From left: John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, George Harrison
Our nuclear family caught the new full-length musical documentary, “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week,” last month at our favorite neighborhood cineplex and hangout, and had a great time re-living and re-humming the fave band’s ageless anthems.
Even more impressively, our viewing group was made up of three generations—and yet we all had fun! Now, that’s proof positive that the Beatles are indeed “4-ever.”
Much of the docu’s material wasn’t all that surprising—but, director Ron Howard was able to offer some sparklingly fresh insights by refocusing some already well-known details to arrive at a new perception of the fab four’s significance and
impact.
Some of our own perceptions were adjusted, especially when it came to drummer Ringo Starr’s contributions to the group. All along, we regarded him as the least seminal and influential member of the Beatles—until the new docu included a quote from the other members that indicated the opposite.
They said that the group really came together aurally and musically when they first heard Ringo’s enthusiastic and happy percussive sound, which breathed new life, tempo and spirit into their standard songs.
The documentary also revealed that Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote many of the group’s iconic songs, and that they worked really fast—which enabled them to meet their management’s ambitious target of being able to come up with a new single every three months—and a new album twice a year!
It was this prodigiously prolific output that enabled the Beatles’ career arc to maintain its upward ascendancy for years, until it left everybody else far behind.
The “secret” to the Beatles’ unprecedented and still unrivaled success? A key factor that emerges from the docu is the fact that the fab four were gifted individuals, different from one another, so sameness and satiety were winningly avoided.
In addition, they refused to rest on their laurels and kept innovating, stretching, deepening and tapping into different forms of music, so their sound continually evolved—and improved!
They could have just banked on their proven hits for many years, but chose instead to lead their fans into different directions, thus musically educating and enlightening the multitude.
Most daringly of all, they decided to stop performing together because they no longer enjoyed it, even if it means giving up an additional fortune in additional revenues.
Yes, they could already “afford” to do that because they had become fabulously wealthy, but other stars keep making hay even if they’re performing half-asleep onstage. So, the Beatles were different, and better than most, even in the “filthy lucre” department.
They made a lot of lucre, but it definitely wasn’t filthy or lazily earned. The lads from Liverpool may not have been “well-born” and educated, but they were true artists, who valued their music and their fans more than all the billions and gazillions they stood to make.
No wonder, they really are “The Beatles 4-ever,” as their songs continue to be sung and loved by multiple generations, including all of ours.