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“Get Back”?

The New Neo Posted on by

There’s a huge number of reviews and discussions about the new Beatles documentary “Get Back.” I won’t even bother to link to any; they’re easy enough to find. Lots of people are raving about it, but they tend to be people who are intense Beatles fans and have been for five decades (or less, but certainly a long time).

I was a Beatles fan, back in the day. Their music sounded fresh, they were awfully cute (especially Paul), they had that hair they tossed around, and they were very funny in “A Hard Day’s Night,” something like Liverpudlian Marx Brothers.

I still like a lot of their music when I happen across it. But once they broke up, I didn’t like their solo stuff. And in recent years I haven’t sought out and listened to even their old music. For me, although I know much of it well, it doesn’t hold any interest.

I’m not sure why.

For me, it seems frozen in its time – or, paradoxically, it’s become a familiar cliche. I acknowledge their seminal role in pop music history, and it’s sad that two of them are gone, but I have no interest in watching eight hours of documentary about some sessions over fifty years ago in which they generated some excellent music.

As I said, I’m not sure why. It’s a bit curious, especially in light of my recent interest in the composition of pop music, and in particular the Bee Gees – whom I paid virtually no attention to in their heyday, but whose music and even whose speaking voices I now find almost hypnotic in their attraction, a feeling which may have caused some of you to think I’ve flipped my lid.

I don’t think I have. But it’s like a mild yet very pleasant drug with no downside.

That’s probably what some people experience with the Beatles. Not me.

Comments

“Get Back”? — 106 Comments

  2. I liked them well enough but was never a big fan. When they went solo, IMO the only one who produced anything of lasting value was George Harrison. Perhaps because he was the only serious musician. Not to denigrate the others talents but Ringo was along for the ride, Paul just wanted to write silly little love songs and John was an early advocate of ‘social justice’.

  3. My parents weren’t fans, but they told me that I, born in 1964 a month after the Beatles came to the USA, danced in my high chair every time one of their songs came on the radio.
    I loved John the most because he was the wittiest.

  5. Your attitude sums up mine almost precisely (except I was never attracted to Paul).

  6. Ringo had a few decent singles, think “Photograph” but George was the only solo Beatle that I really cared for.

    Paul had a few decent singles (Baby I’m Amazed) but most of his stuff was teenie fluff.

  7. The Beatles were a great rock band, honed by set after set playing for drunk GIs in Hamburg. They had three outstanding songwriters. Harrison, whose Something may survive all the Lennon & McCartney compositions, had to fight just to get one or two songs on an album.

    While not virtuoso instrumentalists, they were open to new sounds and in particular guitar players and drummers respect Harrison and Starr.

    Yeah, Lennon’s Imagine is nihilistic dreck, Working Class Hero is a much better song expressing a millionaire’s existential angst, btw. Jealous Guy may be his best song. Donny Hathaway’s version is superb.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfY4NLxl72g

  9. I just finished it last night. I found it fascinating in terms of the creative process; how the songs emerged and how they brought all the pieces together. All this 50 years later I have much more respect for their creativity than before by watching the series. The end with the famous rooftop appearance was great and bittersweet knowing in a couple of months they would be no more.

  10. Neo, I have never posted here, but have lurked. I laughed the other day driving home from work when the Bee Gees came on. I blasted them. I was born in the mid-60s and am the youngest of five, so I was exposed to the music my older siblings played – mostly all of the great music of the 70’s. During this mess I have been watching live-music videos later at night – when I am finally alone – and I am now hooked on The Who. I do enjoy some of the music from The Beatles, but I don’t get the craziness about the band. I am sure those who love The Beatles, or The Rolling Stones, etc, don’t understand my love of The Who.

    Thanks for your site – I check in often.

  11. I mostly agree with you Neo….I was crazy for the Beatles and even won 2 tickets from the local radio station to see them in concert in 1964. I thought I died and went to heaven. I listened to them throughout the 60s even though I was a Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler kinda girl.
    But after they broke up, I really didn’t listen to their solo efforts (except for George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass”.
    And to this day, I have little or no interest in anything to do with them. Odd, I think.

  12. I will venture a guess that when oldies are played today, it’s more apt to be a
    B Gees or ABBA tune than a Beatles tune.
    Certainly at weddings or such.

    I do recall watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan TV show way back when and the camera’s panned the audience of hysterical, crying, screaming female teens.

  14. My wife and I watched it. Very instructive. They all look impossibly young, and just as charming as they were in “Hard Day’s Night.” Throughout the eight hours, we witness the birth and evolution of Paul’s song, “Get Back” (and just about every other song from the “Let It Be” album). You know where the song will end up, and, with this and every other song, you can periodically feel a peculiar elation that you know a Beatles song better than the Beatles. The words “Jojo was a man who thought he was a woman” seem to come to Paul during a self-induced trance. Yoko haunts their every session, and joins in the chaotic jam session—keening like a demon—after George temporarily quits. Paul, John and Ringo ruin the first attempt to reconcile with George by bringing Linda and Yoko along—Yoko spoke but John did not. John seemed to be toying with the idea of quitting too, but never spoke up for himself, like George was doing in those days.

