The Beatles - Get Back (by Peter Jackson)

[UTCzech III 2907]

Excellent article on Glyn Johns and the Get Back album

LINK

And I do have to correct myself, Phil Spector didn't just take Glyn Johns album and add strings to it, he actually did use some completely different takes than Glyn Johns did.  I'm listening to the Get Back 2nd mix right now and the takes are noticeably different.  Glyn Johns version is truly the original vision the Beatles had, no overdubs or corrections at all.  Exactly what you see and hear in the documentary.

 

ETA:  interesting, the version on the Let It Be box set is the Glyn Johns 1st version, from 1969, and not the 2nd mix, which is what I have, guess I'll be getting the box set now.

Edited November 29, 2021 by UTCzech III

[Guest]

Conflicted on this series so far. Almost done with the first episode. The moments where the songs are appearing and taking form are absolutely amazing. I mean, you're seeing the birth of some of the most famous songs on the planet. And it's like you're right there. It's literally like watching Da Vinci paint.

But in between there is some really "draggy" moments that just bore me. It's cool they are there for historic purposes, but they bog everything down for me. I don't know if I can dedicate eight hours to this. Some of it is just so mundane, no matter if they are the greatest band ever or not. Hoping it picks up a bit  more.

[jimmyjazz 45877]

3 hours ago, Chad Fuck said:

Mrs. F is heading out of town for a girls trip.  I'll be getting in my second viewing of the whole thing again.  

So in grade school, when the substitute would go down the roll for attendance, did she actually say "Fuck, Chad"?

Because that would be cool.

[Gil Bang 25907]

a bit off topic, but I've argued here and elsewhere that Ringo is, simply put, the greatest drummer ever. 

IDGAF about Keith Moon, the Rush guy, bonham, etc.  Ringo was the greatest. 

The little things... like the high hat on "All I've got to do".   Masterful. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anMW41uvb_s

Edited November 30, 2021 by Gil Bang

[DougO 5243]

I've watched about an hour of it in random spots. Going to watch it in sequence this week. It does seem to ramble a lot, as the band was doing. I would love to see Jackson come back in a year or so and say, "OK, I made a 2 1/2 hour more concise version about the making of the album with less extra drama, for release in theaters." That would make for a more widely approachable movie for overall viewers, and could be delightful for major Beatles fans as well. And it would make some more money.

[tigol 2395]

27 minutes ago, DougO said:

I've watched about an hour of it in random spots. Going to watch it in sequence this week. It does seem to ramble a lot, as the band was doing. I would love to see Jackson come back in a year or so and say, "OK, I made a 2 1/2 hour more concise version about the making of the album with less extra drama, for release in theaters." That would make for a more widely approachable movie for overall viewers, and could be delightful for major Beatles fans as well. And it would make some more money.

As long as he released the rest of the footage for us, that would be fine.

[atomheartbevo 89618]

33 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

a bit off topic, but I've argued here and elsewhere that Ringo is, simply put, the greatest drummer ever. 

From that cameraman's comments earlier, and from what others have said, he had a knack for just playing whatever the band needed. I've heard the jokes about him not even being the best drummer in the band, but everything I've seen of him in the series showed he was solid.

 

[jimmyjazz 45877]

People who don't see Ringo as a masterful drummer don't understand the difference between music and flash.  He is absolutely one of the all-time greats, to the point where he is very rarely copied, and it's not for lack of trying.  He has a swing and a touch that is exceedingly rare, especially in these days of "I will beat the living daylights out of the snare on 2 and 4".  (I have to admit, I am a fan of drummers beating the living daylights out of the snare on 2 and 4, but still . . .)

[Michael Knight 12976]

 

[Pato del Muerto 52484]

2 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

From that cameraman's comments earlier, and from what others have said, he had a knack for just playing whatever the band needed. I've heard the jokes about him not even being the best drummer in the band, but everything I've seen of him in the series showed he was solid.

 

I’m fairly certain that this doc has at least one scene with each of the 4 playing drums- though Lennon and Harrison’s turns weren’t serious attempts.  

[jimmyjazz 45877]

Regarding Paul's effort to land on the tune "Get Back" . . . it's not at all unusual for a songwriter to fight through the cobwebs and end up with a hook in a couple of minutes.

What's unusual is when that hook is "Get Back".

Edited November 30, 2021 by jimmyjazz

[Pato del Muerto 52484]

7 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Regarding Paul's effort to land on the tune "Get Back" . . . it's not at all unusual for a songwriter to fight through the cobwebs and end up with a hook in a couple of minutes.

What's unusual is when that hook is "Get Back".

Lol one of the comments to that tweet:

 

In the documentary “Sound City,” after they composed the song “Cut Me Some Slack” on the fly in the studio, Dave Grohl asked Macca, “Why can’t it always be this easy?” Paul replied, “It is.”

