It Was 20 Years Ago Today

...and Paul will soon be 64, but then John and George are gone now.

I wish I could find a copy of this on DVD. I guess I'll just have to muddle by with the aging VHS copy I got off of PBS a few years ago (sigh).

I've told many friends about this film and they all wish they could see it. Even 1987, when the film came out seems like a long time ago.

The Merry Pranksters, The Beatles, The Diggers, all of them are in there. Could the world have ever held that much hope, that much innocent belief that things could only better?

Alas, the screws probably don't want you to see anything that makes you think.

I recorded this documentary off of the Discovery network. I played it at least a hundred times and showed it to everyone I knew. Then in about 2003 I found out there was an even longer version of the film which an acquaintance had taped from PBS. It is based on a book of the same name by Beatles publicist Derek Taylor. It really isn't just about the Sgt. Pepper album, but uses it as a platform to discuss a variety of experiments in the counterculture. Having only been 10 years old in 1967, I was clueless about these social changes. It goes into everything: experiments in the Netherlands, Hoppy Hopkins arrest for marijuana in the UK, San Francisco culture, mass arrests in L.A., the Diggers, the underground press in the UK and the US, the anti-war movement, the levitation of the Pentagon, pot and LSD, the influx of Eastern religions, psychedelic art and music, happenings, the Monterey Pop Festival, the San Francisco Be-in, and of course Sgt. Pepper. I've watched anything I could get ahold of about the 1960s (including the 6 hour PBS special "Making Sense of the Sixties") but nothing comes close to this film in capturing the range of ideas being explored at the time or the exhilaration of it. The film features many important participants of the times: Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Abbie Hoffman, Paul Kantner, Peter Coyote, Ron Thelin, Barry Miles, Chet Helms, Allen Cohen, and so many others. The role of Sgt. Pepper was to put a small slice of the counterculture in the bedrooms of millions of kids around the world. It took the counterculture from a cult interest to a mainstream interest. If you haven't seen this film and you are a sixties buff, it is essential viewing.

We have seen a few countercultures since this time, like the punk movement and the rave scene, but neither of those seem to have had the breadth or heart of the 1960s breakthroughs. I think this is why the 60s counterculture is a reference point for youth of each succeeding generation. "It Was Twenty Years Ago Today" is an excellent introduction to the 1960s and the Sgt. Pepper album.

This is a gem of a documentary done for Granada TV in the UK that has unfortunately never been officially released or even re-broadcasted as far as I know. It's a well-made look at our culture circa 1967 twenty years on, all within the context of the 20th anniversary of the Beatles masterpiece Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. There's lots of great footage of bands and figures from the 60's (George Harrison comes off as the wisest of the Beatles here)with a non-judgmental look back at a pivotal time in our history that has been revised by many who have either lost the promise that era held or who were not even there at all. Yes, there was a lot of excessive drug-taking and silliness, but a lot of good came out of the best aspects of that period, and this documentary does a good job documenting it.

"It Was Twenty Years Ago Today" directed by John Sheppard, for Granada Television, U.K., 1987. This is one of the best documentaries ever made. It is clear that the director, John Sheppard, had both a firm grasp of his subject and a brilliant ability to chose personalities and events which would tell the story with great effect. Then of course he had to edit all the footage. What is particularly impressive is the documentary's range: It addresses issues in the U.K. and in the U.S. The drug busts of British rock stars was a very telling episode, but the documentary's focus on the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco, and the levitation of the Pentagon, are as gritty, accurate, and real as it gets. This documentary was an enormous amount of work. Since we can presume that documentaries are made so that people can see them, it remains a disgrace that this documentary is not available for home video and educational use.

This film will make you want to continue work on your time machine. Man! What a beautiful summer. This is best history I've ever learned. I taped it on Beta once and I must have watched it 100 times. Because of this movie, I've lived the kind of life I am proud of and happy to look back on. I too lived in interesting times. This movie will change what is important to you.