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

man, that makes me want to actually want to see him in concert. and i've never done the thing of splurging on tickets to see a big arena-scale "legend" act. but I bet it'd be pretty cool, right? i mean, he was a BEATLE! i get it.

One of the first concerts I went to was McCartney. Treated myself because I was finally on my own and making money, and I thought, "what's stopping me?" (I almost never went to concerts before, it was drilled in me that they were too costly.) And for a diehard Beatle fan who had listened to them endlessly for close to a decade, it was mindblowing. The best part was walking out through the parking lot and running into Paul's bus, just crawling along as he stood in the front honking the horn, waving at every, single, person, looking them straight in the eye, including me. For a second, it was like 1965 and I was ready to scream into infinity. I never felt better on my way home from a show.

that's so great!

beautiful bird

<3 that is so cool

My mum (not a concert goer) bought tickets for Macca (including one for me unprompted) because it's bloody Paul McCartney. Best song of the night: Back in the USSR.

Just watched Get Back (though it seems y'all have moved on a bit from discussing it). My wife gave up 30 minutes into the doc, and I almost did when Paul read through the entire tabloid article in a funny voice, but it was worth sticking through till the end. Part 3 was incredible, as I had not seen anything more than a few clips of the rooftop concert before, did not know there was police involved, etc. Parts 1 and 2 were too long, but I can see that everyone has their own moments they like. I personally would cut more than half the moments they goof around on covers but I'm sure a lot of people love that stuff

i wish any of their previous eight albums had gotten this treatment instead of this one

yeah, seriously. or Abbey Road. it's fascinating to see "Get Back" and "The Long and Winding Road" evolve, but they're also two of my least favorite Beatles singles

is there much more in-studio footage out there? I know this exists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdrb1vFTtJI

i loved all the times they tried to work out “two of us” electrically before they brought out the acoustic guitars and realized they should’ve been playing it that way all along

I think they were asking for non-Get Back recordings?

There’s also this in-studio footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA1mSTa5xIA

I recently completed a Beatles marathon listening session, using a playlist I put together which lists their work chronologically by the date on which recording first started for each song. [...]

― mike t-diva

Just wanted to say thanks for this!

I think Ringo turns up briefly on Shot of Love.

On "Heart of Mine."

Mediocre track and Dylan and his producer knew it at the time. The song was always a bit of fluff, but they cut a good master before Ringo stopped by and they more or less jammed with him on this song. Dylan openly admitted that they chose a take with Ringo despite the inferior quality simply because he played on it.

Or I should say, Ringo, Ronnie Wood and Duck Dunn...like it was an all-star recording, hence the speculated "appeal," but it was worse than what they had.

Oh God, I've just acquired the Mono box set. What took me so long? I wasn't prepared for the gut punch of hearing Help! the way I heard it growing up (albeit without the scratches). Who knew a mix could be a madeleine? It does sound so good though – much more muscular than the stereo version I've put up with for years.

Woohoo! Revolver absolutely sings in mono too. Has an adrenaline lacking in the fussy stereo.

Welcome to the church, Alba.

That mono box is truly amazing. I'm glad Apple wound up pressing a lot more copies, it may be out-of-print but it's not too hard to find for a reasonable price.

Presumably you're talking about the CD version there. The vinyl mono box goes for astronomical sums.

Ah, yes, that's what I meant! Too bad about the vinyl, but maybe they'll bring those back in-print? (It's weird that it's easier to get Giles's remixes on vinyl than the original mono.)

I'm late to the party, just watching Get Back now. Just got to the part where Paul sings "I'm So Tired" and literally screamed. This thing is uncut heroin.

Just rewatched the rooftop concert and one of the best moments of the entire 8 hours is when Paul looks over his shoulder and sees the cops, gives a little hoot, and starts putting extra sauce on everything.

