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12 episodes with Richard Lester
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2 episodes with Richard Lester
James Gunn's Superman (2025) is in cinemas right now, and is really good! It has a wonderful central performance by David Corenswet, and is as colourful as it is hopeful, and we need that right now. As I'm off this week, it felt like a good time to revisit the late Christopher Reeve's iconic performances in Superman II, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, Superman III & Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.Technically the first ever quadruple-bill episode (if you also count the Richard Donner cut of Superman II, which we do), as voted for by Patrons of this podcast for, on the history and legacy of Superman II, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, Superman III & Superman IV: The Quest for Peace ! The sequels to the previous episode on SupermanSUPERMAN II was inevitable after Richard Donner completed 75% of the movie, filmed at the same time as Superman (1978). His work on the sequel was halted during Superman's production, but as Superman flew into the box office and became a critical and financial success, the sequel was fired up again... and Donner himself was unceremoniously fired from the movie by the Salkinds, and replaced with Richard Lester; a move that didn't go down well with the cast and crew...SUPERMAN II: THE RICHARD DONNER CUT came about due to the open secret of Richard Donner's material existing in a vault somewhere. After a few legal issues, notably with the estate of Marlon Brando for the production of Superman Returns, a new 2001 DVD version of Superman also led to the discovery of 6 tonnes of unused, previously lost material shot by Richard Donner for Superman II. In an unprecedented (at the time) fan campaign to see Donner's cut, it was finally released to acclaim in 2006...SUPERMAN III is less of a Superman movie, and more of a comedy vehicle for the late, great Richard Pryor, but that didn't mean it was easy to get made. A lot of people were still annoyed at the Salkinds for their treatment of Richard Donner, including Christopher Reeve himself. Reeve almost didn't return as the iconic character, but changed his mind and relished playing Superman vs Superman (which was also almost the title of the movie), but in retrospect it would be a movie he wouldn't have too much fun with, despite the slapstick tone...SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE would only be made after the Salkinds sold the rights to The Cannon Group; a production company known for making low quality movies en masse to make as much profit as possible. Cannon's plan though was big franchises: they bought Superman with the intent of spending $36 million on Superman IV. They were also making Masters of the Universe, the first big screen adventure for He-Man. But Masters of the Universe's financial woes would drastically affect Superman IV, with disastrous consequences for the Superman franchise, and leading to a 19-year wait for Superman to return...This episode was originally released on 16th November 2023Mentioned in this episode:From the ArchiveThere's no new episode this week, so I thought you might be interested in revisiting this slightly older, but no less brilliant episode. Just bear in mind, this episode is several years old, it may not sound quite as polished as newer episodes, and new information may have come to light in recent years with regards to the making of this movie (please see above for the original date of release) Please enjoy this time capsule of an episode. Thanks for...
In this episode of the show we are concluding our July adventure with Richard Lester with a double header of Superman II and Superman III. Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about how Superman II wrote the playbook for a comic book movie sequel, how it humanizes Superman while also further denuding the many problems this character will continue to have in future movies. We talked about Lester's absurdist vibes creeping into the operation and blossoming in the third sequel, Richard Pryor as a comic relief villain and how to make Superman evil all you need to do is ask him not to shave for a day and give him eyeliner. Tune in and enjoy!Hosts: Jakub Flasz & Randy BurrowsIntro: Infraction - CassetteOutro: Infraction - DaydreamHead over to uncutgemspodcast.com to find all of our archival episodes and more!Follow us on Twitter (@UncutGemsPod), IG (@UncutGemsPod) and Facebook (@UncutGemsPod)Buy us a coffee over at Ko-Fi.com (ko-fi.com/uncutgemspod)Subscribe to our Patreon! (patreon.com/uncutgemspod)
In this episode of the show we are tying into our Richard Lester conversations with a debate about the seminal comic book movie, the Richard Donner-directed Superman. Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the ways in which Superman wrote the playbook for what later became a comic book movie genre, how the many cuts of the movie that are in existence complicate the plot, and how Christopher Reeve was perhaps the perfect casting for the role of the Man of Steel. We also talk about Hackman's Lex Luthor functioning as a de facto Bond villain, how the movie is perhaps too goofy for its own good at times, how the Krypton sequence in the TV cut is long enough to be considered its own disaster movie and how Richard Donner sounded as though he invented the word "verisimilitude."Tune in and enjoy!Subscribe to our patreon at patreon.com/uncutgemspod (3$/month) and support us by gaining access to this show in full in addition to ALL of our exclusive podcasts, such as bonus tie-ins, themed retrospectives and director marathons!Hosts: Jakub Flasz & Randy BurrowsHead over to our website to find out more! (uncutgemspodcast.com)Follow us on Twitter (@UncutGemsPod) and IG (@UncutGemsPod)Buy us a coffee over at Ko-Fi.com (ko-fi.com/uncutgemspod)Subscribe to our Patreon (patreon.com/uncutgemspod)
In this episode of the show we are discussing another off-kilter Richard Lester movie, the 1979 Cuba. Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about how this movie connects to Casablanca and The Battle of Algiers, how important it is to make sure the chemistry between two romantic leads is undeniably there and whether the post-Bond Sean Connery was the man to evoke it. We also talk about how Lester finds frightening absurdity in the reality of pre-evolution Cuba, how the movie wants to be Dr. No for a brief second and how narrative indecision may be its undoing. Tune in and enjoy!Hosts: Jakub Flasz & Randy BurrowsFeaturing: Jak-Luke SharpIntro: Infraction - CassetteOutro: Infraction - DaydreamHead over to uncutgemspodcast.com to find all of our archival episodes and more!Follow us on Twitter (@UncutGemsPod), IG (@UncutGemsPod) and Facebook (@UncutGemsPod)Buy us a coffee over at Ko-Fi.com (ko-fi.com/uncutgemspod)Subscribe to our Patreon! (patreon.com/uncutgemspod)
“It was like hitching a ride on a shooting star: a fantastic experience that caused immense pain, but I'm glad I had it…That sort of experience doesn't come twice.”Except when it does.You know the story, you know the songs, but there's so much more to the woman behind them. Episode three of the Dolls Pod Beatle Girl Miniseries is dedicated to rock-and-roll's Helen of Troy: Pattie Boyd. Pattie's story is a lot more than meets the eye. She broke generational cycles, gained her independence (the hard way,) discovered her self-worth, and finally found herself after decades of living in song. (Plus: Abby hears 99 Luftbaloons in a bagel shop and goes straight to Emma for the story.) Pattie Boyd: The Real-Life Layla is up now, wherever you stream your podcasts
Welcome to the original Snyder Cut! Well, kind of....Released in 2006, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut is a re-edited director's cut of Superman II (1980). In fact, the edits are so dramatic that it is like watching an entirely different movie.The back story is that Superman I and II were being filmed simultaneously, but prior to the completion of Superman II, the director (Richard Donner) was unceremoniously fired and replaced by Richard Lester, who completed the second movie. Come join us as we look at both versions!
In honor of the James Gunn Superman, we continue our Supermonth! This week on Myopia Movies, we leap tall plot holes in a single bound and confront the chaos of Superman II (1980)—a sequel caught in a tug-of-war between two directors, studio meddling, and a trio of space fascists in disco pajamas. We ask: Does the Man of Steel's second outing still soar, or does it crash under the weight of tonal whiplash, questionable powers, and a very random kiss of forgetfulness? Join us as we revisit the strange saga behind the scenes, mourn the Donner cut that could have been, and try to figure out how cellophane chest symbols became an acceptable weapon. Tune in, or kneel before Zod. Make sure to like and subscribe wherever you are getting this! Please leave us a review and follow us everywhere! How will Superman II (1980) hold up? Host: Nic Panel: Alex, Keiko, Matthew Directed by: Richard Lester – after Richard Donner was fired Starring: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Terence Stamp, Sarah Douglas
In this episode of the show, probably one of the shortest on record, we continue our Richard Lester conversations by talking about one of his period epics, Robin and Marian. Over the course of our chat you will hear us talk about how on paper this movie works as an intellectual subversion of the swashbuckling genre and how in reality it only gets to buckle a few swashes. We also talk about Richard Lester's interest in period filmmaking and whether his dual interest in absurdity adds to the tonal dissonance permeating the movie, Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn attempting to generate some chemistry and more. Tune in and enjoy!Hosts: Jakub Flasz & Randy BurrowsIntro: Infraction - CassetteOutro: Infraction - DaydreamHead over to uncutgemspodcast.com to find all of our archival episodes and more!Follow us on Twitter (@UncutGemsPod), IG (@UncutGemsPod) and Facebook (@UncutGemsPod)Buy us a coffee over at Ko-Fi.com (ko-fi.com/uncutgemspod)Subscribe to our Patreon! (patreon.com/uncutgemspod)
In honor of the James Gunn Superman, we continue our Supermonth! This week on Myopia Movies, we leap tall plot holes in a single bound and confront the chaos of Superman II (1980)—a sequel caught in a tug-of-war between two directors, studio meddling, and a trio of space fascists in disco pajamas. We ask: Does the Man of Steel's second outing still soar, or does it crash under the weight of tonal whiplash, questionable powers, and a very random kiss of forgetfulness? Join us as we revisit the strange saga behind the scenes, mourn the Donner cut that could have been, and try to figure out how cellophane chest symbols became an acceptable weapon. Tune in, or kneel before Zod. Make sure to like and subscribe wherever you are getting this! Please leave us a review and follow us everywhere! How will Superman II (1980) hold up? Host: Nic Panel: Alex, Keiko, Matthew Directed by: Richard Lester – after Richard Donner was fired Starring: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Terence Stamp, Sarah Douglas
It's that time, gang! James Gunn's SUPERMAN is finally here, and Evan and Megan saw it. Is it good? Is it an origin story? Is it better than SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE? Do they like the dog? Does David Corenswet hold his own against Christopher Reeve's legacy? Evan and Megan have lots to say, and they also have some observations about Richard Donner's SUPERMAN (1978) and Richard Lester's SUPERMAN II (1980). Then Dave joins Evan and Megan for BRICK, a German thriller about a mysterious brick wall that appears in the night and strands a grieving young couple inside their apartment building, where they're eventually joined by Airbnbers, an old, his grandaughter, and a conspiracy theorist. There are a lot of tropes (and charitably, homages) and we break them all down. Over on Patreon, we watched the 1992 Val Kilmer film THUNDERHEART.
