MANILA, Philippines - It’s been 50 years since the band came out with its first film and third album A Hard Day’s Night (AHDN).
Probably the question linger- ing in the minds of those who care to remember in- clude, “Where were you in that premiere show- ing?” or ” What impressions did you have when you first listened to the album?” and so on and so forth just to reestablish the memories gone past.
But these ques- tions are limited because they are pointed at people old enough to remember. How about those who were born after that captivating moment in rock history, those kids that saw the light in the ‘70s, ‘80s and then the Mil- lennials?
One way or another, directly or indirectly, we benefited from The Beatles music and art through the music and life- style we have today. AHDN personifies youthful exuberance, the very essence of rock and roll: Re- spect for those that went before them, assimilating what was out there, cre- ating music based on these influences, introducing new sound out of all these, creating a subculture for the young and the old alike, pushing the boundaries to the limits. That’s what A Hard Day’s Night for me is all about; that is what it created.
The film came ahead of the album and the lads had to produce music to fill it. Well, several songs included in the album found themselves in the movie anyway, which made the film, of course, stick. Besides, The Beatles represented music, not film, in the first place.
The opening scene said it all. It captured the boys right at the moment of Beatlemania becoming a world- wide phenomenon. At that time, The Beatles just successfully conquered the US and there was no turning back the tide. Beatlemania would peak a year later in 1965 in Shea Sta- dium and popular music will never be the same again.
A Hard Day’s Night, the movie, is sort of a day in the life of the band. Actually two days. It started on the group’s trip from Liverpool for a TV show commitment in London. The hysteria just engulfed them with girls and boys running after them hoping to get a piece of them. Successfully making it to the train, Paul McCartney introduced them to his grandpa, around whom the story revolved in the next big part of the film. Paul’s grandpa talked out Ringo Starr to get out and have a life an hour before the show and Ringo drifted to the anxiety of everyone in the TV station, a subplot that brought Ringo’s acting capacity to critical notice. In between the trip and the TV show, The Beatles may be seen being themselves goofing around. John Len- non, in particular, may be observed in several scenes seemingly enjoying the whole experi- ence.
Several songs not from the album made it to the film: I Wanna Be Your Man, which John and Paul gave away to The Rolling Stones; Don’t Bother Me, George Harrison’s first com- position; All My Loving, a Paul baby; This Boy; and She Loves You, the latter serving as the finale of their TV performance before the curtains fell.
In the film, George met Patti Boyd, she be- ing one of the extras in the film, and they hit it off after that. It was Paul who fancied her first, but George won her attention and, later on, her heart. Phil Collins was in the audience as well as a 12-year-old fan. Film director Richard Lester would strike a good relation- ship with the boys to take another directorial role in their next film Help the following year, and enlist John in the role of Pvt. Gripweed in a film project outside The Beatles, the anti- war How I Won the War. In addition to this, actor Victor Spinetti would be with them un- til Magical Mystery Tour as a mainstay. For the last, he even had to take a leave from another movie shooting just to be with the lads for his parts. The title A Hard Day’s Night came from off-the-cuff remark made by Ringo, which John turned into a great title track.
AHDN failed to win any awards but its influence lasted long enough for other mu- sic groups to follow in the footsteps of The Beatles. A few of them had some traction, but most of them earned much lesser success. This is not to mean The Beatles pioneered rock films. Much earlier on, Elvis Presley, The Beatles’ inspiration, did Jailhouse Rock, Love Me Tender, Loving You and King Creole before he was drafted in the army, bringing his musical career to a temporary halt and, as it turned out, prompt end impact-wise. Elvis would return to music and film after com- pleting his military service but he fell short of reinventing himself. And then The Beatles arrived in the US and captured the American audience, which placed Elvis forever on the defensive musically.
The film and the album were both a good marketing scheme for The Beatles; not only did they capture a new audience, but they also reinforced the captive ones. The result was simply amazing — Beatlemania at its zenith. The Beatles could do nothing wrong at this time and every one thing they touched turned into gold. John produced two books of intelligent gobbledygook and the literati put him in a kind light as a writer. But ulti- mately, it was the music that really mattered, and the music was simply the best at that time.
The album started with a weird G chord and the whole album just exploded. This is the only album, by the way, of The Beatles bearing the Lennon-McCartney tag in all 13 songs. A Hard Day’s Night, I Should Have Known Better, If I Fell and I’m Happy Just To Dance With You are all John Lennon songs before Paul came up with his sweet and tender And I Love Her, a song with a title that begins with a conjunction — another first. Paul thinks it would be nice to name the song that way. The song showcases George’s acoustic genius. George did vocals in one song, I’m Happy Just To Dance With You, while Ringo, in the only Beatles album that this happened, had none.
Tell Me Why follows on the list only to be drowned by Can’t Buy Me Love, which I remember recorded two million advanced sales, unheard of at that time. Lennon bounces back with Anytime At All and I’ll Cry Instead. The album is Lennon- dominated. My count is 10 out of 13 songs were penned by John, demonstrating his peak as a songwriter and leader of the band. This would change in the succeeding months and years for a number of reasons we now understand given the benefit of history. But maybe at that time, it was so hard for fans and fol- lowers to understand why and how the shift happened at all.
The Things We Said Today, a Paul song, is then introduced by that powerful acoustic guitar riff. John re- turns with three more outputs, the first is a not-so-strong track called When I Get Home. You Can’t Do That, which follows it, is a popular staple in their live gigs in the early phase of Beatle-
mania. The final song is I’ll Be Back, another beautiful ballad from John, which caps the whole album — a personal favorite together with If I Fell.
I remember quite vividly the scene in the film where John sang the opening lines of If I Fell and Ringo was a bit grumpy and whining but got to set his drums in time to pick up the beat after the first verse; a pure touch of class for me.
A Hard Day’s Night was a product of its time. We choose to remember or forget. We create memories on the basis of important moments like this or not. It’s all up to us. The thing is, memories are a personal choice and they depend on how we value things associ- ated with them. Being born after its release, I did not get to watch AHDN until the 1990s. I may have missed the moment, but I did not miss the music and culture that went with it.
So it was 50 years ago. It’s already a life- time, isn’t it?