The Beatles Thread

A set list taped to John’s guitar is priceless. Literally and figuratively. The lads are totally without pretentiousness among themselves and crew. It’s edited but it is totally undirected and unscripted. It’s a true reality documentary.

 

Yeah, I thought about that too. If that guitar still has that set list on it, there's no telling what it would sell for. Millions. That's as iconic as any rock relic I can think of short of Hendrix's Woodstock Stratocaster.

 

I'd certainly think there are enough fragmentary and partially-finished song scraps from "Get Back" alone that if the collective "shareholders" (Paul, Ringo, Sean and Dhani) were so inclined, they could punch it into some kind of album-like package.

There's certainly plenty of precedent: Dhani and Sean have spent most of the last 20 years rehashing and remixing their dads' old stuff, as well as the Anthology songs.

It wouldn't be "The Beatles" -- just call it "The Apple Project" or something. With jet airplanes and the internet and everything, it's not very hard to pull people together to do a song.

On last year's "John at 80" interview tapes, Sean and Julian discussed their dad's songs at quite some length and detail; it would be fun to hear them team up to knock a few off.

If I were them -- Paul and Ringo, mainly -- I'd just go ahead and do it, without making any advance announcement or anything: just spend a month or two hashing around with it, then dump a single on the internet.

 

At about 1:52:30 on part 2 John sings an an ad libed line, “ Imagine I’m in love with you. It’s easy if”

Appears to be the genesis of “Imagine”

 

it's a snippet of "I'll Get You," an early song from 1963 (the B-side of "She Loves You"), and obviously John liked the "imagine this and that, it's easy if you yadda yadda" phrasing.

That seemed to be a real key to (all of their) songwriting: take a catchy phrase or keyword, fit it into a musical hook, then fill in all the verses later as you go along.

 

At work we did a "favorite decade" day so I played music from the 20s, 30s, 40s etc and when I got to the 60s it was the top song by month and whether it was accurate or not - in the late winter early spring of '63 they had the top song for three or four straight months - all different songs, which is odd because today some songs top the charts for months, but these were their first three or four - I wanna hold your hand,, I Saw Her Standing there, She Loves You,

I honestly didn't realize the Beatles released FOUR albums in the US in the first s FOUR months of 1964. That's insane. All are Platinum.

The Beatles were before my time, I didn't feel I could "discover" them on my own - the were GREAT as long as knew them, and they were done by the time I learned about music. But dang they were phenomenal and jammed a hellava career into about 10 years.

 

April 4, 1964. The Beatles songs were one through five on the Top Ten.

https://bestclassicbands.com/beatles-billboard-april-1964-4-4-18/

Remember though that the first Beatles albums in the U.S. were repackaged U.K. albums. A lot of the cuts, probably half or better, were already out in England in '63.

In their early recording years they were on an absolute treadmill. They'd go into the studio and cut three to five songs a day (!), grind out an album, release a single or two, tour, come back to the studio, do a BBC set, rinse repeat. Pop groups did not last for long so there was a lot of push to get the product out there and cash in quickly while they were hot. What they did was unprecedented, with the possible exception of Elvis, except that he had to break for the Army. They skyrocketed to the top and stayed there until the wheels came off.

The push for new product never really stopped. The White Album had only been out a couple of months when the Get Back sessions started.

 

Came here to say Drake has more top 10 hits than the Beatles.

bwah hahahahaha oh my god

 

Haven't quite finished Pt. 3, concert is about to wrap up.

Have to say though that its been an amazing ride to watch 4 great stars in their element. I've got a new appreciation for the greatness of McCartney and Lennon, seeing them strum and find new tunes. Ringo was his own guy and a "glue" guy to me.

My most fascinating realization was the greatness of Harrison and how patient he was while on the cusp of letting is greatness out. He chafed a bit and then walked out but he wasn't selfish or self-centered. He kept it together for a long time. Seeing him start "Something" on film then his monster hits that followed, just wow.

 

There's a very good TV interview of Ringo by Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) on YouTube. Just a humble, cool cat who has been happy for years being an ex-Beatle. I did not know he was left-handed and playing a RH kit.

 

Finished it; favorite mini series ever, beyond Roots. Thank you Mr. Jackson well done. Oh and Paul, John, George and Ringo too……

 

I was never a big Beatles guy before watching that - though I recognized how amazingly important the band was. But I've listened to Let It Be about a dozen times in the past week or so since I finished the series.

And Ringo was the star of the series for me. He seemed to always be enjoying himself. I wish I liked his solo stuff more.