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The Beatles: Get Back

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,942 ✭✭✭✭Beechwoodspark


    Saw the “sneak peek”. Not overly impressed. Will catch it whenever it is on tv


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 61,264 ✭✭✭✭Agent Coulson


    So do Disney now own the rights to The Beatles catalogue?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,638 ✭✭✭cml387


    A bit of backstory here.

    Hours and hours of footage were shot in 1969 as part of what The Beatles planned as a "back to basics" music album of which the film was going to be part.

    What emerged eventually was a heavily censored (by the fab four) film and the album "Let It Be" was a mish mash cobbled together by Lennon and Phil Spector.

    For a Beatles fan what makes this Jackson version special is the restoration of the film and the novelty of seeing The Beatles in sparkling HD as if recorded yesterday.

    I doubt whether it will much appeal to a casual viewer but the trailer did knock me back a bit, I shall be interested to see the final version.


  • Posts: 1,167 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I adored Eight Days a Week and can't imagine anything better, but I'd watch Beatles docs all day long so will pick it up at some stage


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,339 ✭✭✭emo72


    Growing up in the 70s we were told that those recordings were a fractious affair. Lots of bad blood between the fab 4. That snippet tells a different story. It looks like they had great fun. The quality of the restoration is amazing. I can't wait to see the movie.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,318 ✭✭✭El Gato De Negocios


    I adored Eight Days a Week and can't imagine anything better, but I'd watch Beatles docs all day long so will pick it up at some stage

    Same, more excited to see this than anything else coming down the tracks. Its pretty heartbreaking when you think that so little footage of the band exists considering they are arguably the greatest band of all time.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 61,264 ✭✭✭✭Agent Coulson


    Now a 3 episode series which drops one episode a day starting November 25th, 26th & 27th on Disney+.




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 61,264 ✭✭✭✭Agent Coulson




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,252 ✭✭✭✭The Nal


    This is so good. Every second of it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,213 ✭✭✭TheIrishGrover


    Looking forward to checking this out. The footage restoration looks fantastic.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,170 ✭✭✭trashcan


    Ditto to all of that. I’m a sucker for most music documentaries, but especially the Beatles. Eight Days a Week was great, this should be too. I found a low quality copy of the original on YouTube a few years ago and it wasn’t great to be honest, so hopefully this will be an improvement.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,297 ✭✭✭Seathrun66


    Watched the first half of the first part earlier today. Fascinating stuff but hard to see it appealing to non-fans in the way that previous material on the band has. Seven hours of studio interplay and forty mins of a rooftop gig. Catnip for me though.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,848 ✭✭✭✭Arghus


    I'm loving it too, but I'd have a hard time selling it to someone who didn't love them - it is just guys working on music. I'd understand how eight hours of it mightn't do it for people.

    So cool to see them working through the songs. Everyone looks so cool.

    Post edited by Arghus on


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,323 ✭✭✭phonypony


    Pretty decent so far, but I find the constant shoehorning of b-roll where it's not necessary to be really annoying. It's one thing (and often a necessary evil) to cut to a shot from a totally different song, different tempos, even when it's painfully obvious, I think it's generally accepted in a film like this. But cutting to a half second shot of Linda for example, 20 feet away from the others in the conversation, mouthing a different word to what's on the audio, it's like a bad home movie in places. There are even times where it's clear it's Paul saying something on the audio and they've cut in a shot of John mouthing a similar word.

    I thought this production would be above all that and let the footage they do have and the matching audio speak for themselves.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,318 ✭✭✭El Gato De Negocios


    At the opening of it, it states that there are scenes where audio was captured but no video and that "stock shots would be used in the absence of available footage, not sure where the annoyance is coming from tbh.

