The Beatles changed my life (and perhaps the course of human evolution!)

Watch this classic 88-minute movie (released in July 1964) on YouTube!

Directed by Richard Lester, produced by Walter Shenson, scripted by Alun Owen

Released four days after the film opened in the U.K., A Hard Day's Night was The Beatles' third studio album and instantly became a chart-topper. I remember the film as a life-changing event. It opened at the Rex Cinema in Batu Pahat in early 1965 and completely knocked my socks off. From that moment I was hooked.

Prior to that, I fancied myself as a bit of a snob. Even though I did hear a few early Beatles hits on the radio ("I Want To Hold Your Hand," "She Loves You," "I Saw Her Standing There") I was inclined to shrug the moptops off as just another passing fad. You see, I was never really into radio music, even if I confess to briefly being a fan of Cliff Richard and The Shadows when I was 11. But Elvis didn't drive me wild and I was more into soundtrack music from epic films like Exodus, Spartacus, Cleopatra and The Magnificent Seven.

I got interested in Broadway musicals after hearing an EP with songs from West Side Story and subsequently acquired a taste for Igor Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Bach and Beethoven, before moving on to progressive jazz - specifically the non-swing variety produced by maestros like Dave Brubeck, Charlie Mingus, Thelonious Monk and, later, Miles Davis and Sun Ra.

Watching John, Paul, George and Ringo on the big screen in A Hard Day's Night got me off my musical high horse and made me pay close attention to "pop music." I realized then that the new generation of popular bands in the 1960s were more than mere entertainers - they were harbingers of cultural evolution, prophets of a radical new consciousness, shamans and wizards shaping the dreams of post-war youth across the world.

From Tierra del Fuego to Vladivostok, adventurous pop groups like The Beatles, Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Pink Floyd were creating a world culture that demolished linguistic, racial, ideological and national barriers - and paving the way for the evolution of a true planetary consciousness.

Wilfrid Brambell as Paul's "very clean" grandfather

The eleventh Beatles studio album, Abbey Road, was released in late 1969 - but an earlier project, Let It Be, didn't appear till May 1970 because tensions between John Lennon and Paul McCartney got in the way. Soon after that The Beatles dissolved themselves as a coherent musical entity and went their separate ways. I will always respect them for knowing when to call it a day and quit while their music was still strong - instead of forcing themselves into churning out more albums just for the money.

The Beatles turned on a lot of teenaged girls (sexually) and teenaged boys (mentally)

Brian Epstein (1934-1967)

PhD dissertations have been written on the cultural and sociopolitical impact of The Beatles phenomenon on the later part of the 20th century, so I won't attempt to reinvent the wheel. Suffice to say, as can be evinced from watching A Hard Day's Night again - after 47 years - the dynamic, complementary chemistry of these four lads from Liverpool created a powerful synergy that's akin to what happens when you mix Fire (John Lennon), Water (Paul McCartney), Air (George Harrison) and Earth (Ringo Starr) into a cohesive, coherent whole. A lot of the credit goes to the genius of director Richard Lester, whose use of hand-held cameras and quirky editing influenced a future genre of music videos and the popularization of cinéma vérité in mainstream movie-making.

George Martin, wizard producer

The creative input of two latter-day wizards must not be discounted. Initially, it was Brian Epstein the visionary entrepreneur, who saw the Beatles' commercial potential and undertook to manage the boys, shaping their trademark hairstyles and smart dress sense, without muting their natural exuberance and playful wit. In the studio, George Martin took over the wizard's role in helping refine and shape the Beatles' unique sound. Martin did all the orchestral arrangements and was savvy enough to not stand in the way of their innovative spirit.

What The Beatles did for me was to inspire me to be more myself - to become aware of the vast possibilities of creative synthesis. Their musical output - especially beginning with their seventh studio album, Revolver - began quantum jumping in terms of lyrical and musical eclecticism.

The Beatles were adventurous in that they experimented with altered states through cannabis, mescaline and LSD - and were able to incorporate their expanded consciousness into their artistic vision. In so doing they became cultural messiahs to subsequent generations, leading them beyond the rigid dogmatism of tradition and offering them a vivid glimpse of a hipper, funkier, more psychedelic version of the Promised Land.

[First posted 16 December 2011]

Photographer Ken Regan offers a private glimpse of public figures in his new book...

A smoking Bob Dylan during his Rolling Thunder Revue, 1975.

Jim Morrison and The Doors at the Westbury Music Fair, January 1970.

People magazine cover shoot with Madonna, February 1985.

Bruce Springsteen on location for the “Streets of Philadelphia” video, December 1993.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr in Central Park, February 1964.

Rolling Thunder Revue tour, fall 1975 - Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg
at the grave of writer Jack Kerouac.

Janis Joplin at the Fillmore East, March 1968.

Keith Richards with his first daughter, Theodora Dupree Richards, in 1985.

Stones Tour Party, 1972 - Mick Jagger at Michael Butler’s house.

Jimi Hendrix at the Fillmore East, March 1968.

Keith Richards cooking breakfast in Montauk, 1975.

Text & Captions by Jakob Schiller/WIRED magazine

Ken Regan tells the story like this. It’s 1974, he’s on assignment for Time magazine and is photographing Bob Dylan in Chicago. It’s the first time he’s photographed Dylan (who is notoriously private) and doesn’t want to screw it up.

While standing in one of the stage wings he turns his camera on the audience.

“In the second row was this woman, she’s probably in her sixties, gray hair, surrounded by all these teenagers,” says Regan. “And she was standing up and she was clapping and she was cheering and it was such a good photograph because of the contrast between her and all the kids.”

