It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper & Beyond

You can split this documentary into 3 parts (not necessarily of equal length):

1) "Why we don't want to tour anymore"

2) Sgt Pepper's

3) Brian Epstein and the Indian meditation guy

Don't expect to hear a single Beatles song in this film. Don't expect to hear a song of any kind in this film - this is a somewhat strange element to a music documentary and it suffers as a result. In saying that, I'm such a Beatles fan that I instantly hear each song in my head without having it actually played to me.

There are a lot of obscure people featured with interviews and anecdotes here - even poor Pete Best is briefly dragged out. At one point, some guy says unironically that "The Beatles had a lot of hangers-on" . That is probably an apt description of this documentary.

A lot of the people are so obscure that I did hear some things for the first time. Highlights included:

John changing the lyrics of 'Twist and Shout' when performing live to "I'm pissed with gout" (no one could hear him above the crowd screaming anyway).

And; Ringo frantically wanting someone to pack his entire suitcase full of baked beans and anti-diarrhea medication for their trip to India.

Overall, it was overlong, yet didn't delve into the making of the album (its actual subject) nearly enough. Far too much on Brian Epstein and random anecdote filler. The whole thing had the vibe of a 1 hour TV special. Just go listen to the album instead.