    Director Peter Jackson makes too much of a ‘protest song’ version of “Get Back” which made the chorus refer to immigrants in the UK. Contrary to Jackson, Paul might have been trying to prove to George and John that the SJW thing just won’t make for good music. Those few minutes of the show were the worst thing about it.

    Otherwise, we really enjoyed the opportunity to see artists in their creative process. They most of the time seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. But at the end, we sympathized with the beleaguered bobbies who patiently and doggedly attempted to restore the peace by halting the concert on the roof of Apple studios. The snotty, privileged attitudes of the Beatles (Paul, especially) and the Apple employees during these scenes made us lose all sympathy for their enterprise.

  16. George Martin’s technical prowess and George Harrison’s writing have been the most enduring influences for me over the decades. Traveling Wilburys -a lot of fun.
    I had just turned 13 when my sister got Rubber Soul for Christmas. A real teen cultural event. You’re Gonna Lose That Girl from Help is for me still pretty gorgeous. I don’t have access to the doc currently. Listened endlessly to Buffalo Springfield and Let It Be on a friend’s family reel to reel. I Dig A Pony, funny! I appreciated their technical innovations and psychedelic lyrics, still do.
    Saw George Harrison and Ravi Shankar 1974 North American tour live in Pittsburgh. No lie, George smiled right at me during tune up and arrival to stage! I got up pretty close (I’m short). Ravi didn’t turn up. They opened up the vaults about nine years ago providing the chance to revisit The Beatles again. Jai guru deva, om.

  17. You should look into the last 20 years of Mark Knopfler (formerly with Dire Straights). His ballads are historic, extremely relevant & touching (you have to read the words to understand his singing voice… odd tone) and he’s teamed up with others like Emmy Lou Harris in surprisingly delightful harmonies. Also he’s scored many movies and matched the music and the words to scenes and cinematic moods quite well.

  18. I love the music of The Beatles- always have. It is fascinating to listen to their progression from 1964 to 1970- by the time “Abbey Road” was made, it was like a completely different band than the one from “Meet the Beatles”.

    I preferred the work of Harrison in the solo era- “All Things Must Pass” I have owned on vinyl, cassettes, and CD. McCartney and Lennon really needed each other more than either would ever admit- that missing synergy is startling in their solo careers.

  20. Similar feelings as you Neo, but for different reasons. I was quite young when the Beatles burst on the seen. So young that popular music wasn’t anything I was interested in or paid any attention to. So I didn’t experience the whole Beatles’ version of the British invasion. By the time I was getting into popular music the Beatles, as a phenomenon, were winding down.

    I do like and enjoy lots of their music, listen to it regularly, but just not a fanatic for it. I’ve watched some of the first episode of “Get Back” and do find it interesting.

  21. Ok, so my comments weren’t appearing earlier for some reason.

    I thought it was very good but I really like the creative process that extremely talented people go through.

    There were also all kinds of non musical moments that stood out to me:

    1.Young Heather was adorable and you can see how much she loved Paul and it is no wonder he adopted her and says a lot about him as a man.
    2. Linda Eastman was luminous during this time which is a way I had never seen her.
    3. The secretly recorded conversation between Paul and John after George quit was a fascinating look into band dynamics.
    4. Yes, Yoko was always there but she really never seemed to be a distraction and John seemed totally into the work.

    And to Geoffrey above who claimed that George was the only ‘serious musician’ that is ridiculous Paul McCartney is a once a century genius when it comes to melody and he has made countless solo records in many genres including classical.

  22. There is a mystery to one’s taste in music. It’s often a journey with plenty of twists and turns and sometimes circling back. Sometimes one’s just not ready for particular music, then one is. Neo’s recent interest in the Bee Gees is a great case in point.

    I try to keep my antennae up and when the signal starts coming in, I listen to a lot of it.

    My younger brother used to play the latest Beatles album every morning. My high school years are archaelogical layers marked by Beatles albums.

    I stopped listening to the Beatles much in the 2000s. I just knew the albums too well. Instead I started listening to the Stones music I hadn’t heard so often. Though lately I’ve been swinging back to the Beatles. None of their solo work hit me hard aside from the “Best of” cuts.

    I agree with Yancey Ward that Lennon and McCartney had a synergy beyond what they did solo.

    However, it’s possible the Beatles had done all they could do as a band. Where could they have gone next?

    The Stones stayed together, but for my taste their last good studio album was “Some Girls” in 1978.

  23. Yancey,

    It was interesting to see them work on the songs ‘All Things Must Pass’ and
    ‘Isn’t It A Pity’ which of course would be on Harrison’s album ‘All Things Must Pass’ some 18 months later.

  24. neo,

    There was an interesting music doc on HBO this week called ‘Mr. Saturday Night’ about Robert Stigwood the Bee Gees manager and the producer of ‘Saturday Night Fever’.

    Lots of stuff about the Bee Gees and their evolution into the disco era.

    An interesting look into that period of time.

  25. …Paul McCartney is a once a century genius when it comes to melody and he has made countless solo records in many genres including classical.

    Griffin:

    Got to agree with you. While I haven’t been into McCartney’s solo work, time has only increased my respect for McCartney as a musican, composer and band leader.

