Watching Paul come up with “Get Back” out of literally thinking air while Ringo and George just yawn is a marvel to watch. This Beatles documentary is INSANE #TheBeatlesGetBack pic.twitter.com/09Nii0tHqr
— Darth Yavin (@DarthYavin) November 27, 2021
November 29, 2021
George yawns as Paul invents "Get Back" out of thin air.
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I love that this is a "Lennon & McCartney" song, but Lennon is the only one not present.
While I suppose it isn't bad for the first rough draft if you haven't heard the finished product it would be awful and boring for those present.
Absolutely loved this documentary. Two big takeaways— how not slick they were, and what a symbiotic partnership was Lennon-McCartney. They communicated telepathically while picking out songs…you really got the impression George and Ringo were hired help.
The rooftop concert blew my mind. Watching the crew haul up all this equipment, the mess of cords, the primitive, dangerous looking rooftop, it was like a garage band set up. I’m going to watch again. There’s never been the likes of the lads again.
We watched Part 1 last night and thought it was fantastic.
To be fair to George and Ringo; the banality of day to day living with a decade's worth of John and Paul's genius. Another day in the Salt Mines!
Goosebumps.
I like Sir Paul’s shiny-new Fender Bassman 100 amplifier.
wow. so cool. the creative process in action. Just amazing.
I'm wondering what they're supposed to be doing? Adding their two cents and derailing the creative process? I suspect they're aware of how McCartney worked.
It's really not that great of a song when you hear him sing it here.
It shows you what geniuses George Martin and Phil Spector were (and all great producers) to make it sound good on vinyl...
Well, I’m a big Beatles guy who at one time could tell you the key more than half their songs were written in (since I’d play then). And I kind of dreaded this documentary. I always hated the Beatles’ humor, the yucking it up stuff. Well, I watched part one and was surprised how captivating it was but …
1. They were too conscious of the cameras. Heisenberg’s Principle was in effect, as always. It affected their chat and I could feel that strongly.
2. John and Paul were too enthralled with each other. It bugged be bigly.
3. Yoko was the spider I had always heard she was. What a piece of work she was. What a fake artist.
4. George was extremely uncomfortable in that group. It was palpable.
5. Ringo was extremely a Nobody Man in the group.
Best part so far was Paul birthing “Get Back.”
If you were a young teen when this song came out, then watching it being created really gives you goose bumps. I remember when it was released and we little teeny-boppers just loved it!
I watched the whole thing. I can see how it would be too much for some people, but I'll hang out with the Beatles playing music any time. Of course, you want to shout things like, "Listen to Glyn Johns! Allen Klien is a crook." "Listen to George playing 'All Things Must Pass,' it's as good as anything on this album."
Every band, heck, every organization needs more Ringos. Showed up on time (if occasionally massively hung over). Was polite, friendly, encouraging to everyone. Offered his suggestions and took the suggestions from others. Told jokes. Laughed at jokes. Waited patiently when songwriters were working on a line a dozen times. Played great drums.
Ringo not having a tag figures.
It’s early. Not sure what their evenings are like but some dialog before hand discussed that Lennon would be in around 10 or 11 and I got the impression that is was much earlier than that. Very little crew was there yet so given what I would normally think of a creative jam session by a band of their stature, starting at 8 or 9 in the morning while slamming back coffee (or tea?) is not part of that vision.
This was pretty amazing to watch.
Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman but she was another man
The Beatles, prescient as always.
There is another scene where McCartney is creating "Let It Be", by himself at the piano. That first, incredible, chord progression is being developed, over several minutes. Everyone else is scattered around the room talking about various things, not paying attention. Some of those things were somewhat important, but, I can't believe no one noticed. Maybe, as someone stated, they were just used to his genius.
---It's really not that great of a song when you hear him sing it here.
None of these late songs are any good. I used to think it was Yoko; at some point, probably from a nasty John suggestion, I thought it was Linda Eastman. But the single clearest reason why the band was dissolving was that these songs stunk. They were working with a fraction of the genius or love they had once had. Maybe the rest, the best, got burned out at the Maharishi's or the Taxman's or somewhere else. I could only last a half-hour with the documentary; thought it was some of the most tedious and painful stuff I'd ever seen. Especially after the opening pastiche when there was still magic.
