The Beatles "Get Back" Docu-Series

[redsmetz]

I'm surprised no one started a thread about Peter Jackson's "Get Back" on Disney Plus. What originally was going to be a single documentary movie, morphed to an expected six hours on three nights to be actually around eight hours on those three nights. I came over here to join the discussion. Alas, there was none. Now there is.

I have watched it twice now. Once with my wife and my oldest daughter (she for only two nights). Then I ran through it again on my lunch breaks for a couple of weeks.

I don't even know where to begin. I'm left with a wistfulness, on one hand, just thinking about how the break-up might have been avoided or the rift so deep and irreparable. Seeing them create the album then perform it live, albeit on a rooftop, showed the joy they came to in this endeavor. There's no way around the "what ifs."

OF COURSE THERE WILL BE SPOILERS

That said, here are several thoughts.

Road manager Mal Evans and Billy Preston dropping in on keyboards were just delightful. To watch Evans dutifully jotting down lyrics as they created them; his humor with everything. And everyone's known about the change in the groups tenor once Preston showed up. I always had the impression he showed up when George Harrison came back, but it was at least a day before he dropped in.

It never occurred to me that as folks heard the songs down on the street that these were entirely brand new songs that they didn't even know. The "man on the street" was right to ask people, "do you know who that is." Most knew it was The Beatles. The crowd was much larger than I even imagined. And there were some "old people" who appreciated the music being played and The Beatles themselves. I say "old people" with some trepidation. While I turned 15 at the end of 1969, I'm now likely older than a number of the "old people" interviewed.

If you haven't seen it, go watch the video of Paul McCartney creating "Get Back" out of thin air. Strumming his bass vigorously, with a snippet of the melody coming along within half a minute and the chorus created, more or less, within two minutes. Jaw dropping.

There were three #1 hits created on this album ("Let It Be" "Get Back" and "A Long & Winding Road" and another worked on in the sessions, George Harrison's "Something"). Also more than half of Abbey Road was created to some degree or another in the sessions.

If you want to hear an interesting podcast, Something About The Beatles with Robert Rodriguez did three episodes interviewing Jackson BEFORE the episodes aired. Jackson sought his podcast out. He cleverly introduces the first episode with "a listener in New Zealand" wanted to talk about the show. And you can tell that Jackson is a hardcore fan. The technology he & his crew created for restoring the film, but more so, the audio is phenomenal. It will be interesting to see what more can be done with both.

One little funny thing. Linda Eastman's daughter Heather makes some appearances (now Heather McCartney). At one point after hearing Yoko Ono doing her free-form screeching, she takes to the microphone when they're just noodling around and does her own screeching. John turns and calls out, "Yoko!" as if to warn her her place is being taken.

Another thing I caught in my second go through - George Martin doing a backing vocal on one take as they're working through a song, just as a suggestion.

That's it for now. I'd love to hear from other Beatles fans about your impressions.

[redsmetz]

This is a good read - "Five Lingering Questions About The Beatles 'Get Back'"

https://www.theringer.com/music/2021...tary-questions

- - - Updated - - -

Here's the Podcast I mentioned - I've been listening to this show for several years.

https://somethingaboutthebeatles.com/

[Chip R]

The first episode was tough to get through. It's not terribly exciting watching a band go through rehearsal after rehearsal. In this episode it looked like John was somewhat checked out whereas I thought he and Paul were carrying pretty much an equal amount of water for the group. I don't know if that was because of the drugs or the presence of Yoko or both. I think there was absolutely some resentment towards Paul as he was the take charge guy with the band since Epstein died. It's understandable since he was their peer and now he's the de facto boss. But, he was/is such a genius with the music. I'm going to have to re-watch the 2nd episode since I fell asleep watching it. The 3rd episode was a joy to watch and I immediately re-watched it. They looked like thy were having so much fun on that roof. They may have thought it was the beginning of the end but they were going to play their hearts out. I always thought the concert went on longer than it did. Watching the reaction from the people on the street was great. And it was interesting to see some of the older people into it. Maybe they felt they were giving England back some of it's mojo it lost after the war.

I thought it would have been better if they broke the series down in six episodes or more rather than the three long ones. I'm happy to see the lazy take of "Yoko broke up the Beatles" refuted here. I'm no fan of her music but she's got a bad rap for the last 50some years. Given the shelf life of bands, I think it's amazing they were together as long as they were. I don't think there was any one factor why they broke up. Maybe it was the old saying, "familiarity breeds contempt." Contempt may be too strong of a word but you kind of get sick of each other when you're together for as long as they were. Another reason was that these guys were still in their 20s and wanted to do their own thing rather than be part of that group.

[WildcatFan]

This has been noted in many other places, but I really did come away with an infinitely greater respect for Ringo's coolheaded steadiness and genuine love for the work that came through. I play in a couple bands where I would pejoratively consider myself the Ringo archetype — in awe of the talent around me while counting my lucky stars that I'm even part of it. But watching these sessions and how quickly songs were coming out and being arranged on the fly, and then to watch him somehow photographically remember every change while giving them a steady bed to play on, it was really amazing. He let those songs come to him and gave the other guys exactly what they needed. I'm interested in Chip's take that the first episode was boring — those moments stuck with me much more than the rooftop concert.

I have about a million other thoughts on the documentary, but suffice it to say it's the most astounding pop culture time capsule I can think of.

[BernieCarbo]

I was never a Beatles fan, although I'll watch this docu, but just wanted to say that I've been a Billy Preston fan for a long time and the guy is a true savant. I'm glad he's getting some recognition.