[DougO 5243]

30 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I’m fairly certain that this doc has at least one scene with each of the 4 playing drums- though Lennon and Harrison’s turns weren’t serious attempts.  

Fairly well known "misquote" legend, when John was asked if Ringo was the best drummer in the world, he replied, "he's not even the best drummer in the Beatles."

Paul was a pretty good drummer.

Edited November 30, 2021 by DougO

[Beantown Express 2.0 6559]

Just finished episode 1 and its pure Beatles porn for me.  I was fascinated with the song creation you could see happening right before your eyes.  From Get Back, Let it Be, Golden Slumbers, etc….One thing that kind of stood out to me was the Yoko dynamic.  Yeah, she was all up in their shit sitting next to John the whole time but I didn’t get the feeling that really bothered anyone.  The whole Yoko broke up the Beatles doesn’t really make sense as it is more apparent to me that they were kind of just growing apart both musically and as people.  Especially George, as he wanted to start getting his own songs played or on the albums and you could see Paul and John kind of making fun of some of his stuff.  You could see where that was driving him crazy and pissing him off.  Ringo didn’t seem to give a shit about anything going on and was just content to play the drums on whatever songs they asked him to.    It’s really too bad these guys couldn’t get along at the end as I would have loved to hear them collaborate in the late 1970s or 1980s (if John wasn’t killed) to see what kind of greatness they could have recorded.

[Chad Fuck 17658]

I’m fairly certain that this doc has at least one scene with each of the 4 playing drums- though Lennon and Harrison’s turns weren’t serious attempts.  

All of them play piano as well.

[Pato del Muerto 52484]

14 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

All of them play piano as well.

Yeah Paul and ringo break it down hard on piano that one morning. 

[Chad Fuck 17658]

Fairly well known "misquote" legend, when John was asked if Ringo was the best drummer in the world, he replied, "he's not even the best drummer in the Beatles."
Paul was a pretty good drummer.

Mark Lewisohn, the Beatle brain of Britain tracked this quote down to a couple comedians in the early 80s.  It wasn't ever a thing really said by John.

[Al_4_ISU 12447]

15 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Conflicted on this series so far. Almost done with the first episode. The moments where the songs are appearing and taking form are absolutely amazing. I mean, you're seeing the birth of some of the most famous songs on the planet. And it's like you're right there. It's literally like watching Da Vinci paint.

But in between there is some really "draggy" moments that just bore me. It's cool they are there for historic purposes, but they bog everything down for me. I don't know if I can dedicate eight hours to this. Some of it is just so mundane, no matter if they are the greatest band ever or not. Hoping it picks up a bit  more.

This is where I'm at an hour or so into it.  That scene where Paul is working out "Get Back" and you can visibly see George go from bored out of his skull to realizing this is a moment of absolute genius and jumping in to contribute is one of the coolest things I've ever seen, and arguably worth the price of admission in and of itself.

A lot of the rest of it just seems, well, like you said - mundane.

[Guest]

So why did George leave? Just wrapped up the first episode and it seems like they focus in on him being kind of "stand-offish" for a bit and then he just says he'll see them around the clubs. I can infer, but it seems more like something finally pushed him over the edge, although nothing it shown (that I saw). 

[Al_4_ISU 12447]

I'm only an hour in, and not a true Beatle-phile, but I think it's pretty obvious that George wanted more artistic control and an opportunity to put more of his music out into the world.  That just wasn't going to happen sharing the stage with Paul and John.  To me the obvious arch of the Beatles' eventual demise is centered around the band starting as the vehicle of Lennon/McCartney, and they were never really able to adapt to/accommodate George becoming an A list songwriter.

[Chad Fuck 17658]

18 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

So why did George leave? Just wrapped up the first episode and it seems like they focus in on him being kind of "stand-offish" for a bit and then he just says he'll see them around the clubs. I can infer, but it seems more like something finally pushed him over the edge, although nothing it shown (that I saw). 

Keep in mind they'd spent the last year working on the White Album, which has been described as four solo albums cobbled together.  That's not really the case, but is a way of saying that there had already been friction going between them for a year.  Paul kind of nailed it when he's in Twickenham after both John and George were gone and he's discussing how something is missing when you aren't spending all your time together.  Since the time of their early teens, until their late 20s when we see them here, they'd been hanging out together constantly.  Living in vans, hotels rooms and in Hamburg in a film storage room made into a cramped dorm, essentially.  Also, these are basically working class guys who weren't particularly well educated.  They were smart, for sure, but they probably didn't have the best coping mechanisms for the kinds of pressures they were enduring.  I have to think that at some level there was a bit of "this is great, but I'm done with this adventure.  Time for the next one."  I think Paul was willing and able to go on with it and could see that perhaps they were just in a bad moment, but that they could work through it.  My sense is John was more impulsive and George had seen the writing on the wall.  He was sitting on tons of songs that he cared about and at his allotment of 2 per album, it would be decades before he saw them released.  That just wasn't good enough for him.

