The Beatles Anthology (film)

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The Beatles Anthology (film)
Directed by Geoff Wonfor
Bob Smeaton
Produced by Neil Aspinall
Chips Chipperfield
Written by Bob Smeaton
Starring John Lennon
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
Ringo Starr
Music by John Lennon
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
Richard Starkey
George Martin (incidental music)
Distributed by EMI Records Limited
Label: Apple Corps Limited 07243 4 92969 9 2
Release date(s) March 31, 2003 (UK release)
April 1 2003 (US release)
Running time 11 hours 21 mins (approx)
Language English
Subtitles: Deutsch, English, Español, Français, Italiano, Português, Português do brasil
IMDb profile

The Beatles Anthology is the DVD version of the original 1996 documentary series The Beatles Anthology (which was released on eight VHS tapes in 1996 and was transmitted on television in multiple abridged parts) covered in four DVDs, plus an 81-minute special-features disc. In the 10-hour long The Beatles Anthology series, The Beatles told the story of their band. At that time, the Anthology project launched a TV series; three double-CD sets, which each topped the album charts in the United States; and the singles "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love", the first new Beatles recordings in 25 years. Since then, rumour had been rife of the existence of intimate footage of Paul, George and Ringo jamming together during breaks in the making of the Anthology; the fifth disc has covered footage of these never released jam sessions, in which "The Threetles" (the living Beatles) play non-Beatles material.

When the Anthology was first shown on American television, on ABC, the tagline for the network during the time was "A Beatle C".[1][2]

Contents

[edit] Production details

  • Editor: Andy Matthews
  • Production Manager: Bryony Cranstoun
  • Archive Consultats: Julian Adamoli/Geraldine Royds
  • Design/Art Direction: Richard Ward /The Team
  • Cover Concept: Klaus Voormann
  • Cover Painting: Klaus Voormann /Alfons Kiefer
  • Picture Grading & Image Restoration: Ascent Media, London
  • Picture Aspect: 4:3
  • Sound: LPCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, DTS 5.1 surround sound

[edit] DVD One

All songs are written by Lennon-McCartney and performed by The Beatles, unless otherwise noted.

[edit] Episode One (July '40 to March '63) - 1:18:53

"You couldn't get a cup of sugar, never mind a rock' n' roll record." - George Harrison

  1. Liverpool: The Childhood Years [7:35]
  2. Discovering Rock & Roll [11:23]
  3. John, Paul & George – The Beginning of The Beatles [5:21]
  4. First Recordings 1958 – 1960 [2:55]
  5. Stuart Sutcliffe [3:20]
  6. Early Tours [6:59]
  7. Pete Best [2:07]
  8. Hamburg [13:16]
  9. Growing Pains [1:09]
  10. Stuart Sutcliffe Leaves [2:08]
  11. The Cavern [4:08]
  12. Decca Sessions [1:28]
  13. George Martin [1:40]
    • The Beatles and George Martin, Record Producer, discuss the context of their meeting after Brian Epstein “HAVE SECURED CONTRACT FOR BEATLES TO RECORDED FOR EMI ON PARLOPHONE LABEL 1ST RECORDING DATE SET FOR JUNE 6TH.” (The text of the Telegram of Brian Epstein.)
  14. Ringo Arrives [4:44]
  15. “Love Me Do” [3:13]
    • Love Me Do — Footage of the Beatles performing the song in 1963, which merges at the very end to a small footage of Ringo playing drums in 1995 during the Anthology sessions.
  16. “Please Please Me” – “We’re No. 1” [7:27]

[edit] Episode Two (March '63 to February '64) - 1:11:43

"George and I shared an apartment in Green Street, Park Lane... Wow! ₤45 a week. A fortune." - Ringo Starr

