I have had it up to here waiting for the Beatles catalogue to be remastered

the canon narrative favoring the later years is a tad sexist imho. "She Loves You" era = silly teenage girls. Sgt Pepper = critics mansplaining the deep meaning of life.

xpost:

Yoko seems to be enjoying it. John and George look furious for some reason.

Keef too.

the canon narrative favoring the later years is a tad sexist imho

you mean the years when Yoko Ono was singing and doing tape loops on a Beatles album

so much to read into that seating arrangement

there are some crazy intricate song structures in early beatles material. put aside the covers for a minute (most of which are amazing btw); not a second time; anna; there's a place; it won't be long ('she loves you' gets a lot of attention for 'starting with the chorus' but it won't be long does the same thing)...those are hard songs to imagine writing.

xposts:

People still give Yoko shit about her relationship with Lennon and the impact she had on Lennon in 1968/1969 etc. - not realising, of course, that before she came along, Lennon was a real mess. If anything, she saved Lennon. The Beatles' break-up in the late '60s was always going to happen.

there are some crazy intricate song structures in early beatles material. put aside the covers for a minute (most of which are amazing btw); not a second time; anna; there's a place; it won't be long ('she loves you' gets a lot of attention for 'starting with the chorus' but it won't be long does the same thing)...those are hard songs to imagine writing.

― akm, Tuesday, April 25, 2017 11:25 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, 'It Won't Be Long' has some great use of chords in it... 'I Call Your Name' and 'I'll Get You', too.

Well "Anna" is a cover, but yes.

As my comments on gender above might suggest, I totally agree that there is a sexism to the narratives, familiar from a lot of other rockist stuff. Ono's presence on a few tracks doesn't change that, esp since the way the canonical narrative tends to discuss her is as a meddling harpy that derailed male genius. And I doubt ''Long Long Long'' is anywhere near the list of what the average consumer of Beatlemyth considers their significant late-period achievements.

XPS Kind of feel bad for whoever it was that had to sit behind George and his giant hat.

(Obv there are a few difft canon narratives here - I cited Anthology above, but in a way it's revisionist or 'setting the record straight, from the band itself'-ist, and Yoko Ono's status is part of that. When I was a kid, before I was even into the Beatles, I had heard it said that 'Yoko broke up the Beatles,' and I think that was pretty popular conventional wisdom for a whole lot of people who bought Beatle records once upon a time. Anthology adopts the variety-of-reasons-but-nobody's-fault narrative, understandable given the people involved, but also consistent with, I think, where thoughtful Beatle-heads and Usenet FAQ writers were by that time. Ringo: ''I think it stands as an absolute fact that we were going different places.'')

IIRC, The Compleat Beatles documentary painted Paul as the one that broke up the Beatles by pissing the others off by "bossing them about" ... I think the dialogue is something like: "George, John and Ringo had all quit at various points, only to be coaxed back by Paul... but now it was Paul's turn." - there's nothing about John having already quit the band in there, it's basically "Paul was a bossy-boots and then he left us in the shit"

(This probably explains why McCartney bought the rights to The Compleat Beatles circa Anthology to take it out of print)

In a recent-ish interview centering on his latest research, Lewisohn puts forth that the India trip -- or, specifically, John and George being incensed that Paul acted on behalf of "The Beatles" in London while John and George were still in India -- was what started them down the breakup path.

I had heard it said that 'Yoko broke up the Beatles,' and I think that was pretty popular conventional wisdom for a whole lot of people who bought Beatle records once upon a time

yeah i remember hearing this in the 80s. i don't think anyone taken seriously is pushing this myth nowadays. it's obvious there were many reasons they broke up, Paul being a workaholic prick being one of them, and that a lot of that past animosity was fueled by racism and sexism. stuff which still exists, of course. but i think, or at least hope, in general people aren't as hung up on that old myth.

It's a bit of a shame, actually, because this essentially means that The Compleat Beatles will never be re-issued. On one hand, I can understand why because there's a lot of things that Anthology clarifies and clears up. However, because of when The Compleat Beatles was made and released (only 15 years after Sgt. Pepper's was made, 12 years after the break-up and barely a couple of years after Lennon's death) you can tell with some of the interview stuff with George Martin (for example) that the memories are "fresher", so it's interesting to watch from that perspective. Whereas on Anthology people are trying to recall the same events from a longer distance.

(xxpost)

Nah, "Yoko broke up the Beatles" is a shitty opinion that I still come across even now... and yeah, it's totally fueled by racism and sexism.

Nobody ever gave Linda McCartney a hard time, even though she was very much present during the Get Back sessions and took photos of The Beatles working during sessions for Abbey Road etc.

all The Beatles did was take what was going on around them, take the bits they liked and then blend it all together to create something else - which is what people were doing before and after them

They also invested it with tremendous spirit, talent, and creativity.

Yes, also like many before and after them.

those are definitely some words you are writing. they certainly are comprised of letters and words.

