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Promotional films
On 10 November 1967 The Beatles assembled at the Saville Theatre in London, formerly owned by Brian Epstein, to make three promotional film for Hello, Goodbye.
I directed the promo film we made for Hello, Goodbye. Directing a film is something that everyone always wants to get into. It was something I'd always been interested in, until I actually tried it. Then I realised it was too much like hard work. Someone summed it up when they said: 'There's always someone arriving saying: "Do you want the gold pistols or the silver pistols?"' Then you think: 'Um, um...' There was so much of that going on - so many decisions to be made - that I ended up hating it.I didn't really direct the film - all we needed was a couple of cameras, some good cameramen, a bit of sound and some dancing girls. I thought, 'We'll just hire a theatre and show up there one afternoon.' And that was what we did: we took our Sgt Pepper suits along and filmed at the Saville Theatre in the West End.
Anthology
In the first film, The Beatles wore their Sgt Pepper costumes to perform in front of a psychedelic backdrop. A cutaway featured the group wearing their collarless suits from 1963, and some local dancers donned grass skirts for what was termed the 'Maori finale'.
The second film was also a performance, although The Beatles wore their everyday - though still elaborate - clothes. In this version Ringo Starr's bass drum carried the familiar Beatles 'drop-T' logo, whereas in the first one it had been absent.
The third clip was made up of outtakes from the first two, plus footage of John Lennon performing the Twist.
Version one was shown on The Ed Sullivan Show on 26 November, and again the following night on ABC's The Hollywood Palace. In Britain, however, the material fell foul of the Musicians' Union ban on miming in television performances, and the films were never shown at the time.
I said, 'Look, can we get a theatre anywhere? How about Brian's? Is it ever empty for a minute or two? An afternoon? Sure, great.' So we went down there, got some girls in Hawaiian skirts, got our Sgt Pepper outfits on, and I just ran out there: 'Get a shot of this! Do this for a bit now! Let's have a shot there! Get a close-up of him! Get the girls on their own! Go back there! Get a wide angle! We'll edit it, we'll make it work.' It was very thrown away. Nice to do stuff like that.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
The 'Maori finale' of Hello, Goodbye was also used over the closing credits of the Magical Mystery Tour film.
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Paul didn't think this song through - he ran out of antonyms ending with the long "O"-sound and had to resort to the inconsistent "why/I don't know" couplet. If he'd given it ten minutes of thought, he might've come up with any of these perfectly satisfactory pairings:
"You say buck/I say doe"
"You say friend/I say foe"
"You say reap/I say sow"
"You say to/I say fro"
"You say shrink/I say grow"
and my favourite:
"You say suck/I say blow!"
(Still an enjoyable song, but the lyrics are surely the worst thing about it.)
Certainly not Paul's best, but I really like the charging guitars on top of the violas in the right channel during the during the first "Hello hello" section. Has a bit of a Sgt. Pepper groove to it.
Like most everything McCartney, lines like "You say why/I say I don't know" work anyway. I was never a big fan of this song for a long time, now so many years later I like it a lot more, it's well arranged for one thing.
The rhyme on why/I don't know is on the "i" sound -- why and I. HEL-lo.
I can't stand the double violas -- they are SO GOOD!!! They are all on one side of the mix, so put the balance all to one side and prepare to adore! I listen to them over and over again.
Think I have to go with Paul's lyrics
Rewriting Beatles songs seems academic; besides, the flip side more than compensates for lyrics fans with Lennon's Walrus. Anyway the lyrics don't really matter here (about which Paul said: "It's a song about everything and nothing. If you have black you have to have white...")
As a song Hello Goodbye is about the melody. It's a masterpiece of the upbeat pop and wonderful melodic compositions Paul was a genius at. I especially like Ringo's fills and syncopations. Excellent creative drumming that's both complex and melodic. Very enjoyable and this type of melodic song is a major reason the Beatles had so many No. one hits. The distinct coda ending is unique and powerful.
Hello Goodbye is brilliant! Paul at his very best. The cord progression, the vocals the unmistakable melody. The way he used major and minor cords switching back and forth and then back again. He did the same with Penny Lane and Michele. Some people say Beatle songs were so simple, if they were so simple then why isn't everyone writing so many hits? It's McCartney's utter genius that's why.