Edited November 30, 2021 by Chad Fuck

[Chad Fuck 17658]

58 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Yeah Paul and ringo break it down hard on piano that one morning. 

And I never guessed it was George playing piano on "Old Brown Shoe" but when we see him sit down and start knocking it out, it's very apparent that his style is vastly different than the others.  

[Chad Fuck 17658]

Re the "Ringo isn't even..." quote above:

https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/beatles/did-john-lennon-say-ringo-wasnt-even-best-drummer/

 

[Reynolds Woodcock 4738]

3 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

So why did George leave? Just wrapped up the first episode and it seems like they focus in on him being kind of "stand-offish" for a bit and then he just says he'll see them around the clubs. I can infer, but it seems more like something finally pushed him over the edge, although nothing it shown (that I saw). 

Probably because about 10 minutes before (assuming the doc is relatively close to real life chronology) Paul was describing his chord choices as passé. He didn’t seem to respond well to that, and seemed totally miffed watching Paul and John sing Two of Us to each other. 
 

Lennon saying “if he isn’t back by Tuesday we’ll get Clapton” was cold as ice.

[Go Pokes 979]

11 hours ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

Just finished episode 1 and its pure Beatles porn for me.  I was fascinated with the song creation you could see happening right before your eyes.  From Get Back, Let it Be, Golden Slumbers, etc….One thing that kind of stood out to me was the Yoko dynamic.  Yeah, she was all up in their shit sitting next to John the whole time but I didn’t get the feeling that really bothered anyone.  The whole Yoko broke up the Beatles doesn’t really make sense as it is more apparent to me that they were kind of just growing apart both musically and as people.  Especially George, as he wanted to start getting his own songs played or on the albums and you could see Paul and John kind of making fun of some of his stuff.  You could see where that was driving him crazy and pissing him off.  Ringo didn’t seem to give a shit about anything going on and was just content to play the drums on whatever songs they asked him to.    It’s really too bad these guys couldn’t get along at the end as I would have loved to hear them collaborate in the late 1970s or 1980s (if John wasn’t killed) to see what kind of greatness they could have recorded.

I'm at the exact same point and had the exact same thoughts.  Thanks for saving me a bunch of typing!  As far as Yoko, she's the litmus test to determine if someone is really a Beatles fanatic and not just a fan of some of their songs.  If they still think she's the reason the band broke up, you better keep the conversation surface level.  They don't know what the fuck they are talking about.  

[Go Pokes 979]

On 11/26/2021 at 9:45 PM, 0xdeadbeef said:

speaking of Yoko, there was a scene in the 1st and 2nd episodes where John and Paul are playing and yoko is at the mic and is just screeching/screaming.   Worst 30 seconds of 'music' I've ever heard in my life.   

But anyone who has this opinion is 100% correct.  Please just sit there and stare lovingly at John and keep quiet.  

[kevwun 15758]

But even while she was screeching, Paul was going along with it and playing.  I don't think any of them hated her.

[Go Pokes 979]

On 11/28/2021 at 12:18 AM, UTCzech III said:

Just some random thoughts, observations, maybe a little trivia...

Watched parts 1 and 2 the past two nights, am saving part 3 for tomorrow.  I'm also a super fan, have easily over 100 bootlegs of the Beatles and solo members.  I have the Nagra tapes, I've listened to them, all 95+ hours of them.  They are a slog to get through.  The doc has really fleshed these out though, allowing me to put a visual to a lot of what I've heard over the years.  And definitely the conversations are a lot clearer here than on the Nagra tapes.  I'm loving it, my son and I watched both parts, he was ready last night for part 2 after the "cliffhanger" of part 1...  He's a guitar player too and was really digging John's Epiphone Casino.

 

Some observations:  I really feel that this is (to me) not indicative of their normal recording process, Paul and John are clearly playing it up for the camera, John especially, just really hamming it up, I don't think the Abbey Road sessions were probably conducted this way.  Ringo and George both seem really annoyed but the cameras, rather George does, I think Ringo is bored with all the TV show/location etc talk, he seems to me like he just wants to play, let the others sort all this shit out, the ultimate musicians' musician.  Have really grown in my respect and love for Ringo over the years (I'm telling you right now - no more autographs!  Peace and love!  Peace and love!)  When John and Paul are talking in the canteen, unaware that they are being recorded, you hear a much more serious, candid discussion.  When they are in front of the cameras, discussing where to perform, or when John remarks on how this was Paul's number (the whole movie/tv show idea etc) but now it's become all of their number and they've taken away Paul's grandiose ideas, you can see Paul eyeing the camera, and just kind of shrugging off John, agreeing with him, when I'm sure he had much more to say but didn't want to air it in public.  I'm sure the meetings at George's house were much more animated and raw than what we see in Twickenham.  Although we are getting an intimate look at the Beatles, I'm not sure it is a totally accurate one, but somewhat of a facade.

