Creating Get Back in Get Back

December 6, 2021 1:53 PM

John's late, and Paul's fucking around on his guitar, and suddenly magic occurs. Paul McCartney Composing Get Back (Jan 7, 1969) [2m33s] From Get Back, directed by Peter Jackson, now on D+. It's long long long, but that's because it has to be. The Beatles: Get Back Is an Eight-Hour Love Story [Slate, medium read]

For a bit more, here's Peter Jackson (via Variety) speaking about the technology used to clean up the video and the sound for the project. The article mostly reflects the contents of the video.

Also Jackson talking about the documentary in general, and the choices he made while creating it. Again, the article mostly covers the video (again from Variety). Also available on YouTube [13m].

Also, Giles Martin talks about his continuing project to modernize The Beatles' albums.

posted by hippybear (111 comments total)

Technically, Paul is fucking around on his bass, and George is noodling a bit on his guitar to think of what to play. 23 days later, they record it on the roof.

23 days ago was November 13; go back and look at anything archived (your Instagram feed, the MeFi archives*, your instant messages) and reflect how little time this is to create an album and several memorable songs.

*F.W. De Klerk had just died; the major rains in the Pacific Northwest were about to begin.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:12 PM on December 6, 2021 [7 favorites]

It almost feels like Paul is sculpting that song, chiseling it out of the stone block until suddenly, there it is. Get back!
posted by chavenet at 2:18 PM on December 6, 2021 [8 favorites]

To me, the best moments of Get Back are the extended periods of hanging out and talking shit. There's this undercurrent of seed-planting in even the most mundane conversations, although this is probably a reflection of Jackson's talent for identifying these moments and incorporating them into the narrative. It's wonderful to become witness to the moment when some of these seeds eventually sprout, and magnificent to see them suddenly bloom into full grown tunes. I can't recall any previous documentary being able to capture the creative process in quite this way.
posted by vverse23 at 2:25 PM on December 6, 2021 [16 favorites]

I like "Get Back" and it is cool to see Paul casually piece it together on the bass. (And, boy, it would be great if the rest of the 8 hours had more moments like that!) But, I have also been kind of confused about how the reviews speak of this moment so breathlessly. To me, "Get Back" totally sounds like a song that was written in five minutes. It's not "Bohemian Rhapsody" or something.
posted by snofoam at 2:25 PM on December 6, 2021 [12 favorites]

The first Beatles song my friends and I learned, sort of. "All My Loving" was too hard, especially the rhythm guitar part.
posted by thelonius at 2:26 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

What's better than sitting right in front of Paul McCartney at the moment he conceives of "Get Back" and your reaction is just a huge yawn?

Having your yawn captured on video for millions of people to watch decades later.
posted by straight at 2:26 PM on December 6, 2021 [13 favorites]

I like how George is fake-singing to cover the yaaawn.
posted by chavenet at 2:29 PM on December 6, 2021

Get Back on Fanfare
posted by one for the books at 2:30 PM on December 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

Creativity-the waiting game, waiting for Lennon while the magic writhes, organizing, throwing off discord and settling in, as a way of life. Boom, then the story is following the music, they get married, and we listen happily ever after...
posted by Oyéah at 2:32 PM on December 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

To me, "Get Back" totally sounds like a song that was written in five minutes. It's not "Bohemian Rhapsody" or something.

That's the thing. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was composed. It contains hundreds of ideas and decisions. There isn't just one moment where it came into being. "Get Back" is basically one really catchy idea (or maybe "mood" or "grove" be a better word) and you can watch Paul having that idea.

And there's different kinds of ideas. Sometimes a musician will have something in their head and grab an instrument to get it out. Here, it's more like Paul is listening and searching for something and then grabbing it as he hears it.
posted by straight at 2:43 PM on December 6, 2021 [16 favorites]

I couldn't help being reminded of the scene in Amadeus where Mozart sits down at the piano and turns poor Salieri's uninspired March into Non più andrai.
posted by verstegan at 3:05 PM on December 6, 2021 [11 favorites]

I'm not yet done watching Get Back (will they actually play on the roof? the suspense!). But one interesting thing to see about the song "Get Back" – as Jackson shows us its evolution over a few weeks – is that the music and groove came to Paul in just a few minutes, but then the lyrics went through so many different permutations. It was originally an anti-anti-immigration song, with much more politically pointed lyrics about xenophobes in England telling Pakistani immigrants to go home, and people in New York doing the same to newly arrived Puerto Ricans. But you can tell that the Beatles are never satisfied that it's an effective song like that, so it eventually arrives at the more ambiguous tale(s) of Jojo and Loretta.
posted by lisa g at 3:13 PM on December 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

I enjoyed that Lennon was a total enthusiastic puppy.
posted by srboisvert at 3:28 PM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

It's not "Bohemian Rhapsody" or something.

there is one helluva meme format waiting to emerge from your comment
posted by elkevelvet at 3:36 PM on December 6, 2021 [6 favorites]

The casual way so many of these songs just appear. I love how George walks in more than once and says, these are the songs I wrote last night and they’re total classics from solo albums. And Octopuses Garden! Also having been in bands and having written songs and knowing other musicians, that kind of casual shit talking, hanging out is what bands do. What was really a great insight for me was how much of the Lennnon/McCartney magic was workshopping and just all around experience. The fact that they’d written sooooo many songs by this point from the time they were young teens and how they asked more and more of the songs, “this doesn’t sing well.” Or G here or F flat, or whatever.

