art review: The Beatles in India

  

by Allan Tong

"I need to find myself," Paul Saltzman proclaimed in late 1967. Life lacked meaning for the 24-year-old Toronto filmmaker. Only India attracted him, and by chance he caught wind of a documentary crew needing a sound man to record there. So, what if never recorded audio? He bluffed the job interview, begged someone to teach him sound and, with $200 in his pocket ($1,800 today), Paul flew to New Delhi on December 4. 

During the filming of Juggernaut somewhere near Rajasthan, Paul received a letter from his girlfriend back home. She wrote she was breaking up with him and, even worse, was moving in with another guy. A knife plunged into his heart. Screams gripped his skull. Then, one of the crew members suggested he try meditation to ease the heartbreak.

In early February, Paul journeyed to Rishikesh in northern India, nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, so he could study under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, one of the world's most famous gurus. In fact, The Beatles' embrace of the Maharishi put him in the spotlight. Though Paul had attended a Beatles concert in Toronto back in 1964, he wasn't a huge fan and didn't know the band were in Rishikesh. In fact, Paul couldn't enter the ashram because The Beatles were there. He had to wait eight days before he was allowed in.

 "I was taught meditation in five minutes, and I did meditation for 30 minutes. It was a complete miracle. The knife in the heart was gone. The screaming in the head was gone. I was in a state of bliss."

After a few days, The Beatles started chatting and joking with Paul. One day, he was sitting with John when the head Beatle asked, "So, what are you doing here?" Paul revealed his heartbreak.

Replied Lennon, "Ah, yes, love can be very hard on us, can't it, Paul?"

"Yes," agreed the Canadian.

Lennon looked away, then glanced back and said, "You know, the great thing about love is you always get another chance."

Lennon's reassuring words were a gift, but Paul could not have known that Lennon himself was probably talking about himself. Lennon was secretly in love with a new woman, Yoko Ono, and would soon leave his wife, Cynthia, who was part of the ashram here. Paul had noted the icy distance between the married couple in the ashram.

Paul's other key memory of that week happened when he was sitting alone with George Harrison. "I'm just going to practice the sitar," said The Beatle who had introduced his band mates to meditation and helped launch Indian music in the West. "Do you want to come?"

Recalls Paul, "We go to his small meditation room, small, like our knees are almost touching. He picks up the sitar. Everything else was white, except the wood on the sitar. He starts to play and I close my eyes. It was a transcendent experience. I don't know if he played 10 or 40 minutes. It was timeless. As he finished playing, I opened my eyes, and I could see energy in the room--I had never seen that before--because I was in a state of bliss."

With no trace of ego, Harrison then said, "The Beatles have all the money you can dream. We have all the fame you could wish for. But it isn't love. It isn't health. It isn't peace inside." 

Paul chokes back tears as recalls that moment to a room full of people who've come to view his photographs of The Beatles in Rishikesh 57 years later in Toronto. "That was life-changing. He was a man of profound humility. True humility is recognizing your size in the universe.

 

Paul was speaking at a special reception hosted at the splendid Space* / Markham Street Gallery in downtown Toronto on a humid early evening on July 24. Many of his 54 photos of the Beatles adorn the walls on one floor of this new gallery. There are photos of John and Paul in white kurtas and sandals as they strum guitars, of Ringo aiming his 8mm home movie camera, of George relaxing in the shade. Photos capture some of the Beatles' celebrity entourage, including Donovan, Beach Boy Mike Love, Mia Farrow and her sister, Prudence, who inspired John Lennon to write The White Album ballad, Dear Prudence. They all came to literally to sit at the feet of the Maharishi, as captured in the exhibit's centerpiece.

 

Paul didn't unearth the photos for 30 years until his daughter, who became a Beatles fan, learned that her had met The Beatles and wanted to see the images. Since 2000, Paul has exhibited the photos around the world, published books, and made a film about his fateful week. He's been organizing 16-day tours across India to Rishikesh (22 days including a pilgrimage to Bhutan), even at the age of 82. When he first showcase his photos in the early 2000s, The Beatles legally challenged Paul, who later won. By 2005, at least Ringo had changed his tune--he signed several photos (all bought by a local collector, confirms a Space* manager.)   