Neste episódio, depois de umas pequenas férias não planeadas, voltamos à rubrica Versão do Realizador, desta vez com ‘Superman II'. Com a estreia de mais uma revisão do clássico super-herói oriundo de Krypton à porta, desta vez pela mão de James Gunn, aproveito para falar das novelas por detrás das câmaras que, depois do sucesso de ‘Superman' de 1978, levou ao despedimento de Richard Donner da produção da sequela, tendo sido substituído por Richard Lester. É um momento fascinante da história do cinema comercial norte-americano e, em 2006, tivemos um vislumbre do que poderia ter sido a versão do realizador original, substancialmente diferente do filme que vimos em 1981, com a edição no mercado caseiro de ‘Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut'. Para me ajudar nesta conversa convidei Daniel Louro e Paulo Fajardo, a dupla do premiado podcast VHS, um dos meus podcasts preferidos produzidos sobre cinema em Português. Se gostas do podcast, segue-me nas redes sociais! Estou no YouTube, onde encontras também este episódio seguindo esta ligação, no Letterboxd, no Instagram, no Facebook e agora também no BlueSky. A tua ajuda faz toda a diferença, por isso interage, comenta e partilha para fazer crescer a comunidade Segundo Take. Encontra aqui todos os links onde podemos continuar esta conversa sobre cinema: Site: https://www.segundotake.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@segundotake Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/segundotake/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/segundotakepodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/segundotake/ BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/segundotake.com Substack: https://substack.com/@segundotake Desde já, obrigado pelo teu apoio! Tema ‘Wonder Cycle' interpretado por Chris Zabriskie sob a licença CC BY 3.0
In this episode of the show we are embarking on a July expedition into the cinema of Richard Lester and we shall begin by talking about his 1974 cruise ship thriller Juggernaut. Over the course of our conversation you will hear us debate (because it seems to be one our favourite pastimes recently) whether this movie fits into the legacy of 70s disaster movies, how it leverages the authenticity of its era and how it heralds the arrival of action-packed docu-thrillers. We also talk about Richard Harris as a bomb disposal expert, the comedy of playing parlor games on a ship in inclement weather, the concept of running two stories in parallel and how in many ways this movie is a protoplast to such great classics as Die Hard, Under Siege and... Speed 2: Cruise Control.Tune in and enjoy!Hosts: Jakub Flasz & Randy BurrowsFeaturing: Rich FosterIntro: Infraction - CassetteOutro: Infraction - DaydreamHead over to uncutgemspodcast.com to find all of our archival episodes and more!Follow us on Twitter (@UncutGemsPod), IG (@UncutGemsPod) and Facebook (@UncutGemsPod)Buy us a coffee over at Ko-Fi.com (ko-fi.com/uncutgemspod)Subscribe to our Patreon! (patreon.com/uncutgemspod)
You'll believe a man can sigh as Supergeeks Javi, Paul and - indestructibly - Producer Brad discover the third time's not the charm with Superman III, though it does offer one unforgettable high-concept scene (and a truly funny setup and payoff). Our hosts boldly bend format this episode by picking three scenes each to examine (one of which may or may not involve bowling vandalism via Super-sneeze) as they struggle to maintain their sanity against the artificial Kryptonite of this threequel's seemingly never-ending inanities. In stark contrast to the wonders that Rocky III rewarded us with by adding iconic adversary Mr. T (as recounted in our very first episode!), here we get Superman vs. Supercomputer (that's an Atari) as programming prodigy Richard Pryor is extorted into villainy by evil tycoon Robert Vaughn. Despite their combined talents (and a psychic nutritionist stand-in for Miss Teschmacher), they are no Lex Luthor, just as director Richard Lester is no Richard Donner (and composer Ken Thorne is no John Williams). Still, while Margot Kidder's Lois Lane is conspicuously sidelined for most of the film, we're treated to Annette O'Toole's lovely Lana Lang, and Christopher Reeve gets to play a creepy, scuzzy new character (Man of Heel?). You will not believe a man can ski off a skyscraper and survive, but you will enjoy this episode full of love for Superman and our hosts' entertaining exasperation at this misguided misfire. 1983 Box OfficeJuly 8, 1983 Weekend Box OfficeSuperman III Box Office ResultsRichard Pryor's 1981 appearance on The Tonight Show displaying his Superman fandom.Follow us!InstagramBlueskyemail: Multiplexoverthruster@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Charles Skaggs & Xan Sprouse watch Superman III, the 1983 superhero film directed by Richard Lester, and starring Christopher Reeve as Superman/Clark Kent, Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman, Annette O'Toole as Lana Lang, and Robert Vaughn as Ross Webster! Find us here:X/Twitter: @DrunkCinemaCast, @CharlesSkaggs, @udanax19 Facebook: @DrunkCinema Bluesky: @charlesskaggs.bsky.social, @udanax19.bsky.social Email: DrunkCinemaPodcast@gmail.com Listen and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts and leave us a review!
We review Superman III (1983) on movie podcast The Collector's Cut. Superman 3 is directed Richard Lester and stars Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Richard Pryor patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mildfuzztv twitter: https://twitter.com/ScreamsMidnight all links: https://linktr.ee/mildfuzz Audio version: https://the-collectors-cut.pinecast.co/
We review Superman II (1980) on movie podcast The Collector's Cut. Superman 2 is directed Richard Lester and stars Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Terence Stamp patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mildfuzztv twitter: https://twitter.com/ScreamsMidnight all links: https://linktr.ee/mildfuzz Audio version: https://the-collectors-cut.pinecast.co/
With all the greatest love and admiration and with respect to all the behind-the-scenes skullduggery that took place while this film was made, we talk about Superman II -- the theatrical (Richard Lester) cut with comparison to The Donner Cut (because the seams were too unseemly and Dave went back and subsequently found it impossible to ignore in this discussion).We can't help but have real issues with Superman II...Join Our Riotous DC Debauch!Site: https://dconscreen.comStore: https://bit.ly/DCoStorePatreon: https://patreon.com/dconscreenApple: http://bit.ly/DCoSReviewSpotify: http://bit.ly/DCSCREENSpreaker: https://bit.ly/DCoSSpreaker
Hang onto your slipcases, because Blake Howard and the legendary @RufusTSuperfly aka Tom Reagan's Hat discuss the swashbuckling delights in the choreography and sound design of Criterion's new release, The Three Musketeers / The Four Musketeers: Two Films by Richard Lester.The Three Musketeers / The Four Musketeers: Two Films by Richard LesterAlexandre Dumas's immortal tale of adventure and camaraderie received perhaps the finest of its numerous screen adaptations with this two-part swashbuckling spectacular from A Hard Day's Night director Richard Lester. Featuring Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay, and Richard Chamberlain as the swaggering swordsmen, who thrust and parry their way through courtly intrigue in seventeenth-century France, The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers are also graced with an all-star supporting cast that includes Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Geraldine Chaplin, and Charlton Heston. Lester's exuberant epic breathes new life into an oft-told classic through its boisterous slapstick invention, its meticulous attention to period detail, and a sense of pure, unbridled bravado that is thrilling to behold.Richard Lester's spirited adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's timeless novel immediately distinguished itself from previous film versions with its irresistible lightheartedness. It follows the brash, young wannabe musketeer d'Artagnan (Michael York) as he travels from the French countryside to Paris and befriends Athos (Oliver Reed), Porthos (Frank Finlay), and Aramis (Richard Chamberlain), famed swordsmen whom he must help to stop the conniving Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) and his plot to undermine the king. The Three Musketeers sweeps viewers away with its exquisite sets and costumes, chivalric romance, and breathless duels punctuated by the ingenious physical comedy that was Lester's trademark.It may be “all for one and one for all,” but it took director Richard Lester two films to contain the sweeping spectacle of Alexandre Dumas's swashbuckling adventure. This sequel—shot simultaneously with The Three Musketeers, since they were originally conceived as a single film—dials down the comic high jinks that distinguished the first installment in favor of a more somber tone, as our heroes are drawn into a deadly revenge plot orchestrated by the seductive Milady de Winter (a deliciously wicked Faye Dunaway). Upping the psychological stakes and deepening our sense of the characters, The Four Musketeers brings this beloved tale of honor and friendship to a close with a rousing emotional flourish.SPECIAL EDITION FEATURESNew 4K digital restorations, with uncompressed monaural soundtracksIn the 4K UHD edition: Two 4K UHD discs of the films presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the films and special featuresTwo for One, a new documentary by critic David CairnsThe Saga of the Musketeers (2002), a two-part documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew membersThe Making of “The Three Musketeers,” a 1973 featurette with behind-the-scenes footage of director Richard LesterTrailersEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearingPLUS: An essay by film critic Stephanie ZacharekNew illustration by Mattias AdolfssonThe legendary @RufusTSuperfly aka Tom Reagan's Hat can be found here.Support: JOIN THE ONE HEAT MINUTE PATREON FOR AS LITTLE AS $1 A MONTHFollow the hosts:Blake Howard - Twitter & One Heat Minute Website Alexei Toliopoulos - Twitter & The Last Video StoreSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/one-heat-minute-productions/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Celluloid Heroes: Episode 6Film: Superman/Superman IIWhen is a movie two movies in one? When it's the one-two punch of Richard Donner's 1978 Superman and Richard Donner's and Richard Lester's 1981 Superman II. Confused? Thankfully host Brad Abraham is here to explain the complicated backstory behind these two cinema classics, his experiences seeing both in the theater in two very different cities, and how a generation of moviegoers would come to believe a man could flyFollow Celluloid Heroes on INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/TheCelluloidHeroesPodFollow Brad Abraham at www.bradabraham.comShare your thoughts with us! Send your comments to contact@longboxcrusade.comThis podcast is a member of the LONGBOX CRUSADE NETWORK:Visit the WEBSITE: https://www.LongboxCrusade.comFollow on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/LongboxCrusadeFollow on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/longboxcrusadeLike the FACEBOOK page: https://www.facebook.com/LongboxCrusadeSubscribe to the YOUTUBE Channel: https://goo.gl/4LkhovSubscribe on APPLE PODCASTS at:https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-longboxcrusade/id1118783510?mt=2Subscribe on SPOTIFY at:https://open.spotify.com/show/3Hl0nrO7z1KYaHSDug9hsg?si=ee431b760c8c4a21Celluloid Heroes SPOTIFY Single Feed at:https://open.spotify.com/show/5G4VxlMzO0yy7Rub7MPUzx?si=389277ae77a84dd0We appreciate you joining us for this episode of Celluloid Heroes and hope you enjoyed listening!#film #cinema #movies #genx #nostalgia #Superman #Superman2 #SupermanII #1978 #supermanthemovie
Hey Panelers!This episode of the podcast Mark, Frank, Rob and Steve come together to talk about the movie Superman II (1980) that has been a discussion point of many of us comic fans. Especially since 2006 when the Richard Donner Cut was released. This is a Podcast about our discussion about the two versions of the film. What we liked between both. What we think would be the best mix. Plus which one we prefer to watch. Let us know your thoughts. This is a pre-emptive Episode of the podcast to come out when the James Gunn Movie Superman comes out in July. Something for everyone to talk about. We had a great time talking about this film in both forms. We hope you enjoy it! This was a great 300th episode of the podcast and we thank you all for listening! Check us out on Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, Deezer, Tune In, and Spotify,or whatever podcast player of choice you use. We Can be found on YouTube: Just Search Panels to Pixels Podcast!Subscribe! And just Check the Thumbs up if you like it! We would appreciate it! You can send Feedback at: Facebook.com/PanelsToPixels Email us: Panelstopixels1@gmail.com Instagram: @PanelsToPixelsPodcast
Jay is joined by Howard Casner ( @howardcasner on X ) to discuss the 1974 British aquatic disaster thriller Juggernaut, directed by Richard Lester and starring Richard Harris, Anthony Hopkins, Omar Sharif, Ian Holm and a boatload of recognisable faces! In this episode they talk about a cruise ship under threat from a gentleman terrorist, bad child actors, drunken bomb defusal and wire cutting!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to listen to Pete and Trevor travel to see Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the eighth and potentially last instalment in the MI franchise. Christopher McQuarrie is back with Tom Cruise to single-handedly save stunt work and the movies and the world. Listen to the episode for our immediate spoiler-free reactions to the movie before heading into spoiler-talk. This is also the fourth week for our ongoing Project Superman, wherein we watch every single live-action theatrical Superman movie. This week we discuss Superman III, directed by Richard Lester, starring Christoper Reeve (Clark Kent), Margot Kidder (Lois Lane), Richard Pryor (Gus Gorman) and Annette O'Toole (Lana Lang).Don't forget to enter our ongoing contest to win a subscription to Letterboxd Patron: https://boxd.it/Gbt3OIntro, history with Mission: Impossible and recap of Dead Reckoning (0:00)Review of Superman III (24:00)Spoiler free review of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (42:12)Spoiler-talk (51:40)About the Movie:Ethan Hunt and the IMF team race against time to stop a rogue artificial intelligence known as “The Entity” from falling into the wrong hands and reshaping global power. As loyalties are tested and old enemies return, Ethan faces his most personal and perilous mission yet.Main CastTom Cruise as Ethan HuntHayley Atwell as GraceVing Rhames as Luther StickellSimon Pegg as Benji DunnEsai Morales as GabrielPom Klementieff as ParisHenry Czerny as Eugene KittridgeAngela Bassett as Erika SloaneCrew Director: Christopher McQuarrieProducers: Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, Jake MyersWriters: Christopher McQuarrie, Erik JendresenCinematographer: Fraser TaggartEditor: Eddie HamiltonComposer: Lorne BalfeProduction Designer: Gary FreemanCostume Designer: Jill TaylorVisual Effects Supervisor: Alex WuttkeStunt Coordinator: Wade EastwoodCasting Director: Lucy Bevan
The window creaks, the fire extinguishers rattles, maybe the hedge clippers turn on or something…you get the idea. Pete and Trevor saw Final Destination Bloodlines, the sixth installment in the "death is everywhere and everything can kill you" franchise. Which means a lot of fun, creative deaths to talk about. Listen to the episode for our immediate spoiler-free reactions to the movie before heading into spoiler-talk. This is also the third week for our ongoing Project Superman, wherein we watch every single live-action theatrical Superman movie. This week we discuss Superman II, directed by Richard Lester (and also Richard Donner depending on the version), starring Christoper Reeve (Clark Kent), Margot Kidder (Lois Lane), Terence Stamp (General Zod), and Gene Hackman (Lex Luthor).Don't forget to enter our ongoing contest to win a subscription to Letterboxd Patron: https://boxd.it/Gbt3OIntro (0:00)Discussion of Superman II (11:20)Spoiler-free Review of Final Destination Bloodlines (43:58)Spoiler-talk (52:35)About the Movie:Plagued by a violent and recurring nightmare, a college student heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle of death and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all.Cast:Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Brec Bassinger, and Tony ToddCrew: Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein and written by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor, based on a story developed by them and Jon Watts
"We know how to behave! We've had lessons." For Episode 359, David and Brandon continue the show's series on Jukebox Musicals with A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. Listen as they discuss the origins of the film, how quickly the production was, and how Richard Lester's direction revolutionized filmmaking for music. Also, don't forget to join our Patreon for more exclusive content: Opening - New Pope and 100 Brits vs 100 Americans - (00:00:10) Recap to the Jukebox Musical Genre (00:06:10) Intro to A Hard Day's Night (00:10:49) How A Hard Day's Night Got to Production (00:21:39) Favorite Scenes (00:29:19) On Set Life - (01:07:50) Aftermath: Release and Legacy (01:19:28) What Worked and What Didn't (01:23:48) Film Facts (01:26:28) Awards (01:26:57) Final Questions on the Movie (01:31:53) Wrapping Up the Episode (01:38:49) Contact Us: Facebook: @cinenation Instagram: @cinenationpodcast Twitter/X: @CineNationPod TikTok: @cinenation Letterboxd: CineNation Podcast
Send us your fan mail :)This week, I dived deep into Superman II. I explore the complicated history of the film, from the firing of director Richard Donner to the eventual release of the Richard Donner Cut. We'll compare the theatrical version directed by Richard Lester with Donner's vision, discussing the differences in tone, plot, and character development. Was Gene Hackman really replaced by a stand-in? How did the effects hold up?OUR SOCIALS:INSTAGRAMTWITTERLETTERBOXDCONTACT US: courtofcinema@gmail.comSPEAKPIPE
The road to James Gunn's Superman continues! We decided to cut out the original theatrical cut credited to Richard Lester and go to the film that as close as can be is the more direct sequel to Superman: The Movie as done by original director Richard Donner! As a child THIS was my Superman movie. How does it hold up? Let's find out!#superman #supermanII #christopherreeve #richarddonner #dc #dccomics #comicbookmovies #comicbookmovie #genehackman #margotkidder #jamesgunn #terrencestamp
According to Peter Sellers: “It all started because Spike Milligan and I once said we wanted to experiment in visual humour. We got as many friends together as we could and went and found a field. That was all we had – friends, a field, a roll of film.”What resulted was 'The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film' (1959), directed by the up-and-coming Richard Lester, a friend and collaborator of Sellers and Milligan. The short film soon became a word-of-mouth hit and was even nominated for an Oscar. It helped pave the way for Lester to work with the Beatles several years later and Spike Milligan claimed that it was one of the very few true visual representations of Peter Sellers' sense of humour. Although accounts vary it has become accepted that the total budget for the film was £70 (including the rent of a field) and the entire cast was made up of - as Sellers says - friends. So we see Graham Stark, Leo McKern, David Lodge, Mario Fabrizi, Bruce Lacey and Johnny Vyvyan, as well as the two Goons themselves. This week film academic Dr Adrian Smith joins Tyler to talk about this highly influential 11 minutes of mayhem.