  1. Racing Up The Ladder [11:02]
  2. Touring Britain – 1963 [11:30]
  3. London – 1963 [15:04]
  4. Early Television Appearances [3:45]
    • Excerpts of footage from the Big Night Out TV Show.
    • Footages of live performance on the "Morecambe and Wise Show", recorded at ATV's Elstree TV studio's on Monday 2nd December 1963, and broadcast on Saturday 18 April, 1964 (8.25 pm).
  5. Voice Clips from Abbey Road Studios [4:56]
  6. Reflections on Sudden Fame [5:13]
  7. Beatlemania [4:41]
  8. Royal Variety Performance [9:43]
    • Footages of live performance during "The Royal Command Performance" at The Prince of Wales theatre on 4 November 1963, and broadcast on TV and radio on Sunday 10 November 1963.
    • Includes John's "Jewellery" comment as an introduction to Twist and Shout: “For our last number, I’d like to ask your help. Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands and the rest of you, if you’d just rattle your jewellery?”
  9. Second Album: “With The Beatles” [9:39]
  10. Olympia Theatre, Paris – 1964 [1:22]
  11. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” Reaches No. 1 in The U.S. [5:50]

[edit] DVD Two

All songs are written by Lennon-McCartney and performed by The Beatles, unless otherwise noted.

[edit] Episode Three (February '64 to July '64) - 1:12:56

"Miami! That was just like paradise because we'd never been anywhere with palm trees." - Paul McCartney

  1. Arrival In The U.S. – February 1964 [10:00]
  2. First Appearance On The Ed Sullivan Show [3:55]
    • All My Loving – Footages of the first appearance of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show at New York on 9 February 1964.
    • Paul remarking later: “It's still supposed to be the largest viewing audience ever in the States”.
    • Footage of the wire from Elvis Presley and Colonel Tom Parker: “CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR APPEARANCE ON THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW AND YOUR VISIT TO AMERICA. WE HOPE YOUR ENGAGEMENT WILL BE A SUCCESSFUL ONE AND YOUR VISIT PLEASANT.”
    • George commenting later: “... ... they said there was the least reported, or no reported crime. Even the criminals had a rest for ten minutes while we were on.”
  3. The Coliseum Concert – Washington D.C. [10:29]
    • Footages of the Beatles performing at the Washington Coliseum on 11 February, 1964:
      • She Loves You — “We’d like to thank everybody for buying this particular record – for starting us off in America … …” (Intro by Paul)
      • I Saw Her Standing There — “… … We’d like you to join in – clap your hands and stamp your feet … …” (Intro by Paul)
      • Please Please Me — “… … This song was released in America. It didn’t do anything. It was released later again and, well, it's doing something. … …” (Intro by Paul)
  4. Reception At The British Embassy [1:08]
  5. Miami Beach [3:00]
    • I'll Follow the Sun – Played over footages of still photographs taken by different members of the group with their Pentax Cameras showing various moments of their visit to the Miami Beach.
  6. Second Appearance On The Ed Sullivan Show [3:54]
    • Footages from the Ed Sullivan Show Rehearsals, Miami, 16 February, 1964
    • This Boy – Excerpts of footages of the Beatles’ second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show at the Deauville Hotel.
    • “These youngsters from Liverpool, England … … Their conduct over here, not only as fine professional singers but as a group of fine youngsters will leave an imprint with everyone over here who has met them.” — Ed Sullivan
  7. Return To England [1:59]
    • I Want to Hold Your Hand – Footages of the Fab Four returning to England after conquering America and meeting the press at the London Airport on 22nd February 1964.
  8. “They’re Going To Put Us In The Movies” [2:56]
    • Paul: “… I’m talking about this progression with the Beatles. From the Stevedores’ and Dockers’ Union, the Cavern, better clubs. So films was one that we’d always thought of. ... We were interested in films and what happened was Brian started talking to people, knowing of our interest and he came up with Dick Lester's name.
    • Footages of the classic comedy short film Running Jumping Standing Still directed by Dick Lester.
    • Paul: “… Dick came round. He was a bit of a musician, played jazz piano, so he was even more interesting. … He got hold of Alun Owen, a Welsh playwright who’d written Last Tram to Lime Street. … He picked up little quotes like “He's very clean, isn’t he?” He picked up the jokes and sarcasm, the Beatle humour, John's wit and each one of us, Ringo's laconic humour. He picked up our characters, which was good. …”
  9. Filming “A Hard Day's Night” [10:54]
  10. “In His Own Write” [3:00]
    • Footages from a TV Show where John Lennon reads from his book In His Own Write.
    • Photographs of The Daily Howl, a daily comic drawn by John Lennon in his school days.
  11. World Tour 1964 [14:45]
  12. World Premiere of “A Hard Day's Night” [2:14]
  13. Liverpool Homecoming [5:42]