    McCartney isn’t a virtuoso player like, say, Clapton and I’ll grant that Harrison was perfection for his just-the-right-lick approach. But McCartney could play whatever instrument he wanted and, I suspect, as well as he wanted.

    A freakishly talented man.

  26. I lived through Beatlemania. They were a great band, but an overhyped phenomenon. I can understand why they quit touring. You couldn’t even hear the music from the girls screaming. Revolver let them start to evolve. Sgt. Pepper put pop music back 8 years, because all the professional musicians went, “WTF? You can do that? How?” It was like Citizen Kane, great because it invented so many things you could do, not for its story appeal. It took years for everybody else to start to catch up (and some to get left by the wayside). As to solo careers, Harrison did some great songs, absolute classics like Something, Here Comes the Sun, even the very simple but hypnotic My Sweet Lord, and The Traveling Wilburys were wonderful. John put out the best “solo” stuff with Jealous Guy, The Christmas Song, and many others. Paul was never much of a lyricist as John snipes in “How Do You Sleep”–“All you ever done was Yesterday, Now you’re gone, you’re Just Another Day.” Ouch! I think Paul’s lyrics (including constantly singing about his dogs) are what make some think less of his solo career.

    I couldn’t define what Paul had until a friend of mine who is a musician pointed out that Paul is a genius arranger. Band on the Run and Live and Let Die are tours de force as arrangements. Similarly, Michael Jackson was a show-stopping performer and a passable songwriter, but it was Quincy Jones and his arrangements that made Thriller what it was. Otherwise MJ’s legacy is left with “Ben” the love song to a rat.

  27. I agree with the once-a-century-genius comments about McCartney. Well, ok, maybe not the only genius, but still, I think easily the most naturally gifted of pop musicians in our time. Definitely the musical genius of the Beatles, which is not a put-down of the others. McCartney’s weakness is that too much of his writing is lyrically trivial. “Get Back,” for instance, is a monster hook, and the chorus is strong, but the verses are pretty much junk. It’s like he got bored and didn’t want to bother finishing the song.

    I never paid much attention to the individual Beatles beyond their first solo album or two after the breakup, but, given McCartney’s gift, there should be at least some first-rate stuff over the years. I think Band On the Run was the last “solo” album of his that I heard, and it’s 1/2 to 2/3 very, very good.

    A remark I’ve heard and can’t remember the source of: “Ringo is not the best drummer in rock. He’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles.” Meaning, not as good as McCartney. I don’t know whether there’s any substance in that or not.

  29. Re: McCartney lyrics…

    Frank, Mac:

    Ah, but did you ever listen to “Eat At Home” on his “Ram” album?
    __________________________

    Come on, little lady,
    Lady, let’s eat at home
    Come on, little lady,
    Lady, let’s eat at home, eat at home, eat at home

    Come on, little lady,
    Lady, let’s eat in bed
    Come on, little lady,
    Lady, let’s eat at bed, eat in bed, eat in bed

    Bring the love that you feel for me
    Into line with the love I see,
    And in the morning you’ll bring to me love

    –Paul McCartney, “Eat at Home”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tSzw11FvY8

  30. I admit I’m a huge McCartney fan so I may be biased but while he is not as great lyricist as Lennon I think he has his moments both in the Beatles and solo.

    ‘I’m Looking Through You’ and ‘For No One’ are pretty damn insightful lyrically and they are McCartney songs. He was much more linear in his song writing and Lennon helped push him to be more abstract and he embraced that later in the Beatles with the shoulder comment in ‘Hey Jude’ and later on in many solo songs. ‘With A Little Luck’ also has maybe my favorite solo McCartney lyric with ‘the willow turns his back on inclimate weather’ that is so descriptive and unique.

    I would say ‘Band On The Run’, ‘Tug Of War’ and ‘Pipes Of Peace’ are very good albums and the album ‘Flowers In The Dirt’ which he wrote with Elvis Costello is also pretty good (‘My Brave Face’ is a great song).

    Paul McCartney’s blessing/curse is he has lived a long life and never lost his love of making music and that has given people lots of time to nitpick.

  31. huxley,

    In ‘Get Back’ Paul and John mess around with some very strange song called ‘Greasepaint’ or something that is horrible but they played the whole damn thing and they also do some improvised (I think) song called ‘Commonwealth’ (I think) that is about the British immigration policy that is not good but is extremely catchy with John going ‘ayyy’ to every line Paul sings.

    Point is they had freakish amounts of songs and some of them were not good.

  32. @Huxley:

    After reading those shoddy lyrics, I can see why he married a bird with one leg.

    I can’t actually. Just a cheap shot. But ye gods!

    Beam me up, Brill Building!

  33. I didn’t say McCartney isn’t a good lyricist. I would go a lot further than “has his moments.” At his best he’s every bit as good as Lennon. “Let It Be” is a case in point. It’s just that he doesn’t seem to have put much effort into a lot of his lyrics, or was content with something trivial, like “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.”

    Griffin, thanks for clearing that up.

    huxley, I heard Ram fairly often when it was released, and did not recognize those lyrics at all. When I played the track I only sort of half-recognized the music. I don’t think I’ve heard the album since maybe a year past its release, and this sheds some light on the reason. Too much throwaway stuff like this.

