Beatles Get Back documentary by Peter Jackson now NOT in theaters

[goose]

After watching the first episode it's perfectly clear why they broke up. And it's not Yoko...

 

it never WAS yoko. that is just the accepted line.

 

Mick

 

I'm about halfway through the second episode. I think saying "it was Yoko's fault," is more an oversimplification. But what is clear is that John was more interested in his relationship with her than the Beatles. He was more interested in his drug habit too, which didn't help matters. It's also clear that George had had enough of everyone on the planet recognizing his greatness except John and Paul.

 

My wife sat down in the room while I was watching Days 1-7. She sat for about 5 minutes and said, "People find this interesting?" and got up and left the room. So much for thinking you don't have to be a Beatle person to enjoy it. :lol:

My wife enjoyed it, which was nice.

[goose]

I find Yoko insufferable as an artist.

[Rick N. Backer]

I find Yoko insufferable as an artist.

 

Ever seen the video of John performing with Chuck Berry? Chuck's facial expressions when Yoko did her "vocalizations," are awesome.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F5hv8hgLCE

[Rick N. Backer]

I'm up to the start of the rooftop concert now.

 

Great moment in episode 2 or 3 when George tells John he has enough songs to fill his "quota" for the next 10 albums and is thinking about putting out a solo album to get the songs out of his system. I smiled when he said he could give them away but he decided to take care of himself. He's about a year and a half away from putting out a better album than John or Paul ever put out solo.

[driventotheedge]

I'm up to the start of the rooftop concert now.

 

Great moment in episode 2 or 3 when George tells John he has enough songs to fill his "quota" for the next 10 albums and is thinking about putting out a solo album to get the songs out of his system. I smiled when he said he could give them away but he decided to take care of himself. He's about a year and a half away from putting out a better album than John or Paul ever put out solo.

Band On The Run might disagree with you. To me it's very close.

[Rick N. Backer]

I'm up to the start of the rooftop concert now.

 

Great moment in episode 2 or 3 when George tells John he has enough songs to fill his "quota" for the next 10 albums and is thinking about putting out a solo album to get the songs out of his system. I smiled when he said he could give them away but he decided to take care of himself. He's about a year and a half away from putting out a better album than John or Paul ever put out solo.

Band On The Run might disagree with you. To me it's very close.

 

IMO, Band on the Run isn't even Paul's best solo album.

[custom55]

I find Yoko insufferable as an artist.

 

I wonder how long it took Yoko to write this?

 

http://youtu.be/HdZ9weP5i68

Edited December 2, 2021 by custom55

[bluefox4000]

I'm up to the start of the rooftop concert now.

 

Great moment in episode 2 or 3 when George tells John he has enough songs to fill his "quota" for the next 10 albums and is thinking about putting out a solo album to get the songs out of his system. I smiled when he said he could give them away but he decided to take care of himself. He's about a year and a half away from putting out a better album than John or Paul ever put out solo.

Band On The Run might disagree with you. To me it's very close.

 

IMO, Band on the Run isn't even Paul's best solo album.

 

Band on the run is super Patchy for me.

 

some of paul albums i prefer over it are

 

Ram

Venus and Mars

Tug of War

Flowers in the Dirt

Flaming Pie

 

i have more but those are some, lol

 

Mick

[Entre_Perpetuo]

The doc is amazing. really anyone not straming cause it's Disney.... Fukk off and just watch it, lol.

 

Mick

 

I got over my Disney + aversion when I realized I could watch all of Star Wars The Clone Wars on there.

[goose]

I'm up to the start of the rooftop concert now.

 

Great moment in episode 2 or 3 when George tells John he has enough songs to fill his "quota" for the next 10 albums and is thinking about putting out a solo album to get the songs out of his system. I smiled when he said he could give them away but he decided to take care of himself. He's about a year and a half away from putting out a better album than John or Paul ever put out solo.

Band On The Run might disagree with you. To me it's very close.

 

IMO, Band on the Run isn't even Paul's best solo album.

Studio, it's Venus and Mars for me. Over America is miles above that, though.

[stoopid]

Not a fan of any of their solo albums, a few great songs from all of them though. Yoko, snake, and that delicious tempting apple is why they broke up dontcha know.