In the fifth episode of Season 11: The Son of Cult Flicks, Kyle is joined by screenwriter David Gutierrez and activist Kerry Harwin to discuss the experimental cult sensibilities of Richard Lester with his cynical dissection of the commodification and corruption of flower power idealism in the fractured and delirious anti-romance Petulia (1968).
Host Anthony Desiato and guest Zach Moore (Always Hold On To Smallville) dig into the 1983 film SUPERMAN III from director Richard Lester, which featured comedian Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman, brought Christopher Reeve's Clark back to Smallville for a reunion with Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole), and saw our hero's good and evil sides battle it out in one of the franchise's most iconic scenes.Support the show and receive exclusive podcast content at Patreon.com/AnthonyDesiato, including the spinoff podcasts BEYOND METROPOLIS and DIGGING FOR JUSTICE!Visit BCW Supplies and use promo code FSP to save 10% on your next order of comics supplies. FACEBOOK GROUP: Digging for Kryptonite: A Superman Fan GroupFACEBOOK PAGE: @diggingforkryptonitepodINSTAGRAM: @diggingforkryptonitepodTWITTER: @diggingforkrpodEMAIL: flatsquirrelproductions@gmail.comWEBSITE: FlatSquirrelProductions.com Digging for Kryptonite is a Flat Squirrel Production. Key art by Isaiah Simmons (2020-2024 version by Gregg Schigiel). Theme music by Basic Printer.Mentioned in this episode:Fat Moose ComicsAw Yeah ComicsHang On To Your Shorts Film Festival
James Cameron-Wilson celebrates UK box office climbing for the 5th week running. #1 is Ridley Scott's Gladiator II which, if anything is even better than the first film, with smart storytelling and visual spectacle to take the breath away, though it is incredibly violent, despite its 15 certificate. On Netflix, James adored French-made, Mexico-set musical Emilia Pérez which, like Gladiator, has lots of Oscar buzz. Stylised but gritty and intelligent, it's unlike anything you'll have seen for ages. In a positive week, James also raved about the 50th anniversary Blu-Ray of the British disaster-era film Juggernaut. With Richard Harris leading a great cast directed by Richard Lester, it stands up incredibly well and is a masterclass in popular entertainment with amazing extras. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Host Anthony Desiato and guest Dan Greenfield (13th Dimension) dig into the 1980 film SUPERMAN II, a beloved entry in the franchise despite — or perhaps because of? — being the product of two directors' visions. A combination of original director Richard Donner's more grounded, earnest approach and replacement Richard Lester's campier leanings, the movie follows Christopher Reeve's Superman as he relinquishes his powers to begin a romance with Lois Lane (Margot Kidder)...just as Kryptonian trio of Zod, Non, and Ursa escape the Phantom Zone. The specific focus of this episode is the official theatrical cut, though Anthony and Dan do discuss the long-fabled Donner Cut, which was finally released in 2006 — and offer their final word on what the "best" version of SUPERMAN II truly is.Support the show and receive exclusive podcast content at Patreon.com/AnthonyDesiato, including the spinoff podcasts BEYOND METROPOLIS and DIGGING FOR JUSTICE!Visit BCW Supplies and use promo code FSP to save 10% on your next order of comics supplies. FACEBOOK GROUP: Digging for Kryptonite: A Superman Fan GroupFACEBOOK PAGE: @diggingforkryptonitepodINSTAGRAM: @diggingforkryptonitepodTWITTER: @diggingforkrpodEMAIL: flatsquirrelproductions@gmail.comWEBSITE: FlatSquirrelProductions.com Digging for Kryptonite is a Flat Squirrel Production. Key art by Isaiah Simmons (2020-2024 version by Gregg Schigiel). Theme music by Basic Printer.Mentioned in this episode:Aw Yeah ComicsAlways Hold On To SmallvilleHang On To Your Shorts Film FestivalFat Moose Comics
Steven Soderbergh has made it a point to assimilate the work of other directors and make it his own. He's borrowed from Jean-Luc Godard, Orson Welles, Michael Curtiz, and even Richard Lester. And now he's updating . . . Paul Verhoeven and Adrian Lyne?!? Social media Instagram @thefilmographers Twitter/X @filmographerpod Letterboxd @filmographers YouTube @TheFilmographersPodcast Website: https://filmographerspodcast.com/ Credits Keir Graff & Michael Moreci, hosts Kevin Lau, producer Gompson, theme music Cosmo Graff, graphic design
The twelfth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1969 features our cult classic pick, Richard Lester's The Bed Sitting Room. Directed by Richard Lester from a screenplay by John Antrobus and starring Ralph Richardson, Rita Tushingham, Michael Hordern and Arthur Lowe, The Bed Sitting Room is adapted from the play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus.The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Vincent Canby in The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/1969/09/29/archives/screen-lesters-surrealistic-farce-the-bed-sitting-room-is-at-little.html), Penelope Houston in The Spectator (https://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/4th-april-1970/19/arts-long-knives-at-dunsinane), and Bernard Drew in the Gannnett News Service.Visit https://www.awesomemovieyear.com for more info about the show.Make sure to like Awesome Movie Year on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/awesomemovieyear and follow us on Twitter @AwesomemoviepodYou can find Jason online at http://goforjason.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JHarrisComedy/, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jasonharriscomedy/ and on Twitter @JHarrisComedyYou can find Josh online at http://joshbellhateseverything.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joshbellhateseverything/ and on Twitter @signalbleedYou can find our producer David Rosen's Piecing It Together Podcast at https://www.piecingpod.com, on Twitter at @piecingpod and the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod.You can also follow us all on Letterboxd to keep up with what we've been watching at goforjason, signalbleed and bydavidrosen.Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year, plus fellow podcasts Piecing It Together and All Rice No Beans, and music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosenAll of the music in the episode is by David Rosen. Find more of his music at https://www.bydavidrosen.comPlease like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1969 installment, featuring our producer David Rosen's pick, David Lowell Rich's Eye of the Cat.
The eleventh episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1969 features the Academy Awards Best Picture winner, John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy. Directed by John Schlesinger from a screenplay by Waldo Salt (based on the James Leo Herlihy novel) and starring Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Sylvia Miles and Brenda Vaccaro, Midnight Cowboy was the first and only X-rated movie to win the Oscar for Best Picture.The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Roger Ebert (https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/midnight-cowboy-1969), Vincent Canby in The New York Times (https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/packages/html/movies/bestpictures/cowboy-re.html), and Robert J. Landry in Variety (https://variety.com/1969/film/reviews/midnight-cowboy-review-1200421996/).Visit https://www.awesomemovieyear.com for more info about the show.Make sure to like Awesome Movie Year on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/awesomemovieyear and follow us on Twitter @AwesomemoviepodYou can find Jason online at http://goforjason.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JHarrisComedy/, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jasonharriscomedy/ and on Twitter @JHarrisComedyYou can find Josh online at http://joshbellhateseverything.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joshbellhateseverything/ and on Twitter @signalbleedYou can find our producer David Rosen's Piecing It Together Podcast at https://www.piecingpod.com, on Twitter at @piecingpod and the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod.You can also follow us all on Letterboxd to keep up with what we've been watching at goforjason, signalbleed and bydavidrosen.Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year, plus fellow podcasts Piecing It Together and All Rice No Beans, and music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosenAll of the music in the episode is by David Rosen. Find more of his music at https://www.bydavidrosen.comPlease like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1969 installment, featuring our future cult classic pick, Richard Lester's The Bed Sitting Room.
When we were younger so much younger than today, we never needed anybody's help in any way. Sorry about the long break, but we're back with extra special guests! Elana Levin of Graphic Policy Radio graces us with their encyclopedic knowledge of classic rock and The Beatles as well as Brooke's daughter Pru, who is named after a Beatles song! We discuss the good and bad of the movie- madcap bits! (good!) racism! (bad!!) Sad boi John Lennon, The Beatles tax haven vacation in the Bahamas, Richard Lester's other movies, and more! Enjoy-- next up the Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take you away!
"Was 1 a good year?" A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) directed by Richard Lester and starring Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford, Michael Hordern and Michael Crawford Next Time: Lady in the Lake (1947)
Original Release Date: Monday 16 September 2024 Description: Welcome to one of our most cinematic episodes of the year! Dean and Phil talk nothing but movies, doing deep dive analyses of the new Dave Bautista action-comedy vehicle (and tax dodge?) The Killer's Game, the current Tim Burton-directed smash hit Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the Michael Keaton-starring vehicle and directorial effort Knox Goes Away, the recent “thriller in six chapters” Strange Darling, this year's box office disaster The Fall Guy, a 1968 film undone by director Richard Lester's cynicism (Petulia), and an all-too overlooked classic from director Joseph Losey and leading man Alain Delon (Mr. Klein). Finally, Phil regales Dean with a real-life unsolved murder that involved the late, great Delon.
