Time Machine to see The Beatles
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Suppose there is a time machine in front of you. You can use the machine to travel to a time when The Beatles were all in the same place at the same exact time and you get to spend just one hour with them. You can speak to them or just observe, your choice. What hour would you choose? Throwing out some possibilities.....When the four of them first chose to be a band? Standing in the wings at the Ed Sullivan Show watching them perform on stage and then seeing their euphoria afterward back stage? Maybe watching them perform at Shea Stadium with the screaming girls around you? Or maybe The Cavern when they were not as widely known? Would you like to join them for an hour of meditation with the Maharishi? In a car with them as they first arrived in America? How about the rooftop concert and the evacuation when the police arrived? Or just hanging out in a recording studio among the pillows and mattresses watching them rehearse with Yoko as your partner in crime? You've got one hour...use it wisely! (Forgive me if this has been asked before...I couldn't find a thread like it.)
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I've given this some thought. Although I would love to be at The Ed Sullivan Show or Shea Stadium...no way am I sharing The Beatles with the masses. I'd really like to be at the rooftop concert huddled off to the side like the people you can see in the videos.. My own private concert - YES!...But man, that was January in London, right? I've been there then and you can freeze your ears off. Not sure I'd be able to enjoy it but I'd give it my best shot. Maybe if Paul gave me his coat. That would be my first choice. Second choice: Hopefully they all sang together right before they took the zebra crossing photo on Abbey Road, then that is the other hour I'd want...the musical time right before that photo and then to actually walk out with them and watch the photos being taken. Just hanging out with them in between shots, talking and laughing with them. Just me. And them. And all of the "Paul is dead" clues of course.
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I have to say there are several moments I can think of...the recording session for I Want To Hold Your Hand, the shooting of the Sgt. Pepper Cover, the filming of the Hey Jude promo film among others...but I think the number one moment for me would have to be when they met Bob Dylan and he turned them on to pot for the first time, and they all smoked together. Yeah I'd love to have been hanging out with them for that hour. That would have been incredible!
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Randy, you want to choose a non-singing Beatles hour?????
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beatlesfanrandy:
I have to say there are several moments I can think of...the recording session for I Want To Hold Your Hand, the shooting of the Sgt. Pepper Cover, the filming of the Hey Jude promo film among others...but I think the number one moment for me would have to be when they met Bob Dylan and he turned them on to pot for the first time, and they all smoked together. Yeah I'd love to have been hanging out with them for that hour. That would have been incredible!
I was trying to think of some particular instance, "until" I read the last of your post.
I would like to have been there with the vast amount of knowledge I have gathered over the last half century, although. -
The recording session for A Day in the Life. The Beatles at their ultimate pinnacle.
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Oh this is tough. The recording fan in me wants to spend the hour in Abbey Road Studio 1, but for what session? Maybe when they were doing Hey Bulldog - one of the last real full band collaborations. It would be amazing to see it all unfold. But the other part of me wants to just hang out with them because they are awesome and hilarious people. How much fun would it be to hang out with them on the set of Help! in the Alps? Or tag along for an hour during the Mad Day Out photo shoot? But, if I have to decide... probably an hour in Abbey Road during the recording of Revolver. Maybe during Tomorrow Never Knows. They were like kids in the candy store when they were exploring different recording techniques. It would be great to peek in while their creative discoveries unfolded. Now, if you were to ask about only Paul and not the Beatles please let me be in his pretend audience when he was recording Oh! Darling.
Fun question! -
Scarlett14:
Randy, you want to choose a non-singing Beatles hour?????
Yes. To hang out with the two most influential forces of the last half century? At the same time? Yes!
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dappa-macca:
Now, if you were to ask about only Paul and not the Beatles please let me be in his pretend audience when he was recording Oh! Darling.
You had Paul for one hour and you want to hear him sing Oh! Darling 20 times?
I'm afraid I'd have other things on my mind to do with Paul in 1968! 
ops: Now if it was all 4 of them, I would love to see them back in 1961 in The Cavern (performing) after they got back from Germany. I know, Ringo was not with them then, but to me it is such a fascinating time, when they were so rough with the leather suits and all! (excuse me while I take a cold shower) -
Nancy R:
dappa-macca:
Now, if you were to ask about only Paul and not the Beatles please let me be in his pretend audience when he was recording Oh! Darling.
You had Paul for one hour and you want to hear him sing Oh! Darling 20 times?
I'm afraid I'd have other things on my mind to do with Paul in 1968! ops: :Well, he only did one take a day, so that's like 10 minutes there. There's the whole other 50 mins to fill
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dappa-macca:
Nancy R:
dappa-macca:
Now, if you were to ask about only Paul and not the Beatles please let me be in his pretend audience when he was recording Oh! Darling.
You had Paul for one hour and you want to hear him sing Oh! Darling 20 times?
I'm afraid I'd have other things on my mind to do with Paul in 1968! ops: :Well, he only did one take a day, so that's like 10 minutes there. There's the whole other 50 mins to fill
Okay, now you're talking!
