THE BEATLES – "A Hard Day's Night"

Just wanted to confirm that there is indeed a cowbell on this record. Never noticed before how much percussion there was on it, but now you mention it, there’s loads.

‘Hand on Your Heart’ might well be the better song of the two, though. And is much the more enjoyable of the two singles to dance to!

On the contrary, Tom, while I appreciate that you came from scepticism to a genuine admiration for the Fabs, from my perspective (as one who grew up with them) you appear to have been hard on them.

Incidentally, you can leroc just fine to AHDN. Perhaps it comes down to differing understandings of ‘dancing’. I’d be at a loss to dance to Kylie, or Madonna, or the electronic noise combo of your choice, even before my failing knees and general unbendiness put paid to my dancing days.

DESERT ISLAND DISCS WATCH:

James Clavell, Novelist (1981)

Monty Don, Horticulturalist, Broadcaster(2006)

Sir Stuart Rose, Businessman (2009)

Lawrence Dallagio, Rugby player (2011).

Agree with Nixon – makes you hanker for the days when the Beatles wouldn’t allow any of their songs to be used in adverts.

The Fabs have a fair number of danceable tunes, especially the funky R&B-styled ones like Drive My Car, Got To Get You Into My Life, Hey Bulldog, Birthday, …Me And My Monkey, Come Together etc. Some of their out-and-out rockers are also good for shaking a tail feather to.

The Beatles did ska twice, on the “Anthology” version of “You know my name”, and the break on “I call your name”

That was more a straight four-beat, but true, true….

Paul Morley at his Morleyist comparing One Direction’s new film to Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night.

Wrongly

It would, of course, be a complete miracle if This Is Us were anywhere near as good and fun as AHDN. I guess I wondered whether it was better than, say, Spice World or Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience or Justin Bieber: Never Say Never or Katy Perry: Part of Me? not just because those would be fairer comparisons but because if one is inclined to pop declinism (or some such thing) then ‘worse than AHDN’ is weak sauce (almost everything is). Couldn’t Morley have written the same despairing article fifteen years ago about Spice World?

Are 1D the purest hype ting to date? When this kind of media buzz/instant mega fame whirlwind kicks off, either the object of the hype reveals itself to have some sort of intriguing qualities to sustain the buzz or it fizzles out quick smart but with them I can’t see anything: they’re exciting because people find them exciting, a phenomenon because the media keep talking about what a phenomenon they are. A running joke throughout the x factor but Cowell said they were “the most exciting pop group in the country” enough that it came true.

Obv, there’ve been nothing bands that have sold millions in the past (West life, Boyzone, Travis, Bread – cue snarky link to great underrated Bread B-side from HATERZ) but while they’ve been heavily marketed, I don’t remember media treating their success as any more exciting than the success of any other well-marketed product.

1D always look like they’re having good clean fun, a rare commodity in pop these days: is it as simple as that?

But did SSS enjoy anything like the success of 1D?

“Early names considered for the band included Sperm Festival and Nazi Occult Bureau” – SSS that is, not 1D

That’s what you get if you ask Louis Walsh’s advice!

Did SS Sputnik have much of a following. I’d always assumed Love Missile F1-11 was viewed as a novelty record even by those who bought it but did they actually have legions of worshippers during their 15 minutes?

I think what did for SSSputnik was that the animations showed action and flash, but in real life the platform boots were so tall, they couldn’t actually walk at any kind of speed in them, which looked very static on stage/performance.

Re: 34: Are 1D better then their pop peers at using social media to connect directly with their fans? I’d have thought most pop groups would be pretty savvy to this stuff. The Beatles’ wit and irreverence seemed like something only they were offering at the time (cf the halting and apologetic interviews on the recent Searchers boxset)

perhaps it’s the case (as it was possibly not with the beatles) that the records are entirely secondary
Not *entirely* secondary: their breakout hit, ‘You don’t know you’re beautiful’ (or whatever it’s called) performed the nifty trick of simultaneously *defining* and *diagnosing* and *pandering to* their canonical audience member’s insecurity and self-regard. The song’s not up to ‘She Loves You’ standards, but the nifty lyrical trick is in the ballpark of SLY’s craftiness, so that (a) it was obvious at the time that this was a legit massive hit, and that most likely (b) they’d won the hearts of a whole generation of young girls, who were now going to cut them a lot of slack after this.

as a kid what I liked about the Beatles was wackiness – whether it be singing along to ‘Yellow Submarine’ and ‘I am the walrus’ or just being tickled by the idea of a hard days night. They were never silly for the sake of it (unlike Freddie and the Dreamers who I just found embarrassing) but used wordplay and surrealism to cut through adult conventions and connect to a younger audience brought up on nursery rhymes and playground chants. Listening to AHDN now I am struck by how casually Lennon speaks of coming home to his beloved and how ‘the things that you do will make me feel alright’. Sexuality is considered commonplace, not something to be leered about as the Stones might do. The music bounces along on waves of clanging guitar, frantic percussion and giddy harmonies to create a huge rush of energy and expectation.

Good write-up Tommy. Yes, that’s what the world looked like. AHAD is deliberately done in imitation of a TV documentary of the day, in black and white of course. Richard Lester’s stroke of genius was filling the film with top character actors of the day to carry the framework while letting the Beatles just be themselves.

Wilfrid Brambell wasn’t post-Steptoe in 1964, he’d been Albert for over two years, some would say the best years of the show. Hence the recurring “very clean”, echoing Harry H Corbett’s catchphrase “You dirty old man”.

But you knew all that already didn’t you?

And it is a real documentary as well as a spoof one; it captures a lost London in the same way that Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe books capture a lost Los Angeles; a way which no end of Swinging London films of the time could by focusing on the glamorous aspects.

#43 I actually meant to say pre-Steptoe which would have been even further from the truth! I didn’t realise Steptoe had started so early. My bad. I’ll correct the piece – thanks!

I also hadn’t twigged that the ‘clean’ thing was a reference to his role as a dirty old man (since I didn’t realise he’d already been Steptoe Sr by 1964)

A thing called Research you say?