[edit] Episode Four (August '64 to August '65) - 1:10:33

"She (The Queen) seemed pleasant enough, you know; made us relax." - John Lennon

  1. First Major U.S. Tour – Summer, 1964 [9:12]
  2. Meeting Bob Dylan [3:01]
    • Footages of discussions on Bob Dylan and his music:
      • Paul: “He was our idol.”
      • Ringo: “Bob was our hero. … I heard of Bob through John. He played the records to me. It was just great.”
      • George: “Not an idol but we heard his record; we’d listen to his album. It really gave us a buzz and we played it over and over again. … I think he was Freewheelin’.”
      • John: “We loved Bob Dylan.”
    • Footages of live performance of Bob Dylan —
  3. The Pressures of Touring [6:13]
  4. Feedback – “I Feel Fine” [3:50]
    • I Feel Fine – The group discussing the use of sound effects like feedback in their music:
      • George Martin: “John had mucked around with feedbacks for a while. Yes, it was intentional. … I think it was the first time that feedback was used on a record. … It was his idea, it was great.”
      • George: “He figured out how to do it. We used to do it on stage then. … In a way, he invented Jimi Hendrix.”
      • Paul: “It probably was, actually.”
  5. Recording “Beatles for Sale” [8:49]
  6. Filming “Help!’ [14:27]
  7. “Yesterday” [5:09]
    • Footages from the Big Night Out TV Show, Blackpool – the Beatles’ only British television appearance to promote Help! ... and the first solo stage performance of Yesterday. Recorded and broadcast on Sunday, 1st August, 1965 from the ABC Theatre, Blackpool from 9:10 to 10:05 p.m.
  8. NME Poll Winners’ Concert – April 11, 1965 [2:00]
  9. George Talks About His Songs [4:07]
    • George: “They’d been writing since we were at school. They’d written all – or most of their bad songs before we got into the recording studio. I had to come from nowhere and start writing and to have something at least quality enough to put in the record with all their wondrous hits.”
    • Act Naturally (Russell-Morrison) (Live at the Big Night Out TV Show, Blackpool) — “Now something we don’t often do. Give someone a chance to sing who doesn’t often sing. And here he is. All out of key and nervous, singing Act Naturally.” — Intro by Ringo
  10. “Ticket to Ride” [2:44]
    • Ticket to Ride - Footages of two versions of the song, the live version at Blackpool and the taped TV promotional film version, are merged with one another.
  11. The Beatles Receive The MBE From The Queen [11:01]

[edit] DVD Three

All songs are written by Lennon-McCartney and performed by The Beatles, unless otherwise noted.