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I would like to either go to see them perform in Hamburg or Filming the Revolution Promo!
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Maybe, for all reasons Beatle-related and my own selfish desires, I'd pick 1968 so I could whisk myself off just for five minutes to have a quick catch-up with Linda Harrison, Barbara Feldon and Julie Newmar in between the White Album sessions... cos the whole thing is a fantasy, right?...but if I had a real chance to catch up with all four Beatles, it would be mid-70's, or even later, to speak to them as men, and not boys. Could they get back together? Would they get back together? Did the years of media, and themselves, pitting each other against one another, totally sour their relationship? Was it all still salvageable? What did they think of each others' solo albums? Could they acknowledge that they could've handled things better? All four in the one place, revaluating just how good they were? Yeah, that'd be my time of choice.
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toris:
Maybe, for all reasons Beatle-related and my own selfish desires, I'd pick 1968 so I could whisk myself off just for five minutes to have a quick catch-up with Linda Harrison, Barbara Feldon and Julie Newmar in between the White Album sessions... cos the whole thing is a fantasy, right?...but if I had a real chance to catch up with all four Beatles, it would be mid-70's, or even later, to speak to them as men, and not boys. Could they get back together? Would they get back together? Did the years of media, and themselves, pitting each other against one another, totally sour their relationship? Was it all still salvageable? What did they think of each others' solo albums? Could they acknowledge that they could've handled things better? All four in the one place, revaluating just how good they were? Yeah, that'd be my time of choice.
Oh, and in one of my other Delorean moments, when they met Elvis... that would've been interesting. And knocked off another 'time machine' moment.
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What was so difficult to me was deciding between watching the performing Beatles versus having the time to hang out with them. Think about it, you could choose to hang out with them right before they sing on the Ed Sullivan Show, to see the excitement backstage, and then watch the actual performance! Any fan would have given their right arm to be in the furthest reaches of the auditorium just to watch but you could be right with them in the wings. Maybe it would have been better to ride over in a car with them...nobody else hanging around them...no screaming girls...those would be such precious moments. I'm not a musician at all but if I were, I'd ask them if I could play along with them a bit in Abbey Road Studios I think. Not sure I'd want to be around them with all of the various girlfriends/wives there too....that kind of spoils the fantasy for me. Besides if Yoko were there I'd hide that ladder so she couldn't go writing tiny words on the ceiling. I'm so devilish! (As just a side story, my good friend when I was almost ten had a dad who was a detective and did some undercover security for top singers/bands that stayed at center city hotels. He was holed up for a few nights with Herman's Hermits at the height of their success in America and got to know them pretty well. Peter thanked him as he was about to leave and asked if there was anything he could do for him. He told Peter he had a ten year old daughter who was a big fan (my friend had no knowledge of her dad's security job) and he asked if he could write to her or call her which Peter agreed to. He called that day before the dad got home and my friend answered the phone, heard some guy claiming to be Peter Noone from Herman's Hermits and said something like "Yeah. Right!" and then hung up on him! It's unfortunate that sometimes we do have access to the stars at the height of their careers and somehow we miss the opportunity!)
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toris:
Maybe, for all reasons Beatle-related and my own selfish desires, I'd pick 1968 so I could whisk myself off just for five minutes to have a quick catch-up with Linda Harrison, Barbara Feldon and Julie Newmar in between the White Album sessions... cos the whole thing is a fantasy, right?...but if I had a real chance to catch up with all four Beatles, it would be mid-70's, or even later, to speak to them as men, and not boys. Could they get back together? Would they get back together? Did the years of media, and themselves, pitting each other against one another, totally sour their relationship? Was it all still salvageable? What did they think of each others' solo albums? Could they acknowledge that they could've handled things better? All four in the one place, revaluating just how good they were? Yeah, that'd be my time of choice.
This was a very thoughtful and thought-provoking response, Toris. And very sneaky of you to whisk yourself off to visit others who would have been around at that time. I remember Barbara Feldon...she was on the TV show "Get Smart" and I seem to remember her lying on a bear rug in some sort of provocative commercial or am I confusing her with someone else? I remember Julie Newmar....she's that tall woman who played the original Cat Woman in the Batman TV series. Don't know Linda Harrison....why did you choose her?
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I would have liked to have been there when Yoko showed up on John's doorstep "trying to obtain a Beatles manuscript" so I could whisper in his ear "Don't do it man, you're a f'ing star, you can do SO much better!"
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I think I'd have to go with the Let It Be sessions. Must have been strained feelings & emotioal for everyone. (I would offer some comfort)
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What would you do?
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This is what I would have done as a young girl/woman if I had the chance to time travel with The Beatles for one hour: The first and truthful thing that came to my mind is: I would take that one hour, and with the cooperation and True Will of John and Paul, engage in a fertility ritual with them both. That is all I would have wanted for my one allotted hour.
