Thass boy...

The Beatles when they're not so fab.

The Unseen Beatles-1963

As the truth of Beatlemania and all that it meant began to dawn on The Beatles, home movies such as these became increasingly important to them, not as rockstars, but as normal guys in their early twenties from ugly, dirty Liverpool, England. Videos such as these shed light on the people behind the swollen name and brand of The Beatles, and offer a fascinating look into a group of very extraordinary friends who simply loved music. Some of the videos above can be seen in the early episodes of The Beatles Anthology. I love watching footage such as this. Everyone has seen their performance at Shea Stadium in 1965 or their Apple Studios Rooftop performance in 1969 countless times, but home footage really brings it home who they were as people, not as musicians. So enjoy!

The new Mojo magazine this month

For those of you who aren't familiar with Mojo magazine, it's a British music magazine that usually comes with a CD. Out of all the various magazines that do articles on The Beatles (Life, Time, Newsweek) Mojo is by far the best. There is virtually a Beatles Mojo out constantly, and they are incredible. Instead of monotonously detailing the information about the Beatles we all know (like, "Ringo was in fact not the original drummer." Come on, we all know that) the various authors of the article, or in this case, whole magazine, closely analyze their social effect, which I think is the most interesting point of study with regards to the boys. Anyway, I have quite a few Mojo Beatles or Beatles-related magazines, but this is the first one that is literally all about them. This one goes in depth to their psychedelic years, from their first experimentation with marijuana in 1964 to the conclusion of the band in 1970. It's absolutely fascinating and might just get you into a subscription to his analytically rich magazine all for the love of great music. Way to go Mojo!