  34. Also let’s not forget that while McCartney would write about his dogs (‘Martha My Dear’, ‘Jet’) or his car (‘Helen Wheels’) Lennon kind of got lazy also and wrote songs from posters (‘Benefit Of Mr. Kite’), magazine covers (‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’), breakfast cereal (‘Good Morning, Good Morning’) and most desperately the London phone book (‘You Know My Name’ featuring Brian Jones on sax).

    ‘Warm Gun’ is brilliant but the other are decidedly not.

  35. Another great bass player, the late Duck Dunn, commented on McCartney. Something to the effect of, since Paul co-wrote most of the songs, he knew exactly what would be the perfect bass part.

  36. Mac,

    Yep, in ‘Get Back’ ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ made an appearance and it would become a major sticking point in a few months for George and Ringo as Paul became obsessed with getting that song just right.

  37. Griffin:

    I think the music came first for McCartney. He may or may not have been inspired for the lyrics.

    The story goes that when McCartney was writing “Yesterday” he had no lyrics in mind. So he sang the words “Scrambled Eggs” instead. Eventually he came up with the lyrics and the lyrics were dead-on … when McCartney was inspired.

    He also wrote “Hey Jude,” “Let It Be,” “Lady Madonna” and “Paperback Writer” — all lyrical treasures. “Paperback Writer” just wowed me when it came out for the original subject matter. Plus I wanted to be a paperback writer then.

    ***

    Rick Beato mentioned how much of a typical Beatles studio session was the guys just jamming off each other musically, lyrically and comically.

    Still haven’t seen “Get Back.” But it turns if one has Amazon Prime Unlimited Music, which I do, I can get a 3 months free sub to Disney+.

    I confess my first view will be “The Absent-Minded Professor” — tonight!

  38. @Huxley:

    “Still haven’t seen “Get Back.” But it turns if one has Amazon Prime Unlimited Music, which I do, I can get a 3 months free sub to Disney+.”

    Don’t forget Baby Yoda!

  39. Zaphod:

    Can’t tell if you’re putting me on… You’re just enough of a maniac to have a weird soft spot.

    I’m giving the budget KEFs some thought.

  40. @Huxley:

    I’m serious. Does that make it worse? 🙂

    Did you watch Rifleman and shows like that when you were a kid?

    If you mainly listen to streaming audio and don’t object to headphones can also get hugely disproportionate bang for buck going that way cf loudspeakers.

  41. I have always felt that what threw the Beatles off the rails was the loss of playing live in front of an audience, be it big or small. The rest of the British Invasion bands quickly figured out that you could not take a couple amps, a drum kit, and go into which ever local stadium, or ball park you booked and use their sound system… and expect to sound good. The Stones, The Who, Led Zepplin, etc. by the late 60’s were hauling their own sound, and equipment all over the world… and they just kept getting better and better… The Stones could stop 50,000 people cold with the first crack of Charlie’s snare.. amazing… and yet The Beatles sat around in their little studios getting pissed off at each other’s girlfriend… pathetic… and finished doing the same thing… took their little amps and went up on the roof… even more pathetic!

  42. @Kimo:

    I don’t know enough about the topic to have an opinion, but that’s an intriguing observation.

    What do all you antiquated Boomer Rockers present think about this?

    I mean the stadium sound and kit to achieve the best effects… cf getting into a studio sessions onanistic rut… not the old hat women problems and petty jealousies.

  43. Huxley,

    There is a lot of that ‘doo, doo, da,’ type stuff to the melodies of the ‘Get Back’ songs also while they work on lyrics which as Beato mentioned is an extremely common songwriting technique.

    Hearing McCartney fiddling around on the piano with the instantly recognizable ‘Let It Be’ melody in the background while other people have mundane conversations is pretty interesting and a reminder that these were just ideas or snippets to them at that time.

  44. Kimo,

    Of course while the Beatles were in their little studio they were pioneering the recording techniques that all of those other bands would use so there is that and I am almost as big a fan of The Who as the Beatles but they never could have made an album like ‘Who’s Next’ without the techniques developed by the Beatles, George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Glyn Johns and Alan Parsons in their ‘little studio’.

  45. For me, although I know much of it well, it doesn’t hold any interest.

    I’m not sure why.

    For me, it seems frozen in its time – or, paradoxically, it’s become a familiar cliche.

    I have a similar response to most music. There’s a life cycle of getting to know it, really loving it, and then losing interest and moving on. Perhaps occasionally discovering or re-discovering some gem, but never really going back to it.

    I moved from rock into classical and experienced a similar cycle with Beethoven. Rarely listen any more, though acknowledge the greatness.

  46. I’ll just, pardon the phrase, “circle back”, to the fact noted by others: the complete synergy of Lennon and McCartney that explodes off the screen in the documentary. The constant eye contact where one can see them engaging each others thoughts as they work through a song. A big part of that is, as Beato mentions, the constant jamming and a sudden shift into an oldies song as they play off each other and try to amuse each other with silliness. The silliness and jamming served a purpose: to give a break in the creative process and to reminds themselves of previous musical licks etc that may make their way into the present. I don’t think they actually did this deliberately, but was part of what worked for them creatively.

