Aside from MST3K, I think the group that has had the biggest influence on my life has been the Beatles. Their humor, their creativity and their talent has done so much for me.
My father was a film historian, so we had a video tape recorder pre-VCR that recorded on one-hour reels. One of the movies we had was Yellow Submarine, taped off TV with a break in the middle when the reels had to be changed. I probably wore those reels out, and then, when we got a VCR and got a tape of Yellow Submarine, I wore the tape out. I used to be able to recite the entire movie from beginning to end.
Of course, that got me into the music. My father, who didnāt normally like rock music, had an LP of Sgt. Pepperās Lonely Heartās Club Band which I also wore out.
When I was a little older, I saw A Hard Dayās Night and I still think itās one of the best musical films ever made. Itās absolutely brilliant. (I admit I do have a fondness for Dick Lesterās films.)
Most recently, I watched all eight hours of Peter Jacksonās The Beatles: Get Back, which I thought was brilliant and such a difference from the Let it Be film. Watching those two, itās like youāre watching two completely different sets of Beatles make the same album.
Of course, not everyone likes The Beatles. Iāll end this with something for those of you who donāt like the Fab Four-
For anyone else like me who watched Comedy Central on a loop in the ā90s, you probably watched The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash on a loop. Itās one thing to parody something, but itās another thing to parody something well. The songs in it arenāt just good as parodies of The Beatlesā music; itās actually good music on its own! Through the magic of Discogs, I recently obtained the soundtrack album, and itās just as good as I remember.
Hereās one of the songs on the album, āOuchā, a parody of āHelp!ā
I agree wholeheartedly. The music was great, I suspect thanks mostly to Neil Innes. The parody was brilliant, and if youāve ever seen the documentary The Compleat Beatles, many of the scenes track very closely.
The scene with Bianca Jagger helping Eric Idleās Paul-type character compose a song had me rolling on the floor.
The Beatles werenāt just a band I liked, something I listened to, they were, aside from my parents, the most important, life-changing element in my life. Growing up, I knew I was looking for something, I just didnāt know what it was until I found them. Then it was like, āOh yeah, I want this, I want to do this tooā
The music was the soundtrack to my life, itās been with me every day since I discovered it. My lists of favorite songs, favorite band, favorite albums, all topped by the Beatles. The books, the movies, I have it all, love it all.
Iāll admit that while I do like some of the Beatles songs, theyāre far from my favorite group. But since there are some big fans here, Iād like to ask a question that has always bothered me.
Whatās going on with āThe Long and Winding Roadā? The lyrics are quiet and soft, but thereās this bombastic orchestration going on that doesnāt seem to fit with the tone of the song at all. I think Iād love the song without that.
If you watch the Get Back documentary, there are several scenes where Paul is noodling around on a piano with Long And Winding Road. Beautiful. He does the same with Let It be and again you can hear the artistry in the music and the lyrics without the added noise.
Movie wise: The Mads have spoken about Python as being the originators of a style of comedy they like, though in truth it was the Goons that started that (and maybe someone even further back inspired them). But you can see that type of comedy in Beatles films. The intermission in āHelp!ā (for example) was Goons-like / later, Pythioneqsue.
A Hard Days Night is a classic, but Help is really funny IMHO.
The Rutles was created by Monty Pythonās Eric Idle along with Neil Innes of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band for their show Rutland Weekend Television. Innes had incredible musical talent, so itās not surprise that the music is (almost) as good as the originals.
Innes also did the soundtrack for Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
I consider Spike Milligan to be āPatient Zeroā of what later came to be called āPythonesqueā humor. Without him I think the history of comedy over the past 70 years or so would be very different.
I just remembered another Neil Innes-Beatles connection. The only band other than The Beatles to perform in a Beatles movie is The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in the movie Magical Mystery Tour. The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band featured Vivian Stanshall andā¦ Neil Innes.