Sam Clements is curating a fictional film festival. He'll accept almost anything, but the movie must not be longer than 90 minutes. This is the 90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest podcast. In episode 126 Sam is joined by Amanda Dobbins, Features Director at The Ringer and co-host of The Big Picture podcast. Amanda has chosen A Hard Day's Night (87 mins). Directed by Richard Lester and written by Alun Owen, the 1964 film is the first movie starring the Beatles - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, along with Wilfred Bramble. Sam and Amanda discuss the enduring influence of the film and it's place in Beatlemania, Richard Lester's innovate directing style, and Phil Collins's involvement. Thank you for downloading. We'll be back in a couple of weeks! Rate and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/90minfilm If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends. We're an independent podcast and every recommendation helps - thank you! You can also show your support for the podcast by leaving us a top at our Ko-fi page: https://ko-fi.com/90minfilmfest Website: 90minfilmfest.com Tweet: @90MinFilmFest Instagram: @90MinFilmFest We are a proud member of the Stripped Media Network. Hosted and produced by @sam_clements. Edited and produced by Louise Owen. Guest stars @akdobbins. Additional editing and sound mixing by @lukemakestweets. Music by @martinaustwick. Artwork by @samgilbey.
This week, we celebrate Revolutions Per Movie's 1 year anniversary with filmmaker and actor OWEN KLINE (A24's Funny Pages), who chose one of the most anticipated music films to discuss on the podcast, THE WHO'S TOMMY. We discuss the chicken/egg of the movie vs. the lp, the baked bean mythology, Ken Russell's pre-filmmaking history from being a ballet dancer to dodging the war, Russell's early BBC Composer films, Richard Lester and Lindsay Anderson, Robert Crumb and Fantagraphics Books, being a cultural dinosaur, the concept of selling out, the precision of the film that betrays its midnight movie status, Who's Next, how the Tommy LP kept The Who from breaking up, the ARP synth, the use of repetition in both the LP and the movie, transgressive music, how and why Townshend kept changing the shape of the story of Tommy, the aborted projects LIFEHOUSE & THE ANGELS that used elements to make the film Tommy, could we pick up the concept album plot before seeing the movie (and even after seeing it!), Ann-Margret's Oscar-nominated performance, the amount of sweat that appears on actors in the film, the surprising debut acting turn of Roger Daltrey, the UK white boy blues movement, Russell's choice of having the actor sing, including Jack Nicholson's strange turn, Keith Moon's approach to Uncle Ernie, Chris's concept double album Colonel Jeffrey Pumpernickel, Tina Turner's incredible performance as the acid queen and how Mick Jagger was in talks to do the role instead, does Elton John and Tina turner steal the film, the strange final 1/3 of the film, Dauhgltrey's perfect cartwheels, acting through song and so much more!We are also joined by special guest Barry Winch, who starred in TOMMY as ‘Young Tommy'!!! He illuminates us both about being a child on the set of the strange film, what it was like working with Ken Russell, Ann-Margret & Oliver Reed, how they got honest performances out of him as a child actor, how The Who protested going to the premiere unless he was invited (since he was underage), how Ken Russell himself accidentally cast him, his family's acting history, playing hide and seek with Oliver Reed, what it felt like being on the set of that movie, what the Tommy props from the film have been auctioned at, why he wasn't allowed to wander around the set, his favorite memories and some moments of being afraid as well.All this and more as we celebrate the one year anniversary of REVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE!!!OWEN KLINE:https://a24films.com/films/funny-pagesREVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE:Host Chris Slusarenko (Eyelids, Guided By Voices, owner of Clinton Street Video rental store) is joined by actors, musicians, comedians, writers & directors who each week pick out their favorite music documentary, musical, music-themed fiction film or music videos to discuss. Fun, weird, and insightful, Revolutions Per Movie is your deep dive into our life-long obsessions where music and film collide.Revolutions Per Movies releases new episodes every Thursday. If you like the show, please subscribe, rate, and review it on your favorite podcast app.The show is also a completely independent affair, so the best way to support it is through our Patreon at patreon.com/revolutionspermovie. By joining, you can get weekly bonus episodes, physical goods such as Flexidiscs, and other exclusive goods.SOCIALS:@revolutionspermovieX, BlueSky: @revpermovie Click here to get EXCLUSIVE BONUS WEEKLY Revolutions Per Movie content on our Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Your heroes kneel before Zod to discuss Superman II! In this episode we share what we liked, discuss at length what doesn't work, and explain The Donner Cut. Superman: The Movie is directed by Richard Lester; written by Mario Puzo, David Newman, and Leslie Newman; and stars and stars Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, and Terence Stamp.Follow ComiClub on Instagram @ComiClubPodcastComiClub is hosted by Blaine McGaffigan and Adam Cook.
The great George Gross returns to help figure out if Richard Pryor is actually funny in Richard Lester's Superman III! Join us as we discuss...Would you blame this movie more on cocaine or alcohol?Superman being forced to ride a in a hot bus for hours with Jimmy Olsen!Is Superman Clark Kent or is Clark Kent Superman?Superman gets laid!The X-Men TAS Podcast just opened a SECRET reddit group, join by clicking here! We are also on Twitch sometimes… click here to go to our page and follow and subscribe so you can join in on all the mysterious fun to be had! Also, make sure to subscribe to our podcast via Buzzsprout or iTunes and tell all your friends about it! Follow Willie Simpson on Twitter and Threads and please join our Facebook Group! Last but not least, if you want to support the show, you can Buy Us a Coffee as well!
Aaron and Josh Sarnecky are here to talk about A Hard Day's Night for its 60th anniversary. A Hard Day's Night is a musical comedy film directed by Richard Lester. It shares the name of the song and album by The Beatles. It opened in theaters in the United Kingdom on July 10, 1964. It debuted in the United States on August 12. In the film, Paul, John, George, and Ringo fool off when they should be rehearsing for a television performance. Accompanying them in London is Paul's mischievous grandfather (Wilfrid Brambell). Chaperoning the Fab Four are their managers Norm (Norman Rossington) and Shake (John Junkin). A Hard Day's Night released during the beginning of Beatlemania in the U.S. It was nominated at the Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Score. Today, it is considered one of the greatest British films over all time. Aaron and Josh talk about their familiarity with The Beatles and classic rock before going into the movie's plot, characters, humor, and songs. They also discuss The Beatles' legacy and director Sam Mendes' upcoming movie series based on the band. For another a classic musical, you can listen to Josh and Aaron's podcast about Singin' in the Rain. A Hard Day's Night is available on Max and Prime Video
The Cinema of Mad Men continues, with “The Crash” and Richard Lester's Petulia. In the classic season 6 episode, the office is visited by a Dr. Feelgood, Don retraces his sexual pathology to his childhood, and his kids get burglarized. In the 1968 film Petulia, George C. Scott and Julie Christie strike up a post-screwball romance from hell in the hippest, strangest parts of San Francisco. Infidelity, drugs, and the commodification of counter-culture are all over this pairing. 00:00 - The Crash 39:41 - Petulia Get an extra episode every week for $5/mo at https://www.patreon.com/Extended_Clip and send your questions, concerns, etc to extendedclippodcast@gmail.com
In Cineversary podcast episode #72, host Erik Martin is joined by guest Ken Womack—author of several books on the Fab Four including The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles and Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans—as they celebrate the 60th birthday of A Hard Day's Night, directed by Richard Lester. Together, they rediscover the euphoria of of Beatlemania, examine this film's widespread influence, and explain why the movie still matters. Learn more about the Cineversary podcast at www.cineversary.com and email show comments or suggestions to cineversarypodcast@gmail.com. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cineversary/support
This weeks Patreon choice comes courtesy of Matt Bates aka, Black Country Vlogger. Matt shares a passion for Las Vegas with Chris and you'll have to listen to see whether they also share a passion for 1960's musical comedies. Checkout Matt on https://www.youtube.com/@BlackCountryVlogger A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) was a collaborative effort between director Richard Lester, screenwriter Melvin Frank, and a talented ensemble cast. Filming primarily took place on location in Madrid, Spain, providing the production with access to authentic Roman architecture and settings. This decision added to the film's visual authenticity and allowed the filmmakers to immerse audiences in the bustling streets of ancient Rome. The production also benefited from the participation of Broadway veterans like Zero Mostel, who reprised his Tony Award-winning role as the cunning slave Pseudolus, alongside a cast that included Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton, and Jack Gilford, all contributing their comedic talents to the ensemble. Despite facing challenges inherent in filming on location, such as coordinating logistics and navigating cultural differences, the production team successfully brought the lively and irreverent musical to life on the big screen. The film's elaborate sets, colorful costumes, and energetic choreography captured the essence of classical farce and delighted audiences with its witty humor and catchy musical numbers. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum remains a beloved adaptation of the Broadway hit, cherished for its spirited performances and timeless comedic appeal. If you enjoy the show we have a Patreon, so become a supporter. www.patreon.com/thevhsstrikesback Plot Summary: Pseudolus is a wily slave played by Zero Mostel and schemes to win his freedom by helping his young master, Hero win the heart of the beautiful courtesan Philia. Pseudolus's plans are complicated by a series of mistaken identities, romantic entanglements, and slapstick mishaps, all set against the backdrop of the chaotic streets of Rome. thevhsstrikesback@gmail.com https://linktr.ee/vhsstrikesback --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thevhsstrikesback/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thevhsstrikesback/support
Rita Tushingham burst onto the film scene with her debut role in A Taste Of Honey and established herself as an iconic face of the British New Wave. Ian is joined by film historian Melanie Williams to review three of her early roles. A Taste Of Honey (1961). Directed by Tony Richardson. Written by Shelagh Delaney. Starring Rita Tushingham, Dora Bryan, Robert Stephens, Murray Melvin and Paul Danquah. Girl With Green Eyes (1964). Directed by Desmond Davis. Written by Edna O'Brien. Starring Rita Tushingham, Peter Finch and Lynn Redgrave. The Knack...and How To Get It (1965). Directed by Richard Lester. Written by Charles Wood from the play by Ann Jellicoe. Starring Rita Tushingham, Michael Crawford, Ray Brooks and Donal DonnellyMelanie Williams is Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of East Anglia. A historian of British cinema, her recent books include a BFI Film Classic on A Taste of Honey (2023), Transformation and Tradition in 1960s British Cinema (with Richard Farmer, Laura Mayne and Duncan Petrie, 2019), and Female Stars of British Cinema: The Women in Question (2017). She is currently writing a book about the British filmmaker Muriel Box.
We are joined by guest Tony Bevilacqua, guitarist for The Distillers, for BEATLE MOVIE MANIA PART TWO as we discuss HELP! (1965), directed by Richard Lester, the MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR television special (1967) written and directed by the Beatles themselves, and the animated YELLOW SUBMARINE (1968).
Front Row Classics is "working like a dog" this week. We're celebrating the 60th anniversary of A Hard Day's Night as well as the Beatle' arrival in America. Brandon is joined by author & film historian, Sloan De Forest. Sloan is a self-proclaimed "Beatle Maniac" and helps to provide great insight into this musical comedy directed by Richard Lester. Brandon and Sloan marvel at the natural acting & comedic abilities from John, Paul, George & Ringo. We also discuss how modern the film still feels after sixty years.