    And again as previous posters have said, I never cared for anything from their solo careers. Now I totally understand why. They desperately needed each other to produce their best material. That is so obvious from watching the series.

  48. Anyone who thinks Paul wasn’t a great musician, needs to relisten to the bassline in I Saw Her Standing There

  49. Wow! Another fascinating post with great comments.

    I’ll have to get a Disney+ streaming account and see this thing for myself. I’ve always been a big Beatles fan. But not the fanatic my sisters were/are.

    I also like documentaries. And I am a big Peter Jackson fan. So it’ll be a twofer.

  50. Just out of curiosity…

    People did get that “Eat At Home” was about oral sex?

    The lyrics are still not inspired, but a bit clever and naughty. John and Paul did enjoy sneaking stuff in like that.

    One story about “Ticket to Ride” — it was John’s phrase for the clean bill of health certificate Hamburg prostitutes had to have to operate. Perhaps too good to be true.

  51. huxley,

    ‘Day Tripper’

    ‘she’s a big teaser’
    ‘she took me half the way there’

    Paul thought that was hilarious the ‘unrated’ version is ‘she’s a prick teaser’.

    Also you know what ‘Drive My Car’ is about, right?

  52. What struck me about the “Get Back” sessions was the amount of absolute goofing around that the lads did, while accomplishing nothing. Only when Billy Preston showed up did they seem to start getting serious about what they were doing. It’s almost as if having someone outside their circle of roadies, engineers, producers and such (all the people that were usually hanging around) inspired them to get serious about performing, if only for that one “guest” in the studio. And to see them enjoy the rooftop so much was bittersweet, knowing what came later. I had always thought that “Two Of Us” was about Paul and John, Paul getting emotional about the “good old days” but it was really about him and Linda. As for lyrics, “She’s Leaving Home” anyone? Musically, nobody in the band was the equal of Paul.

  53. Stan Smith,

    I think one of the things that having Billy Preston there solved was it allowed Paul to stay on the bass and not have to play piano as they were trying to record without all the over dubs so they needed a full band. But they definitely liked him and even were disappointed on the days he couldn’t come in.

    I’ve always thought the two under the radar songs that showed the brilliance of Lennon and McCartney were ‘Girl’ by mostly Lennon and ‘She’s Leaving Home’ by mostly McCartney. It is a very unusual song in that it is told from the point of view of both the daughter and the parents and done so without confusion and John’s ‘bye, bye’ is so perfect.

  54. Griffin:

    I knew “big teaser/halfway there” was a not-so-hidden sexual reference. I confess I didn’t go that far with “Drive My Car.” I must be losing my touch!

    Still, just at the level of a wannabe star who admits she doesn’t even have a car of her own, it’s quite funny and new song territory. The Beatles must have seen a million desperate-to-make-it people.

    I’ve long thought “Please Please Me (Like I Please You)” was a plea for the girlfriend to reciprocate oral sex.

    They seemed like such nice boys!

  57. Re: “Girl”

    Griffin:

    An unassuming song that sparkles. I thought it was just a personal favorite, but discovered I’m far from alone.

    I like to listen for Ringo’s sighing snare come and go on the chorus.

  58. Griffin,

    My snark re: “girlfriends” was just a poke at the studio sessions vs. playing live for the fans, and the “rooftop” end to the band was just to amplify my thoughts. Those other bands went on for years, some lost members and stopped, some just got tired from touring, and the Stones will probably sell out Giants Stadium long after you n me are gone .. (if Keith has any say)… The Beatles’ music was a gift to the world, and I would have liked to have seen and heard it live!

  59. Re: Rooftop concert

    kimo:

    “Yesterday” is a recent Danny Boyle film in which there’s a cosmic event that somehow jogs the Earth into an alternate timestream without the Beatles and their music.

    Except there’s one wannabe musician who remembers the Beatles. His career takes off when he recreates Beatles songs from memory. He gives a rooftop concert at the end.

    I wasn’t optimistic going in, but it was better than I expected and sweet in a Beatlesque way.

  60. I came of age in the seventies and didn’t buy any of their recordings until the CD era. I own all the Beatle releases now. I think of them as comfort food for your head.

    Together they we’re definitely greater than their individual parts. Imagine somebody today writing something like Revolver with its broad appeal and many hit songs. Who does that anymore? Even my parents liked the Beatles.

  61. “She’s Leaving Home” is a great song, musically and lyrically, that for me is almost ruined by the last line: “Fun is the one thing that money can’t buy.”

    ?!?!? Money can buy fun by the truckload.

    Apart from that line not making sense, reducing the girl’s departure to a desire for mere “fun” reduces the drama of the whole picture, though mere fun is a common enough motivator for young people.

    Notice I said *almost* ruined. It’s still brilliant, and almost unbearably poignant. “Meeting a man from the motor trade”–yeah, we know how that’s going to end, poor dumb girl.

  62. Money can buy fun by the truckload.

    Only if you’re not the melancholic type. And there’s diminishing returns even if you’re not.

  63. Mac; Art Deco:

    I agree with Art Deco. For someone depressed, fun is elusive no matter how much money they spend.