The first episode is such a boring slog. I thought of the horrible, Hobbit debacle more than once. I paused it twice and did other things, but that slog majorly pays off in hindsight once things get rolling. It was really magical to see things finally click and everything fall into place.

Also, I love the idea of slow TV. I don’t want to be “entertained.” I’m perfectly capable of entertaining myself.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 3:39 PM on December 6, 2021 [9 favorites]

I'm only barely into Part 2, but this scene is my favorite scene so far:
-You get to hear the barest bones of a [now familiar] song being born
-You get to see Ringo and George working some things out
-More words!
-My favorite part is that John just walks in and starts playing along

Watching this band create is wonderful.
posted by MtDewd at 3:42 PM on December 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

This was pretty cool. I'm not enough of a fan to watch nine hours of this, but this clip was indeed really interesting to watch. I was born in 1970 and that song is pure wallpaper of my entire life. And that's where it came from. Neat.
posted by SoberHighland at 3:44 PM on December 6, 2021

I kept yelling "Tucson!" at the screen and finally Paul sang "Tucson, Arizona" and then I began to wonder how a guy from Liverpool had ever heard of Tucson, Arizona.
posted by bondcliff at 3:49 PM on December 6, 2021 [15 favorites]

Watching Paul struggle with the lyrics is the great part. As someone who has lived in Tucson I've long wondered what sage(brush) genius Paul had in writing that line. Now I see he hammed those lyrics out painfully. But I understand them so personally!

It's also a delight to see that they had their assistant keeping track of the lyrics and providing them hand typed sheets to work from.
posted by Catblack at 3:50 PM on December 6, 2021 [6 favorites]

This is very much my thing and I hope someday I can simply pay cash money to buy or rent it, but I am absolutely not going to subscribe to another streaming surface. /OldManYellsAtCloud.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:56 PM on December 6, 2021 [14 favorites]

I began to wonder how a guy from Liverpool had ever heard of Tucson, Arizona.

Well, they did tour the United States several times, but never in Tucson. Linda Eastman studied art history at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and it's an homage to her. The McCartneys and the other ex-Beatles later spent lots of time in Tucson.

In conclusion, "Tucson" is spelled really weird.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:57 PM on December 6, 2021 [21 favorites]

I was a ten year old kid in the Canadian suburbs at the time and I'd heard of Tucson. It probably popped up in a Bugs Bunny episode.
posted by philip-random at 4:13 PM on December 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

I only just started this program this morning and it's just jawdropping. George and Ringo and a producer or somebody are arguing about sets for the show which will be in just a couple of weeks, and Paul is in the background just plinking around on the piano.

Except, after a few tries, what he's plinking is: | C % G % | Am Am7/G Fmaj7 F6 | C % G % | F C/F F6 C |.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:13 PM on December 6, 2021 [5 favorites]

American Western movies and TV shows were still hugely popular then. Plus, McCartney likely watched a hundred Wild West flicks when he was a kid. That's my guess about Tucson, AZ.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:16 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

I kept yelling "Tucson!" at the screen and finally Paul sang "Tucson, Arizona" and then I began to wonder how a guy from Liverpool had ever heard of Tucson, Arizona.

Brits and Europeans in general are about 1000X more worldly than Americans and many have a deep fascination with the Wild West.
posted by srboisvert at 4:19 PM on December 6, 2021 [5 favorites]

>>In conclusion, "Tucson" is spelled really weird.

My first experience going there was to attend a sci-fi convention called "Tuscon".
posted by Catblack at 4:21 PM on December 6, 2021 [10 favorites]

I remember Paul or John saying that Tuscon is where they filmed "Chaparral".
posted by credulous at 4:27 PM on December 6, 2021 [6 favorites]

I was a ten year old kid in the Canadian suburbs at the time and I'd heard of Tucson. It probably popped up in a Bugs Bunny episode.

He always lamented not taking that left turn at Albuquerque.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:31 PM on December 6, 2021 [15 favorites]

Everyone's rightfully talking about the genesis of Come Together, but the Beatles didn't really come together in that recording session until young Billy Preston showed up. The marked transformation in everyone's mood is really something to see.
posted by emelenjr at 4:46 PM on December 6, 2021 [12 favorites]

This is very much my thing and I hope someday I can simply pay cash money to buy or rent it, but I am absolutely not going to subscribe to another streaming surface. /OldManYellsAtCloud.

