Composing Outside The Beatles: Lennon And McCartney 1967-1972 DVD Review

We learn that John Lennon’s and Paul McCartney’s musical writing connection was almost like a marriage itself in Composing Outside The Beatles: Lennon And McCartney 1967-1972, a DVD released by Chrome Dreams/Pride Publications in November 2009. Both Beatles had been left without mothers early on in their lives and in August of 1967, when Beatles manager Brian Epstein died and after the release of 1966′s Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, John and Paul started having less interest in each other’s material and eventually split up entirely. Many believe that it was meeting experimental artist Yoko Ono and hearkening back to his Liverpool College Of The Arts background and political proclivities that caused John Lennon to leave the Beatles. And, strangely enough, both musicians ended up working with their spouses, John writing and performing with Yoko Ono while later Paul coaxed his wife Linda to learn keyboards and tour in the band Wings with him.

Highly informed by musical authors and musicologists, Composing Outside The Beatles is a thorough study of John and Paul’s initial individual works. Johnny Rogan (author of John Lennon, The Albums) tells us how John began his journey with Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band and his inner search with the album Revolution No. 9, appearing on The David Frost Show and talking about such concepts as “when you’re dreaming whatever happens is just as real” (as in everyday life). John Wiener (who wrote Come Together: John Lennon In His Time) tells us how John promoted Yoko Ono as an artist, which resonated with his feelings that “being an artist was being a rebel, a truth-seeking rebel speaking out against all convention” in a “return to Eden.” In March of 1969 Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman and John Lennon married Yoko Ono, and then John was arrested on trumped-up drug charges and Yoko had a miscarriage (chronicled in the song Baby’s Heartbeat), after which John and Yoko began their first European and then American Bed-Ins For Peace. This culminated in the sloganeering song “Give Peace A Chance,” recorded and filmed outside of a studio, which was very progressive for its time. Johnny Rogan states that Lennon always knew he could use the media to promote his message and project a certain image, very much like an advertising strategy, but this time he was promoting peace.

Impeccably historically detailed along with stories from musicians like Alan White, guitarist Klaus Voormann, and Ram album drummer Denny Seiwell, Composing Outside The Beatles also recounts Paul McCartney’s album Ram (recorded after an extended sabbatical with his family in Scotland) and his haphazard musical tour, stopping spontaneously at universities and setting up immediate gigs. Musician Chris Ingham calls Ram a “smile” album, saying that “the people who don’t like Ram actually don’t like McCartney at all.” Eventually McCartney sued the Beatles for musical rights and Lennon responded with the vituperative song How Do You Sleep?, which farther on down the line prompted McCartney’s olive branch song My Friend on his Wildlife album.

Whereas Lennon and Ono shared political leadership and artistic interests, drummer Denny Seiwell says that Paul’s “Linda was there because he needed for her to be there” (even though she was scared because she really wasn’t a singer, keyboardist or musician). In the words of Chris Ingham, “Paul was essentially a family man who needed to have his family with him.”

Filmed with rare archival footage and classic performances and also documenting John Lennon’s new residence and political activities in the album Some Time In New York City, Composing Outside The Beatles presents Lennon and McCartney as solo composers with such songs as Give Peace A Chance, Instant Karma, Maybe I’m Amazed, Uncle Albert, Power To The People, Imagine, Luck Of The Irish and many others. A must-see for Beatles collectors everywhere and a film that will satiate the most curious of fans, Composing Outside The Beatles is a highly recommended and excellently executed documentary that explains to us the rift that suprised a generation.

MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 137 minutes
DVD Release Date: November 17, 2009

Grade: A

Documentary
Narrated by Thomas Arnold
Music by Chris Ingham
Edited by Tom O’Dell
With John Blaney, Robert Christgau, Anthony DeCurtis, Paul Gambaccini, Chris Ingham, Gary McGee, Barry Miles, Johnny Rogan, Denny Seiwell, Klaus Voormann, Alan White and John Weiner

Composing Outside The Beatles:  Lennon And McCartney 1967-1972 DVD Review by Christina of Music Room Reviews

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