I don’t know how well Get Back will go over with the general public–I suspect it’s to long and has too much noodling about to hold the interest of many. But I for one want to give Peter Jackson a big “thank you!” for the work that he did to bring this to the fans. Seeing the various interviews he’s done, it was obviously a labor of love for him.
Now that I’ve watched the entire documentary, I’m pleased to say that it did pick up, but I still think they could have trimmed the entire first part to about 30 minutes, and easily cut 30 minutes out of the second part, and still tell the story they wanted to tell.
Looking at it as an old guy now, the entire thing looks like a couple of young geniuses started a fabulously successful company and were having a great time with it. Then the businessman who actually ran the company (Brian Epstein) died and they didn’t know what to do next.
Paul tried to step in as the boss, leading to a big “who elected you?” from the other three.
John didn’t care about how things ran, he was too interested in big concepts and, incidentally, commenting sarcastically about anyone else’s suggestions.
George comes off as the guy who joined the company early, but realizes he’s never going to be a full partner, and he’s got his resume polished up and is ready to walk out the door. Paul and John either don’t take him seriously, or don’t really care if he leaves (John’s line about if George doesn’t show up on Monday, they’ll bring Clapton in on Tuesday will be in my head for a long time.)
And Ringo is the guy who loves his job, loves the people he works with, has his own little niche, but it’s strictly 9 to 5 fior him. He doesn’t live and die for the gig, and if it ends tomorrow, he’ll get another one.
John’s comments to George’s face while he was pitching “I, Me, Mine” are pretty dickish too:
George sings a few bars of “I, Me, Mine” to Paul & John.
John: Run along, son. We’ll see you later, we’re a rock and roll band, you know?
George: I don’t care if you don’t want it. I don’t give a fuck.
John: George, have you any idea what we play?
It’s no wonder George always looked sheepish when he would pitch stuff or they’d start working on his songs. It’s also no wonder he wanted to get the fuck out of the Beatles.
John and Yoko were on heroin by the time of the Get Back/Let It Be sessions.
If I remember correctly, Sir Ringo’s committment Magic Christian was one of the reasons (or only reason?) for the self-imposed three week deadline.
I have not seen it all yet, but for me, McCartney comes across as the one most committed to making the Beatles carry on. He said they lacked a leader since Epstein’s death, and he was right. They needed an “adult” who would help them focus, direct them, and instill in them a sense of commitment and discipline.
Paul saw what was lacking and made efforts to provide some direction. Unfortunately (and predictably), that did not go over well.
A similar situation developed with John Fogerty and the rest of CCR on their road to extinction.
mmm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but hadn’t Epstein died a year and a half earlier, and in the interim, they had produced the White Album?
Granted, the White Album could be looked at as a series of songs by solo artists, rather than a group ‘with direction.’ Nevertheless, it arguably contained better songs than anything that followed.
You are correct, and it was the group’s dissatisfaction with the white album that led to the Let It Be concept of simpler production, more rock and roll, closer to live recording.
As noted upthread, Ringo was upset enough during production of the white album that he quit the group. Let It Be didn’t turn out to be the family reunion they might have hoped for, but at least the fighting dynamics were different.
Where would you find the original? I’ve heard it’s out of print since the 1980’s.
True, but people weren’t interested in being Paul’s little project, and they understandably pushed back against his leadership. There was fine line between being a friend and being an asshole, and John and Paul in particular crossed that line a number of times. The boys had outgrown the band, and the amazing thing is they were only in their late 20’s at the time. Imagine doing your most significant life’s work by the time you’re 28.
I don’t think their egos would have let them.George was a junior partner at best, and there was no way that Lennon and McCartney were giving up their status. Hence why George came out with an unprecedented triple album in response.
In one of his interviews Peter Jackson talked about seeing the VHS version of Let It Be on one of his first visits to LA. At the time he passed because in New Zealand they used the PAL format and the US version was NTSC and he figured he could pick a copy up when he got home.
Well, no such luck…by the time he decided he wanted a copy they were out of print. Years later he bought a bootleg for $200, but by that time he didn’t have a VHS player, so he never got to watch it.
That’s amazing as a footnote!
Correction: A double album, with a bonus disc of instrumental noodling.
I get that the two primaries had egos, but Paul was also (I think) desperate to keep the band together. If he had let George have a majority of songs on an album, it may have helped. I mean, Lennon came to the Get Back recording session with practically nothing to record, so I don’t think songwriting was his main priority those days. And John was more often than not absent from George’s recording sessions in later years anyway. I think if George had a one-on-one with Paul, and played some of his best material, he might’ve convinced Paul that a bunch of Harrisongs on the next album was the best way to keep the band afloat.
Paul was the one typically driving the concept of each new album anyway, so if George could’ve gotten him on board, and John felt like he could get a bit of time to go off and shoot smack with Yoko, a George album wouldn’t have been too far of a stretch.
Obviously it didn’t happen that way, and a break-up and the triple album from George is what we got, so I’m just speculating…
The one I have has three record discs in it inside a big thick box. I understand what you’re saying, but that counts as a triple album where I come from.
Right, the original concept was supposed to be illustrative of a return to basics, up to and including the return of a live concert, which they had discontinued in 1966. When the “Get Back” project collapsed resulting only in one single being released, the whole hot mess got repurposed as “Let It Be” to comply with the contractual obligation (the album work eventually landing in the hands of Phil Spector and resulting in an album that since has been re-released in two different de-Spectorized mixes).
After that cluster-f, they got back together with George Martin and the decision was made, never mind that still-ongoing boondoggle, let’s now just properly Make. An. Album. with nobody being on our case that we need to have a live public performance in the can by a date certain – resulting in the superior Abbey Road.
I don’t think Pail was going to relinquish his older brother role, not until at least 1995 anyway, and even when George left Paul didn’t seem to be taking it that seriously. I think he said he assumed George would be back.
Thing is, behind everybody’s back, Paul was already recording his first solo album where he plays all the instruments, and even decided to release it just before Let It Be, much to the chagrin of the other Beatles. Paul was watching out for Number One, much as they all were by this point. They knew the band wouldn’t last forever and so had started making other plans.
I believe it was Ringo who said if it hadn’t been for Paul, they’d probably have made two less albums.
As an interesting aside, has anybody ever considered that the guitar solo on the album version of Let It Be sounds A LOT more like McCartney’s signature guitar style than Harrison’s? It sounds a lot to me like the same guy (tone, style, vibrato) who plays the guitar solo on Maybe I’m Amazed. Just sayin’.
Could be. I’ll bet George and Paul both put that solo down on tape and they just picked the best one not necessarily making any note of who performed it.
One thing that surprised me was how much bass John was playing to free up Paul for piano. It was a six string bass and easily confused for a guitar if you weren’t watching his finger work.