    But how odd. I learned the words of that song from listening to the record years ago and thought I knew all the words to all the songs. I never looked them up online, and of course back then there was no “online.” But apparently I had misheard that lyric. I always thought the line was “love is the one thing that money can’t buy.”

    Can’t argue with that, can you? It’s far more cliched as a thought, but far more true. I wonder whether McCartney originally wrote “love” on that line and Lennon suggested the more cynical and unusual (less cliched) “fun” instead. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

  64. John is the one that sings ‘fun is the one thing that money can’t buy’ so it’s coming from the parents point of view but I’m not sure if that makes it more clear or not. Do the parents think she is only off to have fun? Does lend some evidence that it was John who wrote or altered that line.

  66. Just this morning I was thinking you would LOVE Get Back neo, and wondering if I’d missed your post on it.

    You absolutely do NOT need to love their music or be obsessed with them to find this eight hours selected by Peter Jackson to be a fascinating look into their creative process–some of which is quite workaday–as well as their relationship.
    Like the Bee Gees, these boys too grew up with each other, and with your appreciation of the Bee Gees’ ability to harmonize, I think you’d find similarities with and very much enjoy the amazing spontaneity of the Beatles’ songwriting–melody, lyrics, harmonies– that happens before our eyes.
    Not to say there are not tedious periods, but I do not think the story Jackson tells could be conveyed without them.
    For me, it was clear that The Beatles that had existed since the late fifties was over, and they knew that, but were trying to deal with how they were going to let each other go.

    I saw a lot of love during those eight hours.

  67. Oh, Get Back prompted us to watch Let It Be, the movie released in 1970 made from the film Jackson had access to, and watched Ron Howard’s Eight Days a Week, both of which filled in some gaps.

  69. Johann Amadeus Metesky —

    Roxy Music made the definitive version of “Jealous Guy”. Fight me. 🙂

    I was a small child when the Beatles were active and didn’t get into pop music until the late ’70s. So I had the red and blue “best of” albums and liked them as much as anybody and knew all the famous songs, but never really cared enough to become a big (retrospective) fan. And I never much liked any of them solo, although I didn’t particularly hate them either.

    What strikes me now about them is how young they were and how productive and how short their career together really was. Early genius and high output in one’s 20s seems to be a general feature of humanity, from music to mathematics to warfare to lots of other things, but it’s the rare ones who are truly dedicated who make it last.

  70. ‘Jealous Guy’ is another one we hear on ‘Get Back’ but it was originally called ‘Child Of Nature’ but with the same melody before Lennon reworked it for the ‘Imagine’ album in 1971.

    ‘Get Back’ is really about way more than the ‘Let It Be’ album as we hear parts of most of the songs on ‘Abbey Road’ we hear a couple Harrison songs that end up on ‘All Things Must Pass’ and we even hear the much hated ‘Another Day’ by Paul McCartney.

    Just shows how prolific these guys were and also what a amazingly compressed time period their entire career was.

  73. Back in 2018, the pastor of Green Acres Baptist Megachurch did a sermon series called “ The Gospel according to the Beatles.” He had gotten copyright permission to have some of their songs played in the church. He would talk about the Beatles history and then he would talk about the lyrics of a song and use it in a sermon . The first was from the song “ Let it Be”. If you watch the video, you may have to fast forward through the choir singing the regular church songs until the soloist sang the particular Beatles song for that week and the pastor talked about it. https://gabc-archive.org/beatles/

  74. “ All the Lonely People” and “ Yesterday” was two of the other songs, used in the series.

  75. Back in 2018, the pastor of Green Acres Baptist Megachurch did a sermon series called “ The Gospel according to the Beatles.”

    p.u.

  76. Neo & AD: well, yeah, someone who is incapable of having fun won’t be able to buy it.

    Griffin: “the much hated ‘Another Day’ by Paul McCartney.” Much-hated? Really? I think it’s an excellent and rather poignant song.

  77. Mac,

    I don’t mind ‘Another Day’ but as somebody up above mentioned in Lennon’s ‘How Do You Sleep?’ he mentions ‘you’re just another day’ which was Paul’s first big solo hit and others have called it sappy etc.

    One of the things about ‘Get Back’ that I think I knew but the doc drove home was how many of the various early solo hits by the Beatles were in stages of development a good year before they broke up.

  78. I haven’t heard all that much of Lennon’s post-Beatles work. The first one was the only one I ever listened to all the way through, and I wasn’t keen on it. Still, I think it’s highly probable that there’s nothing in the rest of his solo career that I’d consider as good as “Another Day.”

    If you think there are signs of anti-Lennon-ism in that, you’re probably right. As a Beatle, he was huge. But a sort of cult grew up around him later that I always found off-putting. Not to mention the status of “Imagine” as the emblematic hymn of the new order.

  80. Ok, I just listened to “How Do You Sleep?” for the first time ever. Nasty and not very imaginative. Kind of funny that it occurs on the same album prescribing a communist paradise as the cure for what ails the world.

  82. Really good doc on Netflix about the making of the ‘Imagine’ album called ‘Above Us Only Sky’.

    Phil Spector produced it and he was a crazy ass dude.