    Anyway, just finished part 1. Really enjoying, it's something that we never see that raw and up close, ie the simultaneous birthing of an album running parallel with the disintegration of the biggest bad in the world. They really were the Lenton and McCartney show. Probably a bit boring for non fans of the band but I'm finding it utterly fascinating and will watch part 2 tomorrow night, Toy Show be damned! 🤣



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,297 ✭✭✭Seathrun66


    I agree re the B-roll stuff, they made that clear at the start and in all interviews about the doc. First part fascinating but you've really got to be a devotee. I can't see this appealing to many of my pals, heavy music fans though they are. Some observations:

    • Macca is running it, but trying to include everyone. George is cranky, Lennon still in his heroin phase and not engaging much. Ringo just looks bored staring down from the drumkit all day.
    • The director's pushing of the Libya gig is pretty hilarious.
    • Macca enjoyed his cigars.
    • The creativity on show is astounding. Only the first part but rehearsals already have several tracks from both Let It Be and Abbey Road as well as solo stuff such as Gimme Some Truth, All Things Must Pass, Another Day. The development of Get Back was stunning.
    • They're decent guys who interact well with all those about them.
    • Linda is cute.
    • Yoko has infinite patience sitting there all day long listening to blokes jamming and bantering. Maybe she has John's stash and he needs her close.
    • The footage is extraordinary. Astonishing that it exists.




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,318 ✭✭✭El Gato De Negocios


    Their creativity was and is staggering. Literally just sitting there with a tune in their head, playing it, mmmm mmmm mmmming the sound of the words they think fit, then fitting the words around it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,848 ✭✭✭✭Arghus


    Yeah, it was amazing to see them tossing out songs like All Things Must Pass and Gimme Some Truth like they were nothing - "oh I've been working on this one, what do you think?"

    Makes me think about Noel Gallagher has been patting himself on the back for nearly 30 years for writing Live Forever - it wouldn't have even got beyond a jam session with the Beatles.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,318 ✭✭✭El Gato De Negocios


    You'd have to wonder what effect Epsteins death had on them as a group. The reverence they had for him, referring to him as Mr Epstein even though he was just a couple of years older than them. He could well have been the glue that was holding them together, they even said as such in part 1. A case of what might have beens.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 61,264 ✭✭✭✭Agent Coulson


    Just watching Harrison saying to Ringo I was watching this thing on the BBC last night and I wrote this small song do you want to hear it and then he starts I Me Mine



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,252 ✭✭✭✭The Nal


    Well they'd no issue taking the piss either. Lennon used to sing "Baby You're a Rich Fag Jew" when they were recording Baby Youre a Rich Man.

    Although he was still alive then.

    Theres a fantastic bit, still to come, when Ringo brings in Octopuses Garden and George helps him with it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,322 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    more trivia - I Me Mine was the last song they ever recorded, in early 1970 (without Lennon) - they only went back to record it because that clip was featured in the original Let It Be movie and they wanted the song on the "soundtrack" album.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 202 ✭✭Toeuptony


    Yep, this interview with Peter Jackson goes into a bit more detail on what archives they had to work with and it also explains the gap between audio and video footage

    https://www.avclub.com/peter-jackson-on-asking-the-beatles-the-tough-questions-1848104306



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,318 ✭✭✭El Gato De Negocios


    Just finished up with part two, a compelling watch. Lennon was very obviously out of it in parts and you'd have to have a degree of sympathy for Paul, George and John had checked out of the band but he was desperately trying to cling to the past.

    Just on Yoko. Its oft been reported that she wasn't to blame for the break up but fcuk me pink, she is stuck to Lennon like a barnacle. He obviously wanted it that way but there is no way in hell that she wasn't someway responsible for the wedge, even if it was indirectly. Can you imagine what it would be like, being there with the closest people in your life for more than a decade, trying to create something but having an omnipresent interlopper watching every single thing and interjecting in conversations that are of no concern to them.

    Won't get to watch part 3 til Sunday but I'm dying to see it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,210 ✭✭✭Royale with Cheese


    Just watched episode 1 and the start of episode 2. I absolutely love the Beatles so I'm enjoying it but I can't help but feel I'm in a bit of a niche as far as viewers in 2021 go. My wife was falling asleep towards the end of episode 1. Could this really not have been edited down to a 2 - 2.5 hour film for the casual viewer?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,318 ✭✭✭El Gato De Negocios


    How many casual viewers would be interested in it, even in a truncated form?

    It's unequivocally something for fans of the band and it would be doing a disservice to them to leave out alot of the stuff. At the end of the day, there are 10s of millions of fans of the band in the world that appreciate the unique insights.

    Forgot to mention last night, Billy Preston was an effin genius. Coming in completely cold, listening to them play rough cuts of the tracks and syncing his piano perfectly with them. Ridiculous talent and him only 25 at the time.