You can subscribe to D+ for a month for, like, $8 and then cancel. These subscriptions don't have to run in perpetuity.
posted by hippybear at 4:46 PM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

He always lamented not taking that left turn at Albuquerque.
Make sure you pronounce it Alba-koy-kee.
posted by MtDewd at 4:55 PM on December 6, 2021 [5 favorites]

My second favorite part was Paul casually exploding the myth that Yoko broke up the band followed by saying that in 50 years they’ll say The Beatles broke up because Yoko sat on an amp.
posted by dirigibleman at 4:56 PM on December 6, 2021 [18 favorites]

My second favorite part was Paul casually exploding the myth that Yoko broke up the band followed by saying that in 50 years they’ll say The Beatles broke up because Yoko sat on an amp.

Paul knows he's being recorded then, too – he can already guess that popular culture might not treat Yoko well.

Most people watching this would have a hard time believing that Yoko's presence at these sessions was the main cause of the band's future strife. She's around a lot, but so are lots of other people (including Linda, and occasionally George's wife Patti, and Ringo's wife Maureen, and other friends and business people). Yoko is mostly just quietly hanging out, not interjecting her opinions and only singing during obviously very casual jams.

One great Yoko moment is when Linda's six-year-old daughter Heather is also there during one of those casual jams. She watches Yoko add one of her signature long, wordless vocals to the mix. Heather's eyes widen in awe, and then a few minutes later she's doing it too.
posted by lisa g at 5:14 PM on December 6, 2021 [21 favorites]

The biggest revelation for me was the clandestine recording of John and Paul talking about the band immediately following George walking out. Paul is surprisingly deferential to John and his status as “the boss.” And the way they communicated deeply and personally with almost their own shorthand. If only actual married couples communicated so well as those two.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:23 PM on December 6, 2021 [16 favorites]

but the Beatles didn't really come together in that recording session until young Billy Preston showed up. The marked transformation in everyone's mood is really something to see.

Underrated comment right here, Billy Preston was a fucking superhero who swooped in and saved their pasty asses!
posted by jeremias at 5:28 PM on December 6, 2021 [18 favorites]

I have a renewed appreciation for Paul from the film. I always liked him alright, but now I can see he's really a musical genius.
posted by Liquidwolf at 5:30 PM on December 6, 2021 [6 favorites]

About Tucson, I learned from this article that Heather McCartney was born there.
posted by TrarNoir at 5:35 PM on December 6, 2021 [5 favorites]

Too-Sun Ari-zon-ah.
posted by clavdivs at 5:47 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Except, after a few tries, what he's plinking is…

That’s my favorite part of part one. I felt like shouting “shut up you guys, shut up and listen!!!” but that’s the magic of the whole film. There’re all just playing with these ideas until they start to gel. Obviously none of them sat down to write One Of The Greatest Beatles Songs Ever but to hear these classics in such an embryonic state is so cool.
posted by not_the_water at 5:49 PM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

I have a renewed appreciation for Paul from the film. I always liked him alright, but now I can see he's really a musical genius.

Yeah, you really can see how he just “gets” the big picture right from the start of a song in a way that’s visionary. It’s a curse though, too, insofar as he expects everyone else to see it and perform it exactly his way, which is a big part of what leads to George’s departure.

Also, on a somewhat related note, I know that Paul’s official line is that he’d given up cocaine by this time, but his absolute certainty about the goodness of some ideas — Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, as the example I’m thinking — might suggest otherwise. Apparently when they came back to record that one later in the year, he made everyone miserable for several days trying to perfect it, because he was so certain of its genius.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:08 PM on December 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

I've been putting off watching this for a bit, but tonight is going to be the night. I've had a terrible weekend dealing with aftermath of work compounded by floods and landlord and the oncoming threat of fascism... But I saw that clip of Paul bringing that song out of thin air and well, tonight's the night.Thanks for posting this. My surround system is gonna get a workout.

If this is as good as it seems it might be I might just forgive Disney a little for copyright extension.

A little, anyway. 😉
posted by cybrcamper at 6:11 PM on December 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

Maxwell's Silver Hammer is only acceptable because it's juxtaposed with better, less fuckin' annoying songs
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 6:23 PM on December 6, 2021 [6 favorites]

Apparently when they came back to record that one later in the year, he made everyone miserable for several days trying to perfect it, because he was so certain of its genius.

That’s not just cocaine, I think. Two actor friends of mine decided to collaborate on a script but they decided they would write only when absurdly high, convinced that the end result would be an absolute triumph, a manifestation of a higher level of consciousness.

As I recall, the resulting product was... not as good as Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:35 PM on December 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

This is fine, but now I would like the Kinks version. And yes, I am aware how much of that would just be the Davies brothers fighting.
posted by thivaia at 6:36 PM on December 6, 2021 [7 favorites]

I watched all three episodes in one sitting. It was an intense experience. I would have loved to see it on a big screen.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:45 PM on December 6, 2021

And it will never cease to amaze me just how *young* they were at this point. Absolute babies, and to have already achieved so much.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:55 PM on December 6, 2021 [14 favorites]

I kept yelling "Tucson!" at the screen and finally Paul sang "Tucson, Arizona"

I kept yelling, "no other lover" at George while he was trying to find the words for Something. It's so weird to watch a song that I've known for fifty years being painfully born.
posted by octothorpe at 7:29 PM on December 6, 2021 [13 favorites]

Let It Be sessions ended January 31. Abbey Road sessions began February 22.
posted by BWA at 7:32 PM on December 6, 2021 [8 favorites]

METAFILTER: the resulting product was... not as good as Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.
posted by philip-random at 7:51 PM on December 6, 2021 [6 favorites]

It's so weird to watch a song that I've known for fifty years being painfully born.

