The Beatles Thread

I am fascinated by silent Yoko sitting next to John.

 

None of this is true.

 

It's almost like being a fan of Germany and hating Bayern.

 

Paul was/is a genius; great seeing the guys work together, they really worked so well. My mistake, they were all geniuses. Seeing the origin of “Get Back” was tremendous.

 

Through the first two episodes she's said approximately three words on screen.

Linda Eastman-later-McCartney talks a lot more, including one segment in which she seems to be supplying "inside information" on Yoko.

Patti Boyd Harrison ducks into camera range for about five seconds, in which she looks uncharacteristically scary, wearing the then-trendy charcoal black raccoon style eye makeup. As far as
I could tell, she didn't say anything.

Quite an awkward sequence when Paul is discussing at length the film footage of their visit to India in early 1968, footage that features fairly significant appearances by Jane Asher and Cynthia Lennon. John in particular is tight lipped on the topic of Cyn, unsurprising with Yoko sitting on his lap.

 

I never saw the early Linda McCartney, wow she was attractive, right out of UK Vogue.

 

From what I remember of a trip to Belgium several years ago, the comeback is not complete yet.

 

There is so much to like about how Peter Jackson did this doc, starting with "I finally got it cut down to six hours, and I couldn't go any further without removing things that people would want to see and know about". The cleanup of the fifty plus year old film stock, the synch of the audio to it, his decision to run audio over stills to get the interesting audio that was not filmed into it.

The audio of John and Paul talking in the dining room that captured their taking some responsibility for George walking out on the band because there was a microphone planted at the table (!) is priceless. The band resented being mic'd up to the point that when John and George wanted to talk they'd go stand in a corner while strumming their guitars like spies running the shower while they talk to beat the bugs in the room, so I understand it, and I'm glad that so much was caught on tape for posterity.

As a lifelong Beatles fan it is surreal to watch them develop and cut songs that I've known by heart for decades. They'll start a take and I'm thinking that this is the cut that was released, then there's a chord change or vocal flourish that tells me immediately, no, that's not it, not yet. So many amazing moments...

The general feeling that is portrayed is so far from what has been published and put forth as what happened and become the accepted narrative. They might be tired of living in each other's pockets for a decade plus, but there's still a lot of love and respect there. Paul talking about how John and Yoko are simply in love, so he values her more than anything else in his life. The "It's going to look silly fifty years from now, all this fuss being made because Yoko sat on an amp".

Overall, I feel so damn grateful that this came out. It's how I felt about "McCartney 1 2 3" to the third or fourth power.

I'll never get Yoko's caterwauling as music, but by the time "Double Fantasy" came out I was well past any bad feelings toward her that were in the press. The bottom line was that she made him happy and got his life centered, and anything beyond that wasn't my business.

 

BTW, any of you who have not seen Peter Jackson's WWI doc "They Shall Not Grow Old" with the reclaimed and cleaned up period footage, it's well worth a look. It's amazing how well it draws the audience in and shows the reality of that particularly nasty war for the poor bloody infantry who were stuck in the trenches.

He developed a studio devoted to cleaning up old film using digital technology specifically for that movie. He used it on "Get Back" to clean up the film and audio to the crystal clarity you get there.

He just sold the studio for $2.8 billion.

 

So I read today that Disney tried to get the profanity removed from "Get Back". I can just imagine Peter Jackson's response. "The fuck you will! I'll fucking sue!!!"

 

One brief very telling sequence is when John launches into a spiel/ sales pitch for Allen Klein, literally just raving about all the great things he's going to do for them.
Paul was out of the room and it seemed really conspiratorial. It sounded like a frankly drug-addled John had been trapped in a room with Klein and gotten totally bamboozled.
Glyn Johns attempts to throw some cold water on this whole campaign, pointing out how Klein tended to tell you what HE wanted to hear, and if you didn't go along for the ride, he'd just abruptly change the subject. John pretty much just waves Johns off.
But we all know how it all came out. Forget Yoko Ono, THAT's what broke up the Beatles. Allen Fucking Klein.

 

Just watched Part 1 today. Yeah, it was cool hearing the Beatles help out on future solo stuff, such as John and Paul chipping in on "All Things Must Pass."

Favorite section was hearing Paul, with help from the others, build "Let It Be" into the song we all know in the studio ... all while Linda snapped photos of him, Ringo and Mal Evans at the piano. And what the hell were Linda and Yoko talking and laughing about???