 Beatle fanatics pay attention. The last televised interview
with John Lennon is now available on this two-disc DVD set, along with older archival interviews
of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
The night after John Lennon died in 1980, Tom Snyder announced that he was
going to re-run an interview that he conducted with John Lennon. It lasted an hour
and became one of the most requested interviews he ever did. It’s intriguing to watch as Lennon is seen as laid back, struggling to stay in
the US
and oddly comfortable — even humble — about his surroundings.
It’s a subtle and unassumingly fascinating look at a
complicated man in a simplified setting. He talks about the Beatles with a
detachment that the years since the monumental breakup and repeated interviews would
have on his enthusiasm. There’s a lingering fondness in his voice as well, even when he
refers to the staleness and boredom of working with The Beatles which he likens to “playing tennis with the same person” and the “marriage that doesn’t
work.”
These interviews are a must for anyone interested in The
Beatles, or for someone looking to start their own band. Lennon contentedly discusses
the differences between England
and America
and the many misconceptions about The Beatles and the music business that he
and Yoko so often grumbled about.
Tom Snyder is a competent and likable interviewer whose
talent for putting stars at ease and asking thoughtful questions is well earned. His disarming
nature and casual style, saddled with a willingness to raise his own
experiences in questions, adds to the richness of the experience almost as if
we’re eavesdropping on a conversation rather than watching an interview.
“I look funny from the side,” Lennon says at a particular
moment in the interview. He’s staring into another camera and it’s only odd
when one considers the insurmountable number of interviews and times he has
been on television. He’s still able to be himself and you know you’re watching
a dated interview when Lennon cheers “the new disco music coming out now” and
Reggae “from Jamaica.”
After a break, Snyder and Lennon are joined by Lennon's immigration
lawyer Leon Wildes, about Lennon’s application for citizenship in England. Lennon goes on
to explain that things were complicated by
a corrupt cop in England
who planted marijuana, and that U.S. immigration has charged Lennon for
being an ‘overstay’ despite having already granted John and Yoko a two
week extension.
Finishing off the first disc are two interviews Snyder conducted
during the re-broadcast with a journalist friend Lisa Robinson and the Double Fantasy producer Jack Douglas.
They share their thoughts and memories of Lennon’s last five years in which he
stopped recording and talking to the media. From Robinson we get a picture of John Lennon as "house husband" and Yoko Ono as smart businesswoman with superior taste and intellect. Douglas discusses what it was like to record with John Lennon as he fights back teary inflections in his voice.
The second disc features interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo
Starr filling up the bill with their feedback on The Beatles, their careers at
the time and their thoughts on fame and music.
Paul McCartney and his wife Linda are interviewed on satellite
in 1979. While it would be interesting to hear a later interview on the death
of John Lennon, it’s perhaps more important to have an overall view on The
Beatles and the individuals who made up the band. The differences are clear
between Lennon and his approach to music. While Lennon was comfortable with
Yoko and his solo career, Paul McCartney was geared up to start a new band.
McCartney is more reminiscent about the Beatles. He gets a
little more banal when discussing the farm and where they put the kids in
school, what it’s like since the Beatles, how to shear the sheep etc. Compared
to the John Lennon interview, it’s far less dramatic and doesn’t quite carry
the emotional weight aside from the appearance of the late Linda McCartney, and a mention of the tragic Who concert in which 11 people were trampled the night before.
Ringo is interviewed in 1981 shortly after the release
of his appearance in Caveman, in which he says only fifteen words. His wife (and
Bond Girl), Barbra Bach is another high-profile marriage. His film career is
doing well and he has just turned forty. Occurring less than a year after Lennon's death, this one has a little more emotional baggage. Starr is clearly still shook up from Lennon's murder.
As an archive, this DVD might be better served on a larger
collection of Beatles memorabilia. However, as a singular piece on The Beatles, it
serves its function well. Snyder’s research is professional and flawless and
his approach is smooth. What the
Tomorrow Show offers is a sliver of a glance at the history of a band that
mattered, and whose legacy will no doubt live forever.
This Reviewer's Rating:   3 / 5
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