Mad Men: Lady Lazarus (featuring Tomorrow Never Knows) (season 4, episode 8)

Mad Men's Matthew Weiner paid $250,000 to use the Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows in season 5, episode 8, "Lady Lazarus". We talk about the licensing of Beatles music in film and TV, which is also directly referenced in the episode, where the agency is trying to find a suitable song for a Hard Day's Night parody advert for Chevalier Blanc. This episode of Mad Men is set in August 1966 and we discuss how the characters are feeling the paranoia of the sixties closing in on them. America is tense and chaotic: the Richard Speck murders in Chicago and the Texas University sniper shootings have just happened, just as the Beatles are flying in to be greeted with protests because of John Lennon's "bigger than Jesus" comments.

As for Don Draper, his young wife has left copywriting to become an actor, and she's bought him a copy of Revolver to play while she goes out to a class. Start with the last track, she says. Don sits in his chair, kicks off his shoes, and hears the sound of a generation about to leave him behind.

Watch Mad Men: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/tv-serie...

Watch the clip where Don Draper listens to Tomorrow Never Knows:    • Mad.Men - S05 E08 - Lady Lazarus - Tomorro...  

The song they choose for the ad campaign that Don can’t distinguish from the Beatles is September in the Rain by The Wedgewoods:    • The Wedgewoods - September in the Rain (Of...  

And in fairness he's not far off: the Beatles did a version of it in the Decca audition:    • The Beatles - September in the Rain  

More about the University of Texas tower shootings in 1966: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univers...

And about the Richard Speck murders: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard...

The book Pete Campbell reads is Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49: https://www.google.co.uk/books/editio...

We also mention The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster: https://www.google.co.uk/books/editio...

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ABOUT US:

The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.

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