The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years
The most dedicated of Beatles fans have spent countless hours watching the likes of the half a day escapade, The Beatles Anthology and listening to their extensive catalog, and reissues. Ron Howard’s new documentary, “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years,” doesn’t necessarily shed a ton of new light on the legacy that is The Beatles, but Howard’s narrative of the band from 1963-1966 is compelling in the underlying details, which makes this film well worth watching.
Much has been documented of the pandemonium of Beatlemania. In this film, the footage of the countless girls passing out, described as casualties by news outlets at the time, is incredible in itself to watch. No artist has ever or will ever match that amount of fandom, or hype. But this was not the all encompassing point of this film. What was truly incredible, was the camaraderie of the fab four and the longstanding effects of the touring. Archival footage and interviews both past and present show how in tune these young men were with one another in both a musical sense and in ideologies. Not only were they succinct musically, but as were their quips to the media. They were funny, sarcastic, and charming. They were also a unit when it came to decision making. The democracy of the band was touched upon, and in one of the more revealing moments, their influence in the civil rights movement to a certain extent. They set the precedent of integrating their concerts. Kitty Oliver, a race and ethnicity historian, reflects on the climate of race in the 60s and her experience attending a Beatles show. The Beatles transcended race in the South and in doing so, even for a brief amount of time, dissolved that divide between black and white. Though a small portion of the film, it is an important piece of the story.
The frustrations of touring, and media led to their reluctance to tour, to the eventual end of Beatles concerts following 1966.The result of these years, and this film, reveal The Beatles evolution from simplistic, but effective pop-hit writers, to the musical innovators, and most renowned group they became in the latter half of the 60s. I definitely recommend this film to any Beatles, or music lover, as it enshrines a most important period of arguably the best band of all time.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter @MichaelDroel and as always stay tuned for more from your music doctor!
-M.D.