Paul never thought of asking the band for autographs, but gained their permission to snap a few photos.The images are significant, because they captured the most influential band of their era about to enter a new phase of their careers. Only five months earlier, the band had lost their manager, Brian Epstein to an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. They left London as they were about to launch their new company, Apple, to protect their earnings from Britain's punitive supertax of the time, but would ironically  destroy the band. In mid-February 1968, their Magical Mystery Tour, was riding the top of the American album charts, while the revolutionary Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was still in the top 20, nine months after release. Despite this material success, The Beatles, led by George and his wife Pattie, sought spiritual peace thousands of miles away in the hills of India. 

Only twice did Paul Saltzman pull out his Pentax, capturing the Beatles at their most relaxed and unguarded. They are unshaven and smiling. They play music in the sun and shade. The pressures of being a Beatle are miles away. The riffs and songs that John, Paul and George composed in Rishikesh wound up on the celebrated White Album nine turbulent months later. There's no trace of psychedelia in these images, no hint of the furor that will arise later in 1968: The Beatles fighting in the studio, Apple bleeding money soon after lauching, and the public turning against John and his new soulmate, Yoko.

Paul Saltzman's photos capture The Beatles in their last moment of group unity, when the sky remained limitless.

Now and Then - the last Beatles single and the start of AI

 

by Allan Tong

Beatle fans around the world released their collective breath this morning at 10:00 am EST to hear the new--and last--Beatles single, Now and Then. They were not disappointed.

John's vocal is clear and drives the song. The strings are subtle and add depth, not sappiness. Paul's new lyrics complete John's sentiment. The harmonies, new ones from Paul and existing lines lifted from Because, Eleanor Rigby and Here, There and Everywhere, do not intrude. Same with Ringo's drums--it gets the job done. Paul's solo is finely delivered on slide guitar in tribute to George.

On the whole, the song works. What began as John's home recording c.1977 at a piano on a boombox has been expanded into a fully realized production. Now and Then has gone from a sketch into a fully framed painting.

Of course, it would have been impossible without the technology of AI (artificial intelligence). Full marks to filmmaker Peter Jackson for employing AI to isolate and highlight the various voices and instruments in the Get Back documentary which showed Paul, Ringo and their fans what this technology can do. What AI does on Now and Then is divorce John's vocal from his piano which were locked on a single mono track. Listen:

Paul, George and Ringo attempted to record Now and Then in 1994-5 for the Anthology project and would have found it a place on the third installment of that CD series, but George vetoed the song's inclusion because of the 60HZ him that ran through the demo tape. The technology simply didn't exist in the mid-90s. I suspect that with AI today George would have granted his blessing.

Now and Then is the last Beatles single ever. It's appropriate that it's coupled with the band's very first 7", Love Me Do, released in October 1962. This too has been touched by AI magic to separate the mono track into two: John's harmonica and Paul's bass guitar in the left channel, acoustic guitar and drums on the right and the vocals in the centre, which follows the formula that Giles Martin has applied to all the Beatles remixes since 2017's Sgt. Pepper. The left and right bleed slightly to avoid the "hard panning" that has afflicted many 1960s stereo mixes. Listen to the results, especially on earbuds: 

 

The effect is subtle, yet revolutionary. AI has liberated the old mono recordings into stereo to let each instrument and vocal breathe. John's harmonica has never sounded so distinct, You can hear layers of background vocals and instruments that were buried in the mono mix all these years. Yes, we've heard Love Me Do a million times, but never like this.

Today's release is a canny way to promote the forthcoming 1962-66 re-release (on Nov. 10 along with 1967-70) that has been expanded from the original 26 tracks to 38. Thirty are new remixes, and I'm eager to hear them with the AI touch, especially She Loves You, which exists only in mono (because EMI Records lost the master tapes years ago). That said, fans have already "demixed" this song into stereo and the results sound pretty good. Can Apple surpass it?