About 3/4 of the way through watching it & have to jam out for the night. It’s been so great. I can’t imagine Suzy Creamcheese being all over this - can’t fathom why it hasn’t been widely panned, it’s so ramshackle and would have to be dull as fuck for a non-fanatic (not to mention so many off-key performances) - but I want the 56 hours of raw tapes, fuck it, gimme it all. I really understand now why George got fed up & left - the whole Beatle thing is John & Paul playing and performing for and at and to each other, & the other 2 are so often cut out of the bubble of those guys’ love and rivalry.

Also LOVING Mal Evans just writing down lyrics & changes to lyrics constantly so nobody has to break the creative flow. Underrated contributor.

yeah that was awesome. note takers consistently underrated team members.

A small point of confusion which no doubt has a trivial explanation: when they first go on the roof they have to climb a six foot plus high wall, actually bodily dragging Michael lindsay-hogg up it. Then when it comes to the performance they just walk out of a door...

I think someone pointed out that that higher roof was part of the building next door and therefore they would be trespassing to be on it

You could be right - Ringo just says "what happens if we do it on top of the other roof" but it's not clear what roof he's talking about, maybe they just climbed up to get to the highest vantage point even though the gig location was always going to be the larger part of the roof lower down. I think it probably is the building next door they climb up to, the red brick structure they climb up beside - and perform in front of - is no longer there in google maps, and the building next door has been redeveloped, but the greenhouse is still there.

For me the strange thing about the gig is that as far as they can tell they're performing to almost no-one. There's no way they can see down to the street, almost everyone directly in front of them is a cameraman or techie of some kind.

Xp to self just seen another view (live tweeting here) and the roof they climb up to is definitely the building next door.

Was Pink Floyd at Pompeii an attempt to do the same playing-to-no-audience thing on a larger scale I wonder. It’s.. not an idea that took off much beyond that iirc.

Well, Nilsson did it, and fifty years later, Nick Cave

I would imagine that after Beatlemania hit the gigs would have felt like performing to no-one anyway

the interviews with people who were on the street cinfirmed what ive always suspected: that the concert was extremely underwhelming. the most enthusiastic reaction is like ‘oh, that’s the beatles? oh. yeah, they’re alright. can’t hear or see anything though’

right that was my reaction too. they played great but it felt faintly ridiculous. more than a little bit spinal tap tbh.

“I’m moderately in favour of this sort of thing, generally!”

God, part 2 is fucking slog to get through, even with Billy Preston coming in halfway.

I broke it into 1 hour chunks, it was fine

Yeah my viewing has been extremely episodic, after my forensic analysis of roofs last night I still haven't finished part 3. My wife came down and said "god you're not still watching the beatles are you?" then complained that don't let me down was making her feel sick.

Roofing issues: From reading a couple of interviews, it seems it wasn't quite the spontaneous 'just stepping out onto the roof now guys' it appears. A consulting engineer was brought in to check that the roof would take the weight of people and equipment, and a wooden platform was put down. The rooftop sequence does make me slightly nervous, particularly when the filming cuts to people perched precariously on neighbouring roofs and window ledges. Did lol at the footage of poor MLH being ungraciously dragged up the wall.

MLH issues: It was probably a bit unfair for Tony Richmond (cinematographer) to say “So Michael stopped it. Which was probably a silly thing to do. It would have been fantastic to have seen him taken away by the police, and down the stairs, and up Savile Row, because nothing would have happened.” It seems that MLH had no work permit at the time so may well have faced personal consequences.

God, part 2 is fucking slog to get through, even with Billy Preston coming in halfway.

Had no idea he played on Rattle & Hum.

Gopnik:

ker.com/magazine/2021/10/18/paul-mccartney-doesnt-really-want-to-stop-the-show

My affection for Old Brown Shoe has grown immensely since watching them having an absolute gas learning & tracking it.

same!

and I already liked it plenty

1967-70 was the first album I ever bought, aged 11, in the summer of 1973. The only track I never connected with was Old Brown Shoe. But, yeah, I guess it’s alright.

it's a mystery how that B-side appeared on that collection

Wasn't Harrison the band member most involved in putting those comps together?

I don't think so, mainly because there's no George songs on the red album.