GGACP celebrates the 92nd birthday of innovative film director -- and long-sought podcast guest -- Richard Lester (b. January 19, 1932), by revisiting this double topic mini-ep from 2016. In this episode, the boys look back on the American-born expatriate's impressive list of collaborators (Peter Sellers, Sean Connery, the Beatles, Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, et al.) as well as his influence on everyone from Martin Scorsese to Steven Soderbergh. Also: "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"! John Lennon wins the war! Ted Bessell does George Jessel! The enduring appeal of "A Hard Day's Night"! And Gilbert weighs in on the Spice Girls movie! PLUS: The very first discussion of Bob Hope's "Jack Frost"! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Episode 171 looks at "Hey Jude", the White Album, and the career of the Beatles from August 1967 through November 1968. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a fifty-seven-minute bonus episode available, on "I Love You" by People!. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata Not really an error, but at one point I refer to Ornette Coleman as a saxophonist. While he was, he plays trumpet on the track that is excerpted after that. Resources No Mixcloud this week due to the number of songs by the Beatles. I have read literally dozens of books on the Beatles, and used bits of information from many of them. All my Beatles episodes refer to: The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn, All The Songs: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Release by Jean-Michel Guesdon, And The Band Begins To Play: The Definitive Guide To The Songs of The Beatles by Steve Lambley, The Beatles By Ear by Kevin Moore, Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, and The Beatles Anthology. For this episode, I also referred to Last Interview by David Sheff, a longform interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from shortly before Lennon's death; Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, an authorised biography of Paul McCartney; and Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey. This time I also used Steve Turner's The Beatles: The Stories Behind the Songs 1967-1970. I referred to Philip Norman's biographies of John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney, to Graeme Thomson's biography of George Harrison, Take a Sad Song by James Campion, Yoko Ono: An Artful Life by Donald Brackett, Those Were the Days 2.0 by Stephan Granados, and Sound Pictures by Kenneth Womack. Sadly the only way to get the single mix of “Hey Jude” is on this ludicrously-expensive out-of-print box set, but a remixed stereo mix is easily available on the new reissue of the 1967-70 compilation. The original mixes of the White Album are also, shockingly, out of print, but this 2018 remix is available for the moment. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start, a quick note -- this episode deals, among other topics, with child abandonment, spousal neglect, suicide attempts, miscarriage, rape accusations, and heroin addiction. If any of those topics are likely to upset you, you might want to check the transcript rather than listening to this episode. It also, for once, contains a short excerpt of an expletive, but given that that expletive in that context has been regularly played on daytime radio without complaint for over fifty years, I suspect it can be excused. The use of mantra meditation is something that exists across religions, and which appears to have been independently invented multiple times, in multiple cultures. In the Western culture to which most of my listeners belong, it is now best known as an aspect of what is known as "mindfulness", a secularised version of Buddhism which aims to provide adherents with the benefits of the teachings of the Buddha but without the cosmology to which they are attached. But it turns up in almost every religious tradition I know of in one form or another. The idea of mantra meditation is a very simple one, and one that even has some basis in science. There is a mathematical principle in neurology and information science called the free energy principle which says our brains are wired to try to minimise how surprised we are -- our brain is constantly making predictions about the world, and then looking at the results from our senses to see if they match. If they do, that's great, and the brain will happily move on to its next prediction. If they don't, the brain has to update its model of the world to match the new information, make new predictions, and see if those new predictions are a better match. Every person has a different mental model of the world, and none of them match reality, but every brain tries to get as close as possible. This updating of the model to match the new information is called "thinking", and it uses up energy, and our bodies and brains have evolved to conserve energy as much as possible. This means that for many people, most of the time, thinking is unpleasant, and indeed much of the time that people have spent thinking, they've been thinking about how to stop themselves having to do it at all, and when they have managed to stop thinking, however briefly, they've experienced great bliss. Many more or less effective technologies have been created to bring about a more minimal-energy state, including alcohol, heroin, and barbituates, but many of these have unwanted side-effects, such as death, which people also tend to want to avoid, and so people have often turned to another technology. It turns out that for many people, they can avoid thinking by simply thinking about something that is utterly predictable. If they minimise the amount of sensory input, and concentrate on something that they can predict exactly, eventually they can turn off their mind, relax, and float downstream, without dying. One easy way to do this is to close your eyes, so you can't see anything, make your breath as regular as possible, and then concentrate on a sound that repeats over and over. If you repeat a single phrase or word a few hundred times, that regular repetition eventually causes your mind to stop having to keep track of the world, and experience a peace that is, by all accounts, unlike any other experience. What word or phrase that is can depend very much on the tradition. In Transcendental Meditation, each person has their own individual phrase. In the Catholicism in which George Harrison and Paul McCartney were raised, popular phrases for this are "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" or "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." In some branches of Buddhism, a popular mantra is "_NAMU MYŌHŌ RENGE KYŌ_". In the Hinduism to which George Harrison later converted, you can use "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare", "Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya" or "Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha". Those last two start with the syllable "Om", and indeed some people prefer to just use that syllable, repeating a single syllable over and over again until they reach a state of transcendence. [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hey Jude" ("na na na na na na na")] We don't know much about how the Beatles first discovered Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, except that it was thanks to Pattie Boyd, George Harrison's then-wife. Unfortunately, her memory of how she first became involved in the Maharishi's Spiritual Regeneration Movement, as described in her autobiography, doesn't fully line up with other known facts. She talks about reading about the Maharishi in the paper with her friend Marie-Lise while George was away on tour, but she also places the date that this happened in February 1967, several months after the Beatles had stopped touring forever. We'll be seeing a lot more of these timing discrepancies as this story progresses, and people's memories increasingly don't match the events that happened to them. Either way, it's clear that Pattie became involved in the Spiritual Regeneration Movement a good length of time before her husband did. She got him to go along with her to one of the Maharishi's lectures, after she had already been converted to the practice of Transcendental Meditation, and they brought along John, Paul, and their partners (Ringo's wife Maureen had just given birth, so they didn't come). As we heard back in episode one hundred and fifty, that lecture was impressive enough that the group, plus their wives and girlfriends (with the exception of Maureen Starkey) and Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, all went on a meditation retreat with the Maharishi at a holiday camp in Bangor, and it was there that they learned that Brian Epstein had been found dead. The death of the man who had guided the group's career could not have come at a worse time for the band's stability. The group had only recorded one song in the preceding two months -- Paul's "Your Mother Should Know" -- and had basically been running on fumes since completing recording of Sgt Pepper many months earlier. John's drug intake had increased to the point that he was barely functional -- although with the enthusiasm of the newly converted he had decided to swear off LSD at the Maharishi's urging -- and his marriage was falling apart. Similarly, Paul McCartney's relationship with Jane Asher was in a bad state, though both men were trying to repair their damaged relationships, while both George and Ringo were having doubts about the band that had made them famous. In George's case, he was feeling marginalised by John and Paul, his songs ignored or paid cursory attention, and there was less for him to do on the records as the group moved away from making guitar-based rock and roll music into the stranger areas of psychedelia. And Ringo, whose main memory of the recording of Sgt Pepper was of learning to play chess while the others went through the extensive overdubs that characterised that album, was starting to feel like his playing was deteriorating, and that as the only non-writer in the band he was on the outside to an extent. On top of that, the group were in the middle of a major plan to restructure their business. As part of their contract renegotiations with EMI at the beginning of 1967, it had been agreed that they would receive two million pounds -- roughly fifteen million pounds in today's money -- in unpaid royalties as a lump sum. If that had been paid to them as individuals, or through the company they owned, the Beatles Ltd, they would have had to pay the full top rate of tax on it, which as George had complained the previous year was over ninety-five percent. (In fact, he'd been slightly exaggerating the generosity of the UK tax system to the rich, as at that point the top rate of income tax was somewhere around ninety-seven and a half percent). But happily for them, a couple of years earlier the UK had restructured its tax laws and introduced a corporation tax, which meant that the profits of corporations were no longer taxed at the same high rate as income. So a new company had been set up, The Beatles & Co, and all the group's non-songwriting income was paid into the company. Each Beatle owned five percent of the company, and the other eighty percent was owned by a new partnership, a corporation that was soon renamed Apple Corps -- a name inspired by a painting that McCartney had liked by the artist Rene Magritte. In the early stages of Apple, it was very entangled with Nems, the company that was owned by Brian and Clive Epstein, and which was in the process of being sold to Robert Stigwood, though that sale fell through after Brian's death. The first part of Apple, Apple Publishing, had been set up in the summer of 1967, and was run by Terry Doran, a friend of Epstein's who ran a motor dealership -- most of the Apple divisions would be run by friends of the group rather than by people with experience in the industries in question. As Apple was set up during the point that Stigwood was getting involved with NEMS, Apple Publishing's initial offices were in the same building with, and shared staff with, two publishing companies that Stigwood owned, Dratleaf Music, who published Cream's songs, and Abigail Music, the Bee Gees' publishers. And indeed the first two songs published by Apple were copyrights that were gifted to the company by Stigwood -- "Listen to the Sky", a B-side by an obscure band called Sands: [Excerpt: Sands, "Listen to the Sky"] And "Outside Woman Blues", an arrangement by Eric Clapton of an old blues song by Blind Joe Reynolds, which Cream had copyrighted separately and released on Disraeli Gears: [Excerpt: Cream, "Outside Woman Blues"] But Apple soon started signing outside songwriters -- once Mike Berry, a member of Apple Publishing's staff, had sat McCartney down and explained to him what music publishing actually was, something he had never actually understood even though he'd been a songwriter for five years. Those songwriters, given that this was 1967, were often also performers, and as Apple Records had not yet been set up, Apple would try to arrange recording contracts for them with other labels. They started with a group called Focal Point, who got signed by badgering Paul McCartney to listen to their songs until he gave them Doran's phone number to shut them up: [Excerpt: Focal Point, "Sycamore Sid"] But the big early hope for Apple Publishing was a songwriter called George Alexander. Alexander's birth name had been Alexander Young, and he was the brother of George Young, who was a member of the Australian beat group The Easybeats, who'd had a hit with "Friday on My Mind": [Excerpt: The Easybeats, "Friday on My Mind"] His younger brothers Malcolm and Angus would go on to have a few hits themselves, but AC/DC wouldn't be formed for another five years. Terry Doran thought that Alexander should be a member of a band, because bands were more popular than solo artists at the time, and so he was placed with three former members of Tony Rivers and the Castaways, a Beach Boys soundalike group that had had some minor success. John Lennon suggested that the group be named Grapefruit, after a book he was reading by a conceptual artist of his acquaintance named Yoko Ono, and as Doran was making arrangements with Terry Melcher for a reciprocal publishing deal by which Melcher's American company would publish Apple songs in the US while Apple published songs from Melcher's company in the UK, it made sense for Melcher to also produce Grapefruit's first single, "Dear Delilah": [Excerpt: Grapefruit, "Dear Delilah"] That made number twenty-one in the UK when it came out in early 1968, on the back of publicity about Grapefruit's connection with the Beatles, but future singles by the band were much less successful, and like several other acts involved with Apple, they found that they were more hampered by the Beatles connection than helped. A few other people were signed to Apple Publishing early on, of whom the most notable was Jackie Lomax. Lomax had been a member of a minor Merseybeat group, the Undertakers, and after they had split up, he'd been signed by Brian Epstein with a new group, the Lomax Alliance, who had released one single, "Try as You May": [Excerpt: The Lomax Alliance, "Try As You May"] After Epstein's death, Lomax had plans to join another band, being formed by another Merseybeat musician, Chris Curtis, the former drummer of the Searchers. But after going to the Beatles to talk with them about them helping the new group financially, Lomax was persuaded by John Lennon to go solo instead. He may later have regretted that decision, as by early 1968 the people that Curtis had recruited for his new band had ditched him and were making a name for themselves as Deep Purple. Lomax recorded one solo single with funding from Stigwood, a cover version of a song by an obscure singer-songwriter, Jake Holmes, "Genuine Imitation Life": [Excerpt: Jackie Lomax, "Genuine Imitation Life"] But he was also signed to Apple Publishing as a songwriter. The Beatles had only just started laying out plans for Apple when Epstein died, and other than the publishing company one of the few things they'd agreed on was that they were going to have a film company, which was to be run by Denis O'Dell, who had been an associate producer on A Hard Day's Night and on How I Won The War, the