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,217 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    Lennon comes across as a petulant arse a lot of the time, with little enough to offer musically compared to McCartney. McCartney really does seem to be trying to hold them together, navigating Lennon's moods and Harrison's concerns, even giving props to Ono, though she must have been a bloody headwreck in that environment and at one point he's nearly at the point of tears over it all. Harrison was coming into his own. Why they didn't include his All things must pass on that album or the next is beyond me(or Macca's Another Day). At least they copped on with Something and Here comes the sun. The other two, but especially Lennon were largely ignoring him. Then again that had always been the case. McCartney did put in the time and effort and did help Harrison on a lot of his songs, Lennon rarely enough did and was patronising about it. For the very last Beatles recording session for Harrison's I me mine, it was Paul and Ringo there, Lennon was gone. It always surprised me that Harrison and Ringo gravitated towards Lennon after the split. McCartney is the one with the work ethic though, to the point of perfectionist and control freak over the product so that would be a lot of it I suppose. Ringo was just easy going Ringo. Without him in the mix I suspect they'd have produced fewer quality songs(he was miles ahead of someone like Charlie Watts for example) and would have split up earlier.

    You'd want to be a fan alright, but it was interesting to see the wider dynamics going on and how they were still in the game a lot of the time. I'd seen the original Let it Be flic back in the 90's and it was more depressing and covered up a lot of the cracks and good vibes. It also gave a hint of how it might have been resolved and how they might have continued on for a little longer. The idea of Lennon's of bringing in different people like Preston and Dylan as a "Beatles & Co" could well have worked, though McCartney poo poo'd that notion.

    For me it's a documentary on what was and what might have been and how scarily creative they were even at that stage. And how quickly they came up with stuff and how bloody hard they worked at it. None of this three years between albums stuff. They worked five, often six days a week, on top of writing at home, 12 or more hour days together, pretty much week in weekout for eight years honing song after song. 12 albums, 13 EPs and 22 singles. Never mind touring the world for half of that time. Never mind a near continuous upward improvement in quality on the cutting edge of music producing stuff that had never been heard before and rarely repeating themselves while always sounding like them. Consider this; the gap between recording Help! and Tomorrow Never Knows is less than a year. Absolutely insane output.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 462 ✭✭Ben Done


    ^Great post.

    Only watched ep1 so far.

    Can see how it's only one for Beatles fans, but personally I'd be happy to watch Jackson's initial cut, which I think he said was 16 hours!

    Amazing watching songs you've known all your life being born before your eyes, under such pressure as well.

    Lindsey-Hogg comes across as a posh twat, and his constant pushing of Tripoli, when George was dead set against it, contributed to the negative atmosphere and George's ultimate walk-out, imo.



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,217 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    Lindsey-Hogg comes across as a posh twat

    So it wasn't just me who thought that then? 😁

    Yeah, total eejit. Though he was at the start of the whole "music video" thing and had directed a few of the Beatles early ones and the Stones too, so was horribly well connected. It was that more than talent IMHO. They could have approached some of the new wave French directors(like the Stones did) or some of the top flight British or American guys too. Though maybe Hoggs slightly amateur faffing about made for a more gritty end project which looks more fly on the wall "modern". He was a young turk just like them and I suspect his posh background had some part to play in it too. Britain was still very much a class ridden society and him being a minor aristo was likely an automatic "respect" thing with the Beatles. George Martin had that effect on them early on and notice how they referred to their late manager as "Mr Epstein". It's easy to forget that though they were hipper than a hip thing they were a British generation born in the war and many of the old scutter was still very much in play. Lennon of course milked that the other way, with his "working class hero" schtick, even though he was by far the most middle class of the lot of them. Not too many working class English kids in the 1950's were swanning off to art school.

    Ringo was also dead set against Tripoli too. Which is a kind of a pity as the Beatles playing on that Roman stage would have been amazeballs(Pink Floyd nicked the Roman stage thing for themselves later). Though less so for the songs they were working on there. Abbey Road would have been the better fit IMHO. Then again with Hogg directing and the tech of the time it could well have been a washout. Now if they had David Lean shooting and George Martin producing the soundtrack...