The sessions are so unstructured, that had a lot to do with it.  Even though George Martin is listed as producer and shows up in the film, he was rarely there, he left it to Glyn Johns to run the recordings, and Glyn is not going to step in and tell the Beatles that they need to get cracking, as George Martin would have (and did a time or two in the doc when he was there).  He assumed after the Get Back sessions that he would never work with them again.  That's the reason Abbey Road is so Immaculate, because after the fiasco of the Get Back sessions, they asked George if he would help on their next album, he agreed on the terms that they go back to EMI and "do it the way we used to" with him in charge.

John is so fucking strung out on heroin in these sessions.  The day that Peter Sellers stopped by, John is high as a fucking kite, just google the Canadian interview he and Yoko did right before that, just search for "Two Junkies".  One of the reasons Peter left so quickly is because John began talking about needles and getting high.  Go back and watch John just staring at the camera, eyes never blinking.  Spooky, and he's so damn pale.

A lot of the songs that appear to be created in the studio were in fact rejects from earlier times.  There is a clip on the White Album 50th Anniv. box set of Paul performing "Let It Be", the melody is more of a jam, but the lyrics are already beginning to percolate.  Same for "Long and Winding Road", a demo was recorded during the summer of 68 and given to Tom Jones as a pitch, but he didn't want it.  "Get Back", however, wow!  That's totally organic, we get to see that song being born.  And it is amazing that as huge artists as they were, and how albums were really coming into their own for all rock artists, the single still ruled the day.  George remarks that it's been a whole 5 months since their last single, "Hey Jude", and that they could have "Get Back" recorded, mixed, mastered and out in a week.  The public (and record companies) were a fickle lot back then.  No 2/3 years between albums back then...

Man, you could really tell how pissed George was getting, after he came back, and John and Paul began slagging the Maharishi and their trip to India.  To them it was a joke, to George, that was his life at the time, I'm really surprised he didn't walk out again. 

I fucking love Mal.  Such a big teddy bear.  He did so much for them, I knew he was their main roadie and body guard, but hell, writing down lyrics as they are being created, I never knew he did that, that's a big job.  And hell, he helped Paul write "Long and Winding Road", he offered some great lyric suggestions ("standing" instead of "waiting").   

Man, were these guys some smoking fools.  Really surprised Paul or Ringo haven't turned out like George.  

Someone upthread mentioned how they were able to cobble Let It Be together,  They didn't cobble shit, they didn't want anything to do with it after they were done.  Tey gave all the tapes to Glyn Johns and said, here, you figure it out.  Johns did a fucking hell of a job, He's the one that picked out the takes used on the album and inserted all the little sound bites in between.  There's a Glyn Johns 1st and 2nd mix of Get Back (as it was originally called), search them out if you can (the 2nd mix is included in the Let It Be box set that just came out).  Phil Spector just took Johns' mix and added strings to it.  

Need to go back and watch the first two parts a few more times, lots of stuff I am forgetting.  I finally got smart and put the subtitles/closed caption on for part 2, need to go back and watch part 1 with the captions on, a lot of those conversations are so low or have so many people talking at once that it's hard to make a lot of it out.  

I'm blown away so far, can't wait for the full rooftop concert (at least I've heard the full 30 minutes is supposed to be shown, I hope so...)

 

Damn.  Are you available to hire for tutoring sessions?  You seem to fall into the "knows his shit" category.  And yes please to 30 minutes of my favorite concert film ever.  

[4th&Five 41506]

I'm reading Paul's new book right now and he said she started showing up during the White Album, so they were very used to it.

[Beantown Express 2.0 6559]

39 minutes ago, Reynolds Woodcock said:

Probably because about 10 minutes before (assuming the doc is relatively close to real life chronology) Paul was describing his chord choices as passé. He didn’t seem to respond well to that, and seemed totally miffed watching Paul and John sing Two of Us to each other. 
 

Lennon saying “if he isn’t back by Tuesday we’ll get Clapton” was cold as ice.

There was a part before it where George was playing one of his songs (can’t remember which one) but it was kind of slow and like a waltz and I thought John was giving him a hard time like we are a rock and roll band and don’t you know what kind of music we play.  I think comments like that and the others mentioned (and probably stuff happening for years before) were leading to his breaking point moment where he just wants to do his own music without them shitting on it or tweaking it the way they want it versus the way he wants it.  

[UTCzech III 2907]

1 hour ago, Go Pokes said:

Damn.  Are you available to hire for tutoring sessions?  You seem to fall into the "knows his shit" category.  And yes please to 30 minutes of my favorite concert film ever.  