I'm still living with the pain of it not being a moment where the skies open and beams shine down on them from The Great Beyond and they all just suddenly KNOW the song. Because it's always existed right?

Watching the process is really wonderful and just SO disillusioning all at the same time.
posted by hippybear at 7:54 PM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

I don't know, "attracts me like no cauliflower" had a certain ring to it.
posted by Schmucko at 8:07 PM on December 6, 2021 [9 favorites]

Billy Preston was a fucking superhero who swooped in and saved their pasty asses!

What a weird comment.
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:55 PM on December 6, 2021 [8 favorites]

I always thought Paul was more “dubious pothead song ideas” than “dubious cokehead song ideas.” Though his follow-through is more characteristic of a stimulant guy, for sure.
posted by atoxyl at 9:24 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

I LOVE those movie scenes that show famous songs in the process of being written. (Respect has a few good ones.) I wonder how much footage like this of other bands there is waiting to be discovered?
posted by gottabefunky at 9:48 PM on December 6, 2021

My experience with Get Back (which we watched in segments across a full week)...

End of Episode 1: Wow, this is tedious, I'll watch it once, but...

End of Episode 2: This is totally interesting and absorbing and remarkable and I feel blessed to be watching this.

End of Episode 3: OMG they had so much fun together and it was clear to see how much they enjoyed each other! I should watch this over and over because it's great atmosphere hangnig out with The Beatles in my living room!

I would totally buy this if it were released for purchase. Maybe the 18 hour version? "Director's cut"
posted by hippybear at 9:56 PM on December 6, 2021 [7 favorites]

I saw Let It Be in a theater in the '80s near the peak of my Beatles fandom, and it was depressingly dour.

I've only watched most of Episode 1, but it's been interesting so far. I'm glad it gives a more positive, balanced, and accurate view of the band.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:47 PM on December 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

This is very much my thing and I hope someday I can simply pay cash money to buy or rent it, but I am absolutely not going to subscribe to another streaming surface.

Hello old friend!!!
1666d261819b262c4da7bf4c03118c4f40e43054
posted by flabdablet at 11:01 PM on December 6, 2021 [5 favorites]

Some things I noticed after watching the whole thing:

• The major bromance between John and Paul. George looks like a resentful third wheel when they're making googly eyes at each other.
• Michael Lindsay-Hogg, director of the original Let It Be, isn't someone I'd like to hang out with. He has a huge ego and is constantly trying to insert himself into the story. The nearest parallel I can think of is the therapist in Some Kind of Monster.
• John can be extraordinarily naive sometimes about who he surrounds himself with. See: Magic Alex, Allen Klein.
• I think that almost as important as Billy Preston coming in was them having to go cap in hand back to George Martin to set up the Saville Row studio after Magic Alex made a hames of it. The mere presence of an adult they trusted in the room was an important safety net.
• Speaking of, George Martin! Glynn Johns! Alan Parsons! Not stuck for talent in the control room.
• If my girlfriend sat beside me in work knitting while I wrote code, it might be weird, but there were people milling around everywhere - girlfriends, wives, kids, celebs, Hare Krishnas, hangers-on, so I don't see why Yoko got singled out. Well I do, but there's no valid reason she should have been.
• John in episode 1 is blatantly on opiates. When they (especially Paul) get drunk in Saville Row, it brings back memories of all the jam sessions I've recorded that deteriorate into sloppy rubbish once people have alcohol onboard.
• Paul is already well on the way towards his cottages and cardigans Mull of Kintyre phase.
• Excellent delaying tactics by the staff to keep the police off the rooftop for long enough for them to finish the concert. I can't help but think that if NWA had tried something like that in downtown Los Angeles, the LAPD would have called in tanks and airstrikes.
• Ringo is cool. Or as he might say, gear!

posted by kersplunk at 1:43 AM on December 7, 2021 [13 favorites]

After listening to their rock'n'roll jamming I feel like we're missing out on a Beatles punk rock album they might have got around to if they'd lasted longer into the Seventies.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 1:47 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

All the Yoko being disruptive stuff has been edited out, that's why it seems there was no problem at all with her being there.

