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

I remember my high school Beatle buddy and I imagining an alternate ending where he crashes into a pier mid-monologue.

Just watched The Compleat Beatles again (for the first time in over 30 years) and I was struck by how little those filmmakers had to work with visually. “Tomorrow Never Knows”? OK, here’s the Revolver cover…spinning. “Mr. Kite”? Here’s a shot of a VU meter! One thing I always wondered about, though, was how their recollection of the Maharishi changed. In Compleat, there’s news conference footage from ‘68 of John and Paul both saying they’d made a mistake in following him; in Anthology, Paul says how great the whole experience was, and how he really got into meditation, and there’s nary a negative word. So was the Maharishi the fraud John wrote “Sexy Sadie” about or not?

He liked the Indian food cuz it was veggie.

i was trying to make the point that last dance had the benefit of contemporary recollections of these legendary moments that both contextualised and enriched what you're seeing as well as giving the filmmakers something to work with in terms of a story, and i would have loved that here. i mean it is what it is, but i would have liked a higher ambition from the filmmakers

completely disagree, the filmmakers could have been even more hands off afaic, just give me the raw footage.

their level of fame and the ubiqity of their songs make this a very different kind of film than it would be if it were any other band. i mean whether you're a megafan and know all the chronology or you just know 'let it be' and 'get back' as pop standards, this stuff needs no introduction. i don't think the beatles are even the subject of the film really, the main thing it's about is how the footage affords unfettered, direct access to watch history being made and the experience of what it feels like to be able to tune in and out (by most accounts, it's not always thrilling or even engaging).

this format also very successfully (imo) sets up comparisons between legend/myth and history/reality (of the moment, and probably also by extension in general) that wouldn't really work if you had talking heads forcing a particular reading down your throat.

have you seen either series?

"unfettered, direct access to watch history being made" come come now - this is not, and never has been on offer

look i think it's cool they tried this way, it's fine, it's a choice, and it's clear some people love it, but the editing contortions are too much for me, and i am not nearly enough of a fan to sit through it all. ultimately i don't think they had the visual footage to justify this treatment. just make it shorter. and good for you that you don't need any context but i do, and i missed it. HOWEVER this thread has provided a good 'second screen' experience lol so job done i guess?

^^ he's got a feeling

still thinking about it all

the hidden microphone/flowerpot convo was another highlight for me, maybe just bc it’s a little bit of verite, away from the cameras

Just started this. I like it, it's also nice just to have on in the background. But there are some weird ass sloppy editing choices being made. And even just one hour into it I can tell it would be better shorter. Probably would be better as, well, like the Lewisohn book, with different editions. Like, here's the long movie, but here's a version that's twice as long, if you want it.

It's amazing that a band this kind of aimless and burnt out, as depicted in this, could immediately turn around and make Abbey Road. The whole artificial, distracting context of these sessions, from the hare krishna to Yoko to the cameras and the soundstage to the rushed deadlines, they're just needlessly kneecapping themselves.

What no one's discussed enough: George Martin's virtual absence. It's no accident that, besides the band's relief it was all about to end, Abbey Road emerged so polished and coherent because he produced them for the first time since 1967.

i dunno he featured way more than i expected! seemed v crucial helping get the studio set up at Apple, and later when they had all their PA’s feeding into each other etc

… and managed to upstage Magic Alex by, yknow, actually being competent

Oh for sure in the last third.

He's especially cool when Ringo farts.

lmao

a true jawdropping moment

Jackson should've devoted some time to their future history at the end and left off that accelerated past history summary at the beginning. Anyone commiting to a 7 hour documentary already knows the basics of their career, but for example, I didn't know that Abbey Road was recorded after Let It Be, so it was weird to see them working on unfinished Abbey Road songs throughout, plus wondering about Phil Spector's production coming into play and the final breakup. He basically just cut it off after the rooftop concert - after watching for 7 hrs, I still had to google the rest of the story to make sense of it in context to the albums.

i would prefer an additional 8 hour documentary about what happened next imo

Josh in Chicago otm. my main takeaway from this thing has been just how consistently *half-assed* everything was, and how much time/money/etc. they wasted. Paul couldn't have been more right when he said they needed just, like, one person to take charge and say "show up on time and leave the girlfriends at home."

i have loved most of it, of course. part 2 should've been half as long, though.

also - and i think this whenever i watch, idk, old videos of Pavement on tour or whatever - the past was so much cooler than right now.

It was certainly a very odd feeling after 8 hours of intense immersion in 1969 to be back in 2021 with its “future is on hold for covid” atmosphere.

