The Beatles Get Back documentary series directed by Peter Jackson

[D'wards]

Lovely live version of a lovely song

 

[Ming]

I was thinking what other band could they do an 8 hour portrait (18 directors cut) in the studio and it be as brilliant and fascinating?

No other band could. The Beatles are unique in that most people could name all members (though I'm not too sure about todays under 25s).

I got into them heavily at about 13 or 14. But even though I was born 5 years after they split they were always a presence for as long as I can remember.
I can recall in infant school me and me mates in the playground walking rings around this tyre pile climbing thing all singing Yellow Submarine.

I really can't think of any band or artist who comes close to their world notoriety.
Maybe only Elvis or Jackson.

It seems to me that every rock musician who came after them were heavily influenced by the beatles. Springsteen, ozzy, cobain etc etc all loved the beatles

Those blue and red compilations certainly rocked my world. I wish i could erase my memory and hear them again for the first time. (Dub would be going mad ATM if he was still around lol!).

 

[D'wards]

Sort of related

Check this out. Absolutely wonderful

 

[Supine]

Oh my, just got to the Billy Preston session in episode two. Lordy!

 

[D'wards]

I watched the first part and enjoyed it. Lennon is funny yeah. It’s also very notable how much of a charismatic leader McCartney was, quite likeable I thought. Nobody particularly seems to be arsed with Yoko being omnipresent all the time either, contrary to popular myth.

Yoko was pretty benign, sitting there at John's hip doing her knitting or reading the paper or looking bored.

Her disruption came because John wanted to spend all his time with her, and Paul did say before she turned up him and John would live on each others pockets- living in the same hotel and waking at the same time to work on songs together all day.
After yoko it broke up this dynamic which is not down to her personality at all.
People's lives move on I suppose.

That said, interesting to note that after George left when they had a meeting at Ringo's when John let Yoko speak for him "it did not go well".
When a few days later they met just the four of them it was amicable and George turned up the next day.

Luckily whatever disruption she brought was more than negated by the calming presence of Billy Preston, smiling everywhere and creating a lovely atmosphere

 

[editor]

Yoko was pretty benign, sitting there at John's hip doing her knitting or reading the paper or looking bored.

Her disruption came because John wanted to spend all his time with her, and Paul did say before she turned up him and John would live on each others pockets- living in the same hotel and waking at the same time to work on songs together all day.
After yoko it broke up this dynamic which is not down to her personality at all.
People's lives move on I suppose.

That said, interesting to note that after George left when they had a meeting at Ringo's when John let Yoko speak for him "it did not go well".
When a few days later they met just the four of them it was amicable and George turned up the next day.

Luckily whatever disruption she brought was more than negated by the calming presence of Billy Preston, smiling everywhere and creating a lovely atmosphere

I was in a band once and the guitarist decided to bring his new girlfriend to rehearsals. We'd be banging out angry songs about smashing the system and she'd be sitting there knitting. It wasn't ideal.

A lot of being in a band when you're young in the sense of the 'four of us against the world' camaraderie and it's never quite the same when you've got someone else there.

That said, the Beatles must have been well used to having people hanging around them all the time, and Ono's presence was pretty much benign.

 

[D'wards]

Also interesting to note when in the studio:

(Early) Pink Floyd fuelled by LSD
Velvet underground fuelled by Heroin
Primal Scream fuelled by Ecstacy
Bowie fuelled by cocaine

The Beatles fuelled by endless cups of tea and rounds of toast

 

[ska invita]

Also interesting to note when in the studio:

(Early) Pink Floyd fuelled by LSD
Velvet underground fuelled by Heroin
Primal Scream fuelled by Ecstacy
Bowie fuelled by cocaine

The Beatles fuelled by endless cups of tea and rounds of toast

hmmm, not sure about that, plenty of drug use there, maybe just not in the studio, that time

ive got downloaded and ready to go for xmas Magical Mystery Tour
Interesting how the BBC show hard days night continuously - must've seen that 5 times on BBC now - and never show Mystery Tour? Pre LSD Beatles a better fit i guess