I don't like George. I've gotten really tired of his music over the years — the appropriation of Indian culture, his whininess, his resentment of Paul, the way he treated Patti (and I've read her autobiography and Eric Clapton's).
Ann Althouse said... I don't like George.
For all his supposed spirituality, he was a cad toward women.
Yes and he's not only pulling it out of thin air, he's pulling it out of thin air using a bass guitar.
'...the appropriation of Indian culture..'
They appropriate ours. Is that a problem too?
Lennon was the true genius of the group but McCartney was musically more gifted. They all seemed in awe of and somewhat intimidated by Lennon, something he didn’t mind in the least. But I was struck by how much he needed Paul’s approval. Very surprising to me and yes, I’m reading minds here but I’m good at reading the obvious.
Lennon and McCartney were truly a gift to us.
It's fun to hear the lyrics come together. Not a real cerebral exercise. Just syllables that fit the beat.
George liked the minor scales as well.......another mark against him!!
I agree with Caroline and Ms Althouse. Watched 1st episode last night. George and Ringo are like a couple of stragglers who accidentally walked on the set. Ringo was at least likeable (to those around him), but George comes off as a whiny jealous little kid, who had no confidence in his own musicianship or place in the band. I'm a little surprised that Olivia Harrison supported this movie, but maybe he rectifies his image in the subsequent episodes that I haven't yet seen.
Overall, fascinating look at "gods" as very nmortal.
I think Peter Jackson is genius for picking the low hanging fruit.
I never would have guessed the sessions were captured on film. It was expensive to film, and to archive. I wonder if this was ordered by George Martin.
George's All Things Must Pass ties with John's first and Paul's Band on the Run as records that come close to the standard the Beatles set. John's Imagine is maybe 3/4 good, and Paul's Ram is a lot stronger than I thought at the time. George did Living in the Material World, but then released a series of well polished but not especially inspired LPs. Paul has had a lot of time to make some good records. Tug of War, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard and one or two others hold up well. But for every good record, he cranks out four that are merely professional and OK. It was the five of them, George Martin included, that created great records. Even Martin never matched what he did with the Beatles on any other record he produced.
Paul is a creative super-genius.
Get back Loretta.
I never would have guessed the sessions were captured on film
Me, too. Where have they been? What else is there we haven’t seen?
George is an undisputed prick but I have a hard time with John for his taste in women. Ringo’s No No song is on my current playlist and has aged well. Car trips are a fun sing a long at the moment…
The really interesting reaction is that almost as soon as the song begins to gel, Ringo claps out a rhythm line and George starts working on a solo.
So as bored as they might have been, they responded really quickly once Paul had found the idea he was looking for.
A fine, but not great song - yet fantastic to see it being created. Hear it. Many songs start out with the music and syllable sounds for notes, with added.
I'm wondering how much of the lyrical poetry was thought up before the musical inspiration, and how much came after the music.
I had read before that the two geniuses, John & Paul, often had had to split up, with George getting them back together. But the last time they split he didn't do much.
Funny that the "Beatles" song most played in Slovakia is probably George's "Got my mind set on you". (It's gonna take money, a whole lot of spending money). Not my favorite, but the one most heard. Most boomer Slovaks also like Yellow Submarine. But not me.
Jeez, it's really amazing to me to see all these Armchair Music Critics judging the 20th Century's most popular band---many of whose songs endure today and perhaps will for many years to come---not by their music, but by disappointing to them as human beings.
AS IF entertainers had to be cut from some perfect cloth in order to be given respect for their art!
p.s. Anyone who thinks Ringo was just another off-the-shelf drummer should listen to what other drummers say about him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CB8xToC-CU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJTjjAXDZSY
Oh, and there's no-talent George:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJTjjAXDZSY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ0vCs-E5Bw
Not to mention "Something", "Here Comes the Sun", "My Guitar Gently Weeps"...
To all you no-talent Nowhere Men, I say "Get back! Get back to where you once belonged."
An average band that achieved greatness in the overrated category.
