As millions of teenyboppers reached a fevered pitch of hysteria and fanaticism the likes of which the world had never seen, the British press scrambled into action. “Beatlemania!” the tabloids screamed with impish aplomb, as much a part of the global hysteria surrounding the band.
Between 1963 and 1966, the Beatles became the object of adolescent Baby Boomers on both sides of the pond, the four lads from Liverpool filling the gap Elvis Presley left when he joined the Army. Neither rock n’ roll nor rhythm & blues, the Beatles became the progenitors of pop with their infectious blend of bubblegum lyrics, melodic harmonies, and basic rhythms.
“Millions of eyes were suddenly upon us, creating a picture I will never forget,” remarked Paul McCartney, the Beatles bass player, singer, and songwriter better known as “the cute one.”
During the fall of 1963, McCartney acquired a Pentax 35 mm camera and began carrying it everywhere, going shot for shot with the journalists and fans who turned out in droves to scream and shout at the mop top pop stars. Standing in the eye of the storm, McCartney chronicled the life and times of the first boy band to hit the world stage, chronicling the British invasion from a vantage point few have ever seen.
A Hard Day’s Night
In 2020, a cache of some 1,000 photographs from this period were rediscovered in Paul McCartney’s archive, inspiring a reexamination of this groundbreaking era.
Now the new exhibition at Brooklyn Museum and associated catalogue, “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm”, brings together photography, video clips, and archival materials to tell the story in full, mapping the band’ meteoric rise, city by city, until their final stop: their first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in New York City on February 9, 1964.
Some 73 million people tuned in that night to watch the Beatles perform hits like “She Loves You”, “I Saw Her Standing There”, and “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. In that moment, the words Beatles front man John Lennon would later speak could truly be felt: the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.
The ugly truth invariably resulted in a brutal backlash, with Beatlemania quickly becoming a thing of the past. The band would emerge more thoughtful and provocative from the controversy, standing in stark contrast to their younger selves seen in McCartney’s photographs.
Here are four lads clad in modish suits, their foppish locks daring to curve around their ears, foreheads, and necks; a portrait of the artist as a young man rendered in black and white film. They reveal little of themselves besides an ambition that has driven them straight to the top, never knowing for a moment what the future holds for the Fab Four.
“Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm” is on view through August 18, 2024, at the Brooklyn Museum.
1964: Eyes of the Storm is published by W.W. Norton & Co., $75.00
