstein's extract is from his TV documentary Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution (1967) which ends up as the final tail of it with Brian Wilson playing "Surf's Up" after showing that scene that Leonard Bernstein got in the documentary.
Ronnie Spector and Smokey Robinson were really good.
I think we could have needed more mention of Capitol Records, how Brian Epstein got to do his deal and how exactly the agreement with Ed Sullivan and the label advertise "I Want to Hold your Hand", having archived interviews of George Martin and excerpts from "Cellarful of Noise"
George explained it really great on the Anthology.
One quote I felt missing from him was: "The people gave their money and they gave their screams, but the Beatles gave their nervous systems, which is a much more difficult thing to give." which probably would confirm The Waldorf incident and so many more otheir stressful moments for his mind.
No we didn’t. I think you missed the point of the documentary. It was about a point in time when America needed some light after the dark period following JFK and they provided it. If you want musical analysis read the book.
I wish they would have showed what happened to Muhammad Ali , The lads met with him on February 18th, 1964. Then on March 6, 1964 , he revealed his new name, Muhammad Ali, given to him by The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He stood up and would answer to a name that was not this. It angered folks then and it still (the practice) of naming yourself or saying how you identify or wish to be addressed is something that folks have a problem with.
Ooh good point!
Hmm. Are you implying that meeting The Beatles encouraged him to make the declaration?😊
@@Kieop no, not in anyway. But it is important , especially for a documentary that is really about how the Beatles were part of societal change. It was happening , change was in the air.
You're the best person (with narcissistic personality desorder) i stumbled upon on youtube
Don’t worry about the idiots; you’re badass.
😊
I agree being disappointed by the documentary because of the Get Back effect and the marketing swirling around the release of this. I just expect a fly on the wall documentary of the recording of all of their albums and tours, restored and remastered in 4K, with endlessly revealing moments of creative discovery! (joking! - not really)
I just expect 24/7 surveillance footage of their entire lives. Is that too much to ask??
@@larsland parts of that footage is floating around the brains of Paul and Ringo...so, it's out there! lol - great video as always!
Ha! I forgot about that guy who was so into Beatles' collectibles that he bought a dress!
Like you, I had expected to be disappointed and was pleasantly surprised to find that I loved it. I had watched some reviews in advance, since I don't have Disney and couldn't wait to hear the response. My bad. Most people seemed to want more Maysles footage and fewer interviews, often comparing it with Eight Days A Week. That's fair, I also wanted more Maysles footage. But after watching it, I couldn't figure out which "unnecessary" interviews they were referring to. I felt each interview contributed to the story in an insightful and engaging way. It delved into their impact on race, gender, music and culture in a way we haven't really heard compiled in this way before. Even the footage that we've all seen before was presented contextually in such a way that I felt justified its inclusion. And hell. I got to see some concert footage I hadn't actually seen before, though I'm sure it's been available. Man, Ringo looked ill on stage in Miami! Hangover? Food poisoning? Sunstroke?
I feel like the “talking head” critique regarding interviews comes off very old man yelling at clouds. Like just say you don’t respect context and opinions and move on.
Great video! I also enjoyed the documentary quite a bit
You don’t seem like a narcissist to me. You seem heavily interested in what you're talking about. You're cool Lars!
THANK you!
What's that got to do with narcissism?
That's irrelevant right now
Guys. Eirik is responding to my joke about some cruelty in my previous comments. It’s not a big deal.
@larsland That's ok,I forgive you for my sins.
I watched this movie with my parents and brother, and my brother said, "Beatles '64? Does that mean they're going to follow this up with a title for the Gamecube?" 😂
cute flannel ... im conflicted on it too
Thanks!
Baby's first Beatles doc for Americans. Well i am about to have a baby but not a the American type, so do i show baby this before or after the 1st series of Thomas the Tank Engine?
On a less fun note, I wasn't at all surprised about the unpleasantness they exprienced at the embassy, seeing as good old British classism is still so prevelant here today. I can easily imagine some of the things that would have been said directly and indirectly that would have made George so upset. And it's easy to forget just how young they all were.
I was surprised by the embassy stuff too.