Well, since you asked....

I'll go a little bit into why I think George left, just my personal opinion, a lot of this is based on listening to the Nagra tapes, a lot of this stuff is not in the doc so hard to deduce otherwise.  First, the very first day, I don't know if the cameras even capture this, John breaks out a little bit of "Everybody Had a Hard Year" (which would be incorporated into "I've Got a Feeling" later, but for a while it was its own standalone song...).  Right after that, George give a couple of run-throughs of "Lay It Down", one of his most brilliant songs ever IMO.  John doesn't react at all.  No comment, no "hey, that's nice", nothing.  John really was like a big brother to George, so I think that hurt his feelings.  

Second, the one George song they did attempt, "All Things Must Pass", got a fair amount of work in, but they abandoned it after January 8. two days before George quit (same for "I Me Mine", it was only worked on for one day, January 8, the album version came from, and on a side note, I don't know why they abandoned that flamenco section in the middle, I love it, would have loved to have heard that in the final version...).  So he's already starting to feel short-changed.  In the meantime they spend tons of time working on "Maxwell" and "Bathroom Window" and "Long and Winding Road" and "Two of Us", all Paul songs.

Third, the whole, live, no overdubs concept I think really grated on him.  He had "Let It Down", "All Things Must Pass", "Something" was coming along, all brilliant songs, and I think he knew they deserved better than this rag-tag approach that was going on.  He was coming into his own and I don't think he wanted to "throw these songs away", he knew they could be really made special, strings, moog, whatever.  So he was being held back in that regard.

Fourth, and the straw that broke the camel's back, was just Paul's bossiness.  And not so much bossiness, but his insistence, ever how slight, to put his thumbprint on all their songs.  He did the same thing to John, I can't remember which song, probably "Don't Let Me Down", where he tells John, "Let's try it this way" and you can see John is not having it, he's like "this is my fucking song, I'll do it the way I want".  George had already been through this on "Hey Jude", ("I'll play if you want me to, or I won't play if you want me to, whatever it is to please you" is basically the quote).  They had been working on "Get Back" and "Two of Us" all morning, with Paul basically directing how he wanted the song to go.  I think George finally felt, fuck, do it yourself then.  I can have a better time sitting in my garden writing songs and then fucking Patti at night.  Although that actually may have had something to do with it as well, relating to George's overall state of mind, as Patti had left him at the beginning of the year.

Quote

Pattie Boyd: "I was friendly with a French girl who was going out with Eric Clapton. She was always flirtatious with George, but so were a lot of girls and he, of course, loved it. Then she and Eric broke up — Eric told her to leave — and she came to stay with us at Kinfauns.

It was January 1, 1969, and George and I had seen in the new year at Cilla Black’s house. … We arrived home in good spirits but then everything went swiftly downhill. The French girl didn’t seem remotely upset about Eric and was uncomfortably close to George. Something was going on between them, and I questioned George. He told me my imagination was running away with me, I was paranoid.

Soon I couldn’t stand it so I went to London to stay with Belinda and Jean-Claude. Six days later George phoned me to say that the girl had gone and I went home."

The French girl was 20-year-old Charlotte Martin, and she had been dating Eric for more two years. Eric has since said he left Charlotte because of his growing feelings for Pattie. Why, you can almost say George tried to give her consolation when her old man let her down.

George’s fling was in its final day on January 9 — and after leaving the Beatles the next day, he asked Charlotte to leave Kinfauns, ending the affair.  He would  reconcile with Pattie, and separately, with the rest of the Beatles shortly thereafter.

and finally, like Ringo, I don't think he was into the project at all, you can tell he hated the cameras and microphones being around, "Oh so you're taping our conversations" he says right at the beginning.  And just the entire trying to run their own business affairs was a drag, it all piled up on him.  Just my $.02 anyway

[Chad Fuck 17658]

12 minutes ago, UTCzech III said:

Well, since you asked....

I'll go a little bit into why I think George left, just my personal opinion, a lot of this is based on listening to the Nagra tapes, a lot of this stuff is not in the doc so hard to deduce otherwise.  First, the very first day, I don't know if the cameras even capture this, John breaks out a little bit of "Everybody Had a Hard Year" (which would be incorporated into "I've Got a Feeling" later, but for a while it was its own standalone song...).  Right after that, George give a couple of run-throughs of "Lay It Down", one of his most brilliant songs ever IMO.  John doesn't react at all.  No comment, no "hey, that's nice", nothing.  John really was like a big brother to George, so I think that hurt his feelings.  

Second, the one George song they did attempt, "All Things Must Pass", got a fair amount of work in, but they abandoned it after January 8. two days before George quit (same for "I Me Mine", it was only worked on for one day, January 8, the album version came from, and on a side note, I don't know why they abandoned that flamenco section in the middle, I love it, would have loved to have heard that in the final version...).  So he's already starting to feel short-changed.  In the meantime they spend tons of time working on "Maxwell" and "Bathroom Window" and "Long and Winding Road" and "Two of Us", all Paul songs.

