The Beatles

[Jam The Man]

It’s weird how people both lionize them and hate them in equal measure isn’t it?

They must have done something right (or wrong) to get such a response.

I can play some terrible tracks they wrote and others that are pure genius.


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I’m not so sure it’s in equal measure.
I suspect an overwhelming majority favour The Beatles?

 

[Acker79]

It's disney+ day, and there's a thread of 'news'. Not sure how to post the tweet without it also showing the previous tweet it's replying to.

[tweet]1459165412529111041[/tweet]

 

[Super Steve Earle]

Watched the first hour tonight. Fascinating stuff for fans, maybe less so for casual observers. But see the magic as McCartney worked up Get Back.

 

[Icy Gull]

It's disney+ day, and there's a thread of 'news'. Not sure how to post the tweet without it also showing the previous tweet it's replying to.

[tweet]1459165412529111041[/tweet]

Ringo’s comment right at the end made me

 

[Insel affe]

I’m not so sure it’s in equal measure.
I suspect an overwhelming majority favour The Beatles?

Give it time.....

 

[stewart12]

I'm into it, nearly finished the first episode

Just find their approach to song writing fascinating given how prolific they were, must have been exhausting creatively

I love their dynamic as well. You can tell that even though they're clearly all burnt out, Lennon is checked out for various reasons, Harrison and Starr are frustrated, they clearly all really love each other

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Completely and utterly mesmerised by it.

This isn't a documentary made for all. This is made for the absolute geeks and I love it. I want to hear 20 mins of them trying to figure out the chord progression. I want to hear them jostling over the lyrics before eventually settling on the one we all know and love. I want to hear a song suggested that we know never made it but recognise from a solo album post-beatles.

Some will find it too slow and tedious but this is exactly what i wanted. It's as pure as it can be really. It's just like being another member of the band. Two absolutely brilliant moments in episode one for me:

-Paul just mucking about and gradually stumbling into the riff for Get Back. Magical to see a famous song just land in his lap.
-Paul in the early moments of writing Let it Be and someone constantly interrupting him. I wanted to shout "LEAVE HIM ALONE. DO YOU NOT REALISE HE'S WRITING A MASTERPIECE!"

I'm gripped by it. It's not what I expected and it's all the better for it.

 

[Acker79]

If you like people talking about song writing, there's this video of Paul Simon talking about writing Bridge over troubled water:

https://youtu.be/qFt0cP-klQI?t=370

There's some awkward chit chat at the start, but if you jump to 6.10, he recounts the process.

 

[Easy 10]

Completely and utterly mesmerised by it.

This isn't a documentary made for all. This is made for the absolute geeks and I love it. I want to hear 20 mins of them trying to figure out the chord progression. I want to hear them jostling over the lyrics before eventually settling on the one we all know and love. I want to hear a song suggested that we know never made it but recognise from a solo album post-beatles.

Some will find it too slow and tedious but this is exactly what i wanted. It's as pure as it can be really. It's just like being another member of the band. Two absolutely brilliant moments in episode one for me:

-Paul just mucking about and gradually stumbling into the riff for Get Back. Magical to see a famous song just land in his lap.
-Paul in the early moments of writing Let it Be and someone constantly interrupting him. I wanted to shout "LEAVE HIM ALONE. DO YOU NOT REALISE HE'S WRITING A MASTERPIECE!"

I'm gripped by it. It's not what I expected and it's all the better for it.

You've nailed every one of my thoughts on E1. I'll say here and now I'm not a massive Beatles fan at all, I can take it or leave it. But some of this footage really made my spine tingle, in particular the two pieces you eruditely picked out. To hear McCartney kind of casually going through the creative process of Let It Be on the piano IN THE BACKGROUND whilst George and Lennon were in some conversation or other with a producer, was just incredible.

Then to see McCartney's casual brilliance on the guitar as he made up 'Get Back' seemingly on the hoof, with barely half the lyrics. Wow. I grew up in the 80s, and to me, tbh, Paul McCartney always seemed a bit....shit. How wrong can you be. He was a musical genius.

When you hear the raw materials of some of their most iconic songs being BORN...those moments where you think "ahhh right, I know where THIS one is going" - wow. What a joy.

 

[Blue3]

Get Back watched all three episodes absolutely brilliant viewing for Beatles fans 70 hours of film distilled into 3, 2hour films means a lot was left out, the remaining Beatles and families choose the general legacy this editing should take, so for the most part it’s a happy film while the history of the event apparently had a lot more tension between the four, history is written by the victors

 

[Deleted member 37369]

A good friend of mine - a bluenose scouser - lent me a book on a skiing trip a number of years ago when I'd ended up with my leg in plaster.

The book was called 'The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away' .... by Allan Williams ... who just happened to be my mates uncle!

Allan was the man who originally took The Beatles to Hamburg ... but they fell out when on some subsequent gigs The Beatles wouldn't pay Allan his usual 10%. From memory this was mainly down to Lennon. Was quite an interesting read while I had my leg up and my mate was out skiing!!

A little write up in The Guardian when Allan died 5 years ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/01/allan-williams-obituary

 

[Is it PotG?]

