It was thirty-one years ago today when McCartney's "Give My Regards To Broad Street" was released in American cinemas. All with the hope that this musical would be a huge hit, backed by heavy promotion and a soundtrack album. There was only a slight problem. Intended originally as a television special, Paul felt strongly enough that this could be extended into a legitimate motion picture. I'm assuming the initial pitch went something like this...
Yes, loyal blog readers, I am comparing Paul to Kermit The Frog. McCartney was a bit too ambitious with the rushed treatment of making a full length film. The result was a car crash. To emphasize this point further, the move was ranked at #150 for the year ending for box office sales. "The Muppets Take Manhattan"(another musical release three months earlier in 1984) ranked at #39. Aside from the fact that one film was made with puppets(yes, the Jim Henson film! Come On!) these films have some similarities. Just because they were both inspired by Broadway musicals, the reason that the Muppets succeed in a genre (that Paul was capable of competing with), is because it had a developed plot. "Give My Regards To Broad Street" had a flimsy plot, which Paul had written stuck in traffic.
Broad Street, or the idea of making any movie, had been on Paul's radar for a while during the late 70s. In fact it was supposed to be a different plot and feature called "Band On The Run." However, it never really took flight, and was postponed. Unrelatedly, there had been a TV special for a collection of videos from "Back To The Egg"meant to be promotion for Paul touring with Wings in the early 80s. The difference between that TV Special and Broad Street, boils down to dialog in the latter. If Broad Street had been a TV Special, it probably would have had a substantial decrease in criticism. By all accounts "Give My Regards To Broad Street" was intended to be a serious film to be running in theatres with people paying money to see it. The minute it became clear that the "emperor had no clothes on" most people panned the movie. It was truly considered a "Turkey" at the time, with uncomplimentary reviews.
The soundtrack actually wasn't a failure and helped by the brilliant "No More Lonely Nights" single and other re-recorded songs from both McCartney and The Beatles. Paul McCartney decided rather early on during the fall, when the movie was out for a few weeks, to move on to other projects. It is a strange nostalgic period of where first McCartney was Gung Ho to promote his work, and then he quickly wasn't. As much as the project was frowned upon, it was misinterpreted as a film. It is a long playing video perfect during the MTV generation and simply a blueprint on how to make promotional music videos. Sure, the plot was underdeveloped. The screenplay was so short(48 pages) that it was even included with the official Piano Song Book. But, the value of the musical sequences is very strong and underrated. Most people seemed to be dismissive of the part in the film that was an extended focus on "Elenor Rigby." The music was great, the focus of that scene with a Victorian theme, painful to watch.
The rest of the breaks in the film for the songs is not to be missed. "Ballroom Dancing" and "Silly Love Songs" is very memorable, for example, for the costumes and choreography. All the promotional material to collect is beautifully styled and considered. It was a last ditch attempt to release the film as a video game for profit in 1985(check out my prattling You Tube video at youtube.com/magicmeri). It had been released in the US on video and DVD, but since MPL blocked it's release in the UK, It does need a blu-ray version, or any version on PAL.
Being the anniversary, I thought I could watch it today on You Tube, but after many hundreds of thousands(seriously!) replays, all full length copies available have been recently audio blocked. That's right, it took awhile but the copyright holders have taken action and now the film can be only be watched silently in it's entirety. I've been forced to write a poem...
I've decided not to share my full poem here (see how disappointing unfinished works can be..hint hint), but it starts off like this-
"Oh Flop Movie, I Love You So/ Even Though You Caused McCartney So Much Woe...."
The rest of the poem will be released in our Facebook Group, which you are always welcome to join, it's fun, informative and now nearing 50 members so email if you want in!
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