And no, I'm no Yoko hater. I actually think she's magnificent. I also don't blame her for the split up. I think the Allen Klein involvement was the nail in the coffin.
posted by Kosmob0t at 1:57 AM on December 7, 2021 [3 favorites]

I feel like we're missing out on a Beatles punk rock album

In high school, a random music class had a moment where the teacher started playing different demo-ish versions of Beatles songs, and one was a stripped down version of Strawberry Fields that, pre-widespread internet adoption, pre-YouTube, was like listening to something Indiana Jones might have discovered. It had this sort of driving, barren beat to it that gave the song a strong forward momentum, moving it from a sort of lackadaisical mantra to a driving manic anthem. As a good little proto-Goth/Industrial kid, something in me just sort of knew that, had that version been released back in the day, we could have ended up with techno and industrial without having really needed to go through disco to get there. I was just kind of floored listening to it.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:18 AM on December 7, 2021 [5 favorites]

This is annoying. Is this exactly what was broadcast? Because a week or two ago on twitter (I think) I saw a different clip which continued with the noodling while sat on the chairs with Ringo slapping his knees and George trying accompaniment on his guitar. That seemed to show the origins of the song while this brutal jump cut misses out the actual formative moment where Paul goes from having nothing to having the skeleton of a song.
posted by epo at 2:47 AM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

Mull of Kintyre phase
LONDON TOWN IS GEAR AND I WILL FIGHT FOR THIS
posted by thelonius at 3:37 AM on December 7, 2021

Some thoughts:

- I kept watching for what Yoko was doing in the background in the first part. Watching her sort her mail or read a newspaper while The Beatles are creating music a few feet away is some kind of performance art.
- It was probably selective editing but Heather struck me as very disruptive. I noticed in one scene, though, that she is wearing the same outfit as Ringo so curious how that came about?
- Billy Preston's effortless musicianship was incredible to see. I didn't realize until now how much that unique sound of the Let it Be album was Preston. His photo should have been on the album cover too.
- Ringo showed up, played his parts, was friendly with everybody and seemed to not be involved in any drama. The other three seemed like they each had some kind of neediness and so here Ringo stands out like a rock.
- Glyn Johns wardrobe from that era has hopefully been donated to the V&A or some other fashion museum?
- I enjoyed the streets of London shots/interviews during the rooftop performance. This was 50 years ago and so most of the older people you see have passed away. I mean, only two of the five rooftop performers are alive with Ringo now in his 80's.
posted by vacapinta at 3:48 AM on December 7, 2021 [6 favorites]

I am a moderate fan of the Beatles married to a Beatles fanatic, so I have watched all of Get Back. I did zone out at points but the overall impression was very good. The rooftop concert was wonderful and it was nice to see the "older" folks on the street (wearing bowler hats and pearls!) express gratitude at the free concert, and the buttoned-up office workers crowding onto the neighboring roof to see the Beatles play up close. Watching the crowds, I'm reminded of what my parents told me - that for most people, "the sixties" in terms of fashion and hairstyles didn't really arrive until the early to mid seventies. My grandfather stuck to a fifties-style Brylcreem haircut and a formal hat until about 1973, when his kids finally convinced him to let loose a little. And my parents (who would have been seventeen when this was filmed) had pretty strict dress codes for most of their young adulthood.

Some other thoughts:

I don't think anybody outside of the Beatles broke up the Beatles (okay, Ringo wasn't responsible). It's pretty clear that the relationship between Paul, John, and George was ending by the time this was filmed.

Every time Paul tried to motivate the other guys to keep working, I had a hard time not picturing Jack Black playing him in "Walk Hard" telling everyone "I'm Paul McCartney, I'm the leader of the Beatles!"

Thank God the Beatles didn't go with the anti-Enoch Powell version of Get Back. Sure, I know it was intended as a satire, but you just know the song would have been adopted unironically as an alt-right anthem.

Ringo pretending to be surprised when Heather McCartney hits the cymbal was the most adorable moment of the film. I secretly hope Ringo is the last Beatle standing, nothing against Paul, I just feel like cosmically it would make sense.
posted by fortitude25 at 4:13 AM on December 7, 2021 [5 favorites]

I always thought Paul was more “dubious pothead song ideas” than “dubious cokehead song ideas.” Though his follow-through is more characteristic of a stimulant guy, for sure.

Yeah, that's really the bit I was getting at: the dogged insistence on the absolute perfection of his vision. Which played no small part in the band's dissolution.

Billy Preston's effortless musicianship was incredible to see. I didn't realize until now how much that unique sound of the Let it Be album was Preston. His photo should have been on the album cover too.

Same here. Like, I knew that he'd played on the album, of course, but it didn't occur to me how much of the songs were not just his playing, but his arranging. As is the case with all the best session musicians, I suppose. But it's clear that this project was really floundering until he came along and helped them all find their footing.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:23 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

I always thought the lyric was "Sweet Loretta Modern..." So this documentary cleared that up, though I kept waiting for Paul to correct it to what I thought it was.

I'm not a huge fan of Giles Martin's remasterings. (Paul's magnificent bass runs on She's So Heavy are buried in the the version he mixed, for example.) Still, I look forward to whatever they are able to unearth and restore. Perhaps they'll give Peter Jackson a crack at a 6 hour version of Magical Mystery Tour.
posted by Catblack at 5:59 AM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

vacapinta: "Billy Preston's effortless musicianship was incredible to see."

Get Back
posted by chavenet at 6:15 AM on December 7, 2021 [3 favorites]

I kept watching for what Yoko was doing in the background in the first part. Watching her sort her mail or read a newspaper while The Beatles are creating music a few feet away is some kind of performance art.