 

[D'wards]

hmmm, not sure about that

ive got downloaded and ready to go for xmas Magical Mystery Tour
Interesting how the BBC show hard days night continuously - must've seen that 5 times on BBC now - and never show Mystery Tour? Pre LSD Beatles a better fit i guess

I think George Martin would never stand for any drugs in the studio and there certainly isn't any on camera in this.
I know they all liked a puff of the Bob Hope and they experimented with LSD but with the Beatles it struck me as a leisure thing and not a way of life.
Obv John got heavily into heroin but I'd be very surprised if they were all getting on anything stronger than the Craven A's in the studio.
Happy to be proved wrong on this though

 

[D'wards]

I was in a band once and the guitarist decided to bring his new girlfriend to rehearsals. We'd be banging out angry songs about smashing the system and she'd be sitting there knitting. It wasn't ideal.

A lot of being in a band when you're young in the sense of the 'four of us against the world' camaraderie and it's never quite the same when you've got someone else there.

That said, the Beatles must have been well used to having people hanging around them all the time, and Ono's presence was pretty much benign.

I do wonder if Brian Epstein had still been around he would have put his foot down about Yoko's omnipresence

 

[ska invita]

I think George Martin would never stand for any drugs in the studio and there certainly isn't any on camera in this.
I know they all liked a puff of the Bob Hope and they experimented with LSD but with the Beatles it struck me as a leisure thing and not a way of life.
Obv John got heavily into heroin but I'd be very surprised if they were all getting on anything stronger than the Craven A's in the studio.
Happy to be proved wrong on this though

well yeah, agree - as i said, plenty enough drug use outside the studio to mark the music

Good acid experiences last long after the event

 

[Petcha]

As a former drug user myself I don't see how you could produce work like the Beatles produced while fucked the entire time. It may have been a bit of a PR stunt? None of them strike me as drug hounds.

 

[D'wards]

During the sessions at Apple Studios after Billy turns up you can see how infatuated Paul and John are with each other.
When laughing about their time in India look at how they look at each other and laugh at each other's jokes.

 

[Petcha]

Having watched this, the WW1 thing he made, and before that the Tolkien movies (which I was completely bored by), I think Peter Jackson should stick to elaborate docos, he's quite good at them.

 

[ska invita]

As a former drug user myself I don't see how you could produce work like the Beatles produced while fucked the entire time. It may have been a bit of a PR stunt? None of them strike me as drug hounds.

naaah they blatantly dropped and inhaled, its all there

 

[D'wards]

That said in ep 2 you can hear John off camera ask for a couple of "pep pills"

 

[Santino]

hmmm, not sure about that, plenty of drug use there, maybe just not in the studio, that time

ive got downloaded and ready to go for xmas Magical Mystery Tour
Interesting how the BBC show hard days night continuously - must've seen that 5 times on BBC now - and never show Mystery Tour? Pre LSD Beatles a better fit i guess

Hard Day's Night is still a good film and a real slice of its time. But Magical Mystery Tour is just dull apart from the songs.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Have seen the first part and maybe an hour of part two. So odd to see The Beatles breaking up in real time as it were - when I took my first tentative steps into the world of music aged about six or seven they'd been broken up seven or eight years.

Paul is obviously trying to just get the band working again but his enthusiasm spills over into everyone do what I say too much. John looks off his head and like he's already checked out. George is obviously getting to the point where he can't stand being the junior partner any more. Ringo just drums along to whatever shite they're playing.

Clearly Epstein's absence has left them rudderless - they all did what he said as he knew what needed to be done but they're obviously not having Paul do the same thing. It couldn't have lasted, and this doc shows that albeit they're all at different stages of realising it.

It's fascinating to watch.