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 861 ✭✭✭Simon201


    Easy to say now I suppose, and I'm only on the first episode but I love all the Beatles before and after the split but I just felt I wanted to hear Lennon and McCartney just occasionally give a bit of praise to George for the ideas of his early versions of songs. I've always been of the opinion that the best of George's songs easily equal the best of Lennon and McCartneys songs. It's just that they were more plentiful over the years they were together. And yes, as some have said how the hell did they pretty much disregard George doing his early version of All Things Must Pass!



  • Posts: 3,801 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    George’s tragedy was that he was one of the best songwriters of the era, but the third best in the Beatles.

    my God though, the workload. They were supposed to record an album of new songs and play the songs live by the 20th Jan, starting on the 2nd jan, which was a Thursday. By the time they were settling into the Monday of their first full week ( Jan 6) they had just two weeks to do it. Madness.

    Post edited by [Deleted User] on


  • Posts: 3,801 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Also I was surprised how little George Martin was involved in the day to day. Maybe that was because the album was supposed to be recorded live.



  • Posts: 1,167 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Small observation : they don't curse.

    No one seems to curse, a room full of men under pressure and no verbal obscenities.

    Have things changed so much or are my circles especially crude?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,170 ✭✭✭trashcan


    Yeah, thought that was amazing too. “Here’s one I wrote last night, what do you think ?” Then launches into a pretty fully formed I Me Mine. Fascinating, as was McCartney with fledgling versions of Let it Be, Long and Winding Road (with Mal Evans helping him with the lyrics !) Two of Us and Another Day. Not to mention the evolution of Get Back and a couple of tunes that ended up on Abbey Road, She Came in Through Bathroom Window and Golden Slumbers. What was striking was the emergence of George (All Things Must Pass has been mentioned already) and the relatively meagre contribution of Lennon (so far, have only watched episode) All we’ve really heard from him so far is Gimme Some Truth, Don’t Let Me Down and his part in I’ve Got a Feeling (Loved Georges sarky “Is this one called I’ve Got a Feeling ?”). McCartney by contrast was right at the top of his game and in the middle of a purple patch. (We’ll excuse him Maxwells Silver Hammer !)

    Interesting too that while we’ve heard so much about Yokos presence over the years ( and you can see how much it must have annoyed the others- Christ, the bit where she joins in on “vocals”) she wasn’t the only one hanging around. George had a couple of his Hari Krishna buddies there, and Linda also makes an appearance.

    Lyndsey Hoggs fixation with Libya was amusing alright, and some of the suggestions, such as playing on a cruise ship and bring a boatload of Brits over with them were bonkers.

    The bit with Dick James talking about buying publishing for Northern songs was interesting too, given what later transpired. He seemed like a real snake oil salesman and you could see that the band were barely tolerating him, McCartney particularly.

    I’m lapping it up anyway. Someone earlier mentioned the casual viewer, but frankly, to hell with him (or her) 😀 This is for us Beatles nerds



  • Posts: 3,801 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Yoko seemed fairly harmless to me. That time on the microphone was her and John playing around. Otherwise I don’t see her breaking up the Beatles. In fact at the end of episode 2 they are all getting along very well. George is happy with Apple studios, unlike Twickenham.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,848 ✭✭✭✭Arghus


    Just started episode 2.

    I'm amazed by some of the footage: McCartney sitting in silent thought contemplating the potential break up of the band, his eyes glassy with tears.

    And the captured conversation between Lennon and McCartney is revalatory: "You were always the boss and I was the secondary boss."

    I'm glad this exists this way. It's not a film as such, more a historical document.



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,217 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    McCartney sitting in silent thought contemplating the potential break up of the band, his eyes glassy with tears.

    If you watch it again he's actually physically shaking and chewing his thumb trying to keep a lid on it.

    Just after he says: And then there were two(just him and Ringo). That got me in the feelz I have to admit.

    Of all of them(with Ringo behind him) he comes across as the most "Beatle". The one who is most invested in it and them as a group and as friends and as a creative outlet. I think it was Keith Richards who described them as a four headed monster. You got one, you got them all. That in interviews and even chats it was usually "we" before "me". Later on you can see him really trying to connect with Lennon over their shared hippies in India thing.