I found this fascinating too. My daughter was walking by while I watched Get Back and I said, Check this out: the Beatles are recording an album, something of almost cosmic importance when it comes to music, and Yoko is just sitting there balancing her checkbook or studying for a night class or something. My daughter watches for a few seconds and comments, "Yes, Yoko is awesome, isn't she?"
posted by jabah at 7:11 AM on December 7, 2021 [7 favorites]

Billy Preston's effortless musicianship was incredible to see.

Will It Go 'Round In Circles?
posted by neuron at 8:13 AM on December 7, 2021 [4 favorites]

We need to make an effort to step out of our own hindsight when watching this footage, I think.

None of the sketches and struggles towards a tune we see here were epoch-making songs to the people watching them being made at the time - at that point they were just random noodling about that may or may not come to something later. Even for The Beatles, the signal-to-noise ratio of all those hours in the studio must have been pretty low, and anyone who's hung out in a studio will tell you it's a punishingly boring process for those with nothing to do but watch.

Without all we know from the intervening years, that little McCartney passage in the OP's first clip would likely have had us yawning or checking our post too. At the time, without all the hindsight we now bring to the clip, I doubt we'd have singled it out as a moment of Godlike genius anymore than George or Yoko did.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:14 AM on December 7, 2021 [3 favorites]

I always thought the lyric was "Sweet Loretta Modern..." So this documentary cleared that up, though I kept waiting for Paul to correct it to what I thought it was.

Seconded, and additionally, I also thought the line went "Jojo was a man who thought he was an owner, but he knew it couldn't last." I chalked that one up to the drugs, so glad to see it was just a mistake on my part.
posted by fortitude25 at 8:34 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

the dogged insistence on the absolute perfection of his vision. Which played no small part in the band's dissolution.

Paul's overbearing insistence,

John's overall distractedness and neediness (perhaps aided and abetted by the wrong drugs),

George's frustration at not being treated as an equal and the realization that he'd made enough money already, he'd never need to work another day in his life, so why was he putting up with this shit?

all the money types and assorted hanger's on, oft times working their own wedges, sewing divides between the band members for mercenary and/or machiavellian reasons.

the fact that the Beatles had started out as a teenagers and now they were adults ... and who's still hanging out with their teenage crowd in their late twenties, let alone in business with them?

the peace-love-happiness drugs wearing off.

All this and more is what broke up the Beatles. I'm just glad we had them for as long as we did.

And for the record, I've always preferred Let it Be (the album) to Abbey Road. Let it Be feels like an ending, honest, gritty, not trying to fool anyone. Whereas too much of Abbey Road just sounds like the first Wings album, Paul overbearingly, insistently getting his way. But Come Together, Here Comes The Sun, Something, Because, I Want You, even Oh Darling -- no flies on any of those. Yeah, I'm not a fan of the medley.
posted by philip-random at 8:58 AM on December 7, 2021 [4 favorites]

I always thought the lyric was "Sweet Loretta Modern..." So this documentary cleared that up, though I kept waiting for Paul to correct it to what I thought it was.

I went to school with kids whose last name was Mottern, so I never stopped to think about it.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:02 AM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

Billy Preston's effortless musicianship was incredible to see.

Outa Space

which was something of a hit at the time.
posted by philip-random at 9:06 AM on December 7, 2021

This footage of the rooftop performance is so dead-on that it could be taken for the actual.
posted by mikeand1 at 9:06 AM on December 7, 2021 [5 favorites]

At the time, without all the hindsight we now bring to the clip, I doubt we'd have singled it out as a moment of Godlike genius anymore than George or Yoko did.

Well, sure, but to hark back to an earlier Jackson project, without all the hindsight we now bring to Franz Ferdinand being shot in the street, I doubt we'd have singled it out as a moment that would lead to 40 million deaths.

On reflection, part of the reason I loved watching all 8+ hours of this, and that it took me on such an emotional journey from the awkwardness and brilliance and pain of Part One, through the ebullience and camaraderie of Part Two, to the sheer joy and satisfaction of Part Three, was that I read Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions over and over 33 years ago, and immersed myself in the minutiae of a band that split up when I was two. And I did that because they were the Beatles: because I'd explored their music as a teenager, loved it, recognised its quality, and wanted to know more. For most of us alive today, everything about the Beatles has been in hindsight.

Also, if we allow "at the time" to mean around the time of filming rather than during that exact moment, it would have been clear pretty quickly what the clip represented. "Get Back" opened and closed the rooftop performance, was the title track of the original Glyn Johns versions of the LP, and on its release as a single in April 1969 went to number one around the world. It's pretty extraordinary that Michael Lindsay-Hogg didn't see fit to include it in the original Let it Be film. How lucky we are to see it now.
posted by rory at 9:07 AM on December 7, 2021 [3 favorites]

Preston's cover of My Sweet Lord
posted by thelonius at 9:08 AM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

We need to make an effort to step out of our own hindsight when watching this footage, I think.

a type of person can make that effort. no-one, certainly, needs to engage with a lovingly rendered documentary capturing moments from a band that holds positively mythic status, on some sort of critical level. Some of us just enjoy the spectacle, the story, the myth. We are aware that is what's happening and we're okay with that.
posted by elkevelvet at 9:09 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Paul Slade: “We need to make an effort to step out of our own hindsight when watching this footage, I think.”

