Tag Archives: Art Garfunkel

Documentary Review: Beatles Stories

Beatles StoriesBeatles Stories is an 85 minute documentary film by Seth Swirsky released in October 2012. You may remember me mentioning Seth Swirsky in an earlier review of his band The Red Button‘s new CD back in October. Well, it seems this guy is multi-talented! A singer/songwriter, producer and psychologist all wrapped up in one amazing package. In fact, he wrote Taylor Dayne’s 1988 Grammy nominated hit song, “Tell It to My Heart”


Well, enough about Seth…let’s move on to the review…

An adorable look back at the amazing and interesting ways that so many people interacted with the Beatles over the course of time. But don’t expect any deep discussions or elaborate stories. With this film being just 85 minutes long and with over 40 interviews, Swirsky keeps each clip down to about 2 minutes or less. Personally, that’s what I liked best about this documentary…how in just a brief moment each celebrity (I think I recognized all but 3 interviewees) can emote the joy and elation of their encounter with a Beatle or the Fab Four. I think one of my favorite stories was Henry “The Fonz” Winkler at the height of his career walking down Lexington Avenue in New York City and walking towards him was Paul McCartney. Paul immediately recognized Henry and said that he had always wanted to meet him, much to Henry’s surprise.

This is without a doubt a film that any Beatles freak would find entertaining. In fact, most of you probably already have seen it since I’m so late to the boat in seeing it myself. If your a member of Amazon Prime, you can watch it for free. In the meantime, I’ve heard that Seth is in the process of making a Beatles Stories 2 and is asking people to tell him their stories for possible inclusion in the next edition. If you have a story, you can contact Seth through a form on his website: www.Seth.com.

And for all the above reasons…

I rate this film, 4 out of 4 Beetles!

 

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Book Review: “Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970” by David Browne

Fire and RainA couple weeks ago, while doing research at my county library, I decided to try something a little different to help me find a book to review.  I walked up to the computer and searched “Beatles” in the catalog, hoping to find something I hadn’t heard of to read.  That’s how I found –  Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970 by David Browne.

One of the hardest things to understand about this book is that the way the book starts, is the way if flows until the end.  There really is no climax.  But after several chapters, that becomes alright.

The book gives a brief set up to the creation of extraordinary careers of The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, before telling their musical highs and lows of 1970.  Each of the bands seemed to cross paths along the way, with many of them seeming to mirror what the others were doing, including the dissolution of The Beatles, the break-up of CSNY and the drifting apart of Simon & Garfunkel.  David Browne walks you through it all, season by season, from each artists successful album releases that year, through their feuds and to their final demise.

Author David Browne also provides the political back-drop at the time to help the readers who were too young or not born yet to understand the socio-economic changes that were not only successful musicians of the time, but also influencing the beginning of the new decade, including Vietnam, Nixon and the riot at Kent State.

This book was good, but it did leave me wondering if similar books could be written about 1971, 1972 or 1973?  And for that reason…

I rate this book, 3 out of 4 Beetles!

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You can buy a used copy of this book for $0.01 on Amazon!

 

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