For anyone wanting a postscript to the film, here’s a Radio 1 special made to promote the film’s release in 1970: https://www.mixcloud.com/charliemouse/beatles-let-it-be-radio-1-special-23-may-1970/

The film itself only gets mentioned for about 30 seconds, at around 17:54, but it's a good 30 seconds. Paul compares it to a documentary of a painter starting a blank canvas with a few marks, and over time you see the whole painting take shape and completed.

I watched two "Get Back" clips and was singularly unimpressed. Paul strumming something a bit rock'n'roll that turns into one of the more derivative of their late songs, and lots of commentary like "OMG and then Ringo claps a bit!" and "John sits down and immediately joins in!" (come on, it's two-chord blues).

Will I be just as annoyed at the rest? I am a Beatles fan, not just a jaded cynic.

Check Alfred's review upthread, with which I agree 99%. (Can't really agree "Inessential but never ponderous" - if you're not suffering the oppressive langour in Part 1, you're not getting the full experience)

I thought it was brilliant. It's extremely humanising and makes the cartoonish representations of the Beatles seem daft.

It underlines how utterly mundane so much of being in a band is. It restates for those who needed it what an incredible drummer Ringo is, what a musical force of nature Paul is, what four people going in different directions looks like and the politics of childhood friendships growing apart. Thought it was well pitched in terms of length and the arc of it for me at least. I think every show on TV and most films are too long, but endurance and tedium was essential to this project.

Love Mal Evans, Glyn Johns and George Martin, even in his ultra hands off mode where you can tell he's decided that he can't get in the middle of it though he clearly knows they need his leadership or discipline.

I really wanted there to be a film of them making Abbey Road by the end of it.

my main takeaway from this thing has been just how consistently *half-assed* everything was, and how much time/money/etc. they wasted.

otm. Billy Preston showing up made such a massive difference, and pretty much saved the project. Billy being a session pro, goofing around in the studio simply wasn't ever an option for him. I imagine he was slightly distressed at the state his old friends were in: "You used to go toe-to-toe with *Little Richard* every night! What the hell happened to you guys?!" You can see it on Paul's face in that first keyboard flourish on "I've Got A Feeling": Paul simultaneously realizes a) Billy is killing it, and b) "Christ, we used to be a lot better than we are, and this is embarrassing in front of Billy."

Rob Sheffield's on Morning Joe.

The dream is over.

George Martin, even in his ultra hands off mode where you can tell he's decided that he can't get in the middle of it though he clearly knows they need his leadership or discipline.

otm

"Paul compares it to a documentary of a painter starting a blank canvas with a few marks, and over time you see the whole painting take shape and completed."

this is a pretty close description of The Mystery of Picasso, which i mentioned in reference to Let it Be... now i feel increasingly confident that either Paul or MLH had that film consciously on his mind.

I'm having a weird thing of a lot of teh text not fitting onto the screen properly on the file I have been watching. There isn'ta problem with the format is there. is itt a weird shape or something?
Started with text describing the contents of the documentary that had starts and ends of sentences missing.
THen missing starts of sentences and people's names during the film.
I may get another copy.

my main takeaway from this thing has been just how consistently *half-assed* everything was, and how much time/money/etc. they wasted.

Equipment-wise, this seems to be their preferred working style, e.g. putting up with 4 track at EMI longer than they needed to...through to John making Double Fantasy demos by recording from one beatbox placed next to another.

I imagine he was slightly distressed at the state his old friends were in: "You used to go toe-to-toe with *Little Richard* every night! What the hell happened to you guys?!"

This seems like an enormous reach. I can imagine a lot more plausible things Billy Preston might have been thinking about.

Feels a lot more like they were embarrassed by their internal bickering than their chops.

What no one's discussed enough: George Martin's virtual absence. It's no accident that, besides the band's relief it was all about to end, Abbey Road emerged so polished and coherent because he produced them for the first time since 1967.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, November 29, 2021 8:55 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Iirc they had to cajole Martin into being involved and his major demand was that the project was going to be approached with some professionalism because he had hated how the Let it Be sessions had gone

It restates for those who needed it what an incredible drummer Ringo is

otm

I watched two "Get Back" clips and was singularly unimpressed. Paul strumming something a bit rock'n'roll that turns into one of the more derivative of their late songs, and lots of commentary like "OMG and then Ringo claps a bit!" and "John sits down and immediately joins in!" (come on, it's two-chord blues).

This is just the unfortunate outcome of the band's more or less least interesting album happening to be its most thoroughly documented. One of the best Beatles bits I've heard, for example, is found on one of the White Album session tapes, where Paul is struggling to finish "Obla-Di" (which no one particularly wants him to finish) and John apparently saunters down from shooting up (or whatever he was doing) and kind of lazily walks over to the piano and goes "it should just start like *this*" and plays the introduction for the first time. It's both a weirder part than people give it credit for and also perfect for the song. That's the sort of a-ha! I wish was in higher supply in this, but you work with what you got, I guess.