Richard Lester film Lennon had recently starred in. A few days after Epstein's death, they had a meeting, in which they agreed that the band needed to move forward quickly if they were going to recover from Epstein's death. They had originally been planning on going to India with the Maharishi to study meditation, but they decided to put that off until the new year, and to press forward with a film project Paul had been talking about, to be titled Magical Mystery Tour. And so, on the fifth of September 1967, they went back into the recording studio and started work on a song of John's that was earmarked for the film, "I am the Walrus": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] Magical Mystery Tour, the film, has a mixed reputation which we will talk about shortly, but one defence that Paul McCartney has always made of it is that it's the only place where you can see the Beatles performing "I am the Walrus". While the song was eventually relegated to a B-side, it's possibly the finest B-side of the Beatles' career, and one of the best tracks the group ever made. As with many of Lennon's songs from this period, the song was a collage of many different elements pulled from his environment and surroundings, and turned into something that was rather more than the sum of its parts. For its musical inspiration, Lennon pulled from, of all things, a police siren going past his house. (For those who are unfamiliar with what old British police sirens sounded like, as opposed to the ones in use for most of my lifetime or in other countries, here's a recording of one): [Excerpt: British police siren ca 1968] That inspired Lennon to write a snatch of lyric to go with the sound of the siren, starting "Mister city policeman sitting pretty". He had two other song fragments, one about sitting in the garden, and one about sitting on a cornflake, and he told Hunter Davies, who was doing interviews for his authorised biography of the group, “I don't know how it will all end up. Perhaps they'll turn out to be different parts of the same song.” But the final element that made these three disparate sections into a song was a letter that came from Stephen Bayley, a pupil at Lennon's old school Quarry Bank, who told him that the teachers at the school -- who Lennon always thought of as having suppressed his creativity -- were now analysing Beatles lyrics in their lessons. Lennon decided to come up with some nonsense that they couldn't analyse -- though as nonsensical as the finished song is, there's an underlying anger to a lot of it that possibly comes from Lennon thinking of his school experiences. And so Lennon asked his old schoolfriend Pete Shotton to remind him of a disgusting playground chant that kids used to sing in schools in the North West of England (and which they still sang with very minor variations at my own school decades later -- childhood folklore has a remarkably long life). That rhyme went: Yellow matter custard, green snot pie All mixed up with a dead dog's eye Slap it on a butty, nice and thick, And drink it down with a cup of cold sick Lennon combined some parts of this with half-remembered fragments of Lewis Carrol's The Walrus and the Carpenter, and with some punning references to things that were going on in his own life and those of his friends -- though it's difficult to know exactly which of the stories attached to some of the more incomprehensible bits of the lyrics are accurate. The story that the line "I am the eggman" is about a sexual proclivity of Eric Burdon of the Animals seems plausible, while the contention by some that the phrase "semolina pilchard" is a reference to Sgt Pilcher, the corrupt policeman who had arrested three of the Rolling Stones, and would later arrest Lennon, on drugs charges, seems less likely. The track is a masterpiece of production, but the release of the basic take on Anthology 2 in 1996 showed that the underlying performance, before George Martin worked his magic with the overdubs, is still a remarkable piece of work: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus (Anthology 2 version)"] But Martin's arrangement and production turned the track from a merely very good track into a masterpiece. The string arrangement, very much in the same mould as that for "Strawberry Fields Forever" but giving a very different effect with its harsh cello glissandi, is the kind of thing one expects from Martin, but there's also the chanting of the Mike Sammes Singers, who were more normally booked for sessions like Englebert Humperdinck's "The Last Waltz": [Excerpt: Engelbert Humperdinck, "The Last Waltz"] But here were instead asked to imitate the sound of the strings, make grunting noises, and generally go very far out of their normal comfort zone: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] But the most fascinating piece of production in the entire track is an idea that seems to have been inspired by people like John Cage -- a live feed of a radio being tuned was played into the mono mix from about the halfway point, and whatever was on the radio at the time was captured: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] This is also why for many decades it was impossible to have a true stereo mix of the track -- the radio part was mixed directly into the mono mix, and it wasn't until the 1990s that someone thought to track down a copy of the original radio broadcasts and recreate the process. In one of those bits of synchronicity that happen more often than you would think when you're creating aleatory art, and which are why that kind of process can be so appealing, one bit of dialogue from the broadcast of King Lear that was on the radio as the mixing was happening was *perfectly* timed: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] After completing work on the basic track for "I am the Walrus", the group worked on two more songs for the film, George's "Blue Jay Way" and a group-composed twelve-bar blues instrumental called "Flying", before starting production. Magical Mystery Tour, as an idea, was inspired in equal parts by Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, the collective of people we talked about in the episode on the Grateful Dead who travelled across the US extolling the virtues of psychedelic drugs, and by mystery tours, a British working-class tradition that has rather fallen out of fashion in the intervening decades. A mystery tour would generally be put on by a coach-hire company, and would be a day trip to an unannounced location -- though the location would in fact be very predictable, and would be a seaside town within a couple of hours' drive of its starting point. In the case of the ones the Beatles remembered from their own childhoods, this would be to a coastal town in Lancashire or Wales, like Blackpool, Rhyl, or Prestatyn. A coachload of people would pay to be driven to this random location, get very drunk and have a singsong on the bus, and spend a day wherever they were taken. McCartney's plan was simple -- they would gather a group of passengers and replicate this experience over the course of several days, and film whatever went on, but intersperse that with more planned out sketches and musical numbers. For this reason, along with the Beatles and their associates, the cast included some actors found through Spotlight and some of the group's favourite performers, like the comedian Nat Jackley (whose comedy sequence directed by John was cut from the final film) and the surrealist poet/singer/comedian Ivor Cutler: [Excerpt: Ivor Cutler, "I'm Going in a Field"] The film also featured an appearance by a new band who would go on to have great success over the next year, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. They had recorded their first single in Abbey Road at the same time as the Beatles were recording Revolver, but rather than being progressive psychedelic rock, it had been a remake of a 1920s novelty song: [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "My Brother Makes the Noises For the Talkies"] Their performance in Magical Mystery Tour was very different though -- they played a fifties rock pastiche written by band leaders Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes while a stripper took off her clothes. While several other musical sequences were recorded for the film, including one by the band Traffic and one by Cutler, other than the Beatles tracks only the Bonzos' song made it into the finished film: [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "Death Cab for Cutie"] That song, thirty years later, would give its name to a prominent American alternative rock band. Incidentally the same night that Magical Mystery Tour was first broadcast was also the night that the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band first appeared on a TV show, Do Not Adjust Your Set, which featured three future members of the Monty Python troupe -- Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones. Over the years the careers of the Bonzos, the Pythons, and the Beatles would become increasingly intertwined, with George Harrison in particular striking up strong friendships and working relationships with Bonzos Neil Innes and "Legs" Larry Smith. The filming of Magical Mystery Tour went about as well as one might expect from a film made by four directors, none of whom had any previous filmmaking experience, and none of whom had any business knowledge. The Beatles were used to just turning up and having things magically done for them by other people, and had no real idea of the infrastructure challenges that making a film, even a low-budget one, actually presents, and ended up causing a great deal of stress to almost everyone involved. The completed film was shown on TV on Boxing Day 1967 to general confusion and bemusement. It didn't help that it was originally broadcast in black and white, and so for example the scene showing shifting landscapes (outtake footage from Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, tinted various psychedelic colours) over the "Flying" music, just looked like grey fuzz. But also, it just wasn't what people were expecting from a Beatles film. This was a ramshackle, plotless, thing more inspired by Andy Warhol's underground films than by the kind of thing the group had previously appeared in, and it was being presented as Christmas entertainment for all the family. And to be honest, it's not even a particularly good example of underground filmmaking -- though it looks like a masterpiece when placed next to something like the Bee Gees' similar effort, Cucumber Castle. But there are enough interesting sequences in there for the project not to be a complete failure -- and the deleted scenes on the DVD release, including the performances by Cutler and Traffic, and the fact that the film was edited down from ten hours to fifty-two minutes, makes one wonder if there's a better film that could be constructed from the original footage. Either way, the reaction to the film was so bad that McCartney actually appeared on David Frost's TV show the next day to defend it and, essentially, apologise. While they were editing the film, the group were also continuing to work in the studio, including on two new McCartney songs, "The Fool on the Hill", which was included in Magical Mystery Tour, and "Hello Goodbye", which wasn't included on the film's soundtrack but was released as the next single, with "I Am the Walrus" as the B-side: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hello Goodbye"] Incidentally, in the UK the soundtrack to Magical Mystery Tour was released as a double-EP rather than as an album (in the US, the group's recent singles and B-sides were added to turn it into a full-length album, which is how it's now generally available). "I Am the Walrus" was on the double-EP as well as being on the single's B-side, and the double-EP got to number two on the singles charts, meaning "I am the Walrus" was on the records at number one and number two at the same time. Before it became obvious that the film, if not the soundtrack, was a disaster, the group held a launch party on the twenty-first of December, 1967. The band members went along in fancy dress, as did many of the cast and crew -- the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band performed at the party. Mike Love and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys also turned up at the party, and apparently at one point jammed with the Bonzos, and according to some, but not all, reports, a couple of the Beatles joined in as well. Love and Johnston had both just met the Maharishi for the first time a couple of days earlier, and Love had been as impressed as the Beatles were, and it may have been at this party that the group mentioned to Love that they would soon be going on a retreat in India with the guru -- a retreat that was normally meant for training TM instructors, but this time seemed to be more about getting celebrities involved. Love would also end up going with them. That party was also the first time that Cynthia Lennon had an inkling that John might not be as faithful to her as she previously supposed. John had always "joked" about being attracted to George Harrison's wife, Patti, but this time he got a little more blatant about his attraction than he ever had previously, to the point that he made Cynthia cry, and Cynthia's friend, the pop star Lulu, decided to give Lennon a very public dressing-down for his cruelty to his wife, a dressing-down that must have been a sight to behold, as Lennon was dressed as a Teddy boy while Lulu was in a Shirley Temple costume. It's a sign of how bad the Lennons' marriage was at this point that this was the second time in a two-month period where Cynthia had ended up crying because of John at a film launch party and been comforted by a female pop star. In October, Cilla Black had held a party to celebrate the belated release of John's film How I Won the War, and during the party Georgie Fame had come up to Black and said, confused, "Cynthia Lennon is hiding in your wardrobe". Black went and had a look, and Cynthia explained to her “I'm waiting to see how long it is before John misses me and comes looking for me.” Black's response had been “You'd better face it, kid—he's never gonna come.” Also at the Magical Mystery Tour party was Lennon's father, now known as Freddie Lennon, and his new nineteen-year-old fiancee. While Hunter Davis had been researching the Beatles' biography, he'd come across some evidence that the version of Freddie's attitude towards John that his mother's side of the family had always told him -- that Freddie had been a cruel and uncaring husband who had not actually wanted to be around his son -- might not be the whole of the truth, and that the mother who he had thought of as saintly might also have had some part to play in their marriage breaking down and Freddie not seeing his son for twenty years. The two had made some tentative attempts at reconciliation, and indeed Freddie would even come and live with John for a while, though within a couple of years the younger Lennon's heart would fully harden against his father again. Of course, the things that John always resented his father for were pretty much exactly the kind of things that Lennon himself was about to do. It was around this time as well that Derek Taylor gave the Beatles copies of the debut album by a young singer/songwriter named Harry Nilsson. Nilsson will be getting his own episode down the line, but not for a couple of years at my current rates, so it's worth bringing that up here, because that album became a favourite of all the Beatles, and would have a huge influence on their songwriting for the next couple of years, and because one song on the album, "1941", must have resonated particularly deeply with Lennon right at this moment -- an autobiographical song by Nilsson about how his father had left him and his mother when he was a small boy, and about his own fear that, as his first marriage broke down, he was repeating the pattern with his stepson Scott: [Excerpt: Nilsson, "1941"] The other major event of December 1967, rather overshadowed by the Magical Mystery Tour disaster the next day, was that on Christmas Day Paul McCartney and Jane Asher announced their engagement. A few days later, George Harrison flew to India. After John and Paul had had their outside film projects -- John starring in How I Won The War and Paul