I think that's the point. We see some mates smoking-and-joking. Meanwhile one or another of them noodles onto something that becomes a song that will be famous for many decades to come. For them, they were just working.

I'm sure that if we had footage of Beethoven plinking around on a piano and coming upon the “Ode to Joy” theme it would seem just as pedestrian. It's the import of the centuries since that makes it into an epochal moment.
posted by ob1quixote at 9:19 AM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

Thank God the Beatles didn't go with the anti-Enoch Powell version of Get Back. Sure, I know it was intended as a satire, but you just know the song would have been adopted unironically as an alt-right anthem.

That was my thought. It'd be like Born in the USA, no matter what the lyrics were all anyone would hear would be the chorus.
posted by tavella at 9:28 AM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

My favorite moment in the 8 hours is when George is talking to John about having so many songs ready to record and he wants to do so. John says, "Make an album?" and George is like, "Yeah, sure." but it's really clear that what he wants is for the Beatles to record an album of his songs. Give them the same treatment all the Lennon-McCartney songs are getting. It is definitely a moment of George wanting something but not knowing how to ask for it, because they are all in their mid 20s and men and it's the early 70s.
posted by drossdragon at 9:32 AM on December 7, 2021 [5 favorites]

Say what you like about the genius of George, but I Got My Mind Set On You is a stinker.
posted by flabdablet at 9:49 AM on December 7, 2021 [4 favorites]

^ the one thing I remember about the video for that tune kind of sums it up: there is an animatronic mounted fish on the wall at some point. It's like the essence of the worst of the 80s infected George to produce that moment.
posted by elkevelvet at 9:52 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Don't blame George. At least not totally. I've Got My Mind Set On You was originally released in 1963.
posted by emelenjr at 9:56 AM on December 7, 2021 [4 favorites]

So, this is the tweet I was referring to. It seems less spliced together than the link in the post.
posted by epo at 10:00 AM on December 7, 2021

I wish we had documentary footage dating back to Sgt. Pepper's, because it might be revelatory. While the rest of the Beatles were on hiatus after their final tour, Paul did some soundtrack work with George Martin and hung out with Mal Evans, who sparked the idea for the album while they were trying to re-brand the Beatles.

So I can see how the rest of the band felt sidelined -- it certainly seems in the documentary that George Martin prefers to go through Paul to communicate with the rest of the Beatles, who had developed extracurricular interests other than competing with Frank Zappa and Brian Wilson.
posted by credulous at 10:27 AM on December 7, 2021

After meeting them in June 1957, Paul joined The Quarrymen that October. He was about 15-1/2; John was 17. His joining the band turned them from a skiffle group into a rock band, "and the Quarrymen's sound increasingly relied on harmony singing between Lennon and McCartney."

George auditioned for the Quarrymen in March 1958. He'd just turned 15 and at first John thought he was too young to join the band.

You can see these dynamics all the way through. During the Get Back sessions, John and Paul are still the songwriting partners and George is still the kid trying to get equal time.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:56 AM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

Say what you like about the genius of George, but I Got My Mind Set On You is a stinker.

"I Got My Mind Set on You" is a fun song with a fun video and you are a stinky stinker who is also not fun.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:57 AM on December 7, 2021 [8 favorites]

not OP, but I am def. a stinker

when I was a kid I loved "I Got My Mind Set on You"

now the song (esp. chorus) seems so relentless.. just unforgiving and hammering away.. but I do stink, there's no escaping it
posted by elkevelvet at 11:01 AM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

now the song (esp. chorus) seems so relentless.. just unforgiving and hammering away.

I like I Got My Mind Set on You just fine - but you are right it is relentless.

Per my analysis- the song is 3:52 seconds and has only 43 unique words, and I is the lead repeated at 27 times, you=26, on=26, my mind =17. But then the rest: 'to do it right' part - each of those is repeated 20+ times too. And then "set on you" as the bridge/break = 8 times.

So yeah, relentless is a good description of the lyrics.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:15 PM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

I also find "Get Back" kind of relentless. it's chorus words of 'get back' are repeated 30 times each, but it has 62 unique words in 3:30, and no other words are repeated more than 10 times.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:18 PM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

I've Got My Mind Set On You was originally released in 1963.

Huh, TIL. I always thought that was one of George's less-than-good songs, turns out it's a less-than-good cover. (I think it's the chords--the original in 1963 would have been old-fashioned sounding, deliberately--I assume--channeling 30s and 40s big band jazz, but in the 80s it just sounded weirdly anachronistic, still does for some reason.)

I wish we had documentary footage dating back to Sgt. Pepper's, because it might be revelatory.