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

Absolutely love it so far (on episode 2)

This documentary for me just shows how special they were. They didn't have magic wands, they had to work their balls off to get those hits. Seeing the combination of their talent and how they let ideas develop was just fascinating.

McCartney is just absolutely relentless in his creativity and his ability to just keep going. Keep playing. I bloody love it.

 

[kelownaseagull]

If you have access to Apple TV, there 's a short series with Paul McCartney and Rick Rubin.

He goes through some of the history and make up of the songs. It's really interesting to see how the structure of each song comes together.

Link to the US version. hopefully you can get it in the UK!

https://tv.apple.com/us/show/mccartney-3-2-1/umc.cmc.62zq0x2i794tnb4ybpfoolkrg

Absolutely love it so far (on episode 2)

This documentary for me just shows how special they were. They didn't have magic wands, they had to work their balls off to get those hits. Seeing the combination of their talent and how they let ideas develop was just fascinating.

McCartney is just absolutely relentless in his creativity and his ability to just keep going. Keep playing. I bloody love it.

 

[keaton]

If you have access to Apple TV, there 's a short series with Paul McCartney and Rick Rubin.

He goes through some of the history and make up of the songs. It's really interesting to see how the structure of each song comes together.

Link to the US version. hopefully you can get it in the UK!

https://tv.apple.com/us/show/mccartney-3-2-1/umc.cmc.62zq0x2i794tnb4ybpfoolkrg

I thought that was on Disney as well, certainly was at some point

 

[kelownaseagull]

Just checked (I'm in Canada though), you are right. It's under the Star channel.

Thanks!

I thought that was on Disney as well, certainly was at some point

 

[PoG]

Absolutely love it so far (on episode 2)

This documentary for me just shows how special they were. They didn't have magic wands, they had to work their balls off to get those hits. Seeing the combination of their talent and how they let ideas develop was just fascinating.

McCartney is just absolutely relentless in his creativity and his ability to just keep going. Keep playing. I bloody love it.

The whole thing is fantastic, the way Get Back is created out of nothing is amazing.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Completely and utterly mesmerised by it.

This isn't a documentary made for all. This is made for the absolute geeks and I love it. I want to hear 20 mins of them trying to figure out the chord progression. I want to hear them jostling over the lyrics before eventually settling on the one we all know and love. I want to hear a song suggested that we know never made it but recognise from a solo album post-beatles.

Some will find it too slow and tedious but this is exactly what i wanted. It's as pure as it can be really. It's just like being another member of the band. Two absolutely brilliant moments in episode one for me:

-Paul just mucking about and gradually stumbling into the riff for Get Back. Magical to see a famous song just land in his lap.
-Paul in the early moments of writing Let it Be and someone constantly interrupting him. I wanted to shout "LEAVE HIM ALONE. DO YOU NOT REALISE HE'S WRITING A MASTERPIECE!"

I'm gripped by it. It's not what I expected and it's all the better for it.

Brilliant post, agree with every word. I’ve just finished episode 1 and was blown away by it.

I’m a massive Beatles fan so know all the stories yet this is something else. Like you say, it makes you feel close to or part of the band. The picture quality is also incredible. Coming away from it it took me a few seconds to come back round to the fact that Lennon has been gone over 40 years and Harrison 20 years.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'm reminded of that line about travel writing, to the effect that "there's no point writing about somewhere you don't want to go to".

Similarly, we ultimately get the music writing we deserve. Nobody ever listened to a song, really liked it, but then read a negative review and changed their mind. If you consistently disagree with a writer you just stop reading them, because there's no point in being told the music you like sucks. On the other hand, if you read positive writing on something you're not into, from somebody who generally agrees with you, it might open your ears to it a little.

If I don't like a band (let's say Radiohead, because I don't like Radiohead), I can spend all the time in the world convincing myself that they're overated, derivative, atonal crap pushed by musos who are so up themselves that they think they've surpassed the pleb concept of a "song". Or I can just accept that me and Thom Yorke aren't on the same plane, and move on. Or or, I can get over myself and take their stuff for what it is, and then I find there's some songs there that I can enjoy listening to, and my world's a little brighter for it.

Realistically, it's rare for anything that a significant number of people like to be straightforwardly bad, which is why good writers generally save the really scathing reviews for stuff like hopelessly misguided reunion albums or unlistenable live recordings.

If somebody don't like the Beatles, in itself a perfectly valid opinion, realistically that isn't because they're derivative, didn't push boundaries, are oversold or any of that, they just don't get the same response as some other people do to them. That's fine. What's messed up is when you start writing reams of A4 on why they're clearly shit and not as good as the bands you like, because at that point you're just fluffing your own ego. Tell people why the music you like is good, not why the music you don't is crap.

That last bit's a general point, not aimed at you specifically.

Very well said

 

[aolstudios]

Absolutely love it so far (on episode 2)

This documentary for me just shows how special they were. They didn't have magic wands, they had to work their balls off to get those hits. Seeing the combination of their talent and how they let ideas develop was just fascinating.

McCartney is just absolutely relentless in his creativity and his ability to just keep going. Keep playing. I bloody love it.

Also worth noting it's pretty much the least interesting (& least interested by 3/4 of the band) time anyone could've chosen to film them