‘Beatles ’64’ creators reveal the secret to The Beatles’ enduring relevancy
Decades on from the band’s split, the question might be raised of what we have left to learn about The Beatles or why interest in the Liverpool lads not only endures year after year but only seems to grow. However, in an exclusive interview with Far Out, according to Beatles ‘64 director David Tedeschi and co-producer Margaret Bodde, it all comes down to the unexplainable “mystery of music.”
Beatles ‘64 is the latest in a long lineage of documentaries about the band. By now, there are countless films, books, podcasts, TV shows and even entire websites dedicated to The Beatles, but still, people’s interest in the group endures. The world’s intrigue over the Fab Four is not just coasting along but seems to build year-on-year.
New fans continue to become obsessed with the group just as they did back in the 1960s. New generations of listeners begin diving into their discography, and the cultural sphere seems unendingly fascinated by their story as projects like Beatles ‘64 or the upcoming Sam Mendes biopics feed demand.
Having had a true insider position in the band’s history after digging through their archive to great Disney+’s new Martin Scorsese-produced documentary, Tedeschi and Bodde have the authority to answer the question of why the band remains so timelessly relevant. However, even after years of close engagement with the Fab Four’s story, the answer remains just as much of a mystery to them as it does to anybody else.
“It’s really hard to say,” Tedeschi said exclusively to Far Out before offering up his theory. To him, their ongoing success comes down to one thing; “More than anything else, the music, it’s great music, and it enhances our lives in a very deep way. And I think that’s part of the mystery. It’s the mystery of music,” he said, laying their legacy at the feet of their musical talent.
“David Lynch says in the film that it creates all these emotions and thoughts, and it’s just 12 notes. I think that’s the basis, you know,” he continued.
When making the documentary, the way that music can impact a person on an individual level came up time and time again throughout their interviews as he explained, “We have many people talking about how music has an impact on you in the film.”
However, Tedeschi acknowledges that our actual understanding of that and how it happens is still unknown, adding, “Ultimately, it’s a mystery, and I think that’s part of why we’re still thinking about it when you have these four guys, from the point of view of an American, four guys who came out of nowhere. You know, as Joe Coenen says in the film, they were from Liverpool. They might as well have been from Mars, who created something that’s, you know, in a way, still going strong.”
For Bodde, it’s also a sense of mystery that she believes powers the world’s ongoing intrigue, but in a different way. “They also, as a band, they were kind of like a comet or something, right? They went across the sky, and then they stopped,” she said, discussing the fact that The Beatles’ actual lifespan was really a flash in the pan. To her, that adds to the interest as she explains, “They stopped at the top. And I think that adds to the feeling of wonder about the band.”
That isn’t to say that all artists should stop young as she said, “You have many bands that are that started around the same time, that are still out there performing”, adding with a smile, “I mean, Dylan should play music as long as he’s on this earth, right?”
Nevertheless, when it comes to The Beatles, there is something about their early split that seems to keep people hooked as if the world is forever wanting more, with Bodde concluding, “There is something very intriguing about something so brilliant, splitting up and going their own ways. And I think that adds to the to the mystery.”
Beatles ‘64 is out on Disney+ on November 29th, 2024.
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