Third, the whole, live, no overdubs concept I think really grated on him.  He had "Let It Down", "All Things Must Pass", "Something" was coming along, all brilliant songs, and I think he knew they deserved better than this rag-tag approach that was going on.  He was coming into his own and I don't think he wanted to "throw these songs away", he knew they could be really made special, strings, moog, whatever.  So he was being held back in that regard.

Fourth, and the straw that broke the camel's back, was just Paul's bossiness.  And not so much bossiness, but his insistence, ever how slight, to put his thumbprint on all their songs.  He did the same thing to John, I can't remember which song, probably "Don't Let Me Down", where he tells John, "Let's try it this way" and you can see John is not having it, he's like "this is my fucking song, I'll do it the way I want".  George had already been through this on "Hey Jude", ("I'll play if you want me to, or I won't play if you want me to, whatever it is to please you" is basically the quote).  They had been working on "Get Back" and "Two of Us" all morning, with Paul basically directing how he wanted the song to go.  I think George finally felt, fuck, do it yourself then.  I can have a better time sitting in my garden writing songs and then fucking Patti at night.  Although that actually may have had something to do with it as well, relating to George's overall state of mind, as Patti had left him at the beginning of the year.

and finally, like Ringo, I don't think he was into the project at all, you can tell he hated the cameras and microphones being around, "Oh so you're taping our conversations" he says right at the beginning.  And just the entire trying to run their own business affairs was a drag, it all piled up on him.  Just my $.02 anyway

Didn't realize that bit about Pattie leaving George at the same the Get Back sessions started up.  I can see how that'd be playing on his nerves on top of everything else.  

[Pato del Muerto 52484]

4 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

Didn't realize that bit about Pattie leaving George at the same the Get Back sessions started up.  I can see how that'd be playing on his nerves on top of everything else.  

And you have John and yoko all lovey dovey constantly, plus Linda in and out as well. Then John announcing his divorce is done saying he is free. Ringo’s wife is there occasionally as well. 

Edited November 30, 2021 by Pato del Muerto

[atomheartbevo 89618]

6 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I'm only an hour in, and not a true Beatle-phile, but I think it's pretty obvious that George wanted more artistic control and an opportunity to put more of his music out into the world.  That just wasn't going to happen sharing the stage with Paul and John.  To me the obvious arch of the Beatles' eventual demise is centered around the band starting as the vehicle of Lennon/McCartney, and they were never really able to adapt to/accommodate George becoming an A list songwriter.

2 hours ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

There was a part before it where George was playing one of his songs (can’t remember which one) but it was kind of slow and like a waltz and I thought John was giving him a hard time like we are a rock and roll band and don’t you know what kind of music we play.  I think comments like that and the others mentioned (and probably stuff happening for years before) were leading to his breaking point moment where he just wants to do his own music without them shitting on it or tweaking it the way they want it versus the way he wants it.  

All of this.

I really think that if Epstein had still been alive

A) The Let it Be project, as unstructured as it was, would not have happened the way it did.

B) Would have brought George more into play as his talents emerged.

Paul nailed it when he said they needed a daddy figure like Epstein to keep them focused and make the hard decisions.  Think he even commented that Epstein would have told them to leave the wives and girlfriends at home.

It was hard for Paul to step up, as George and the others had seen him as an equal, and all of the sudden he's trying to call the shots.  Plus, Paul has his own agenda - he's fantastic, but he's also really focused on getting his music "right" at the expense of others.

Given what we heard them working on during the documentary, Epstein could have easily pulled three albums out in the span of '69 and into '70 of the material for Let it Be, Abbey Road, and the stuff that ultimately went on their solo albums.  

 

Edited November 30, 2021 by atomheartbevo

[Chad Fuck 17658]

2 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

All of this.

I really think that if Epstein had still been alive

A) The Let it Be project, as unstructured as it was, would not have happened

B) Would have brought George more into play as his talents emerged.

Paul nailed it when he said they needed a daddy figure like Epstein to keep them focused and make the hard decisions.  Think he even commented that Epstein would have told them to leave the wives and girlfriends at home.

 

This had been their SOP until Epstein died.   

[Al_4_ISU 12447]

Again, not very far in yet, but I don't find Yoko to be some kind of evil at all.  I think it's weird that she's always there, basically physically attached to John, but she isn't really inserting herself into the decision making.  Just being clingy and kinda weird.

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

Not going to read thru 5 pages, sorry if already posted: One thing struck me from episode one--watching Paul hammer out Let It Be was like watching Monet paint or Da Vinci sculpt. Brought tears to my eyes.