    And it’s only like an hour and a half long.

  83. I like the fact that the beatles worked just like us normal people, having a month to prepare a project and they didn’t get serious until like the last week or so.

    I like Paul and Wings stuff more than the Beatles’ for some reason, i like that brand of semi-experimental pop with a bit of progressive rock mix in that was similar to huey lewis and the news and Paul Simon or Peter Gabriel’s solo stuff in the 80s but Paul did it earlier. Yeah i guess i like cheesy contemporary rock in the 80s like stuff they used to play on VH1 in the 90s

  85. I wasn’t a huge Beatles fan even though they had a resurgence in the late-ish (?) 70s, about the time I was post-bubblegum/Jackson 5/Elton and discovering rock music just in time to have it replaced by punk. I definitely appreciate that they changed everything, though. Or did it all just coincide? In any event, they pumped out numerous classics in a very very short amount of time. Respect!

    I’ve seen snippets of Peter Jackson’s Beatles opus and observed that different people take different things from it; some people find that it confirms their bias (YOKO IS SATAN) while others discovered new aspects of the band, their creative process, their mythology. What I found interesting is the way that the original movie rewrote history and how finding all these old discarded out-takes has actually revised some wrong memories, even on the part of the individual surviving Beatles themselves. It wasn’t all doom and gloom. These men had been through a lot together and loved each other (though they definitely didn’t always like each other!). They didn’t break up because of Paul or because of Yoko. Paul is heard to say at one point that they didn’t break up “because Yoko sat on an amp.” The break up was inevitable and looming, cracks formed and were repaired temporarily, but they still had the juice to make great music.

  86. IMO the only one who produced anything of lasting value was George Harrison

    I think more and more people are agreeing with you

  87. i have a pet theory why they broke up.
    BOB DYLAN
    When he met with them and got them stoned on pot, he convinced John to improve on his lyrics, and not be a teeny -bopper band.
    John was able to up his game lyrically, while Paul couldn’t. Before their songs were co-written eyeball to eyeball. Over time they became 4 individual performers who recorded together.

  88. The Beatles met Bob Dylan in the summer of 1964.

    They broke up in 1970.

    In between McCartney wrote ‘Yesterday’, ‘Paperback Writer’, ‘Eleonor Rigby, ‘Here, There And Everywhere’, ‘She’s Leaving Home’, ‘Hey Jude’, ‘Let It Be’, I could go on and on and on.

  89. the Beatles’ private lives were a mess, didn’t know all these crazy stories before like Clapton stole George’s wife and George slept with Ringo’s wife, or yoko setting up an affair for John to make sure he only sleeps with one woman during their breakup, insane, were these real?

  90. Dave,

    Yep, all those you listed are true.

    Of course the same stories could be said of the Rolling Stones also.

  91. LOL, how the heck could they stayed friends, didn’t clapton tour with George in the 80s or 90s, Clapton and Ringo even preformed with George’s son in George’s tribute concert after passing away from cancer. very forgiving these rock stars. I guess it’s okay for them since they have affairs with other people’s wives all the time so its only fair when their wives cheat on them.

  92. The Beatles met Bob Dylan in the summer of 1964.
    They broke up in 1970.
    In between McCartney wrote ‘Yesterday’, ‘Paperback Writer’, ‘Eleonor Rigby, ‘Here, There And Everywhere’, ‘She’s Leaving Home’, ‘Hey Jude’, ‘Let It Be’, I could go on and on and on.
    You mean lyrics like “Jet”
    There is a reason Lennon called Paul’s music ” Granny Shit”.
    Seriously Paul as a musician was likely the most talented
    But he was not a wordsmith like Lennon.
    Unless of course you consider” Hello-Goodbye” to be as good as its flip side ” I am the Walrus”
    and Good day Sunshine really fit in with “Tomorrow Never knows”

  93. Citing ‘I Am The Walrus’ for it’s lyrics is bizarre because it’s whole purpose (according to Lennon) was as a shot at those that were claiming the Beatles lyrics had some super deep meaning. It was meant to be gibberish.

    Plus for every ‘Good Day Sunshine’ Lennon had a ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’ so that goes both ways.

  94. Just out of curiosity…
    People did get that “Eat At Home” was about oral sex?
    The lyrics are still not inspired, but a bit clever and naughty. John and Paul did enjoy sneaking stuff in like that.
    One story about “Ticket to Ride” — it was John’s phrase for the clean bill of health certificate Hamburg prostitutes had to have to operate. Perhaps too good to be true.

    They were big on double entendres
    But they gave themselves plausible deniability. Yes Julian drew a picture of Lucy, but even Paul admitted it was about LSD

  95. Citing ‘I Am The Walrus’ for it’s lyrics is bizarre because it’s whole purpose (according to Lennon) was as a shot at those that were claiming the Beatles lyrics had some super deep meaning. It was meant to be gibberish.
    Plus for every ‘Good Day Sunshine’ Lennon had a ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’ so that goes both ways.

