I watched A Hard Day’s Night<\/i> yesterday, the Miramax two-disc DVD version released a few years ago. I hadn’t watched one of the Beatles’ films in a while, and my VHS tapes are packed away, so I had little choice but to go with AHDN<\/i>.<\/p>\n
It’s a great film. I can’t fault anything of it. The Beatles weren’t actors, but you wouldn’t know by watching. The story was rather thin, but you wouldn’t care. Dick Lester’s direction was top-notch, the cinematography holds up. If the film were made in color it might have looked dated, but black and white serves the film well, gives it a timeless look and appeal. The tie-in album is, I think, by far the best of the Beatles’ first four (UK) albums. If I could take one Beatle artifact with me to a desert island, there’s no choice–I’d take A Hard Day’s Night<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I’ve loved the Beatles for a long time. A very<\/i> long time. I had Beatles CDs before I had a CD player. I scoured back-alley record stores and online auction websites to acquire bootleg albums, especially anything related to the “Get Back” fiasco. Suffice to say, I have a lot<\/i> of The Beatles in my CD collection.<\/p>\n
I’m sometimes asked, Who is your favorite Beatle? I think anyone who likes the Beatles gets “The Question” at one time or another. It’s a natural question, and watching A Hard Day’s Night<\/i> for the first time in a year and a half “The Question” reared its head in the back of my mind.<\/p>\n
It may be a cop-out, but I would have to say, It depends.<\/p>\n
My favorite Beatle is a situational thing, dependent almost entirely upon mood, just as mood determines which of their albums sees time in the CD player and which don’t. Early-period Beatles, not so much. Late-period Beatles, most of the time. But then you toss in “Revolver,” and that’s the album I can listen to the most, yet that falls smack dab in the middle of their career. It’s a mood thing.<\/p>\n
Then there’s which of the solo albums see play time and which don’t. George’s albums, especially “All Things Must Pass,” “Cloud Nine,” and “Brainwashed,” see a lot of play time. Ringo’s albums, especially the ones since “Time Takes Time,” see a bit. John’s albums and Paul’s albums, though, get very little play, but then I’ll go on a tear and I might listen to “Band on the Run” three times in a single day. It’s a mood thing.<\/p>\n
See, I think it’s more about how we perceive<\/i> the Beatles and their personalities than how they really were. In my angry moods, I might lean toward John. In my facile moods, Paul. In my eager-to-please moments, Ringo. In my deeper, more introspective moments, George. These aren’t hard-and-fast perceptions of who the Beatles were as individuals. Rather, these are the personality caricatures we’ve formed of them over the past forty years, carcicatures defined in large part by A Hard Day’s Night<\/i> and the other films.<\/p>\n
I am a Beatles fan. I am also a fan of the Beatles as individuals. But I would be hard-pressed to say that one Beatle is my favorite above the other three.<\/p>\n
I wouldn’t have it any other way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I watched A Hard Day’s Night yesterday, the Miramax two-disc DVD version released a few years ago. I hadn’t watched one of the Beatles’ films in a while, and my VHS tapes are packed away, so I had little choice but to go with AHDN. It’s a great film. I can’t fault anything of it.Continue reading “The "Favorite Beatle" Question”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4097,92],"tags":[889,60,77,96,132,98],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beatles","category-film","tag-a-hard-days-night","tag-george-harrison","tag-john-lennon","tag-paul-mccartney","tag-ringo-starr","tag-the-beatles","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}