{"id":10623,"date":"2022-12-15T18:53:41","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T18:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10623"},"modified":"2022-12-21T17:11:12","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T17:11:12","slug":"when-julie-taymor-met-paul-and-yoko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10623","title":{"rendered":"When Julie Taymor met Paul and Yoko"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 Julie Taymor, who turns 70 today, is known best for creating \u2018The Lion King\u2019 among a long list of theatrical productionsi but her films are just as fascinating such as \u2018Titus\u2019, \u2018Frida\u2019, \u2018The Tempest\u2019,\u2019 The Glorias\u2019 and \u2018Across the Universe\u2019.<\/p>\n

I have been fortunate to spend time with Taymor and her creative and life partner, composer Elliot Goldenthal, in London, Ghent and Krakow (pictured with me above). I spent an afternoon at Abbey Road watching the couple record the score for \u2018Titus\u2019 and I moderated a panel discussion with them at the Krakow Film Music Festival in 2012.<\/p>\n

We spoke of many things including the difficulties she faced clearing the rights to Beatles songs for \u2018Across the Universe\u2019 with Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono.<\/p>\n

She described sitting alone with McCartney in a screening room. \u2018It\u2019s quiet and then I hear him singing along to one his songs and I knew it would be all right.\u2019<\/p>\n

She met John Lennon\u2019s widow \u2013 \u2018and her lawyer\u2019 \u2013 at her home in the Dakota Building. Taymor and Goldenthal had decided that Lennon\u2019s song that goes \u2018I want you, I want you so bad \u2026’\u00a0 <\/span>wouldl be perfect for a scene in which the lead character answers Uncle Sam\u2019s demand that he must be drafted during the Vietnam War.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ono stared at Taymor: \u2018You know he wrote that about me.\u2019<\/p>\n

Still, they got the movie made with the songs they wanted and Taymor said she loved what Goldenthal \u2013 and fellow music producers T-Bone Burnett and Teese Gohl \u2013 did with the arrangements for the film\u2019s stars and assorted guest artists.<\/p>\n

Goldenthal explained that he tried to find the \u2018chromosomes\u2019 in each Beatles song for the arrangements. \u2018If you try to duplicate their sound and you get one chromosome wrong it\u2019s a disaster so you must go another way.\u2019<\/p>\n

In my review of the film, I said the film was \u2018a sparkling treat for anyone with an appreciation of how popular music became the soundtrack for so many people\u2019s lives\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 Julie Taymor, who turns 70 today, is known best for creating \u2018The Lion King\u2019 among a long list of theatrical productionsi but her films are just as fascinating such as \u2018Titus\u2019, \u2018Frida\u2019, \u2018The Tempest\u2019,\u2019 The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,1263,8,2257],"tags":[2731,5289,1481,2174,4171,3180,3221],"class_list":["post-10623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-interviews","category-memory-lane","category-music","category-recalling","tag-across-the-universe","tag-the-lion-king","tag-elliot-goldenthal","tag-julie-taymor","tag-krakow-film-music-festival","tag-paul-mccartney","tag-yoko-ono"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10623"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10635,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10623\/revisions\/10635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}