 

Yoko is trash, she's never created anything resembling art. That's also why she's not a seen or unseen driving force in the band. She got scapegoated, but TBH her insistence on participating in cringe-worthy public performances with Dunning Kruger in full effect gave everyone the ammunition they needed. When something you love vanishes and there's someone with a set of bloody vocal chords nearby, it's super easy to assume it's them.

[goose]

I find Yoko insufferable as an artist.

 

Ever seen the video of John performing with Chuck Berry? Chuck's facial expressions when Yoko did her "vocalizations," are awesome.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F5hv8hgLCE

Yoko is an absurdity. And I don't think her influence on John was a positive one. It reminds of situations where male friends have struck up relationships with extremely controlling women, and the men's personalities and behavior in social situations changed completely. The group dynamic was different as a result. Edited December 3, 2021 by goose

[ytserush]

About 5 minutes in and I'm giddy. Their early career and rise to stardom is electric.

 

It was totally amazing. I'm in for the director's cut DVD. Just an awesome experience after 50 plus years.

[ytserush]

Without Paul's efforts the band would have disintegrated after Brian Epstein died. Macca was the driving force behind Magical Mystery Tour, the White Album, Get Back, Abbey Road. He did a great job steering the ship for two more very productive years.

John said the Beatles end was "a slow death" but Paul ensured it wasn't an abrupt one.

 

Totally amazing to see it happen before your eyes (even if it was less than a month of context.)

[Timbale]

My god, Get Back was just an astounding thing. Even after watching 8 hours of it...I still kinda can't believe it exists. I have so many thoughts and feelings about it...and in particular how it has re-framed the way that so many of us thought about that time in the band's history.

 

One incredibly small moment. Having read so many articles about the Beatles over the years, there was always a similar device when giving an overview of a time period, which is to sort of take one quote and extrapolate meaning from it.

 

I don't know if it was a Mojo or Q or some such magazine article, but I remember it discussing the Get Back sessions, and quoting John saying, during the recording of Let It Be, "what are we supposed to do during the solo - giggle?" I remember reading it so clearly, because it did seem to crystallize the vibe we were told existed - and it seemed like just the snarky, dismissive sort of thing that John would say about a song like Let It Be.

 

And sure enough, right near the end, after the concert on the roof when they're back in the studio the next day, you actually get to see John say it! Except he really says "are we supposed to giggle during the solo" to which Paul immediately says "yeah". It's a totally different moment than the writer made it seem like...it's not really snide at all, just a funny thing to say right before a take - and it fit in so well with the constant joking and playful nature of the jabs they traded all day in the studio with each other. Getting to see the context of everything in such a clearer way really makes you rethink so much of what has been talked about and written about regarding that era - including much of what the members said about it in interviews afterward. What a thing to get to see.

[Rhyta]

The doc is amazing. really anyone not straming cause it's Disney.... Fukk off and just watch it, lol.

 

Mick

 

I got over my Disney + aversion when I realized I could watch all of Star Wars The Clone Wars on there.

I am almost through Rebels, it has been fun watch all the Clone Wars stuff. Now I can watch the Mandalorian too :coy:

[cygnify]

I loved watching this (thankfully, my son has a D+ ID/PW from a friend of a friend of a friend... lol) My wife really enjoyed it too - though she pointed out to me that it is probably more for diehard fans & musicians (fortunately, I am both!) Sure, it is long and lots of goofing and noodling, but it is an honest depiction of the creative process. I think it is important that PJ left all that meandering in there; it was the reality of those sessions. The amount of creative juice that was still pouring out of these guys was amazing (as dysfunctional as they were at the end...) There is a scene in the first episode where the management/label is discussing/pushing/arguing with John, Ringo, etc about the potential show in Libya and set design and Paul is off in the background on the piano - some chords start to fit together, some basic words are sung... I'm sure he had some of it already floating around his head, but it was like watching child birth... of "Let it Be" (!!) It is also remarkable the seismic shifts in energy that happen across the 3 episodes. Paul certainly was holding everything together in E1. Clearly George was not into it - and John wasn't either (I think on an acid binge for at least one of those nights... his discussion with Peter Sellers was like way out there! Lol!) However, when they moved back to Apple, John seemed to come back to life - once again creative and into it. It was night and day transformation. Especially when Billy Preston came in - he just added life to everyone in the room. Paul also ceded some of his control. Even George shared some ideas (love the "preview" of "Something".) The focus of E3 was the rooftop and really a shared experience. If I have this correct, they did more of John's songs up there (no piano for Paul's songs.) But E3 they felt like a real band again. All in all, I really enjoyed it and it has led me to a couple weeks of Beatle binging. Much respect.