 

[Supine]

I think George Martin would never stand for any drugs in the studio and there certainly isn't any on camera in this.
I know they all liked a puff of the Bob Hope and they experimented with LSD but with the Beatles it struck me as a leisure thing and not a way of life.
Obv John got heavily into heroin but I'd be very surprised if they were all getting on anything stronger than the Craven A's in the studio.
Happy to be proved wrong on this though

Maybe not on camera directly but there was footage of someone asking someone else for a ‘pick me up’ on the set.

 

[rutabowa]

As a former drug user myself I don't see how you could produce work like the Beatles produced while fucked the entire time. It may have been a bit of a PR stunt? None of them strike me as drug hounds.

Lennon was def looked blatantly fucked (heroin) for at least the first week. (See "across the universe"). He got it a bit more together as time went on.

 

[danny la rouge]

Maybe not on camera directly but there was footage of someone asking someone else for a ‘pick me up’ on the set.

Ringo asks Mal if he has any pep pills.

 

[danny la rouge]

George Harrison was only 25 when this was being filmed. 25!!!!

I’m half way into episode two. But I was knocked out by George having watched a film the night before and then wrote the verses to I Me Mine and brings it into the studio the next morning. He explains how it was inspired by a waltz in the film, then plays what is a pretty fully thought out leading voice chord progression. Not just “it’s Am then F#”, the way Paul and John bring their songs to the band, but a chromatically descending line all linked up that I had assumed must have been worked out after the basic structure. But no, he’s got the whole thing ready.

He had to, mind, because nobody else paid him much attention! It’s all “that’s nice”, then into clowning around with Hi Healed Sneakers or something.

 

[ska invita]

.

 

[ska invita]

Finished part 1 last night, having lots of thoughts, so going to write them now before watching the rest as i'll forget. I dont know anything about the Beatles so this is my impression:

The drug use thing is important IMO as its partly that which I think makes them different characters and leads to the bands break up.
I've found a good summary of the bands drug use - this bit is key:

"As early as 1961, the Beatles' drug odyssey was underway with habitual use of Preludin, a stimulant, during performances at clubs in Hamburg, Germany. There they used marijuana, too, but it was only after trying it with Bob Dylan in New York City in 1964 that they got particularly high.

The first time George Harrison and John Lennon tried LSD, in 1965, a dentist in London gave them acid-infused sugar cubes without their prior knowledge. Later that year the two took it again in Beverly Hills, Calif., with Ringo Starr, but Paul McCartney opted out.
Lennon began to take the drug regularly after his first exposure.
McCartney, the last of the Beatles to try LSD, was the first to publicly admit to it during a 1967 interview with ITV. He said he used it "about four times," generating an intense media hubbub. He eagarly snorted cocaine, however, for about a year in 1967, he said in a 2004 interview with Uncut magazine. He also tried heroine, which Lennon used regularly in 1969.
Lennon's second wife, Yoko Ono, said in a 2007 BBC Radio interview that a greedy drug dealer who had been cutting their heroin with baby power spared them from worsening dependence. "Luckily we never injected because both of us were totally scared about needles," she recalled"

In summary Lennon is on it with acid and a bit of heroin on top, Paul dabbled with LSD but actually went on a coke binge (will come to George in a minute). You can see this dynamic in the footage: John and Yoko turn up late, often dont say much, just looking through everything 'knowingly'...disengaged, but comes alive when theres a chance to fuck about.

Cokey Paul with beard and black poloneck takes on a sense of being the leader of the band. I found him to be a bit annoying, and he certainly annoys George Harrison. Theres a bit where they are working out guitar parts on Get Back and Paul ends up telling George to do nothing but hit two notes < a diss. John isnt much better to be honest saying "we dont need two guitarists". Ouch.
I know Paul plays bass but really there are three guitarists in the band.
John also says earlier about how he cant be bothered to learn other band members new tunes (ie George's).
And the constant talk of Eric Clapton...including if George doesnt come back they'll get Eric in.