In fact, anyone who can get their hands on the right AI software can demix at home. Witness this fan's remix of Free As A Bird, where John's vocal is no longer muddied and buried in the track (it too originated from a home demo), but shines in the forefront:

What this means is extraordinary for music history. AI can demix old recordings of not only The Beatles and their contemporaries, but of Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Billie Holliday and others to enhance the sonic quality of their music, present it to today's audience and capture new listeners. Of course, the demixing has to be done with care and taste. The new  Love Me Do mix preserves the original overall sound of the single, but brings out the performances of each musician that were previously overlooked. Fans have already successfully demixed old Beatles demos and even the December 1962 Star Club tapes, which sound primitive. Rumour has it that Peter Jackson wants to demix these tapes. Why not? The Beatles were always innovating with new technology. 

November 3, 2023: A day after the audio release comes the video. Inserts of John and George over contemporary footage of Paul and Ringo recording the track brings home an overwhelming sense of closure. Though these inserts are technically clumsy at times and overdone, they are at other moments poignant. The closing montage of black-and-white photos of the band members growing ever younger is moving. It's impossible not to feel moved, that the final chapter to a grand story has been written. 

film review: The Beatles: Get Back (sneak preview)

 

Directed by Peter Jackson

ChinoKino score: B+

Review by Allan Tong

Delayed by the Covid pandemic for 18 months, and hidden by the band itself for decades since its 1970 theatrical release, the very-long-awaited Let It Be film finally sees the light of day this American Thanksgiving weekend. However, tonight in Toronto, a 100-minute sneak preview of the new eight-hour, three-part docuseries that will stream exclusively on Disney+ on November 25-27 was shown at the TIFF Lightbox cinema #1, one of the classiest movie houses in the city.

This is, in fact, not the 1970 film directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, but re-imagined by Peter Jackson. His reinterpretation is based on 60 hours of 16mm film footage and 150 hours of audio tape that's been restored and enhanced into eight hours. The preview revealed 100 minutes.

It starts with Jackson cradling a Hofner bass and telling the camera how he felt unsure at first about tackling this massive project. Let It Be, he says in so many words, is The Beatles' epitaph, long known as a depressing diary of the band's final days. However, he changed his mind when he began watching the original footage which he discovered dispelled this myth. We see him walk through an underground labyrinth and into a vault containing rolls of the original film canisters, which would make any Beatles' freak drool.

Jackson then explains how technology plays a big role in his film. He demonstrates on the big screen how machine learning or artificial intelligence teased apart a mono track into multi-track audio. In other words, he shows us the Beatles jamming with all the instruments and vocals lumped into a single, sludgy mono track, then he plays only the lead guitar in isolation, then Paul's bass by itself, then Ringo's drums alone, then the vocals. If you've never heard this, it is incredible.

Another breathtaking moment happens when the original grainy, dirty 4x3 film bursts into gorgeous, widescreen imagery. The colours explode and the screen bursts with stunning visual detail. The Beatles come alive before our eyes.

Jackson then introduces a montage, running roughly five minutes culled from the eight-hour series. The tone is overwhelmingly cheerful as the Beatles joke and jam, clearly challenging the long-held epitaph myth about Get Back/Let It Be that Paul McCartney himself has described as "the most miserable sessions on Earth." (More on this later.) The montage feels like a long promo, but at least we see and hear the digitally scrubbed footage on the big screen--and it is stunning.

Jackson then introduces most or all of the filmed session of January 27, 1969 that took place in the basement of the Apple office at 3 Saville Row. What Jackson doesn't mention (perhaps the finished film does) is that the Beatles were miserable filming in the grim Twickenham Film Studios earlier that month, and were delighted to locate to the cosy Apple basement where a studio was hastily constructed. Also enlivening the mood was the presence of an old friend from the Beatles' Hamburg days, keyboardist Billy Preston whom George invited. The jovial Preston lifted everyone's mood which is clearly seen in this footage. This section runs roughly half an hour.

