I Should Hva been a rock star - Sgt Pepper Vs Across the UNiverse

Sgt. Pepper Vs. Across the Universe

In 1978, the movie “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” hit the screens. I’m sure to the movie world, mixing the music of the Beatles with cream of the crop music stars. The movie was a campy romp featuring Sgt. Pepper’s band made up of Peter Frampton, recently made recognizable world wide by his monster biggest selling live album of all time and the reborn Bee Gees, riding the wave of disco mania with their “Nights On Broadway” LP and featured songs in “Saturday Night Fever.” A miracle mad in Hollywood!
Trouble was, it was too slick. A lot of we die hard rock fans, who had a great distain for disco saw the Bee Gees as sellouts. From great tunes like “How Can You mend a Broken Heart” and “I Stared a Joke” to ear splitting high pitched “Nights on Broadway.” Wailing to a soulless disco beat meant not for hearing, but for dancing. While rock always had a certain dance element to it, there was also the underlying rebellious nature of it that seemed pasteurized and homogenized by the disco movement.
Peter Frampton the young prodigy guitarist who played his way to early fame as a guitarist for British rock-Blues band, Humble Pie, had scored big with a masterful solo album, “Frampton.” He followed it with the “Frampton Comes Alive” tour and then dipped his feet into the disco world with the album “I’m In You.” That album and single left his admirers wondering “where did the guitar god go?”
The movie paired the 3 Bee Gees and Frampton as Sgt. Pepper’s band, dressed in slick, shiny disco style marching band uniforms. The cast was rounded out by a few rockers, like Aerosmith, who snarled a decent version of “Come Together,” Alice Cooper and a cameo by Beatle collaborator Billy Preston. More campy roles were filled by Steve Martin, George Burns and a cute blonde Strawberry Fields.

I refused to see it. I couldn’t make myself go to the movie and see Beatles music sung by the enemy. And I didn’t. It was a few years till I finally gave in and watched it on cable TV. I decided I had been right the first time. It was embarrassing. I can’t imagine it did the careers of Frampton or the Bee Gees any good.

Other people tried Beatle songs in their movies over the years, some with success and others a complete failure. A bizarre vision called “All This and World War II” had been released 2 years before “Sgt. Pepper.” It combined film footage of WW II with Beatle songs performed by a collection of artists covering the Beatles. The point of this movie still baffles people. Images of Adolph Hitler at the Eagles Nest while Helen Reddy sang “Fool on the Hill?” All I can think is that someone had a lot of extra money and cheap drugs available. That film defined bizarre and I am sure made the Apple Corps nervous about the use of other Beatles tunes.
Other flicks came and went including a few about kids trying to get into see the Beatles at the 1964 Ed Sullivan broadcast. But the best use of that period was probably the “Ferris Bueller’s day Off” movie of 1986, where th4e lovable Ferris lip-synchs the Beatles version of the old tune “Twist and Shout.” A true highlight moment of that film.
In the succeeding years, Beatle fans watched as Michael Jackson purchased the rights to Beatle songs out from under McCartney and Lennon’s wife Yoko. He licensed them out to a variety of companies to the great distress of the surviving Beatles. There were lawsuits to prevent the actual use of the Beatle performances in commercials.
Finally, in 2001, a movie, which seemed to use the Beatle tunes in an uplifting and sympathetic role found it’s way on to the screen starring Sean Penn as a ‘special’ father called “I Am Sam.” The artists who covered the tunes for that movie made endearing and listenable versions of the beloved tunes. Even the movie ”Pleasantville” featured a surprisingly decent version of “Across the Universe” by Fiona Apple in ‘98.

When I saw the first movie ads for “Across The Universe,” I was instantly energized with hope. The clips contained bits of psychedelia and were voiced by mostly unknown actors. The music leaped from the screen like a familiar friend with a new hairdo. I waited in anticipation for what I hoped would be a gem among so many other pieces of Fool’s Gold.

I was not disappointed. From the first haunting strains of “Girl” sung mournfully by Jude at the seashore, I was entranced. Director Julie Taymor’s vision, like a message form the gods of rock, glittered across the screen in a sequence of 60’s era happenings. The Beatles’ music, not adapted to World War II, or scripted loosely in a fantasy play of the Sgt.’s band, but as a soundtrack for the era from which it was born.
Songs were given new meaning in the screenplay, and characters named for one-time ghosts form the lyrics of the Fab Four such as Jude, Max, Lucy and Prudence. The story chronicles the journey of a Paul McCartney looking Englishman named Jude as he arrives in the states and slowly becomes part of the New York counter culture of the 60’s. Vietnam and protests, race riots and concerts, and even a Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix look-a-like fill in the roles that made the movie more than just a music video.
I was left speechless by the Joe Cocker chameleon cameos as a street person, a pimp and longhaired street preacher as he wailed through a funky version of “Come Together.” Bono as the mind expansion guru Dr. Roberts gave memorable jaunts through “I Am The Walrus” and “Lucy IN The Sky With Diamonds.”
One of the most beautiful moments of the film occurs in wind swept fields as the gang, lying on their backs, sings a haunting version of “Because.” It brought tears to my eyes. I always felt cheated because that was something so amazing that I could never hope to do. So close to the original, where 4 young guys from the working class city of Liverpool managed to make sounds like angels. Amazing.
And in the end, broken hearts and war torn souls are renewed with a “Let It Be” Beatlesque rooftop performance by Sadie and gang. They , faithful to the Beatles, sang the same song the Beatles had used to start their final performance as a 4 man band from that rooftop above Apple headquarters at 3 Saviile Row in 1969; “Don’t Let Me Down.” Jude, in search of his lost love Lucy, makes his way to the roof to begin a soft acapella “All You Need Is Love” that transforms into a victorious statement that, “yes, All You Do Need Is Love.”

Jim Sturgess, as Jude, was amazing. Evan Rachel Wood, even though she was dating Marilyn Manson at the time, sang heart-wrenching versions of “Blackbird” and “If I Fell.” Joe Anderson’s Max wailed like Lennon on “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.”
The most poignant of scenes, tying together the tragedy of both the race riots of the 60’s and the loss of young men in Vietnam came with a gospel version of “Let It Be.” The song morphed into a hymn-spiritual sang with amazing depth and emotion at the funeral of a young black boy. The song, written originally by McCartney as a reference to the mother he lost at an early age, seemed to underscore the great loss felt by so many through the years of racial conflict and war torn families.

What can I say? A beautiful and astounding movie. The soundtrack plays nearly as well as the Beatle albums them selves.

I am humbled by the emotion that bubbled form inside me as I watched, listened and shed tears throughout the film.

Jai Guru Deva.. Nothings Gonna Change My World.
beautiful lyrics, but I ahve to say, their music changed my world.