 

Also, gotta mention, I checked out the alternate version of that final album "Let it Be" - what they call "Let it Be - NAKED". Stunning. I was blown away - it is like discovering a new Beatles album. IMHO, so much better than the Phil Spector over-production. Let It Be Naked is stripped down to the basic organic (and live) tracks = exactly what they had originally intended the "Get Back" sessions to be - a Live recording with no/minimal studio fuckery. Paul initiated this project. The sound is flawless; and I much prefer the energy and vibe of all of the tracks (and it includes "Don't Let me Down" which should have been on the original! Also, "Across the Universe" at normal speed/pitch is the best recording of this song, IMO.) Check it out!

Edited December 7, 2021 by cygnify

[Timbale]

I loved watching this (thankfully, my son has a D+ ID/PW from a friend of a friend of a friend... lol) My wife really enjoyed it too - though she pointed out to me that it is probably more for diehard fans & musicians (fortunately, I am both!) Sure, it is long and lots of goofing and noodling, but it is an honest depiction of the creative process. I think it is important that PJ left all that meandering in there; it was the reality of those sessions. The amount of creative juice that was still pouring out of these guys was amazing (as dysfunctional as they were at the end...) There is a scene in the first episode where the management/label is discussing/pushing/arguing with John, Ringo, etc about the potential show in Libya and set design and Paul is off in the background on the piano - some chords start to fit together, some basic words are sung... I'm sure he had some of it already floating around his head, but it was like watching child birth... of "Let it Be" (!!) It is also remarkable the seismic shifts in energy that happen across the 3 episodes. Paul certainly was holding everything together in E1. Clearly George was not into it - and John wasn't either (I think on an acid binge for at least one of those nights... his discussion with Peter Sellers was like way out there! Lol!) However, when they moved back to Apple, John seemed to come back to life - once again creative and into it. It was night and day transformation. Especially when Billy Preston came in - he just added life to everyone in the room. Paul also ceded some of his control. Even George shared some ideas (love the "preview" of "Something".) The focus of E3 was the rooftop and really a shared experience. If I have this correct, they did more of John's songs up there (no piano for Paul's songs.) But E3 they felt like a real band again. All in all, I really enjoyed it and it has led me to a couple weeks of Beatle binging. Much respect.

 

Also, gotta mention, I checked out the alternate version of that final album "Let it Be" - what they call "Let it Be - NAKED". Stunning. I was blown away - it is like discovering a new Beatles album. IMHO, so much better than the Phil Spector over-production. Let It Be Naked is stripped down to the basic organic (and live) tracks = exactly what they had originally intended the "Get Back" sessions to be - a Live recording with no/minimal studio fuckery. Paul initiated this project. The sound is flawless; and I much prefer the energy and vibe of all of the tracks (and it includes "Don't Let me Down" which should have been on the original! Also, "Across the Universe" at normal speed/pitch is the best recording of this song, IMO.) Check it out!

 

I agree with everything you said about the doc - it is, on one level, almost not important what band it is - it's really a study of how a band creates an album's worth of material. It's about the creative process, as you said - and clearly, for them, playing a bunch of stupid, goofy versions of, say, Two Of Us, is as much a part of that work as saying "all right, boys, let's get down to it". Most music docs can't/don't go into this level of detail of the process, so on that level it is a great study of making music. I'm not saying that someone who doesn't like The Beatles would sit through 8 hours of this...but in this shitty, reality tv nightmare we all live in, it was nice to see how an ACTUAL band ACTUALLY makes ACTUAL music together.

 

Of course, on the other level it is a dream for superfans. There is SO MUCH stuff in there that I'm sure the original director wouldn't have thought for a moment to put into the Let It Be film, because it seemed tangental...and I'm sure, in 1970, not interesting or relevant. A moment like that that I really wasn't expecting was Paul coming into the studio and talking about how he'd watched some of the footage from their trip to India! That was so fascinating to me. So many of the events in the band's history have taken on almost mythical stature (that trip included), and now what we get is opinion filtered through long years and I think a bit of myth making on the part of the band members themselves. And then all of a sudden, here's the band having a chat about that trip...like, less than a year later! I honestly couldn't believe I was watching that. It was one of many non-musical treats in the film for me.

