Following our last exploration of a biopic of dubious quality, Antony flies solo this time to explore another one which, despite having some sense of time and place, is also somewhat lacking and to some extent unintentionally comedic.

‘Birth of the Beatles’, which came out in 1979, will always hold a unique place as the only Beatles biopic made while John Lennon was still alive. Considering that he’d reacted negatively to Cynthia’s apparent rewriting of history in her book ‘A Twist of Lennon’ in 1978, it’s quite something to ponder what he might have thought of this Dick Clark-produced TV film.

Preceding this, Antony offers a guitar lesson for the Bob Dylan song ‘Masters of War’ and then the song that it inspired (musically at least)- John Lennon’s ‘Working Class Hero.' There are also pre-outro Easter Eggs to be found in this episode…

 

Enjoy!

 

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Antony demonstrates Beatles guitar parts on ‘Pop Goes The 60s’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_Y4f1efz6s

 

episode links

Birth of the Beatles film page and full film

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078865/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VpIA_87cxM

 

Scene comparisons with real events

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAY0_CGZNRY

 

Backbeat scenes (Prellies/Astrid photographs the band)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIpUr1wX5Rw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq3l4frmFDo

 

The development of the Scouse accent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcpXePrrCIk

 

Working Class Hero official video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMewtlmkV6c

 

Saturday Night And Sunday Morning (Angry Young Man)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/B_G9niYeB8Q

 

Cry For A Shadow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4WMeOLHp28