    I remember reading of the immediate aftermath after the split and him getting into a very dark place and drinking his woes away and Linda trying to get him to snap out of it. Lennon in particular was a nasty petty little prick during that time, constantly needling McCartney in public and private and telling George Martin he was a hack and that he didn't like any of his songs the way they were recorded in the Beatles. George mostly stayed out of that and Ringo, well he has said he thought for a good while they would get back together and he'd get a phonecall outa the blue and that he felt it was never really truly official, even with the lawsuits and rancour. Looking back that McCartney reconnected with Lennon a few years later* surprises me. I reckon I'd have kicked the conceited twats head in TBH. IMHO anyway I reckon he had some level of forgiveness in his heart that's for sure. I also reckon that if Lennon had said in 75 say "let's do another album as us" he'd have jumped at it. Though I am glad they did get something like a friendship going again before Lennon was murdered.




    *when Yoko was temporarily out of the picture. When she came back it wasn't long before face to face contact slowly became frowned upon. While I don't think she "split up the Beatles" it's pretty clear she was very much the controlling sort and didn't like anyone too close to Lennon. She took a fair bit of control of his finances and "paid" him a wage so he could buy fags and such. Hell, when he got tired of her she arranged for another Japanese lass she knew to be his mistress. Woooooooo. 😮 Lennon was a seriously talented man, an actual bona fide genius, but a very bad judge of character it seems. I'd bet the farm that if that sadsack hadn't killed him he'd have divorced her.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,217 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    They were wll used it to be fair. Their workload was crazy and not just them, guys like the Stones were similar. It was an actual "job" with "art" on top. This was way before successful bands were allowed to be indulgent. They had to churn out at least one album a year, more like two and regular singles, that until the late 60's were separate to albums. This was in the contract. The first two songs they laid down for Sgt Pepper were Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, but they were grabbed as singles and weren't included on the album because of that. Sgt Pepper took six months to record. And this wasn't modern band "six months"(more like a couple of years) where they come in a few weeks at the end and lay down the tracks they've come up with in the interim that mostly sound like each other, because you don't want the fans to get confused. They were there, five, often six days a week, 14 hour plus days into the early morning for an actual six months until they got it right. Never mind George Martin and the engineers being there with them throughout. Indeed at the time the papers were wondering what the hell was taking them so long and were they splitting up. Six months to make a record? What the hell?

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,658 ✭✭✭pah


    I've heard a handful in the first episode, 2 or 3 maybe but yeah, I can't get through a 5minute catchup without every other fukking word being a swear



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 61,264 ✭✭✭✭Agent Coulson


    I loved how polite the people were when they were being interviewed about what they thought of the live music even if they didn’t like it.


    Also the police officer was so funny, All I could think was man if he could see the world today a band playing on the roof would be a nice break from everything else the police face today.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,322 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu



    according to (the brilliant) Revolution in the Head, George Martin was never keen on the live and unembellished idea of the sessions and reckoned they'd be a bit of a nightmare to produce, so he delegated it to Glyn Johns.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,297 ✭✭✭Seathrun66


    I agree re Lindsay-Hogg (Irish actress mum btw and his passport is ours - and after years of rumours her friends confirmed that he was Orson Welles' son after her death) but we've got to give him credit for getting all that work done, particularly the filming for the rooftop gig. Amazing work having all those cameras on the Apple roof alongside the other roof, the street stuff and the hidden one for the hapless police. They got every angle you'd possibly want to cover that event.

    And btw George Martin sounds posh but isn't. He grew up during the great depression in a house in Highbury without electricity and running water, his mum a maid and his dad a carpenter in and out of work. He did well at school and became a Royal Navy officer during World War II. I guess he altered his accent to fit in with the posh officers but had much more in common with The Beatles than many others they dealt with. Far less posh than John Lennon for starters. And how suave does he always look? In this doc, as always, he comes across as the consummate gentleman.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,297 ✭✭✭Seathrun66


    After watching that who would you most like to have a pint with?