The same woman is in the audience the next night so Regan mentions it to his friend Bill Graham, the famous music promoter, who originally got him in the door with Dylan. Graham immediately tells Regan he can never use the photos. Turns out the older woman is Dylan’s mom, and Graham knows Dylan doesn’t want those photos published.

Time magazine runs three pages of photos but Regan never lets on about Dylan’s mom.

Fast forward to 1975. It’s 2 a.m. and Regan gets a call from Bob Dylan and his promoters. They’re excitedly putting together a plan for Dylan’s upcoming Rolling Thunder tour. Dylan had found out about the photos of his mom and knows he can trust Regan. He wants Regan on the tour and tells him he’ll have full and unprecedented access.

Regan ends up following the entire tour and comes back with 13,750 frames, including several of the most intimate and personal photos ever made of Dylan.

“I’m saying to myself this is like a dream, having this access to Bob Dylan which no one has really had before,” Regan says. “He kind of came out of his reclusive shell on the whole tour.”

The story is just one of many Regan can recount after more than five decades of photographing the world’s most famous rock musicians. He’s got photos of, and anecdotes about, everyone from the Rolling Stones to Madonna and for the first time has published them all in one place — his aptly titled music anthology, All Access.

The book, which is nearly 300 pages long, is an exhaustive look at one of the world’s most important recent cultural movements and provides proof of what happens when you spend years developing relationships with people who are notorious for hiding their personal lives.

[Read the rest here.]

Ken Regan was born and grew up in the Bronx. He studied journalism at Columbia and attended New York University's Film School. His early photography career began in the sports arena where he covered the World Series, Super Bowls, the Olympics, heavyweight championship fights, Hockey, Basketball, Tennis, Auto Racing and other professional sports for Time, Sports Illustrated, Life, and Newsweek.

In the 70s, Ken founded Camera 5, his own photo agency which represented 15 photographers who covered riots and demonstrations in the United States and wars in Vietnam and later in the Persian Gulf and Bosnia. Photo essays about gold mining in Brazil, the Columbo family's involvement in the Mafia, poverty in Harlem, Vietnam Veterans, and a scientist on the Amazon are among his favorite assignments. He has also toured with some of the most renowned musicians in Rock'n'Roll history. In 1975, he did back to back tours with Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. He covered the Band's Last Waltz, and George Harrison's benefit for Bangladesh amongst many other Rock festivals and events. He worked closely with renowned concert promoter Bill Graham and was the main photographer for his biggest events such as Amnesty International, Live Aid and others.

By the late Eighties, Ken had over 200 magazine covers to his credit, as well as numerous awards from the Missouri School of Journalism and World Press Photo to the New York Newspaper Guild.

Consumed with a passion for images, Ken continues his tireless pursuit of hard news, sports, and human interest stories for Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Paris Match, Time, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, People, U.S. News and World Report, Good Housekeeping, and the Ladies Home Journal.

[Source: SNAP Galleries]

Still My Guitar Gently Weeps...

Lovely birthday suit, George! (photo: Richard Avedon)

George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English rock guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle," Harrison was a devotee of Indian mysticism, and helped broaden the horizons of the other Beatles, as well as those of their Western audience, to include Eastern thought and practices.

Following the band's break-up, he had a successful career as a solo artist and later as part of the Traveling Wilburys, and also as a film and record producer. Harrison is listed at number 21 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time." [Wikipedia]



Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me

I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe her now

Somewhere in her smile she knows
That I don't need no other lover
Something in her style that shows me

Don't want to leave her now
You know I believe her now

You're asking me will my love grow
I don't know, I don't know
You stick around now it may show
I don't know, I don't know

Something in the way she knows
And all I have to do is think of her
Something in the things she shows me

Don't want to leave her now
You know I believe her now





I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping
Still my guitar gently weeps
I don't know why nobody told you how to unfold your love
I don't know how someone controlled you
They bought and sold you.

I look at the world and I notice it's turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps
I don't know how you were diverted
You were perverted too
I don't know how you were inverted
No one alerted you.

I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
Look at you all...
Still my guitar gently weeps.



We were talking
About the space between us all
And the people
Who hide themselves behind a wall
Of illusion,
Never glimpse the truth,
Then it's far too late
When they pass away.

We were talking
About the love we all could share
When we find it
To try our best to hold it there
With our love,
With our love
We could save the world,
If they only knew.

Try to realize it's all within yourself
No-one else can make you change;
And to see you're really only very small,
And life flows on within you and without you.

We were talking
About the love that's gone so cold
And the people
Who gain the world and lose their soul.
They don't know,
They can't see,
Are you one of them?

When you've seen beyond yourself
Then you may find peace of mind
Is waiting there.
And the time will come when you see
We're all one, and life flows on
Within you and without you.

[This birthday tribute is especially for my dear friend Arakah who, on a recent visit from Singapore, confessed she had never heard of George Harrison and hardly knows any Beatles songs.]

Herbie Hancock's Imagine Project

Crank up the volume, folks!

Tomorrow Never Knows

Turn off your mind, relax
and float downstream
It is not dying
It is not dying

Lay down all thought
Surrender to the void
It is shining
It is shining

That you may see
The meaning of within
It is being
It is being

That love is all
And love is everyone
It is knowing
It is knowing

That ignorance and hate
May mourn the dead
It is believing
It is believing

But listen to the
color of your dreams
It is not living
It is not living

Or play the game
existence to the end
Of the beginning
Of the beginning
Of the beginning
Of the beginning
Of the beginning
Of the beginning

Inspired arrangements of two outstanding John Lennon songs by Herbie Hancock, whose Imagine Project was brought to my attention by Heiko Niedermeyer. Thanks, soulbro!