    Goodmorning was a satire on middle class life based upon cereal commercials.
    Paul ( and if you read the 1980 Playboy interview always felt inadequate in his lyrics) just wrote a happy singsongy childs song that didn’t belong on that album.
    and since you are bringing up a song from the vastly overrated SPLHCB, Paul was incapable of Lucy or Desolation Row.
    But he could play every instrument on his Granny Shit

  96. For those of you speculating on reasons for their break-up, it’s nearly impossible to imagine a scenario where they would have stayed together. Four different people thrown together for a work scenario that requires them traveling together, living together… Bands made up of spouses often breakup. And factor in that by the time of the break-up they were absurdly wealthy and were looking at years of royalties; plus any record company or artist would have worked with them for almost any sum of money.

    There was zero reason to stay together and a world of reasons to split up. And they all did smashingly well, at least financially, after the split.

  97. This documentary confirmed my theory on why the structures of Beatles songs were so unique, they were wrote collaboratively by two or three people together at the same time bouncing ideas to each other so basically they were three songs mixed into one. People often praise shine on you crazy diamond or stairway to heaven or bohemian rhapsody for their complex structures but such complex structure was often heard in Beatles songs despite being much shorter in length, take I’ve got a feeling for example, it’s basically two songs (Paul’s soulful part woven with john’s nearly monologue part) they lost the edge if Paul and John couldn’t write together bc of the presence of yoko. Paul probably continued this style of songwriting with wings therefore the complex structure (live and let die) that was unique with the Beatles were still present in wings compositions.

  98. I would guess the composition of while my guitar gently weeps was not a collaboration because unlike other Beatles the structure of that song was uniquely uniform and followed a more conventional rock ballad structure.

  99. To each his own. I grew up with classical music training. I’m a Christian who adores high church liturgical music, including Gregorian chants, but I also absolutely love AC/DC. Humans are highly complex and unpredictable, especially when it comes to musical taste; we like what we like.

  100. Dave:

    Why do you think such complex structures were unique to the Beatles? Just to take one example, Roy Orbison was known for complex song structures that broke the boundaries of verse, chorus, repeat, before the Beatles.

    “Bohemian Rhapsody” actually WAS several songs grafted onto each other, although all three were by Mercury (“”It was basically three songs that I wanted to put out, and I just put the three together”).

    The Bee Gees wrote in a manner not unlike that of the Beatles, for the most part. Usually one of them had an idea for a hook or a melodic line that was a fragment, and then together they improvised with a tape recorder running until they had a song. Sometimes the process was very very quick. Their song structures are sometimes conventional and sometimes quite complex. Please see this.

  101. As great as bee gees’ music was before the disco era anyone feels that having a proper backup band and most importantly a good drummer would have made their earlier music that much better, the tempo was usually all wrong for example the recording of Massachusetts was played way too slow.

  102. This documentary confirmed my theory on why the structures of Beatles songs were so unique, they were wrote collaboratively by two or three people together at the same time bouncing ideas to each other so basically they were three songs mixed into one.

    Dave:

    Good point. Not so much the complex structures, but the close collaboration between three remarkably talented songwriters with different sensibilities. Ringo rose to the occasion in his way too.

    I can’t think of any other group that achieved such integration of its members. And it showed, as you say, when the band broke up. John, Paul and George had plenty of power to write for and lead major rock groups. They did fine on their own. But their solo work never had the same fullness of the Beatles.

    Related… Recently I learned the story behind Traffic’s “John Barleycorn Must Die” album. Traffic had broken up and Steve Winwood was making a solo album. Like Paul, Winwood had talent to burn and planned to play all the parts. But he missed the camaraderie and group effort so he called in Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood for some help.

    Thus Traffic was reunited and they made what many consider the best Traffic album. Certainly, IMO.

  103. I started “Get Back” tonight. I had been put off by its length and by my disappointment with the original “Let It Be” film, which I saw in the theater and later on a friend’s laserdisc, as a somewhat boring and unhappy experience.

    “Get Back” is gorgeous to look at. I believe Peter Jackson used digital techniques to enhance the original footage. Much better than what I remember of the laserdisc.

    I had forgotten the ambitious plan — to create an album from scratch on camera, then perform it live — all within two weeks. I remember thinking the “Let It Be” album sounded pretty thin, even slapdash, in comparison to their deeply layered albums from “Revolver” on.

    It was weird to see them working in such a barren looking space. I was also struck anew by what handsome young men they were.

    There was a great moment when John, for no particular reason, suddenly broke into the theme from “The Third Man” and played with more flash than I gave him credit for.

    Versions of “The Third Man” were #3 andd #7 in the Billboard Hits of 1950. That was a different world of pop music.

  104. huxley:

    Two words: Bee Gees.

    You knew it was coming, didn’t you? 🙂

    The three wrote the vast majority of their 1000+ songs together – music and lyrics – and you can’t tell who did what, and that’s the way they wanted it. Their songwriting process was a very similar collaboration. They also said that it was their favorite part of the whole thing, and that only the three of them knew what they did and how they did it.

  105. huxley,

    I think the second and third episodes are far better than the first. I know they had to tell the Twickenham story but it was so disorderly compared to the later parts.

    The overall length was daunting to me as well but once you get into it goes pretty fast.

  106. Michael Lindsay Hogg the original ‘Let It Be’ director is the son of Orson Welles though apparently he didn’t know until he was adult.

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