What follows is the jewel in the crown of the original Let It Be and likely Jackson's cut: the rooftop concert. I don't need to introduce. All I will do is applaud Jackson for employing split-screen footage to capture the reaction of the startled/delighted/grumpy crowd in the streets below, the various Beatles onstage having a great time performing live for the first time in three years, and the police who eventually end the show. Jackson does a fantastic job intercutting the footage shot on the street, in the Apple lobby (through a hidden camera), from a rooftop across Apple, and from various angles on the rooftop to create a thrilling sequence. This sequence puts you on the rooftop (at least on the big screen). The audio, remixed by Giles Martin (who did a superb job with the Beatles' box sets starting with Sgt. Pepper) leaps out of the screen. The bass and drums are muscular. The Beatles kick ass on the rooftop.

All in all, the 100-minute preview was a pleasure to watch and hear on the big screen. However, I wonder how Jackson will handle the Twickenham sessions where the Beatles looked glum, John was strung out on smack, George rows with Paul, and apathy gripped the band as Paul sadly tried to rouse his bandmates into another take of Two of Us. 

Disney+ subscribers will know soon enough, starting Thursday when the streaming service premieres part one of the docuseries; Friday will unveil part two, then part three, including the rooftop concert, will be shown Saturday. Remember: this is one part per day. After that, you got to pay extra to see it. It's rumoured that the Blu-ray/DVD set will come out in the new year.

Beatles' fans will be thankful this year, but I will be eager to see if Jackson whitewashes the "most miserable sessions on Earth" or reveals fresh truths of the most controversial, but hidden, chapter of the Beatles' legend.

The Beatles: Get Back docuseries streams exclusively on Disney+ starting November 25, 2021.

film review: Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers

 

Directed by Mary Wharton

ChinoKino score: B

Review by Allan Tong

This new documentary unearths the sessions of Tom Petty's Wildflowers album, based on 16mm footage shot by a friend in 1993-5. It amounts to a tribute rather than an exploration of the late musician, told with care and respect, though offering few revelations. Petty fans will revel in seeing him recording in the studio and discussing his songwriting craft. Occasionally, the normally personal Petty opens up. This is significant, since Petty was a guarded individual though apropos here, because Wildflowers was one of his most reflective, personal statements. Hence, this is a canny choice of a period in the artist's life to spotlight.

The film is largely seen in black-and-white, and intercuts to concert footage, say at the Hollywood Bowl, or to an interview in colour. The B&W apporach casts the film in the past. Remembrances abound, mostly laudatory which is frustrating for the viewer. However, patience leads Petty to eventually admit that Wildflowers was about his troubled marriage, but even here he says it was unconsciously done. Petty's daughter disagrees; she insists this album declared her father's feelings more than other statement. She also admits that her dad was going through therapy at the time.

Rick Rubin weighs in on the actual recording. He enters the story explaining that he found Petty too "melodic" until Full Moon Fever, a global smash that (ironically) yielded several radio-friendly hits. Petty admits that he never officially hired Rubin who, instead, was simply there offering feedback on a regular basis. Rubin chimes in that his hip-hop background influenced the rhythm of the hit, You Don't Know How It Feels. He also lauds Ringo Starr's guest drumming for its presence. Also getting a nod was Mary Jane's Last Dance that Petty quickly wrote and recorded to fill a greatest hits collection. Not bad for a knock-off.

Aside from Petty and his daughter, past band members like Mike Campbell and producer Rick Rubin chime in. The latter confesses that he found Petty and the Heartbreakers too melodic until Full Moon Fever, Petty's worldwide hit album that ironically featured pop hits like Free Fallin'. Song excerpts are illustrated by effective animation. Overall, the film flows well and gently guides the viewer through the making of Wildflowers. It doesn't dive too deeply, though. After all, we don't hear much about the troubled marriage after the initial mention though that friction fuelled the heart of the album. However, this film is the closest that fans and viewers so far have gotten of Tom Petty. Thankfully, Somewhere You Feel Free, honours what is perhaps the most important work by this beloved rock 'n' roll musician.

Somewhere You Feel Free premieres in selected theatres for a limited engagement across Canada, starting October 20.