I really enjoy music from the early 60s, and I loved the contemporaneous accounts and especially interviews from their teenage fans. I found these way more interesting and illuminating than people's testimonials and reflections after the fact. Maybe it's just the historical researcher in me, but I love me some primary source material! Loved hearing from Ronnie Bennett and Smokey Robinson, though.
While it's great that the Beatles were not shy about crediting the Black performers who influenced them, their role is more complex and fraught. I always like to say that they finished what Elvis started, and the rock music scene they left in their wake was one that completely sidelined Black and female musicians who originated the genre (not saying this is solely or necessarily their fault-the music industry execs and music journalists capitalized on Beatlemania to whitewash rock and roll and establish rock as a masculinist domain).
The commentary on the Beatles' relative androgyny (for the time) was welcome, and it's something i find myself easily overlooking due to shifting norms. However, my gripe is that I have increasingly found that the notion that machismo requires men to suppress all of their emotions except for anger is reductive. While men's anger is easily harnessed and channeled into acceptable forms of violence, I find that men are granted plenty of space to express their aggrieved entitlement, their pain is taken more seriously, and their "sensitivity" is touted as ingenious. Especially in the realm of popular music, men's perspectives have overwhelmingly dominated, and songs that featured white men's woundedness and tears were extremely commonplace in the late 50s and early 60s (think the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Del Shannon and the like). So I found the segment with Betty Friedan extremely hollow and self-congratulatory (perhaps unsurprising given Friedan's work). But moreover, even men who choose to present themselves as less threatening or in less traditionally masculine ways are not automatically exempt from enacting misogyny.
TL;DR: while it's good that the film touched upon racial and gender dynamics, its treatment of this subject matter is surface level and incomplete. Perhaps that's to be expected, but I wish we could expect a bit more. I enjoyed the music, though!
I was desperate to know what, one hit wonder Terrence Trent Darby thought of the Beatles. Now I finally know. Too many talking heads, not enough Beatles.
Despite your illiness and your "narcisstic personality", you deliver a great episode. All kiding aside, I enjoyed Beatles '64. I loved hearing more from the fans, Ronnie Spector(RIP), cleaned up footage and some great music. So cool that David Lynch saw the Beatles in DC, which is banger of a show. Sananda Maitreya is the artist formally known as Terence Trent D'arby. Who was big in the late 80's. R&B fused with rock. Took a lot of cues from the Beatles' psychedelic period. I was surprised to see him. Also cool to see people of color represented. I loved seeing footage of the Gonzalez family watching Ed Sullivan. I'm mexican american and grew up hearing the Beatles through my dad. To have been able to experience Beatlemania in real time. Great job, once again
My narcissistic personality disorder loves this comment
That sananda or however you spell it is Terence trent derby.. In 1988 he was litrally everywhere.. Well okay not litrally. But litrally on TV and radio like all the time.. He was being hailed as the new prince and then.. (poof) litrally nothing ...... LITRALLY
I got another comment about this! I had no idea. Very… bizarre???
i think the inclusion of the thoughts of the musicians the boys held in such high esteem is a highlight. can you imagine receiving respect from Smokey Robinson. omg. that guy's one of the original author's of how to write an intelligent emotive pop song and no messing.
thanks for pushing through with the video. i loved the many faces of Lars approach.
i didn't laugh: kind of smiled at the charge of narcissism. someone called me a eunuch in an exchange on comments once. i didn't have this 😢 sort of had this face 🙃 now it's this fsce😛. he had s(🎺)t for brains so fair exchange.
the white album video is gonna be TH-cam gold i know it.
Took a village of Larses (Lars’? Multiples of me) to get through this video lmao
@@larslandL 'arses' seems unlikely all i'm sayin'. you'd never have made it through school.
@@alanclayton9277ok but it’s funny and I
DO have two bachelor degrees!
@@larsland Larsae
Ignore the trolls, you're great
Ringo can do whatever he wants
I loved the doc. But I had taken an edible so there’s that. I just needed a fix until Lewisohn’s Volume 2 comes out.