Theres an interesting thing on George's wiki. Georges LSD experiences got him bang into eastern meditational traditions and music, so already he was off in a different direction from the band there, but also:

Dylan and the Band were a major musical influence on Harrison at the end of his career with the Beatles.[66] While on a visit to Woodstock in late 1968, he established a friendship with Dylan and found himself drawn to the Band's sense of communal music-making and to the creative equality among the band members, which contrasted with Lennon and McCartney's domination of the Beatles' songwriting and creative direction. This coincided with a prolific period in his songwriting and a growing desire to assert his independence from the Beatles

Seems clear to me not only that Paul, John and George are all going in different (musical) directions, but on top of that both Paul and John dont give George much respect < thats got to be the key engine of pulling the band apart. Another factor is Paul and John both say that they missed "Mr Epstein" to keep them all in order.

I listened to Abbey Road album a few months back, its also from this period, and its such a mix up of tunes and styles, i found it weird how one band could come up with such a weird mix, but seeing this footage it makes more sense now.

 

[discokermit]

Also interesting to note when in the studio:

(Early) Pink Floyd fuelled by LSD
Velvet underground fuelled by Heroin
Primal Scream fuelled by Ecstacy
Bowie fuelled by cocaine

The Beatles fuelled by endless cups of tea and rounds of toast

Your list of three bands and bowie to sum up drug use in music should be replaced with "all musicians".
Also you should replace toast with "heroin and cocaine"

 

[ska invita]

youtubes recommended me this


i havent watched it all, just the start, but supposedly Paul made 50 solo albums after the Beatles!! That is amazing - I had no idea - he's definitely a music making machine, and even if he is being a bit cokey and domineering he is clearly hungry to make music. I know both John and Paul were prolific songwriters from a young age, but Paul might be on a slightly next level

 

[discokermit]

youtubes recommended me this


i havent watched it all, just the start, but supposedly Paul made 50 solo albums after the Beatles!! That is amazing - I had no idea - he's definitely a music making machine, and even if he is being a bit cokey and domineering he is clearly hungry to make music. I know both John and Paul were prolific songwriters from a young age, but Paul might be on a slightly next level

Billy shepherd and the illuminati, you mean.

 

[Petcha]

I haven't actually seen this yet, but how is Jackson's narrative so completely different to the original (which I also haven't seen but I understand portrayed a lot of animosity)? Was there an agenda or something? I did read an interview with Jackson where he said he was a bit of an obsessive Beatles fan.

 

[danny la rouge]

I haven't actually seen this yet, but how is Jackson's narrative so completely different to the original (which I also haven't seen but I understand portrayed a lot of animosity)? Was there an agenda or something? I did read an interview with Jackson where he said he was a bit of an obsessive Beatles fan.

I’ve seen the original, albeit many years ago. I think perceptions of the original were coloured by the fact that it was released in May 1970, after they’d split, so the things that were noticed both by the band themselves and the public were things that could be interpreted with hindsight as foreshadowing the split. Such as George getting tetchy with Paul over the arrangement of Get Back, and George walking out.

Seen in a wider context, as it is in the current documentary, that’s not actually such a big thing. There’s lots of fun and camaraderie, and they genuinely seem to enjoy themselves.

When Billy Preston turns up they’re all really happy to see him, and the jams with him they’re grinning from ear to ear. They even discuss making him a permanent Beatle.

I’ve not seen the final episode, mind.

 

[danny la rouge]

Another factor is Paul and John both say that they missed "Mr Epstein" to keep them all in order.

That’s something we see Paul bring up first. It seems the dynamic they had set up was for Brian to be the headmaster and them to be the naughty schoolboys. But with Brian gone, Paul takes on the role of headmaster because the rest of them don’t want it, they want to still be naughty schoolboys, and Paul resents having to do it, but at the same time recognises the others won’t.

He later tries to bring it up with John, telling John that he (Lennon) was supposed to be the band leader.

It is also clear that Paul and George can get on each other’s nerves. Not just when Paul gives George hardly anything to do in Get Back, but also when Paul is talking about their visit to India. George gets defensive over Paul’s flippancy.