Nobody ever gave Linda McCartney a hard time

i'm not so sure about this. when the band broke up it was messy and it was the music industry in the 70's

It's an interesting debate - how rarefied was the Beatles' exceptionalism?

less than 3 years from "She Loves You" to "Tomorrow Never Knows"

back to the music. i wish the Anthology had gone into their solo stuff. i have always loved this song George Harrison taped with the Remo Four for the Wonderwall soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVRmdrM0Mmg

i'm not so sure about this. when the band broke up it was messy and it was the music industry in the 70's

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, April 26, 2017 12:50 AM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm totally sure about it. Linda joining Paul in Wings and playing keyboards onstage on his solo tours might have drawn the occasional giggle from a tiny group of dickheads, but John working with Yoko actively pissed a lot of people off and offended them and still to this day you hear jokes about Yoko or accusations that she "broke up the Beatles" ... nobody levels that accusation at Linda or any of the other "Beatle wives" ...

There were decades of awful sexist jokes about Linda -- hell, as late as 1989 the "Hey Jude" tape was played all the time by Howard Stern and his equivalents around the US, and was still getting airplay for years afterward.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tape_of_Only_Linda

Yeah, Mick Jagger most famously dragged McCartney for "starting a band with his old lady."

As I said, a tiny group of dickheads. You'd expect that kind of shtick from Howard Stern.

I think that was Keith, Phil...?

I never saw the Complete Beatles. Was it on VHS? Where did people even see it? I remember the rather fancy books though when I was a kid in bookstores and I used to pull those out and look at them all the time

Yeah, it was on VHS... you may still have able to get old VHS copies of it, I dunno. There's portions of it on Youtube, but you'll probably never see it on DVD or anything unless some hardcore Beatle fan has bootlegged it. I think it got a brief cinematic release as well.

*have=be

I think that was Keith, Phil...?

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, April 25, 2017 9:22 PM

Pretty sure it was Jagger because through the time of his death John was bemused by Jagger's attitude.

Yep, it was on VHS; I remember it was one of the first things my family rented when we got a VCR. It was also shown on broadcast tv around 1985 or so (local UHF station in Chicago, at least).

Billy Preston was one of the interviewees, and he should've been in Anthology; true, he wasn't an insider like Derek Taylor or Neil Aspinall, but he's the only artist the Beatles ever co-credited on a record.

xxp

i had the compleat beatles on vhs (and probably still do, in a box somewhere). it's a shame it's no longer available since i remember it being pretty good -- they interviewed allan williams and some other ppl who i don't think made it into the anthology series.

I forget how it was agreed upon, but at some point it was decided that the Anthology was to only feature the three Beatles, Martin, Taylor, and Aspinall. None of their wives or exes were to be interviewed, no Beatle kids, no one else who knew them.

I hadn't thought about The Compleat Beatles in forever. Watching the clips now, I don't know as that I have any fondness for it at all. It seems to present one person's view of a certain event as the truth. Also feels like you're watching the real life version of the Rutles movie.

Compleat Beatles aired on PBS. I taped it and watched it a lot.

The thing I lol about the most is the academic guy who says "Sgt Pepper was the point when their music stopped being ritual dance music and became music to be *listened to*"

"Billy Preston was one of the interviewees, and he should've been in Anthology"

yeah but I think he may have been in the depths of drug addiction plus there was some stuff about him sexually assaulting a boy around this time so maybe no

I don't remember the clip, but it seems like the academic guy is probably Wilfrid Mellers. I do like his Beatles book.

The thing I lol about the most is the academic guy who says "Sgt Pepper was the point when their music stopped being ritual dance music and became music to be *listened to*"

Haha I remember that. I was 12 and I was still like, nope, that's fucked.

Also, Bruce Johnston? He gets kind of a funny line in ("We were sitting around congratulating ourselves for having a lot of hits...and then we heard Sgt. Pepper"), but was he really the only near-contemporary they could get?

The phrase "ritual dance music" has always stuck w me. It says so much, esp w the disdainful way its delivered

the canon narrative favoring the later years is a tad sexist imho

you mean the years when Yoko Ono was singing and doing tape loops on a Beatles album

I'm talking about the critical perception of their earlier work being inferior to their work post-RS. I'm not talking about the Beatles themselves, but the default narrative popularized by boomers (the screaming girl phase of their career was a necessary evil to help them reach the heights of their conceptual work post-RS). Those screaming girls were revolutionaries who stole power from adults, cops and other authority figures. Those screaming girls put the Beatles on stage and my point is that we do a disservice to Beatles history when we gloss over their early albums as simply precursors to Jann Wenner realizing himself.

^^ excellent post

Those screaming girls were revolutionaries who stole power from adults, cops and other authority figures. Those screaming girls put the Beatles on stage and my point is that we do a disservice to Beatles history when we gloss over their early albums as simply precursors to Jann Wenner realizing himself.

^^^ this is a very good way of putting it.

as much as i love the later beatles albums it's a little sad to me that the radicalism/inventiveness of the early stuff has been glossed over. i always think of the famous dylan quote where he talks about hearing stuff like "i want to hold your hand" on the radio and being blown away by how strange and different it sounded.

well put - calls to mind that harry styles quote from the RS feature.

first of all in the future i'd be surprised if anyone is even going to know who Jann Wenner is.

second of all this thread is here, if you guys want to talk about the early songs, go for it, nobody is stopping you.

but lol i'm not going to precursor my stoned observations on "Blue Jay Way" with a review of "AHDN" out of some moral obligation.