It is all about the music and the innocence of the 60s. The Beatles came to the U.S. about two months after the Kennedy assassination and launched a worldwide phenomenon.
The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years (Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George Harrison) – Fans of the Fab 4 have plenty of anthologies and documentaries that chronicle the greatest musical group in history. So why would acclaimed director Ron Howard devote so much energy and expense to a new one?
Once you watch The Touring Years, you will know why. This outstanding rockumentary features re-mastered music and some never-before-seen footage of the Beatles’ tours, most notably from the time they came to the U.S. in 1964. The unbridled enthusiasm and joy of the boys from Liverpool in the aftermath of their breakthrough in England in 1963 shines through as their music tops the charts and as maniacal fans crowd into theaters and stadiums.
But the grind of touring, writing, and recording eventually combined with the repetitive nature of concert life to force the band back to the studio and off the travel circuit. Music was changed forever by the Beatles, and the group’s decision to invent music instead of perform it from late 1966 to the time of their break-up at the end of the decade resulted in their most important and prolific period.
While Howard focuses on the touring years, he effectively bookends that period with both a little history and a few new interviews featuring McCartney, Starr, Whoopi Goldberg, Sigourney Weaver, and others. The music is wonderful, of course, but don’t expect to hear everything even from this period (you will not hear “Yesterday”, for example). Instead, we see lots of concert footage.
The sound quality of the music distinguishes this Beatles documentary from others. Colorization improves the look of the old film. And the behind-the-scenes footage is surprisingly revealing. The innocence of the age is unmistakable, and the maturation of the four mop-tops is evident from the carefree early ‘60s to the final rooftop concert in London that serves as a coda to their stardom.
The Howard documentary will serve as a wonderful introduction to the most influential musicians of the 20th century. For Baby Boomers, this is a happy and nostalgic journey you won’t want to miss.
p.s. In the screening I attended, a 30-minute edited version of the 1964 Shea Stadium concert followed the documentary.