    1. Macca. From all the reports I've ever heard a lovely bloke, remembers the name of the tea ladies at the radio stations he goes to, humble, smart and makes the effort with people. At the time of the doc he was clearly the force behind the band.
    2. Ringo. Chilled and likeable. The footage shows him as friendlier to the outsiders than the rest.
    3. George. Sullen and narky but mainly due to him pushing for greater involvement.
    4. John. Too much goofing around, most of it unfunny. Snarky and lacking charm. Plus he'd have his appendage with him.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,252 ✭✭✭✭The Nal


    Would suggest giving All Things Must Pass a listen (loud) after watching the doc. Havent really listened to it in a few years but it really brings a lot of stuff into focus. Totally different album after seeing the doc.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,322 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    watched the first part last night, and it's incredible. Looks amazing - they've done a fantastic job on the restoration. But the main thing is seeing all these stories and bits of information about the sessions and the songs that I've read in books etc actually playing out live on the screen.

    Also the amount of collaboration on songs that have generally been designated the work of one or other of the Beatles. Obviously the scene where Macca comes up with the basics of Get Back has been widely shared, but pretty much every song was brought in only about 20% written and then worked out in the studio with the other members contributing ideas and lyrics (including Glyn Johns and Mal Evans). The amount of creativity is incredible - as well as the songs for "Let It Be", they're pulling out songs that ended up on "Abbey Road" and various early solo albums; songs they wrote as teenagers, ragged run throughs of covers from every genre, jamming on their old hits etc.

    It really is the Paul show though, he's the one driving the whole thing forward, encouraging the others to up their game, often to their visual annoyance. Lennon is very sharp when he can be bothered but a lot of the time he's only half-engaged with the process. Both Paul and John consistently treat the other two as junior partners; despite George being the only member arriving with properly written songs.

    As a mediocre musician, I also loved the scenes of them showing each other how to play different bits and pieces - George explaining a bass part to John (because Paul was playing piano on Let it Be); George demonstrating some licks he'd learned from "Eric" etc.

    However, if you're not a Beatles nerd or a music obsessive I wonder how accessible this is across 9 hours. As they launch in a 10th half-assed run through of Two of Us I can see how some people might start to get bored. Not me though!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,322 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    There's a touching moment early in the first part where George is telling Paul how great it is for him to be involved in the creative process of getting the songs together and that prior to the previous album (the White Album I guess) he hadn't been that involved. Paul just shrugs.

    George obviously idolised John and Paul and really want to work more closely with them on his and their songs, but they were only interested in working with each other and begrudgingly allowed George a couple of songs per album.

    I saw a later interview with George where it was suggested that Paul may want to write some songs with him (this was around the time Paul was collaborating with Elvis Costello). George answered to the effect that Paul had had 30 years to ask him to write a song and he wasn't going to start now.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,318 ✭✭✭El Gato De Negocios


    Watched part 3 last night.

    A thoroughly enthralling watch from start to finish. Those expecting a documentary in the general sense of the term will be disappointed I feel but for fans of the band, its an absolute cornucopia of the best band of all time. A tremendously poignant watch, particularly the last hour, it encapsulates what the Beatles were, pure lightning in a bottle. You could see that it was Paul that loved performing most, he was utterly enthused, to the point of looking like a giddy school girl by times when they were on the rooftop. It was also heartbreaking to hear him speak afterwards and how that he felt at the time was that this was a precursor to something much grander. Alas, that never materialised. There was nothing like them before and there will be nothing like them ever again, a band that in 7 years released 13 studio albums and a plethora of singles, a band that captured the imagination of entire generations across the globe. A brilliant watch and one that I will revisit again for sure.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,252 ✭✭✭✭The Nal


    I actually found the entire thing quite surreal. Amazed how creative yet loose everything was and how it all came together so quickly. Basically the making of Let It Be and most of Abbey Road. In 22 days. From scractch.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,297 ✭✭✭Seathrun66


    Brilliant points but may I disagree with one. Paul saw this as a ‘precursor to something grander.’ And it was, Abbey Road possibly their greatest achievement. But yes, there could have been so much more at the rate they were going. Their7/8 years completely overwhelming the decades of work of all other artists.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,638 ✭✭✭cml387


    Does anyone know if this will be available on Blu Ray?


    The comment about George Martin delegating to Glynn Johns is true, but also because he was fed up with their antics in the studio.

    Remember he had been told by John that this next album (the "live" album) was going to have "none of your trickery".



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