 

Like you, it has caused me to dive back into their catalogue. I never go that long without listening to The Beatles, but Let It Be is actually a bit low on my list of their albums. But I have re-engaged with it, and of course, there is a lot to love. I remember when "Naked" came out, and I bought it immediately. I read lots of reviews at the time, and I remember a criticism of it being that it really isn't Let It Be in a "de-Spectored" version - Paul could have done that, but instead decided to choose alternate takes of things so that what we have is a different version of the record, NOT a stripped down version of the same album. Like, if the version of the song "Let It Be" on the final album is absolute perfection as a performance to you, you are NOT getting that performance in "naked" form. I can remember feeling kinda bummed about that...but seeing Get Back, and seeing the process of making the album, it now totally makes sense to me that Paul went about "Naked" that way. I spun it up the other night, and it is so good...it almost makes Long And Winding Road bearable. Almost... :eyeroll:

[invisible airwave]

10 years ago but worth repeating, don't say his name.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4H0DbfGRJo

[cygnify]

Another thought I had after watching this and reading various opinions and history - obviously, the band were in a state of dysfunction for multiple reasons and everyone knows that the break-up was imminent. But that is also very hard to reconcile with the fact that they wrote, recorded, and released "Abbey Road" (among their most definitive works) in the months that followed the "Get Back" studio sessions. While various aspects of Abbey Road were individual efforts, they were still collaborating - and at a very high level. (Even if John was just tolerating Paul's "Granny music", and Paul dismissing John's "Acid trip set to music" lol) I think most people that did not live through that era or that searched out the timeline after seeing "Get Back" might miss that the taping preceded the whole "Abbey Road" chapter. For example, my wife's impression was that "Get Back" was the story of The Beatles 'last album' - technically correct, and it was presented as such in the advertising, but they hadn't even written (at least partially as some AR racks are shown in the film in rough form), recorded, or released freakin' Abbey Road yet!!

[Lurkst]

Abbey Road happened thanks to Paul and George Martin. And I'm eternally grateful as it's a work of genius!

 

I don't think John was a fan, he actually said they should have released it as a single with Something and Come Together on each side instead.

 

[ytserush]

Another thought I had after watching this and reading various opinions and history - obviously, the band were in a state of dysfunction for multiple reasons and everyone knows that the break-up was imminent. But that is also very hard to reconcile with the fact that they wrote, recorded, and released "Abbey Road" (among their most definitive works) in the months that followed the "Get Back" studio sessions. While various aspects of Abbey Road were individual efforts, they were still collaborating - and at a very high level. (Even if John was just tolerating Paul's "Granny music", and Paul dismissing John's "Acid trip set to music" lol) I think most people that did not live through that era or that searched out the timeline after seeing "Get Back" might miss that the taping preceded the whole "Abbey Road" chapter. For example, my wife's impression was that "Get Back" was the story of The Beatles 'last album' - technically correct, and it was presented as such in the advertising, but they hadn't even written (at least partially as some AR racks are shown in the film in rough form), recorded, or released freakin' Abbey Road yet!!

 

Seemed to me that those sessions relieved some of the pressure, at least temporarily. Seemed like there were a lot of people offering advice at what they should be doing. That couldn't have helped.

[Entre_Perpetuo]

I finally put on the first part.

 

Wow. There are some scenes, particularly when someone is happening upon the beginnings of a great song, or showing someone a new song for the first time, and no one else around seems to realize exactly what they're witnessing, or they seem totally unfazed somehow... you can't write this stuff. It's powerful footage almost solely because it's real. George and Ringo really were sitting on the drum riser tired and bored while Paul haphazardly put together Get Back. And then there are the scenes where they're just having fun, enjoying the moment, and somehow still showing signs of the wear and tear and looming breakup. John and Yoko waltzing while the other three play I Me Mine for the first time... knowing they used to have a rule about spouses in the studio... knowing full well George must have been thinking about tensions in the band when he wrote it... again. You can't write this stuff.

[Derek19]

When I watched "the Beatles: Get Back" documentary movie, and concert movie, I thought it was great. I enjoyed it a lot, and recommend.

[Syrinx]

I absolutely loved it!