“Genius”: the band Ron Howard called timeless
Ron Howard started working when he was 18 months old. He’s in his 70s now, and over 130 films and countless hours of TV later, he still seems youthful. There can only be one answer to that conundrum: he loves what he does. The charming Californian is a natural storyteller. That’s the only strand that ties his rather disparate work together. You get the sense that he’d be telling stories in one form or another if his only audience was his dog, Duncan.
There aren’t many creatives cut from that cloth. However, of all the bright and breezy engines of artful industry, Paul McCartney perhaps stands alone as the leader in making light work of a heavy load. Macca began gigging with The Quarrymen at the age of 15. Now, in his 80s, he’s still hitting the road and rattling off three-hour sets at Glastonbury. He’s so addicted to creative output that you expect him to be doing it for eternity, and you suspect it keeps him young.
Howard immediately recognised this kinship between the pair when he began working on the documentary Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years. “I really related to and respected Paul McCartney. What a work ethic. He loves it,” he told NME. “I feel that way about directing. I feel that way about telling stories.”
This vibrant enthusiasm is what propelled The Beatles to unparalleled heights. It is evident that the Fab Four were motivated by the thrill of art as they braced their way through the unprecedented waves of chaos that rocked the coracle of their friendship as they journeyed forth into a liberated future—dragging the world along with them.
The band’s magic was in its constitution. The fact that The Beatles had been buddies since their budding high school days gave them license to bicker the way only old friends can. Their wildly varying individual personalities meant they often brawled away like brothers, ultimately aiming to capture the perfect mix of the artistic milieu that made up the generational band.
This spirit had been imperative when it was the four of them against the world as they cut their teeth in the rough and tumble realm of gangsters, dodgy club owners, and even dodgier clubs miles away from home in Hamburg at tender ages. Their compact cohesion made them a band in the traditional sense, a true group, and this ensured that any little spats were easily eschewed with the very next joke.
As Howard told the Guardian, ”In a way, that sort of creative integrity is at the heart of the story for me. As a unit, they produced genius-level work and were four intelligent, charismatic, but self-effacing artists. That whole approach they had to the music, to the press, their natural wit as a foursome fooling around for the cameras, was totally organic and unique to them and them alone, making them sort of this four-headed beast.” Their work was authentically unfiltered.
It also ensured that their output contained all sorts. Not only was it a glorious mix of each character, but they were also so unabashed by a sense of ‘what they ought to be’ that often derails lesser bands, and they were happy to just let creativity flow through them no matter what form it came in. As Howard explained, “Even in those early records, those first hits, the writing is just brilliant. As they evolved, it became clear to me you could be in any frame of mind possible within the framework of the human experience and there’s a song they wrote that will speak to you very, very directly.”
Their songs are here, there and everywhere, and that resonance has ensured that they have woven their way into society at large, escaping the mere grips of culture. In Howard’s view, this is the secret to their timelessness. They relate to the whims of the human spirit, and that won’t change any time soon. As the Rush director argues, “I don’t care what mood, or what you’re going through, that’s the genius of the band and why their music is as relevant, in many ways, as it’s ever been.”
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