[WildcatFan]

I was never a Beatles fan, although I'll watch this docu, but just wanted to say that I've been a Billy Preston fan for a long time and the guy is a true savant. I'm glad he's getting some recognition.

He first came onto my radar when I was in high school and they did that Concert for George after Harrison died. He sang a couple songs, including “My Sweet Lord,” and I immediately wanted to know everything about him. I was just learning to play at the time, and his ability and joy were infectious.

[BernieCarbo]

He first came onto my radar when I was in high school and they did that Concert for George after Harrison died. He sang a couple songs, including “My Sweet Lord,” and I immediately wanted to know everything about him. I was just learning to play at the time, and his ability and joy were infectious.

Cool, you play music? So do I. I had a lot of other things going on out of my control, but it was my primary income for about 12 years.

[Chip R]

I'm interested in Chip's take that the first episode was boring — those moments stuck with me much more than the rooftop concert.

Boring probably isn't the right word but if this was just some random band other than the Beatles, would it be that compelling? Of course the band being the Beatles is fairly compelling in its own right given what we know about them. There's this guy I know back in Iowa. He's a musician. Led a band for over 30 years and still does gigs whenever he can. Big Beatles fan. Does a show on Iowa Public Radio and some shows are Beatle themed. This is what he posted on Facebook about the 1st episode: "Many of you know my feelings about rehearsals. I've now found something worse. Watching other bands rehearse. Even if it's The Beatles! Get Back, pt. 1. zzzzzzz."

Again, Boring isn't the right way to describe the 1st episode. I think it would have been more compelling if they cut it down into hour-hour and a quarter segments. I think that old saying about how no one wants to see how the sausage is made is apt here.

[gonelong]

I enjoyed a good 45 minutes of the 6 hours of content. Witnessing them take a few fragments to a full song was interesting. The rest, meh.

[Roy Tucker]

I’ve just watched the first episode but I thought it was endlessly fascinating. I can understand that it's a bit like watching paint dry, but I find the creative process to be very interesting. You have the initial flash of inspiration, the germ of an idea, and then the fleshing out and polishing is the discipline of the process. The Beatles' songs were always polished gems as a final product, but seeing and hearing them rough was a little jarring. Hearing some of the alternative versions of songs, I kept having the thought "no, that's not how it goes". I thought there was a lot of tension in the early sessions and Paul was defensive as hell. But John warmed up a bit and they had moments where you could tell how much they had collaborated and were familiar with each other. George was an interesting character. He deferred to Paul and John tremendously ("I'll play whatever you like") and had very little confidence in his material. I thought Paul and John encouraged him and I was stunned when George walked out. Like others have said, Ringo was the steady backbeat but you could tell he wasn't happy. It was also interesting to hear them play Beatle songs from Let It Be and Abbey Road albums, some of the Plastic Ono stuff, and All Things Must Pass. I remember the albums as sequential but the songs all came out of the same era and sessions. And I was stunned by the quality of the film and the sound and I can't believe this all sat on the shelf for 50 years. I think it's a priceless documentary and am grateful Jackson was able to pull this out.

[redsmetz]

I think the apt word might have been tedious. I don't question that at all. For a big Beatles fan, there were pieces to be gleaned from it. For example, it was apparent on Day 1, that there were misgivings about working at Twickenham.The studio was rented out for filming Magic Christian which would feature Ringo and it was available for a time period filming started at the end of the month - this was mentioned as their timetable for completion since Ringo was unavailable after that.

The thing is, they had filmed the Hey Jude and Revolution films at the same studio the previous September, but they built a stage and they brought in an audience. It was these performances that somewhat put the bug in them to perform again. They're great performances and you can see why. But Twickenham at the start what a huge, empty sound stage, not a drop of intimacy to be found.

Here's a bit on Hey Jude: https://www.the-paulmccartney-projec...lm/hey-jude-2/ - check out the one for Revolution on YouTube. It should be easy enough to find.

[WildcatFan]

Cool, you play music? So do I. I had a lot of other things going on out of my control, but it was my primary income for about 12 years.

I keep getting an itch to go full-time, but I’m not keen on uncertainty, so it’s probably going to remain my secondary source. Making it work for 12 years is quite the achievement. But working from home in my full-time job now gives me tons of flexibility to go on 3-4 day runs several times a year. Kind of the best of both worlds.

[BernieCarbo]

I keep getting an itch to go full-time, but I’m not keen on uncertainty, so it’s probably going to remain my secondary source. Making it work for 12 years is quite the achievement. But working from home in my full-time job now gives me tons of flexibility to go on 3-4 day runs several times a year. Kind of the best of both worlds.

That’s cool, and if you are ever up in Dayton or Cincinnati way, give us a shout out!

And don’t get me wrong, it was easier for me at the time because I didn’t have a family and I could literally go anywhere I wanted and when I wanted. I didn’t get rich (I always joked that I had to quit for health reasons because I was starving to death), but I made more than I would have working a full time job and I was frugal and socked away as much as I could. Of course, and you understand this, the tens of thousands of hours I spent practicing reduced my theoretical hourly income drastically.

But, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I was in Europe, and I played in 16 countries, including two in Africa and several in the Eastern Bloc. In fact, my son wants to be a musician now, and he is living in Budapest right now at the home of an old friend of mine, and is hanging out with everyone he can find to play with. it’s a perfect time to be practicing as much as he can and be ready for when things open up completely again.

I still try to pull out my guitar every day for an hour at least. I can’t even imagine a life without it. But what’s funny is that out of my six kids, only my youngest son ever showed even a smidgen of musical talent or interest. I’m glad to see him carry it on.