doing the soundtrack for The Family Way -- the other two Beatles more or less simultaneously did their own side project films, and again one acted while the other did a soundtrack. Both of these projects were in the rather odd subgenre of psychedelic shambolic comedy film that sprang up in the mid sixties, a subgenre that produced a lot of fascinating films, though rather fewer good ones. Indeed, both of them were in the subsubgenre of shambolic psychedelic *sex* comedies. In Ringo's case, he had a small role in the film Candy, which was based on the novel we mentioned in the last episode, co-written by Terry Southern, which was in itself a loose modern rewriting of Voltaire's Candide. Unfortunately, like such other classics of this subgenre as Anthony Newley's Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, Candy has dated *extremely* badly, and unless you find repeated scenes of sexual assault and rape, ethnic stereotypes, and jokes about deformity and disfigurement to be an absolute laugh riot, it's not a film that's worth seeking out, and Starr's part in it is not a major one. Harrison's film was of the same basic genre -- a film called Wonderwall about a mad scientist who discovers a way to see through the walls of his apartment, and gets to see a photographer taking sexy photographs of a young woman named Penny Lane, played by Jane Birkin: [Excerpt: Some Wonderwall film dialogue ripped from the Blu-Ray] Wonderwall would, of course, later inspire the title of a song by Oasis, and that's what the film is now best known for, but it's a less-unwatchable film than Candy, and while still problematic it's less so. Which is something. Harrison had been the Beatle with least involvement in Magical Mystery Tour -- McCartney had been the de facto director, Starr had been the lead character and the only one with much in the way of any acting to do, and Lennon had written the film's standout scene and its best song, and had done a little voiceover narration. Harrison, by contrast, barely has anything to do in the film apart from the one song he contributed, "Blue Jay Way", and he said of the project “I had no idea what was happening and maybe I didn't pay enough attention because my problem, basically, was that I was in another world, I didn't really belong; I was just an appendage.” He'd expressed his discomfort to his friend Joe Massot, who was about to make his first feature film. Massot had got to know Harrison during the making of his previous film, Reflections on Love, a mostly-silent short which had starred Harrison's sister-in-law Jenny Boyd, and which had been photographed by Robert Freeman, who had been the photographer for the Beatles' album covers from With the Beatles through Rubber Soul, and who had taken most of the photos that Klaus Voorman incorporated into the cover of Revolver (and whose professional association with the Beatles seemed to come to an end around the same time he discovered that Lennon had been having an affair with his wife). Massot asked Harrison to write the music for the film, and told Harrison he would have complete free rein to make whatever music he wanted, so long as it fit the timing of the film, and so Harrison decided to create a mixture of Western rock music and the Indian music he loved. Harrison started recording the music at the tail end of 1967, with sessions with several London-based Indian musicians and John Barham, an orchestrator who had worked with Ravi Shankar on Shankar's collaborations with Western musicians, including the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack we talked about in the "All You Need is Love" episode. For the Western music, he used the Remo Four, a Merseybeat group who had been on the scene even before the Beatles, and which contained a couple of classmates of Paul McCartney, but who had mostly acted as backing musicians for other artists. They'd backed Johnny Sandon, the former singer with the Searchers, on a couple of singles, before becoming the backing band for Tommy Quickly, a NEMS artist who was unsuccessful despite starting his career with a Lennon/McCartney song, "Tip of My Tongue": [Excerpt: Tommy Quickly, "Tip of My Tongue"] The Remo Four would later, after a lineup change, become Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, who would become one-hit wonders in the seventies, and during the Wonderwall sessions they recorded a song that went unreleased at the time, and which would later go on to be rerecorded by Ashton, Gardner, and Dyke. "In the First Place" also features Harrison on backing vocals and possibly guitar, and was not submitted for the film because Harrison didn't believe that Massot wanted any vocal tracks, but the recording was later discovered and used in a revised director's cut of the film in the nineties: [Excerpt: The Remo Four, "In the First Place"] But for the most part the Remo Four were performing instrumentals written by Harrison. They weren't the only Western musicians performing on the sessions though -- Peter Tork of the Monkees dropped by these sessions and recorded several short banjo solos, which were used in the film soundtrack but not in the soundtrack album (presumably because Tork was contracted to another label): [Excerpt: Peter Tork, "Wonderwall banjo solo"] Another musician who was under contract to another label was Eric Clapton, who at the time was playing with The Cream, and who vaguely knew Harrison and so joined in for the track "Ski-ing", playing lead guitar under the cunning, impenetrable, pseudonym "Eddie Clayton", with Harrison on sitar, Starr on drums, and session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan on bass: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "Ski-ing"] But the bulk of the album was recorded in EMI's studios in the city that is now known as Mumbai but at the time was called Bombay. The studio facilities in India had up to that point only had a mono tape recorder, and Bhaskar Menon, one of the top executives at EMI's Indian division and later the head of EMI music worldwide, personally brought the first stereo tape recorder to the studio to aid in Harrison's recording. The music was all composed by Harrison and performed by the Indian musicians, and while Harrison was composing in an Indian mode, the musicians were apparently fascinated by how Western it sounded to them: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "Microbes"] While he was there, Harrison also got the instrumentalists to record another instrumental track, which wasn't to be used for the film: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "The Inner Light (instrumental)"] That track would, instead, become part of what was to be Harrison's first composition to make a side of a Beatles single. After John and George had appeared on the David Frost show talking about the Maharishi, in September 1967, George had met a lecturer in Sanskrit named Juan Mascaró, who wrote to Harrison enclosing a book he'd compiled of translations of religious texts, telling him he'd admired "Within You Without You" and thought it would be interesting if Harrison set something from the Tao Te Ching to music. He suggested a text that, in his translation, read: "Without going out of my door I can know all things on Earth Without looking out of my window I can know the ways of heaven For the farther one travels, the less one knows The sage, therefore Arrives without travelling Sees all without looking Does all without doing" Harrison took that text almost verbatim, though he created a second verse by repeating the first few lines with "you" replacing "I" -- concerned that listeners might think he was just talking about himself, and wouldn't realise it was a more general statement -- and he removed the "the sage, therefore" and turned the last few lines into imperative commands rather than declarative statements: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "The Inner Light"] The song has come in for some criticism over the years as being a little Orientalist, because in critics' eyes it combines Chinese philosophy with Indian music, as if all these things are equally "Eastern" and so all the same really. On the other hand there's a good argument that an English songwriter taking a piece of writing written in Chinese and translated into English by a Spanish man and setting it to music inspired by Indian musical modes is a wonderful example of cultural cross-pollination. As someone who's neither Chinese nor Indian I wouldn't want to take a stance on it, but clearly the other Beatles were impressed by it -- they put it out as the B-side to their next single, even though the only Beatles on it are Harrison and McCartney, with the latter adding a small amount of harmony vocal: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "The Inner Light"] And it wasn't because the group were out of material. They were planning on going to Rishikesh to study with the Maharishi, and wanted to get a single out for release while they were away, and so in one week they completed the vocal overdubs on "The Inner Light" and recorded three other songs, two by John and one by Paul. All three of the group's songwriters brought in songs that were among their best. John's first contribution was a song whose lyrics he later described as possibly the best he ever wrote, "Across the Universe". He said the lyrics were “purely inspirational and were given to me as boom! I don't own it, you know; it came through like that … Such an extraordinary meter and I can never repeat it! It's not a matter of craftsmanship, it wrote itself. It drove me out of bed. I didn't want to write it … It's like being possessed, like a psychic or a medium.” But while Lennon liked the song, he was never happy with the recording of it. They tried all sorts of things to get the sound he heard in his head, including bringing in some fans who were hanging around outside to sing backing vocals. He said of the track "I was singing out of tune and instead of getting a decent choir, we got fans from outside, Apple Scruffs or whatever you call them. They came in and were singing all off-key. Nobody was interested in doing the tune originally.” [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Across the Universe"] The "jai guru deva" chorus there is the first reference to the teachings of the Maharishi in one of the Beatles' records -- Guru Dev was the Maharishi's teacher, and the phrase "Jai guru dev" is a Sanskrit one which I've seen variously translated as "victory to the great teacher", and "hail to the greatness within you". Lennon would say shortly before his death “The Beatles didn't make a good record out of it. I think subconsciously sometimes we – I say ‘we' though I think Paul did it more than the rest of us – Paul would sort of subconsciously try and destroy a great song … Usually we'd spend hours doing little detailed cleaning-ups of Paul's songs, when it came to mine, especially if it was a great song like ‘Strawberry Fields' or ‘Across The Universe', somehow this atmosphere of looseness and casualness and experimentation would creep in … It was a _lousy_ track of a great song and I was so disappointed by it …The guitars are out of tune and I'm singing out of tune because I'm psychologically destroyed and nobody's supporting me or helping me with it, and the song was never done properly.” Of course, this is only Lennon's perception, and it's one that the other participants would disagree with. George Martin, in particular, was always rather hurt by the implication that Lennon's songs had less attention paid to them, and he would always say that the problem was that Lennon in the studio would always say "yes, that's great", and only later complain that it hadn't been what he wanted. No doubt McCartney did put in more effort on his own songs than on Lennon's -- everyone has a bias towards their own work, and McCartney's only human -- but personally I suspect that a lot of the problem comes down to the two men having very different personalities. McCartney had very strong ideas about his own work and would drive the others insane with his nitpicky attention to detail. Lennon had similarly strong ideas, but didn't have the attention span to put the time and effort in to force his vision on others, and didn't have the technical knowledge to express his ideas in words they'd understand. He expected Martin and the other Beatles to work miracles, and they did -- but not the miracles he would have worked. That track was, rather than being chosen for the next single, given to Spike Milligan, who happened to be visiting the studio and was putting together an album for the environmental charity the World Wildlife Fund. The album was titled "No One's Gonna Change Our World": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Across the Universe"] That track is historic in another way -- it would be the last time that George Harrison would play sitar on a Beatles record, and it effectively marks the end of the period of psychedelia and Indian influence that had started with "Norwegian Wood" three years earlier, and which many fans consider their most creative period. Indeed, shortly after the recording, Harrison would give up the sitar altogether and stop playing it. He loved sitar music as much as he ever had, and he still thought that Indian classical music spoke to him in ways he couldn't express, and he continued to be friends with Ravi Shankar for the rest of his life, and would only become more interested in Indian religious thought. But as he spent time with Shankar he realised he would never be as good on the sitar as he hoped. He said later "I thought, 'Well, maybe I'm better off being a pop singer-guitar-player-songwriter – whatever-I'm-supposed-to-be' because I've seen a thousand sitar-players in India who are twice as better as I'll ever be. And only one of them Ravi thought was going to be a good player." We don't have a precise date for when it happened -- I suspect it was in June 1968, so a few months after the "Across the Universe" recording -- but Shankar told Harrison that rather than try to become a master of a music that he hadn't encountered until his twenties, perhaps he should be making the music that was his own background. And as Harrison put it "I realised that was riding my bike down a street in Liverpool and hearing 'Heartbreak Hotel' coming out of someone's house.": [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, "Heartbreak Hotel"] In early 1968 a lot of people seemed to be thinking along the same lines, as if Christmas 1967 had been the flick of a switch and instead of whimsy and ornamentation, the thing to do was to make music that was influenced by early rock and roll. In the US the Band and Bob Dylan were making music that was consciously shorn of all studio experimentation, while in the UK there was a revival of fifties rock and roll. In April 1968 both "Peggy Sue" and "Rock Around the Clock" reentered the top forty in the UK, and the Who were regularly including "Summertime Blues" in their sets. Fifties nostalgia, which would make occasional comebacks for at least the next forty years, was in its first height, and so it's not surprising that Paul McCartney's song, "Lady Madonna", which became the A-side of the next single, has more than a little of the fifties about it. Of course, the track isn't *completely* fifties in its origins -- one of the inspirations for the track seems to have been the Rolling Stones' then-recent hit "Let's Spend The Night Together": [Excerpt: The Rolling Stones, "Let's Spend the Night Together"] But the main source for the song's music -- and for the sound of the finished record -- seems to have been Johnny Parker's piano part on Humphrey Lyttleton's "Bad Penny Blues", a hit single engineered by Joe Meek in the fifties: [Excerpt: Humphrey Lyttleton, "Bad Penny Blues"] That song seems to have been on the group's mind for a while, as a working title for "With a Little Help From My Friends" had at one point been "Bad Finger Blues" -- a title that would later give the name to a band on Apple. McCartney took Parker's piano part as his inspiration, and as he later put it “‘Lady Madonna' was me sitting down at the piano trying to write a bluesy boogie-woogie thing. I got my left hand doing an arpeggio thing with the chord, an ascending boogie-woogie left hand, then a descending right hand. I always liked that, the juxtaposition of a line going down meeting a line going