Definitely--there is Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, which has the daily work for each album's sessions. It provides a kind of outline of the details of their working sessions, at least.
posted by LooseFilter at 12:21 PM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

So yeah, relentless is a good description of the lyrics.

I also find "Get Back" kind of relentless.


Relentless is why you remember them.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:24 PM on December 7, 2021

Look, there's a reason Weird Al did this.
posted by hippybear at 12:28 PM on December 7, 2021 [7 favorites]

I always wished Weird Al had released just the first 8 seconds of that song (like one of the Fingertips from They Might Be Giants), making it (almost) completely literal. (I assume that he clearly sings "song is just" rather than "song's just" as part of the joke.)
posted by straight at 12:49 PM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Don't blame George. At least not totally.

I blame Jeff Lynne. I didn't care for his production on Harrison's late work.
posted by thelonius at 1:28 PM on December 7, 2021 [5 favorites]

I really appreciated the film crew's tight zooms on alcohol and cigarettes, which illuminated some interesting tips for storing your lit stogies.
posted by credulous at 2:22 PM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

I know I plugged it in some other Beatles thread at some point, but I thought I'd put in another plug for the youtube documentary Understanding Lennon/McCartney. I also enjoyed the same creator's follow-up series on Paul's solo work.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:36 PM on December 7, 2021 [5 favorites]

Also it's clear Lennon has the best sense of humor among the bunch, and is the only one who references the band's old songs:

George Martin: "So we were talking..."
Lennon: "About the space between us?"
posted by credulous at 5:02 PM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

You can see these dynamics all the way through. During the Get Back sessions, John and Paul are still the songwriting partners and George is still the kid trying to get equal time.

That sense of competition made George Harrison the most highly-motivated songwriter of all time. It paid off.

(I made up some of my best songs when I was trying to get accepted into my older brother's rock band.)
posted by ovvl at 6:13 PM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

“My 9 favourite moments from The Beatles' Get Back documentary”—David Bennett Piano, 08 December 2021
posted by ob1quixote at 2:59 PM on December 8, 2021

relentless is a good description of the lyrics

Also creepy, stalkery and exploitative.

you are a stinky stinker who is also not fun

Pththblblblblfft.
posted by flabdablet at 3:24 PM on December 8, 2021 [2 favorites]

Just started watching and the few clips I've seen so far of Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg have me thinking “wow…that's undoubtedly Orson Welles' son”.
posted by brachiopod at 5:38 PM on December 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

I am having so much fun watching this. I'm struck by the total lack of focus on food. Tea time is literally just tea and toast. Lunch is sandwiches.

And Yoko. I tend to think people are searching for meaning here where maybe it doesn't exist. A lot of us get super intense about relationships in the beginning, especially when we're younger and haven't yet learned that it always wears off. It's just that life doesn't allow us to be literally glued to the side of our beloved. When it does--in high school or college, mostly--you see a lot more of this behavior. It's sweet how indulgent Paul was of the whole situation, good-naturedly jamming with her.

Mostly I watch this and regret not pursuing a line of work that would allow for more fun--even just occasional fun. I really need to figure out how to change that. I've got another ten or so working years left. Surely there must be a way to get a little bit more of this into my life.
posted by HotToddy at 8:37 AM on December 9, 2021 [4 favorites]

Okay I finished it. That was SO GREAT. I never would have thought I would get so into it.

One thing I was struck by was how physically intimate they were with each other. I just never see men putting their arms around each other, dancing with each other, etc., in my own life.

Imagine the amount of waste there would be from Starbucks alone in a project like this today. But those were actual mugs they were drinking from, with toast served in a toast rack.

And the interviews with people on the street. What group today appeals to such a wide demographic?

And the politeness of the sergeant when he arrives!

I'm amazed at what an effect it's having on me. It's like I've been reminded of what fun feels like. So weird!
posted by HotToddy at 7:25 AM on December 10, 2021 [4 favorites]

I did love the shots of toast racks. And the lady with the nun's cap serving tea from cart.
posted by octothorpe at 7:29 AM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

And the lady with the nun's cap serving tea from cart.

That's the Tea Lady. She was a fixture in every British workplace throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and a mainstay of the era's UK sitcoms too. Ideally, she'd be called either Doris or Beryl and address you as "dearie". Those were the days ...
posted by Paul Slade at 3:57 PM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

And the politeness of the sergeant when he arrives!

The politeness? The utter glee, is more like it! He's obviously not going to bust The Beatles for playing music on a rooftop, but he's certainly going to finagle a way to get to see them play and maybe even meet them. He's never had an opportunity like this before in his life! He's utterly thrilled and he's happy to play along.

His entrance is totally charming and he's like a schoolboy in an adult suit trying not to get caught.
posted by hippybear at 7:45 PM on December 10, 2021

When Paul was jumping up and down on the roof to make sure it would hold them, I wanted to reach through the screen and yell, “Nooo! You don’t let the talent do that stuff!”
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:56 PM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

“The Guitars of "Get Back": A Short History: featuring Tim Pierce”—five watt world, 20 December 2021
posted by ob1quixote at 9:03 AM on December 20, 2021 [1 favorite]