Tag: George Harrison

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years

“The Beatles were the show and the music had nothing to do with it” – John Lennon

thebeatles_eightdaysaweek_a4Are there actually millennials who are unaware of The Beatles, Beatlemania and their influence on popular culture in the 20th Century? Almost no other band in rock history has endured and maintained their popularity and legacy across generations quite like The Beatles. And yet despite being some of the most documented individuals of all time, there’s somehow still a need for yet another Beatles documentary complete with more “never before seen footage,” as if any could possibly exist.

Ron Howard’s “Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years” captures the mayhem of Beatlemania and the energy of John, Paul, George and Ringo on and off stage, but it fails to delve into even basic observations about what makes their music special. It has impeccably remastered live footage, much of it derived from bootleg home video, but it’s a superficially glossy appreciation of the band that will amuse longtime fans and perhaps register with young newcomers and skeptics. Continue reading “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years”

George Harrison: Living in the Material World

There was an article in which a man was nervous to ask his son who his favorite member of the Beatles was. The writer had been a John guy, and he feared that this son might say Paul (gasp!).

But when the son replied George, the father said, “George?”

We may know the Quiet Beatle’s history as a kid in Liverpool and as a spiritual follower of the Maharishi in India, but Martin Scorsese shows us in his documentary “George Harrison: Living in the Material World” how artful and significant his life was and what that means to us.

For Beatles fanatics and those who have followed George’s solo career faithfully, there may not be much new information about him to be found here. And only in the film’s second half do we begin to realize its profoundness as Olivia Harrison speaks about his spirituality, but the entire film is handled with a sincere level of artistry and grace. Continue reading “George Harrison: Living in the Material World”