up." [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Lady Madonna"] That idea, incidentally, is an interesting reversal of what McCartney had done on "Hello, Goodbye", where the bass line goes down while the guitar moves up -- the two lines moving away from each other: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hello Goodbye"] Though that isn't to say there's no descending bass in "Lady Madonna" -- the bridge has a wonderful sequence where the bass just *keeps* *descending*: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Lady Madonna"] Lyrically, McCartney was inspired by a photo in National Geographic of a woman in Malaysia, captioned “Mountain Madonna: with one child at her breast and another laughing into her face, sees her quality of life threatened.” But as he put it “The people I was brought up amongst were often Catholic; there are lots of Catholics in Liverpool because of the Irish connection and they are often religious. When they have a baby I think they see a big connection between themselves and the Virgin Mary with her baby. So the original concept was the Virgin Mary but it quickly became symbolic of every woman; the Madonna image but as applied to ordinary working class woman. It's really a tribute to the mother figure, it's a tribute to women.” Musically though, the song was more a tribute to the fifties -- while the inspiration had been a skiffle hit by Humphrey Lyttleton, as soon as McCartney started playing it he'd thought of Fats Domino, and the lyric reflects that to an extent -- just as Domino's "Blue Monday" details the days of the week for a weary working man who only gets to enjoy himself on Saturday night, "Lady Madonna"'s lyrics similarly look at the work a mother has to do every day -- though as McCartney later noted "I was writing the words out to learn it for an American TV show and I realised I missed out Saturday ... So I figured it must have been a real night out." The vocal was very much McCartney doing a Domino impression -- something that wasn't lost on Fats, who cut his own version of the track later that year: [Excerpt: Fats Domino, "Lady Madonna"] The group were so productive at this point, right before the journey to India, that they actually cut another song *while they were making a video for "Lady Madonna"*. They were booked into Abbey Road to film themselves performing the song so it could be played on Top of the Pops while they were away, but instead they decided to use the time to cut a new song -- John had a partially-written song, "Hey Bullfrog", which was roughly the same tempo as "Lady Madonna", so they could finish that up and then re-edit the footage to match the record. The song was quickly finished and became "Hey Bulldog": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hey Bulldog"] One of Lennon's best songs from this period, "Hey Bulldog" was oddly chosen only to go on the soundtrack of Yellow Submarine. Either the band didn't think much of it because it had come so easily, or it was just assigned to the film because they were planning on being away for several months and didn't have any other projects they were working on. The extent of the group's contribution to the film was minimal – they were not very hands-on, and the film, which was mostly done as an attempt to provide a third feature film for their United Artists contract without them having to do any work, was made by the team that had done the Beatles cartoon on American TV. There's some evidence that they had a small amount of input in the early story stages, but in general they saw the cartoon as an irrelevance to them -- the only things they contributed were the four songs "All Together Now", "It's All Too Much", "Hey Bulldog" and "Only a Northern Song", and a brief filmed appearance for the very end of the film, recorded in January: [Excerpt: Yellow Submarine film end] McCartney also took part in yet another session in early February 1968, one produced by Peter Asher, his fiancee's brother, and former singer with Peter and Gordon. Asher had given up on being a pop star and was trying to get into the business side of music, and he was starting out as a producer, producing a single by Paul Jones, the former lead singer of Manfred Mann. The A-side of the single, "And the Sun Will Shine", was written by the Bee Gees, the band that Robert Stigwood was managing: [Excerpt: Paul Jones, "And the Sun Will Shine"] While the B-side was an original by Jones, "The Dog Presides": [Excerpt: Paul Jones, "The Dog Presides"] Those tracks featured two former members of the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck and Paul Samwell-Smith, on guitar and bass, and Nicky Hopkins on piano. Asher asked McCartney to play drums on both sides of the single, saying later "I always thought he was a great, underrated drummer." McCartney was impressed by Asher's production, and asked him to get involved with the new Apple Records label that would be set up when the group returned from India. Asher eventually became head of A&R for the label. And even before "Lady Madonna" was mixed, the Beatles were off to India. Mal Evans, their roadie, went ahead with all their luggage on the fourteenth of February, so he could sort out transport for them on the other end, and then John and George followed on the fifteenth, with their wives Pattie and Cynthia and Pattie's sister Jenny (John and Cynthia's son Julian had been left with his grandmother while they went -- normally Cynthia wouldn't abandon Julian for an extended period of time, but she saw the trip as a way to repair their strained marriage). Paul and Ringo followed four days later, with Ringo's wife Maureen and Paul's fiancee Jane Asher. The retreat in Rishikesh was to become something of a celebrity affair. Along with the Beatles came their friend the singer-songwriter Donovan, and Donovan's friend and songwriting partner, whose name I'm not going to say here because it's a slur for Romani people, but will be known to any Donovan fans. Donovan at this point was also going through changes. Like the Beatles, he was largely turning away from drug use and towards meditation, and had recently written his hit single "There is a Mountain" based around a saying from Zen Buddhism: [Excerpt: Donovan, "There is a Mountain"] That was from his double-album A Gift From a Flower to a Garden, which had come out in December 1967. But also like John and Paul he was in the middle of the breakdown of a long-term relationship, and while he would remain with his then-partner until 1970, and even have another child with her, he was secretly in love with another woman. In fact he was secretly in love with two other women. One of them, Brian Jones' ex-girlfriend Linda, had moved to LA, become the partner of the singer Gram Parsons, and had appeared in the documentary You Are What You Eat with the Band and Tiny Tim. She had fallen out of touch with Donovan, though she would later become his wife. Incidentally, she had a son to Brian Jones who had been abandoned by his rock-star father -- the son's name is Julian. The other woman with whom Donovan was in love was Jenny Boyd, the sister of George Harrison's wife Pattie. Jenny at the time was in a relationship with Alexis Mardas, a TV repairman and huckster who presented himself as an electronics genius to the Beatles, who nicknamed him Magic Alex, and so she was unavailable, but Donovan had written a song about her, released as a single just before they all went to Rishikesh: [Excerpt: Donovan, "Jennifer Juniper"] Donovan considered himself and George Harrison to be on similar spiritual paths and called Harrison his "spirit-brother", though Donovan was more interested in Buddhism, which Harrison considered a corruption of the more ancient Hinduism, and Harrison encouraged Donovan to read Autobiography of a Yogi. It's perhaps worth noting that Donovan's father had a different take on the subject though, saying "You're not going to study meditation in India, son, you're following that wee lassie Jenny" Donovan and his friend weren't the only other celebrities to come to Rishikesh. The actor Mia Farrow, who had just been through a painful divorce from Frank Sinatra, and had just made Rosemary's Baby, a horror film directed by Roman Polanski with exteriors shot at the Dakota building in New York, arrived with her sister Prudence. Also on the trip was Paul Horn, a jazz saxophonist who had played with many of the greats of jazz, not least of them Duke Ellington, whose Sweet Thursday Horn had played alto sax on: [Excerpt: Duke Ellington, "Zweet Zursday"] Horn was another musician who had been inspired to investigate Indian spirituality and music simultaneously, and the previous year he had recorded an album, "In India," of adaptations of ragas, with Ravi Shankar and Alauddin Khan: [Excerpt: Paul Horn, "Raga Vibhas"] Horn would go on to become one of the pioneers of what would later be termed "New Age" music, combining jazz with music from various non-Western traditions. Horn had also worked as a session musician, and one of the tracks he'd played on was "I Know There's an Answer" from the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "I Know There's an Answer"] Mike Love, who co-wrote that track and is one of the lead singers on it, was also in Rishikesh. While as we'll see not all of the celebrities on the trip would remain practitioners of Transcendental Meditation, Love would be profoundly affected by the trip, and remains a vocal proponent of TM to this day. Indeed, his whole band at the time were heavily into TM. While Love was in India, the other Beach Boys were working on the Friends album without him -- Love only appears on four tracks on that album -- and one of the tracks they recorded in his absence was titled "Transcendental Meditation": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Transcendental Meditation"] But the trip would affect Love's songwriting, as it would affect all of the musicians there. One of the few songs on the Friends album on which Love appears is "Anna Lee, the Healer", a song which is lyrically inspired by the trip in the most literal sense, as it's about a masseuse Love met in Rishikesh: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Anna Lee, the Healer"] The musicians in the group all influenced and inspired each other as is likely to happen in such circumstances. Sometimes, it would be a matter of trivial joking, as when the Beatles decided to perform an off-the-cuff song about Guru Dev, and did it in the Beach Boys style: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Spiritual Regeneration"] And that turned partway through into a celebration of Love for his birthday: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Spiritual Regeneration"] Decades later, Love would return the favour, writing a song about Harrison and their time together in Rishikesh. Like Donovan, Love seems to have considered Harrison his "spiritual brother", and he titled the song "Pisces Brothers": [Excerpt: Mike Love, "Pisces Brothers"] The musicians on the trip were also often making suggestions to each other about songs that would become famous for them. The musicians had all brought acoustic guitars, apart obviously from Ringo, who got a set of tabla drums when George ordered some Indian instruments to be delivered. George got a sitar, as at this point he hadn't quite given up on the instrument, and he gave Donovan a tamboura. Donovan started playing a melody on the tamboura, which is normally a drone instrument, inspired by the Scottish folk music he had grown up with, and that became his "Hurdy-Gurdy Man": [Excerpt: Donovan, "Hurdy Gurdy Man"] Harrison actually helped him with the song, writing a final verse inspired by the Maharishi's teachings, but in the studio Donovan's producer Mickie Most told him to cut the verse because the song was overlong, which apparently annoyed Harrison. Donovan includes that verse in his live performances of the song though -- usually while doing a fairly terrible impersonation of Harrison: [Excerpt: Donovan, "Hurdy Gurdy Man (live)"] And similarly, while McCartney was working on a song pastiching Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys, but singing about the USSR rather than the USA, Love suggested to him that for a middle-eight he might want to sing about the girls in the various Soviet regions: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Back in the USSR"] As all the guitarists on the retreat only had acoustic instruments, they were very keen to improve their acoustic playing, and they turned to Donovan, who unlike the rest of them was primarily an acoustic player, and one from a folk background. Donovan taught them the rudiments of Travis picking, the guitar style we talked about way back in the episodes on the Everly Brothers, as well as some of the tunings that had been introduced to British folk music by Davey Graham, giving them a basic grounding in the principles of English folk-baroque guitar, a style that had developed over the previous few years. Donovan has said in his autobiography that Lennon picked the technique up quickly (and that Harrison had already learned Travis picking from Chet Atkins records) but that McCartney didn't have the application to learn the style, though he picked up bits. That seems very unlike anything else I've read anywhere about Lennon and McCartney -- no-one has ever accused Lennon of having a surfeit of application -- and reading Donovan's book he seems to dislike McCartney and like Lennon and Harrison, so possibly that enters into it. But also, it may just be that Lennon was more receptive to Donovan's style at the time. According to McCartney, even before going to Rishikesh Lennon had been in a vaguely folk-music and country mode, and the small number of tapes he'd brought with him to Rishikesh included Buddy Holly, Dylan, and the progressive folk band The Incredible String Band, whose music would be a big influence on both Lennon and McCartney for the next year: [Excerpt: The Incredible String Band, "First Girl I Loved"] According to McCartney Lennon also brought "a tape the singer Jake Thackray had done for him... He was one of the people we bumped into at Abbey Road. John liked his stuff, which he'd heard on television. Lots of wordplay and very suggestive, so very much up John's alley. I was fascinated by his unusual guitar style. John did ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun' as a Jake Thackray thing at one point, as I recall.” Thackray was a British chansonnier, who sang sweetly poignant but also often filthy songs about Yorkshire life, and his humour in particular will have appealed to Lennon. There's a story of Lennon meeting Thackray in Abbey Road and singing the whole of Thackray's song "The Statues", about two drunk men fighting a male statue to defend the honour of a female statue, to him: [Excerpt: Jake Thackray, "The Statues"] Given this was the music that Lennon was listening to, it's unsurprising that he was more receptive to Donovan's lessons, and the new guitar style he learned allowed him to expand his songwriting, at precisely the same time he was largely clean of drugs for the first time in several years, and he started writing some of the best songs he would ever write, often using these new styles: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Julia"] That song is about Lennon's dead mother -- the first time he ever addressed her directly in a song, though it would be far from the last -- but it's also about someone else. That phrase "Ocean child" is a direct translation of the Japanese name "Yoko". We've talked about Yoko Ono a bit in recent episodes, and even briefly in a previous Beatles episode, but it's here that she really enters the story of the Beatles. Unfortunately, exactly *how* her relationship with John Lennon, which was to become one of the great legendary love stories in rock and roll history, actually started is the subject of some debate. Both of them were married when they first got together, and there have also been suggestions that Ono was more interested in McCartney than in Lennon at first -- suggestions which everyone involved has denied, and those denials have the ring of truth about them, but if that was the case it would also explain some of Lennon's more perplexing behaviour over the next year. By all accounts there was a certain amount of finessing of the story th
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