{"id":36362,"date":"2021-12-03T18:59:18","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T23:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=36362"},"modified":"2021-12-03T18:59:18","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T23:59:18","slug":"the-bootleg-files-the-beatles-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/03\/the-bootleg-files-the-beatles-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: The Beatles Forever"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 787:<\/strong> \u201cThe Beatles Forever\u201d (1977 all-star train wreck). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.
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\nREASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> No serious person would put this out in front of the public again.
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\nCHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Unlikely.<\/p>\n

Fuck that three-part Disney+ rehash of mountains of discarded footage from the making of \u201cLet It Be\u201d \u2013 the real Beatles rediscovery emerged on YouTube last week via someone going by the handle of Denton115. This beautiful individual has brought back one of the most brilliantly embarrassing television specials ever dropped on an unsuspecting world: \u201cThe Beatles Forever,\u201d a one-hour atrocity that NBC threw on an unsuspecting America on Thanksgiving night of 1977.
\n<\/p>\n

The 1970s were the apex of so-bad-they\u2019re-good television specials, which mostly offered a line-up of B-list celebrities engaged in musical-comedy activities for which they were wholly unsuited. But even by the wobbly standards of that era, \u201cThe Beatles Forever\u201d gets off on two wrong feet with a pompous introduction by tuxedo-clad Tony Randall as the show\u2019s host (huh?) and then runs so far and so fast in the wrong direction that the viewer is left smacked mercilessly by the zaniness that flashed across the screen.<\/p>\n

Following Randall\u2019s intro, there is a montage of still photos and footage of the Beatles\u2019 halcyon days \u2013 including a few seconds of their \u201cYour Mother Should Know\u201d number from the film \u201cMagical Mystery Tour,\u201d which may have been the first time any scenes from that production turned up on American television. <\/p>\n

From there, the show takes a massive nosedive when Randall returns to try (and fails) to put his spin on \u201cA Little Help from My Friends.\u201d This leads to the appearance of Anthony Newley, Paul Williams and Mel Tillis \u2013 three people that you never mention in the same sentence, let alone expect to see teaming with Tony Randall on a Beatles tribute show. That unlikely trio performs \u201cShe Loves You\u201d \u2013 but the viewer will want to reject the \u201cyeah, yeah, yeah\u201d chorus in favor of \u201cno, no, no.\u201d Two lovely ladies with admirable Broadway experience, Diahann Carroll and Bernadette Peters, show up to sing snippets of Beatles tunes, but the arrangements do not do justice to their distinctive vocal abilities. All of these performers somehow get stuck in a tacky-wacky Vegas-style lounge act where their yeah-baby song-styling of Beatles rock tunes is so hopelessly square \u2013 albeit in a charming retro manner.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s just an appetizer for the crazy circus-based segment with the diminutive Williams dressed as a clown while singing \u201cFor the Benefit of Mr. Kite.\u201d Randall is the droll-hammy Mr. Kite in this segment, a circus charlatan who tries to seduce the curvy ingenue Peters. Yes, it is as bad as it sounds.<\/p>\n

From here, \u201cThe Beatles Forever\u201d abruptly becomes a genuine entertainment when Ray Charles briefly shows up to offer his distinctively bluesy take on \u201cYesterday.\u201d His performance seems to come out of a completely different production. Mercifully, this lapse into real entertainment returns to its kitsch roots with an extended bad ballet featuring ace dancer Anthony Dowell dressed as priest \u2013 specifically, Father McKenzie of \u201cEleanor Rigby\u201d fame. <\/p>\n

And then, we hit the gold standard. Dear friends, you have never experienced pure mad genius until you experience Anthony Newley caterwauling his way through the sitar spaciness of \u201cWithin You Without You.\u201d Dressed in a white tunic like a cheapjack swami, Newley bellows George Harrison\u2019s hippie-dippie lyrics like a mad elephant bathing in the Ganges while he wanders amid stoned-out extras. I\u2019ve played this every day since rediscovering it and I plan to play it daily until the day I die \u2013 and I will update my will to have it played at my funeral.<\/p>\n

From there, Diahann Carroll tries to breathe life into a symphonic presentation mix of \u201cIn My Life\u201d and \u201cHere, There and Everywhere\u201d \u2013 Carroll was a great talent, but she was truly wasted here. Thankfully, Ray Charles comes back and injects some much-needed energy with \u201cThe Long and Winding Road\u201d \u2013 until Randall, Williams and Newley mince their way through \u201cWhen I\u2019m 64.\u201d And then poor Mel Tillis attempts to get a handle on \u201cHere Comes the Sun\u201d before Carroll returns with a much too serious take on \u201cFool on the Hill.\u201d Bernadette Peters makes a return appearance to join Newley in \u201cShe\u2019s Leaving Home\u201d (can you blame her?).<\/p>\n

Thank God for Ray Charles \u2013 he is ushered in with a \u201cLet It Be\u201d that pushes back at the show\u2019s silliness with a power and intelligence that transcends pop music into a profound realm. The misfit cast of this weird endeavor suddenly find their inner light and provide a powerful chorus to Charles\u2019 vibrant performing. Sadly, Randall gets the last word in closing the show with a pompous send-off \u2013 too bad that Charles couldn\u2019t rule the closing credits.<\/p>\n

Even back in the 70s \u2013 that decade that good taste forgot \u2013 \u201cThe Beatles Forever\u201d was immediately branded as a warped concoction. It is impossible to image any label would go through the expense of clearing music and performance rights issues to put this out on a commercial home entertainment release, and for too many years the extant production was missing from grey-market channels.<\/p>\n

But, good friends, here it is, in all of its crazy glory. You\u2019re welcome!<\/p>\n