On February 9, 1964, my parents sat me down in front of the television to watch Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr on Ed Sullivan. Unfortunately, I have no memory of this magical moment, but 73 million other people did. Shortly after, I became a huge Beatles fan and have not looked back since. Last week, I took a wonderful trip back in time at the Brooklyn Museum by watching Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the StormPaul McCartney’s photography exhibition. It was the last weekend it was there and I didn’t want to miss it.
I took a “day trip” into the city, took Amtrak to Penn Station and then hopped on the 2 train to Grand Army Plaza. The 2 train actually has a stop at the Brooklyn Museum, but I wanted to walk around a bit. Since I got off one stop early, I also had the opportunity to walk past the beautiful Brooklyn Botanic Garden on the way.
If you’ve never been to the Brooklyn Museum, it’s a beautiful facility. I met my longtime friend Ashok, a Beatles fan living in Brooklyn, outside the museum. As you walk up to the entrance, the first thing you see is Deborah Kass’ iconic “YO/OY” sculpture, the same one that adorns the entrance to the Weitzman National Museum Of American Jewish History on Independence Mall. Of course, I had to pose on the “YO” side since I’m from Philly, but in Brooklyn, the “OY” side is probably busier.
There were several exhibitions going on in the museum, but the person who greeted us inside knew from the look on our faces where we were going. “Here for the Paul McCartney exhibition?” “Ohhh, yes!” We went up to the 5th floor of the museum.
We walked in and were immediately taken on a beautiful journey through time. While Ringo was long considered the band’s unofficial backstage photographer, photographing the events surrounding the Beatles’ arrival in America in 1964, all four Beatles were given beautiful Pentax 35mm cameras at some point in 1963, and we see that Paul took an astonishing amount of photographs. The exhibition goes back to January 1964, when the Beatles played a dozen and a half concerts at the Olympia Theater in Paris. During this time, Paul photographed backstage, in their hotel rooms, and on the streets of Paris. The following series is one of my favorites in the exhibition. Harrison/Lennon in Paris:
I have to say my favorite photos from the Paris trip were the ones Paul took at EMI’s Pathe Marconi Studios, where the Beatles recorded the German versions of “She Loves You” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand” as well as “Cant Buy Me Love.” Although there doesn’t seem to have been any footage of the Beatles recording in the studio, it was still really cool to see the inside.
Next, of course, came the photos from the Beatles’ first American tour. I loved seeing this historic journey through the lens of Paul McCartney. You could feel the excitement when you looked at these photos, from the thousands of fans gathered on the streets of New York to all the action going on in their rooms at the Plaza Hotel. In many of the photos you can see people like Brian Epstein, Cynthia Lennon, Ronnie Spector and Murray The K hanging out and soaking up all the excitement.
Paul also seemed to really enjoy photographing ordinary people he met on his travels. A shot of a railroad worker standing next to a large locomotive, presumably taken on the band’s trip from New York to Washington, DC, is a wonderful moment. Once in Miami, Paul got hold of color film for his Pentax, and the shots are stunning. There’s a shot of George Harrison getting a drink by the pool wearing dark glasses. You only see the lower half of the bikini-clad woman serving it to him, but his expression was that of a young man fully enjoying the wealth of success.
The exhibition ends with shots taken during the Beatles’ first US tour. There are cool shots on the plane between shows and photos of the opening acts, Jackie De Shannon, The Exciters and Clarence “Frogman” Henry. I was glad that Paul included a photo of Frogman in his exhibition!
There were also two video presentations. One featured Ed Sullivan’s appearance, with the guys performing a clip from the show’s “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” The other was a collage of color photos from the Miami trip, and Paul’s beautiful instrumental B-side “222” served as the soundtrack.
I can’t tell you how glad I was that I made the trip to this exhibition. I had a smile on my face the whole time and it took me back to a wonderful time. I highly recommend it. Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm enough, and while the time in Brooklyn is over, three more cities will be hosting this wonderful experience: Tokyo, Portland, Osaka and San Francisco. You can find the dates here.
Andre is living his dream and rocking your afternoons with amazing Classic Rock on 102.9 MGK! He has been a music lover since he was three years old when his brother Alan introduced him to The Beatles. For MGK, Andre writes about his love of music, including production, charts, and of course, The Beatles!