[edit] Episode Five (August '65 to July '66) - 1:11:47

"We were all expanding in all areas in our life; opening up to a lot of different attitudes." - Ringo Starr

  1. Shea Stadium Concert – August 15, 1965 [15:37]
  2. Meeting Elvis Presley [5:04]
  3. More Tour Pressure [2:31]
  4. New Musical Directions – “Rubber Soul” And “Revolver” [8:20]
    • In My Life [Overdub on 22nd October, 1965 – Take 3] – Played in the background over footages showing the band talking about the new musical directions.
      • George Martin: “… They were finding new frontiers all the time.”
      • Ringo: “… Our whole attitude was changing. … I think grass was really influential in a lot of our changes.”
      • Paul: “The direction was changing away from poppy stuff. … We branched out into songs that are a bit more surreal, more entertaining. … Dylan was starting to influence us quite heavily at that point.”
      • John: “When it got sort of contemporary as it were, a contemporary influence … I think Rubber Soul was about when it started happening.”
    • Drive My Car [Recorded on 13 October 1965 – Take 4) – Nowhere Man [Remake recorded on 22nd October, 1965 - Take 4] – A musical collage played over footages of still photographs showing different moments of the band in studio during recording of Rubber Soul.
    • Rāga Charu Kishi – Footage showing snippets of a Sitar Recital of the Rāga by Ravi Shankar; George discussing the context of using sitar in Norwegian Wood.
    • Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (12 October 1965 - Take 1) – Played over footages of still photographs showing different moments of the band recording the song.
    • Nowhere Man [Remake recorded on 22nd October, 1965 - Take 4] – Played in the background over Paul discussing the stretchd photo on the cover of the album Rubber Soul; the photo being the result of backward falling of the album-sized piece of cardboard on which photographer Bob Freeman was projecting photos at Lennon's house.
  5. “Yellow Submarine” [3:40]
    • Yellow Submarine[Recorded 26 May, 1966 – Take 5] - Footages from the film Yellow Submarine.
    • Taxman (Harrison) [Overdub on 22nd April 1966 – Take 12] - Played over footages of still photographs showing different moments of the band recording the song; and George discussing the social context of the song – “… In those days we paid 19s.6d. out of every £1. … That was with super-tax, surtax and tax-tax and stuff.”
  6. “Tomorrow Never Knows” [1:27]
  7. Technical Limitations in the Studio [2:56]
    • Nowhere Man – Footage of the Beatles’ live performance of the song at Circus Crone, Munich.
  8. LSD (3:15)
    • “We were just insane. We all thought there was a fire in the lift. Just a little red light and we were all screaming, all hysterical.” - John
  9. “Day Tripper” [3:15]
    • Day Tripper [Recorded on 16 October, 1965 – Take 3) - Taped TV promotional film of the song. — “Day Tripper – that was a drug song, I just liked the word.” - John
  10. “We Can Work It Out” [2:47]
    • We Can Work It Out (Overdub on 29 October, 1965 – Take 2) - Taped TV promotional film of the song.
  11. Taped TV Promotional Films [1:34]
    • “Going to the TV studios to promote our records was too much of a hassle. We’ll just make our own little films and we’ll put them out.” – George
  12. “Paperback Writer” [2:55]
    • Paperback Writer [Overdub on 14 April, 1966 onto recording of 13 April, 1966 - Take 2] - Footage of promotional film of the song.
      • “... ... we can’t go everywhere. We’ll send these things out to promote the record. These days, everybody does that. It's just part of your promotion for a single, so I suppose in a way we invented MTV.” - George
  13. “Rain” [3:02]
    • Rain [Overdub on 16 April, 1966 onto recording of 14 April, 2006 - Take 7] - Footage of promotional film of the song. — “That's the first record with backwards music on it.” - John
  14. World Tour 1966 [15:24]

[edit] Episode Six (July '66 to June '67) - 1:10:49

"I should have said television is more popular than Jesus; then I might have got away with it." - John Lennon

  1. Trouble in the Philippines[8:35]
    • Help! - Title song played at the beginning of each episode.
    • The Word
  2. “Eleanor Rigby” [9:25]
  3. Touring Takes It Toll [2:35]
  4. The Last Concert – San Francisco, August 29, 1966 [4:52]
    • For No One played over the footages from the Concert.
  5. Individual Directions [5:44]
  6. The Making of “Strawberry Fields Forever” [5:50]
  7. “Penny Lane” [5:17]
  8. “Sgt. Pepper's” [5:35]
  9. “A Day in the Life” [10:08]
  10. Reaction to “Sgt. Pepper's” [3:07]
  11. Drugs Reflect The Times [4:38]
  12. “Baby You’re A Rich Man” [5:03]

[edit] DVD Four

All songs are written by Lennon-McCartney and performed by The Beatles, unless otherwise noted.