And while this was going on, Linda and Yoko were jabbering in the background. YOU JUST MISSED ONE OF THE GREATEST MOMENTS IN HISTORY WHILE TALKING ABOUT WHATEVER THE FUCK WAS MORE IMPORTANT!!

[Chad Fuck 17658]

22 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Not going to read thru 5 pages, sorry if already posted: One thing struck me from episode one--watching Paul hammer out Let It Be was like watching Monet paint or Da Vinci sculpt. Brought tears to my eyes.

And while this was going on, Linda and Yoko were jabbering in the background. YOU JUST MISSED ONE OF THE GREATEST MOMENTS IN HISTORY WHILE TALKING ABOUT WHATEVER THE FUCK WAS MORE IMPORTANT!!

Just goes to show, that even if you're the Beatles, the ladies give zero fucks about watching the practice.  They only give a shit about the finished product, and even then they'll probably spend half the show screaming into your ear about how awesome the show is right in the middle of your favorite song.  I've sampled a wide cohort of concert companions and I'm sure this is a universal truth.  It's right there in colorized moving pictures as you describe.  

[Chad Fuck 17658]

27 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Again, not very far in yet, but I don't find Yoko to be some kind of evil at all.  I think it's weird that she's always there, basically physically attached to John, but she isn't really inserting herself into the decision making.  Just being clingy and kinda weird.

Yeah, clearly there were underlying issues that had nothing to do with Yoko.  They were on full display before she shows up in this film/ real life.  

Then again, you can call me a cynic, but Yoko is one of the four people in the world with veto power over what goes into this film.  So maybe Peter doesn't put so much annoying Yoko in?  Moreover, no one really wants to see the annoying Yoko show, so maybe Peter just put enough in to give us the flavor and then we're back to the main act? A little of both?

Edited November 30, 2021 by Chad Fuck

[noharleyyet 2838]

Mr. Starkey loved cigarettes...cool sob and still is. 

[UTCzech III 2907]

Another bit of wizardry I wished they had shown...  This is the very beginning of the first day, I don't think Paul is there yet, basically warming up, throwing shit against the wall, John had already had a few passes through "Don't Bring Me Down"...  George starts playing "I Shall Be Released" by the Band, John joins in, after a couple of minutes it morphs into a guitar riff you will definitely recognize, which merges back into "Don't Let Me Down".  Just out of thin air...

 

[atomheartbevo 89618]

4 hours ago, kevwun said:

But even while she was screeching, Paul was going along with it and playing.  I don't think any of them hated her.

Watching that whole thing in context makes me think they were just getting a lot of shit out of their systems.

[atomheartbevo 89618]

37 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

Then again, you can call me a cynic, but Yoko is one of the four people in the world with veto power over what goes into this film.  So maybe Peter doesn't put so much annoying Yoko in?  Moreover, no one really wants to see the annoying Yoko show, so maybe Peter just put enough in to give us the flavor and then we're back to the main act? A little of both?

I don't know how much veto power she actually has, and Olivia Harrison, Ringo and his wife, and Paul and his wife all hang out together these days.  And I don't think she would care anyways.

But the whole vibe to me is that George was chaffing at having so little input, and as mentioned up thread, at one point John was giving him shit about "we're a rock-and-roll band, what are you playing?" or whatever.

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

13 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

But the whole vibe to me is that George was chaffing at having so little input, and as mentioned up thread, at one point John was giving him shit about "we're a rock-and-roll band, what are you playing?" or whatever.

Yeah. George said "It's a Jazz riff" or something like that. To which John said "fucking Jazz. That's not jazz."

[Gil Bang 25907]

26 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I don't know how much veto power she actually has, and Olivia Harrison, Ringo and his wife, and Paul and his wife all hang out together these days.  And I don't think she would care anyways.

But the whole vibe to me is that George was chaffing at having so little input, and as mentioned up thread, at one point John was giving him shit about "we're a rock-and-roll band, what are you playing?" or whatever.

And Ringo and Paul often facetime, according to Ringo.

[UTCzech III 2907]

Couple of quick bits, first all 4 Beatles (or their proxies) have veto power, if one says no, it's a no go.  Now, Yoko is said to be in poor health (she's freaking 88 years old!  Will be 89 in February), last year she turned all business dealings over to Sean, who is certainly protective of both his parents but is also pretty open-minded.  There may have been a few clips that they asked to be removed, haven't heard of any, I certainly didn't see anything that showed her in a bad light (other than the singing, ugh).  George did NOT like here being there, going back to the White Album sessions, but he dealt with it.

Finally, one last bit about George leaving, it was kind of hard to hear on Part 1, haven't re-watched it yet with the captioning on, but is a trranscript of the fight that led to George leaving, just Paul pushing a little too far...