People are right that it's fascinating to watch a band - any band, but particularly this band, work on music together - but of course this is *not* how bands generally work on music together. On a soundstage, with cameras, with no material, etc.

Also, I'm *positive* there may actually *be* more surprises, but Beatles Inc. nixed it. Paul and Yoko (and Ringo, et al.) had to sign off on all of this, and the chances that after decades of vilification Paul and Yoko didn't take the opportunity to reshape the narrative is somewhere around zero.

Everybody talks about the Beatles growing beards and mustaches, but no one talks about the man-furs. It's like the band (and peers) were turning into cavemen.

https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/084e2607-583f-47fc-9b4d-b6f7bea4048f_1.fe94990c0dbbbf62c0b7dc09c98b5f1a.jpeg?odnHeight=612&odnWidth=612&odnBg=FFFFFF

It's fascinating to me the continued fascination with Yoko as a distraction when John shows up completely fucked up and barely verbal at points

George's collection of winter boots became my new distraction.

xpost Yoko is *clearly* a distraction, just one of many.

I imagine he was slightly distressed at the state his old friends were in: "You used to go toe-to-toe with *Little Richard* every night! What the hell happened to you guys?!"

i found preston to be kind of a cipher in this tbh. other than when he's jamming with john on 'i want you', does he say more than 10 words in the whole thing? hes suddenly thrust into a situation with insanely awkward & weird vibes, so not shocking that would just try to melt into the background & let the piano do the talking. still found myself frequently wondering what he made of everything, but found him kind of hard to read.

The vibes were really bad at the Twickenham studio - I really felt like once they returned to Saville Row everything was much better, even before Billy Preston.

George will eventually produce Preston's That's the Way God Planned It later in 1969, I should mention.

he even gives him "All Things Must Pass" and "My Sweet Lord" too, even though the doc revealed (to me, anyway) that he'd already decided to quit giving away songs and do his own clear-the-decks solo album

preston is clearly a heroically easygoing & goodnatured soul. if i came in and singlehandedly saved the worlds richest & most successful band, and then saw the way they staged the rooftop concert to almost completely hide me except for a few brief accidental glimpses, i'd have told those lads they could get back onto deez nuts

He doesn't have to say anything, just look at his smile. How would you feel if John Lennon anointed you the 5th Beatle in 1969?

Johnny Echols just shared a photo of band he was in early on that he was calling a proto Love and had Billy preston in before he went onto his own thing. Didn't have Arthur in yet. Photo was from 63.
Struck me taht certain people just seem to get around and play with a lot of people. Like. That somebody should justy incidentally cross paths with significant players like that cool enough.

Great thread, it's fascinating reading everyone's interpretations. I'm about 3/4 into part 1 and loving it so far.

The Last Dance which was mentioned up thread is an interesting comparison point to this.

Key difference between this and Last Dance I feel is that MJ is an asshole who knows he's an asshole, and it's riveting watching him unapologetically play that up as someone who's been largely absent from the public eye since his retirement.

McCartney in Get Back is an asshole (or maybe just behaving like one - at least that's been my takeaway so far) whose subsequent 50 years of public persona is him positioning himself as Mr Cuddly Christmastime and doing the talk show and festivals circuit, so the cognitive dissonance between that image of him and seeing him in full-on passive aggressive negging mode to George is what's riveting.

When they did "Shake, Rattle & Roll," I realized, oh right, Billy played on Sam Cooke's version...when he was 16.

Abbey Road was recorded after Let It Be, so it was weird to see them working on unfinished Abbey Road songs throughout

I knew the chronology, but the gap in between when this documentary was filmed and when the album was released over a year later is much bigger in my mind now – "Get Back" existed only as a single for that whole time!

(Also had the thought when Paul refers to their previous album as The Beatles (and not the White Album) that hey, Sharon Tate is still alive in Hollywood right now.)

It was certainly a very odd feeling after 8 hours of intense immersion in 1969 to be back in 2021 with its “future is on hold for covid” atmosphere.

The "Hey Jude" clip made me a little nervous!

and then saw the way they staged the rooftop concert to almost completely hide me except for a few brief accidental glimpses, i'd have told those lads they could get back onto deez nuts

To be fair, they managed to not get George in most of the shots either. Seems like the wrong lenses or angles or camera locations (may have been somewhat hampered on that front to be fair) and aspect ratio, not to mention the visual noise of all the people wandering around, often across the camera shot.

The rooftop show is such a compromised mess — perfectly fitting for the whole project.