Paul's genius and their brotherly tolerance of John's excess and apathy is amazing. The creation bit that stands out for me is that George didn't confront Paul as he creates "Get Back" for having copped it from his own song, that the three of them played on for Jackie Lomax, just a few months before. It's got the same galloping rhythm, and the refrain contains the words: "Get out of Sour Milk Sea
You don't belong there
Get back to where you should be
Find out what's going on there"
George is bracingly honest throughout. It's interesting he didn't catch this.
If you are gonna make up a song on the spot, a shuffle like in Get Back is a good way to start, but that's not to say that Paul wasn't a creative genius, because at that time in his life, he was.
My favorite moment of creation scene was when my still-favorite Beatle, Ringo pitched "Octopus's Garden," there it was, the whole song in maybe four bars, the rest of the song just falls out and is a matter of choices, and one thing the Beatles were legendary at was making good choices.
"I'd like to be, under the sea, in an octopus's garden, in the shade."
What would you do there?
I'd invite my friends...
What would it be like?
It would be safe and warm, beneath the storm.
"No one there to tell us what to do.... Paul."
I always thought that it was the best Beatles break-up song. Way better than "Too Many People" or "How Do You Sleep." Ringo said it was about the tensions at the time the documentary was filmed.
What the documentary changed in my view of the Beatles was that I got more respect for John Lennon. He did a lot of mugging for the cameral, but when it was time to get serious, there he was, the great singer, the great musician. So the presence of the camera, as has been noted above, sort of distorted the view of him. I also got more respect for Paul, if that was possible. He was put in a difficult position.
Yoko was worse than I thought. I had been cutting her slack, but OMG. That reaction shot of Paul's daughter to her 'singing' was priceless.
Once again regarding Ringo, I know that he is highly respected by serious rock drummers, but Paul was really micromanaging his drumming, and a lot of the creativity ascribed to Ringo, it would seem to me, rightly goes to Paul, but Ringo was an excellent drummer. Not to mention, that the good-looking drummer he replaced was pretty lax about showing up for sessions, which is why he lost the job.
How they made such amazing music with their rudimentary knowledge of music theory is another takeaway from the documentary. I had always kind of thought that the endless analysis of technique and form, that takes place in art education for all art forms, is just a way to attempt to teach the ability to ape genius. This confirms it, to me, anyway.
Supposedly Paul's dad was a musician and tried to teach him stuff that was supposed to sound good, or why Paul's stuff was 'wrong," and Paul would just say "I like what I am doing."
"An average band that achieved greatness in the overrated category."
We you familiar with what popular music sounded like before they came along?
Effinayright is correct that Ringo is a great rock drummer, underrated except by other drummers and attentive listeners. George was a good guitar player, but really came into his own and became a master towards the end of the Beatles, when he seemed to lighten up and let his ideas on guitar flow more easily. Clapton's influence?
George liked the minor scales as well.......another mark against him!!
Worst criticism of George I've ever seen.
One of Paul's lines to Ringo regarding his drumming: "If you are not going to do it right, just don't do it at all."
This: "I’m a big Beatles guy"
Does not go with this: "I always hated the Beatles’ humor".
Get Back
Get Back
Get Back to Mr Chuck Berry
Said with great L for B's.
Meh. The Beatles are highly overrated. This simply shows that. The only thing that they really can say is that they invented he "Boy Band" genre. It never ceases to amaze me that Boomers idolize them so.
Hopefully someday soon we can be free of the Beatles and their banality.
Get Back was not a great song.
'Get Back was not a great song.'
Mostly agree...see my comment on 11/29/21 at 4:08 PM.
There are so many no-talent hacks singing nowadays that are hugely successful thanks to great producers, PR teams, and physical beauty.
If someone is ugly and successful, you know they're talented : )
I am not sure I could take Clapton's side in the whole project to steal George's wife away.
He made that album Blind Faith as an effort to win her away from George.
Everybody knows the secret;
Everybody knows the score..."
Come on.
When he finally did get her, he dumped her the first time she criticized his drinking, and Clapton was an alcoholic. The whole story behind Layla was pitiful; the name came from a book about a guy who chose to die because he didn't get the girl [Layla] that he was fixated on, you know, like Clapton was fixated on George's wife.
Nah. Clapton should have left George and his beautiful wife alone instead of constantly trying to tempt her away.
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