I think I know the bits your talking about, or some of them at least, and I still think it’s mismatched video and audio. I suspect there were times when they were rehearsing a song but, for whatever reason, the audio is no good. Then maybe there’s another bit of audio available with no video, and so video of them rehearsing the song is matched with audio of them rehearsing the same song, but it’s not the audio that goes with the video we’re seeing. Or there might be an interesting piece of audio with no video but there is video of a similar situation, so it looks nearly, but not quite, right.
I just watched the first chapter tonight, and I found interesting what Paul had said about not having Brian Epstein anymore. After Epstein’s death, they had decided that they would manage themselves, but that meant that there was no longer a non-Beatle who could pull rank on them, and get them to focus and get work done.
Yeah they seemed a bit lost without an outsider to give them direction. And they seemed to know it (as you say, Paul openly said it). All the others on the periphery didn’t seem to have the standing or be in the position to take on that role. And when Paul tried to lead he just ended up making George more disgruntled. The chronically late John Lennon seemed ok to just go along with whatever was happening.
Even at 6 or 7 hours we only saw a tenth of what was filmed and probably only a couple percent of the total rehearsal and recording hours the Beatles logged that month. They may have had those songs in the bag by the time the rooftop concert took place, but we just didn’t see any evidence in the snippets we got to see. Something I didn’t realize is that there were three of four songs they were determined to get a good take of on the roof so they repeated some two, three, and even four times to make sure they had a good one. The concert was a gimmick for the film, but the Beatles, Martin, and Johns were treating it like a recording session.
I merged the two Get Back threads together and added to the Title of the thread.
Not sure if I’m reading this correctly, but George did have lung cancer and died from that and other medical issues.
From The Wiki Pedia:
Final cause of death was lung cancer that spread to the brain.
Another thought about how the original Let it Be film was edited. Were Apple and Lindsey-Hogg trying to maintain the impression that this was a chronicle of the last or most recently recorded Beatles album? If I’m remembering correctly, “Octopus’s Garden” was the only Abbey Road or solo album song heard in the 1970 film. I”m not sure if the general public knew much about the recording order of the last two albums at the time.
“Fifty years from now they’ll be saying they broke up because Yoko sat on an amp!” Moment of prescient clarity from Paul, conscious or not – that the end was closing in, and that the public would look for some facile excuse rather than that this collaboration had run its course.
Just think – All Things Must Pass could have been a late Beatles release, giving the fans yet another chance to knock themselves out about coded messages.
No, I clearly recalled partial session footage of Maxwell’s Silver Hammer with Mal on anvil, (a quick search confirms it and apparently Oh Darling as well).
But yeah, the focus was on the repurposed Let It Be project – thus the two full studio-produced “videos” of Let It Be (with alternate lyric) and The Long And Winding Road incorporated into the film. Get Back/Don’t Let Me Down had been released as a stand-alone studio single back in spring '69 after the recording sessions, and they were made into highlights of the rooftop footage as “live versions”, including John’s “hope we passed the audition” quip.
Preston was so impressive. Just walking in and jumping into the songs. His presence seemed to level out the 4.
Paul going to the drums every now and again was interesting. Wonder what ringo thought about that.
I also think there’s a lot more going on in Ringo’s head than he lets on. He’s taking everything in, processing, and he’s one of those people that, when he does decide to speak, everyone else can’t help but pay attention. Here’s some of my earlier post in which I mention Ringo:
(Maybe bad form to quote myself, but when the threads got merged, my post from last night got buried among those from last December.)
That’s fine, the merges work weird on Discourse.
It was also interesting to hear George pitch doing a solo album to John (and Yoko). I’ve often wondered if the Beatles could’ve “given” an album to George after Let It Be, where 11 or 12 songs are George’s and Lennon/McCartney only contribute 2-3, maybe that would’ve relieved some pressure in the pressure cooker and kept the band together a while longer. It would’ve given George a chance to record his backlogged songs, given John a break from coming up with new songs and just be with Yoko, and I think Paul would’ve done almost anything to keep the band together at that point, and just enjoyed working on songs no matter who wrote them, so doing an album of George’s songs wouldn’t have necessarily been a problem for him.
Imagine the 11 best songs from “All Things Must Pass” as a Beatles album with “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Teddy Boy,” and “Mother.”
For all the “stereotypes” of drummers, they tend to be the backbones of the band, musically and personally.
Due to the best incident, I believe ringo did not feel as secure in the group as the other 3. It could also be his personality type, sit back, take it all in, form an opinion.
Seeing Paul and John sing through their teeth at each other was interesting . Noodling around…but there was something under it.
Along with the “amp” comment Paul made, he also said that if it came to the Beatles or yoko, John would choose yoko. That did not happen with any of the women that were in the lads lives. The John/yoko relationship was very different from anything the group encountered wifewise.
I must disagree with this. You’ll notice most of this “time wasting” happened early in the day. This was essentially them warming up, getting loose and into the right mindset to get to serious work on their new material. All part of the process.
Or when they were waiting for Glyn Johns to have the recording equipment set up properly. A lot of it was just them filling time that otherwise would have been spent just sitting there waiting.
Maybe it’s an odd little thing for me to focus on, but I noticed a few times when the others called Ringo “Rich” or “Richie.” His real name is Richard Starkey, of course, but I didn’t think he really used that name anymore except for legal purposes. It’s interesting that they thought of him, on some level, as “Rich.”
I’ve gathered that “Ringo” was always a stage name. Both his wives called him Ritchie, I’ve heard Paul refer to him as such, and someone posted here about his living in a coastal British town. “He’s an okay guy, as long as you remember that his name is Mr. Starkey. Ritchie if you get to know him. But call him Ringo just once, and you’re dead to him.”
Good point.
mmm
Yeah, it’s odd how the posts ended up totally out of sequence. Bizarre.