[edit] Episode Seven (June '67 to July '68) - 1:13:40

"We got backstage to see Maharishi and I said to him: 'Got any mantras?'" - George Harrison

  1. Satellite Broadcast of “All You Need is Love” [10:10]
  2. Meeting The Maharishi [4:17]
  3. Brian Epstein's Death [8:16]
  4. “Magical Mystery Tour” [10:05]
  5. “I Am The Walrus” [5:11]
  6. “Hello Goodbye” [3:45]
  7. The Apple Boutique [2:20]
  8. Rishikesh, India [8:42]
  9. Apple Records [7:58]
  10. “Lady Madonna” [2:26]
  11. “Yellow Submarine” [4:05]
  12. John Meets Yoko Ono [6:23]

[edit] Episode Eight (July '68 to The End) - 1:21:59

"I'm really glad that most of our songs were about love, peace and understanding." - Paul McCartney

  1. The “White” Album [9:23]
  2. “Revolution” [3:21]
  3. The Apple Boutique Closes [1:52]
  4. Hey Jude [8:27]
  5. Recording At Twickenham Studios [9:52]
  6. Billy Preston Sits In [2:59]
  7. “The Long And The Winding Road” [3:49]
  8. The Rooftop Concert January 30, 1969 [10:03]
  9. “Let It Be” [4:08]
    • Let It Be - 'AN INTIMATE BIOSCOPIC EXPERIENCE WITH THE BEATLES'
  10. Paul Marries Linda, John Marries Yoko [2:57]
  11. “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” [2:55]
  12. Comments On The Break-Up Of The Band [5:28]
  13. “Abbey Road” [8:56]
  14. “Free as a Bird” [7:49]

[edit] DVD Five

[edit] Special Features - 1:22:46

  1. Recollections – June 1994 [16:51] - Paul, George and Ringo spend a happy summer's day together; singing, playing and warmly remembering early days of room sharing, haircuts, Beatleboots, first cars and meeting Elvis.
  2. Compiling The Anthology Albums [10:48] - Paul, George, Ringo and George Martin detail the process of how they choose the tracks for Anthology Albums 1, 2 and 3.
  3. Back At Abbey Road – May 1995 [14:51] - Returning to Studio 2, Paul, George, Ringo and George Martin reflect on recording at Abbey Road Studios in the Sixties and some of the inventive techniques used in creating these recordings.
  4. Recording “Free as a Bird” And “Real Love” [10:57] - Paul, George, Ringo and Jeff Lynne reveal how they were able to produce the two new Beatles tracks from John's original demos provided by Yoko. This section includes intimate footage filmed in the studio during the recording of the tracks.
  5. Production Team [13:03] - Neil Aspinall, Derek Taylor, Geoff Wonfor, Chips Chipperfield and other key members of the Anthology production Team explain the process of how The Beatles Anthology series was created.
  6. Making The “Free as a Bird” Video [11:12] - An intriguing insight into how the Grammy award winning video for Free as a Bird was made. Director Joe Pytka explains how he and Apple developed the concept and discusses the innovative techniques that were used in the production.
  7. “Real Love” Video [4:07] - The video that was not featured in the Anthology series, now remixed in 5.1 Surround Sound.
  8. Credits (0:57)

[edit] Multimedia

[edit] References

  1. ^ Closed Gov'T No Open-&-Shut Case
  2. ^ ABC print advertising, late 1995 and early 1996, TV Guide local edition
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The Beatles
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