Might need a couple more edibles til then unless I missed a release date announcement lol
Excellent video, I hope you get over this cough, I am dealing with it too. I think the big problem is that it was advertised as a "package" The music is almost what this Doc is about. It is about the Beatles being part of an agent of change, even if they were not aware of it. It maybe should have even been named something different , Like "JFK , The Beatles and the shift:1964" but you can't sell as many Vinyl box sets with a title like that. Beatles fans (Male particularly) cannot share what they feel is "theirs" when It is "ours". The fact that some dudes cannot deal with women, minorities having part of this thing we call fandom. I love that the Beatles themselves seem to not really be able to explain it all. And seeing Paul and his photos and memories, and his not even being able to understand it all. I wrote a mini review I would love to send it to you some how, maybe I will just post it here.
Absolutely agree. Marketing kinda let down the whole deal. I think after everything and seeing it so many times, my overriding feeling is: “that’s it?”
@larsland but now that I've seen it a couple of times it is really good. I understand them wanting to make a splash both on d+ and with the 64 vinyl set. But many Beatles fans that can't think beyond their own opinions are missing out.
Hey, hello! I just wanted to point out that the train footage was shot during the trip from New York to Washington.
On a side note, do you have The First US Visit DVD? If so, how do you compare it to the recent documentary?
Ok cool… this doc was so chronologically out of order that I had no idea. and I do but haven’t watched it recently. I’ve seen a lot of docs so they kind of blur together and I wouldn’t be able to give you a good answer 😢.
@ No pressure, I was just curious 🙂
The First U.S Visit is about three thousand times superior, if that's what you want to know. I mean, it's not even close. Not only is The First U.S. Visit superior, there's a whole second Bonus feature that's an hour and a half of even more footage, narrated by Albert Maysles. This documentary is pathetic, needless and they did an absolute atrocious job with the footage, specifically the audio. So....my advice is to get "The Beatles First U.S. Visit" somehow. God forbid they re-release it! We certainly won't see it now! It's been supplanted by this piece of crap!
it was meh, I didn't even finish it! But I'm sure this vid will make me want to give it another chance!
I get it!
@@tommoranofficial it is good. It is a story so much bigger than the Beatles they are attempting to tell
I’m sure you’ve seen ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’. Directed by Robert Zemeckis produced by Steven Spielberg. If not, check it out. Would make a nice aperitif…
I deleted my stupid reference. I only used that word because you said it so often in the new video. I’m sorry you had to endure anyone who used it seriously.
No no it’s not YOU lmao. It’s fine it’s a joke on our end
I am not conflicted at all.
Considering the amount of talent involved in the production, the amount of footage available to them and the budget they had, it was really quite disappointing.
👍👍👍
I don't bother with any docs exploiting 60 year old films.
Have you seen the full Maysles footage ? I love this little doc. Love you and your videos as always :)x
th-cam.com/video/38jmSpSPujY/w-d-xo.html
I have! Thank you
Thank GOD someone uploaded that Bonus Feature!
I'm completely infuriated by this pathetic cash-in piece of crap when there are three superior versions of the same footage already cut: "What's Happening The U.S.A.", "The Beatles First U.S. Visit" and "The Beatles Anthology", not to mention the Bonus feature on "First U.S. Visit" that had a whole extra hour and a half of footage, narrated by Albert Maysles himself. What a total piece of garbage. Not only that: they ruined the footage and ruined the audio with all their idiotic software garbage, they removed all the ambient sound, it's a completely piece of crap.
Totally valid points man!
While ambient sound adds to the authenticity of the experience, it can interfere with your ability to make out what people are saying. I guess someone could go in, remove the sound and transcribe everything then go and put the sound back for the full effect.
While ambient sound adds to the authenticity of the experience, it can interfere with your ability to make out what people are saying. I guess someone could go in, remove the sound and transcribe everything then go and put the sound back for the full effect.
Subscriber here. I like the content, but the editing style is often a bit much for me. Just so many edits! I have an autoimmune problem too, btw. It's miserable, so you have my sympathies.
I love how I edit! It’s why I do it! 😊 thanks Craig.
@@larslandi love how you edit too.
Darling, you are great, but focus. 😂 the amount of time cuts for adding some info was really something 😂
Yes, I’m great and I’m thorough. Thanks for noticing!
Sorry i didnt realise you’ve been under weather for so long i hope you feel better soon.. im
Sure theres footage that ive never seen and i love jt when i see stuff thats new to me..
Thanks! And yeah for sure