PAUL: It's not together, so that it's not sounding together.
GEORGE: So we keep on playing until we find the bit.
PAUL: Or we can stop and say it's not together.
GEORGE: Yes. Then you've got to carry on until you get it together. I mean, that's all I'm going to play until it's found the blending with the rest.
PAUL: Okay, well, you know, I never know what to say to that, because what I want to say is, “Now, come on” and play, you know. But I can't, you know, and we get into that one.
…
PAUL: See, if we can get it simpler and then complicate it where it needs complications. But it's complicated in the bit-
GEORGE: It's not complicated. I mean, all I'm playing is the chords.
PAUL: No, no, come on, you always gotta knock me when I say that. I'm trying to help you, but I always hear myself annoying you.
GEORGE: No, you're not annoying me.
PAUL: It gets so that I can't say...
GEORGE: You don't annoy me anymore.
PAUL: You know what I mean. But doesn't everyone agree that it's confused at the moment? So all I'm trying to say is let's get the confusion unconfused, then confuse it. But that's what we've been doing all afternoon. This is why we're not getting anything done. We're just rolling on with it, and we've only got twelve more days. So we've really got to do this methodically.
…
PAUL: I really am trying to just say, “Look, lads, the band, you know. Should we try it like this?” You know.
GEORGE: It's funny, though, how it only occurs when we record the, um-
PAUL: I know, on this one, it's like should we play guitar all the way through “Hey Jude”, and I don't think we should.
GEORGE: Okay, well, I don't mind. I'll play whatever you want me to play. Or I won't play at all if you don't want me to play. Whatever it is that will please you, I'll do it.

[atomheartbevo 89618]

2 hours ago, UTCzech III said:

GEORGE: Okay, well, I don't mind. I'll play whatever you want me to play. Or I won't play at all if you don't want me to play. Whatever it is that will please you, I'll do it.

[Chad Fuck 17658]

Couple of quick bits, first all 4 Beatles (or their proxies) have veto power, if one says no, it's a no go.  Now, Yoko is said to be in poor health (she's freaking 88 years old!  Will be 89 in February), last year she turned all business dealings over to Sean, who is certainly protective of both his parents but is also pretty open-minded.  There may have been a few clips that they asked to be removed, haven't heard of any, I certainly didn't see anything that showed her in a bad light (other than the singing, ugh).  George did NOT like here being there, going back to the White Album sessions, but he dealt with it.
Finally, one last bit about George leaving, it was kind of hard to hear on Part 1, haven't re-watched it yet with the captioning on, but is a trranscript of the fight that led to George leaving, just Paul pushing a little too far...
PAUL: It's not together, so that it's not sounding together.
GEORGE: So we keep on playing until we find the bit.
PAUL: Or we can stop and say it's not together.
GEORGE: Yes. Then you've got to carry on until you get it together. I mean, that's all I'm going to play until it's found the blending with the rest.
PAUL: Okay, well, you know, I never know what to say to that, because what I want to say is, “Now, come on” and play, you know. But I can't, you know, and we get into that one.
…
PAUL: See, if we can get it simpler and then complicate it where it needs complications. But it's complicated in the bit-
GEORGE: It's not complicated. I mean, all I'm playing is the chords.
PAUL: No, no, come on, you always gotta knock me when I say that. I'm trying to help you, but I always hear myself annoying you.
GEORGE: No, you're not annoying me.
PAUL: It gets so that I can't say...
GEORGE: You don't annoy me anymore.
PAUL: You know what I mean. But doesn't everyone agree that it's confused at the moment? So all I'm trying to say is let's get the confusion unconfused, then confuse it. But that's what we've been doing all afternoon. This is why we're not getting anything done. We're just rolling on with it, and we've only got twelve more days. So we've really got to do this methodically.
…
PAUL: I really am trying to just say, “Look, lads, the band, you know. Should we try it like this?” You know.
GEORGE: It's funny, though, how it only occurs when we record the, um-
PAUL: I know, on this one, it's like should we play guitar all the way through “Hey Jude”, and I don't think we should.
GEORGE: Okay, well, I don't mind. I'll play whatever you want me to play. Or I won't play at all if you don't want me to play. Whatever it is that will please you, I'll do it.

Kind of like watching family at Thanksgiving.

[tigol 2395]

5 hours ago, Chad Fuck said:

Just goes to show, that even if you're the Beatles, the ladies give zero fucks about watching the practice.  They only give a shit about the finished product, and even then they'll probably spend half the show screaming into your ear about how awesome the show is right in the middle of your favorite song.  I've sampled a wide cohort of concert companions and I'm sure this is a universal truth.  It's right there in colorized moving pictures as you describe.  

Not true for me.

[atomheartbevo 89618]

No matter what you think about the documentary, it's a great time to go out on reddit, Facebook, social media in general, etc. and make your opinions known, about how John McCartney was the true driving force of the Beetles and the band broke up because they were all jealous of George Lennon's talent.