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

talking about podcasts and lennon, have you guys listened to song exploder's episode on lennon's "god"?

https://songexploder.net/john-lennon

it's pretty interesting to hear lennon talk about what kinds of songs he liked to write when he was in the beatles. it's pretty telling how he says the only songs he wrote from first-hand experience were "help" and "strawberry fields forever" and juxtaposes those with songs that were "phony"

the thing is, it seems like he rarely wanted to write very personal songs in the beatles. i'm not sure i would consider that a cop out or "selling out". the really personal stuff would fall under his "hangups", i assume, which is a shame, because more songs like "julia", "don't let me down" and "in my life" (none of which he mentions in the song exploder clip) would've probably been more interesting

anyways, i think some of that bumps heads with george's songwriting style, which would then make sense why he didn't like or at the very least didn't allow many george songs to be played in the beatles. which(!) would all makes sense, because he called "in my life" both his "first real major piece of work" and the most boring song he had written!

Lennon's apparent contempt for the whole enterprise was, in a sense, a mask. Because you can also see his obvious un-fakeable joy in a thousand places. Like all of us, he was large and contained multitudes.

No one will ever know which was the "true" Lennon, and we don't need to. He would mock us for wanting to know, because that is the essence of John-ness. I think he wanted to perplex us. To remain a mystery and confound our expectations for closure. That was his reaction to adulation.

Which was and is, of course, something he had the right to choose. It's both understandable and a little (dare I say) mean-spirited.

We also have the right to think he was kind of a dick. A gifted dick, but a dick nonetheless.

Dude was the definition of the saying "closing the barn door after the horse has bolted"
He just said shit to say shit, half the time it was either to amuse himself or because he just hated press interviews.

Most of the way through Part 1 and damn if Paul isn't being super condescending to George and Ringo. I've always wanted to defend Paul because if it weren't for his pushing we don't get Let it Be and Abbey Road. But it's interesting so far he hasn't really gone after John in the way he goes after the other two.

I wrapped it up last night, loved it even when it was repetitive, just so much fun to see that place and time with those guys. What a band. My two big takeaways were how universal Ringo's drum experience is — showing up, sitting behind the kit, waiting for the rest of the band to stop bickering and bullshitting and start playing something. And the harmonies — it's such an obvious thing, but they are the key to the whole sound, it's why the Beatles sound like the Beatles, and I just loved every time one of them was singing and the others joined in and it's just like someone flipped a switch. They sounded so good together.

<3

otm

I want to point out that even in 1995 Paul and George still harmonized well and Ringo's instincts remain formidable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLJHV2TmzyU

of course, George's "lol this fuckin guy" scowl is priceless

George giving his full "I'm only doing Anthology to secure my mansion and estate which I foolishly put up as a guarantee for Handmade Pictures. What was I thinking? My life sucks!" vibe.

damn if Paul isn't being super condescending to George and Ringo.

At least in Parts I & II, Paul was the one counting in the song to Ringo.

its been over 15 years now get over it!

Paul always counted in, though. In addition to "I Saw Her Standing There," look at any live footage from the '60s; he's doing most (and maybe all) of the count-ins.

xp

Paul was their Deedee

"Paul Ramone", remember?

My two big takeaways were how universal Ringo's drum experience is — showing up, sitting behind the kit, waiting for the rest of the band to stop bickering and bullshitting and start playing something.

I love the bit in Pt 3 where Ringo snoozes through Paul's latest heartfelt gospel number (Long & Winding Road) and Paul gripes at him, "Not a lot of drums on this one, then?"

The Apple staff coming up with constant bullshit to delay the bobbies was hysterical.

https://external-preview.redd.it/GhzvR7qyxmcaOXeQ8c8eUDTOuSXJdue0alKEK4B7BE4.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=11501de75e0dfff7f4930f96630b6fcbbf44b24e

In retrospect, "Maxwell's" warned us how frequently shitty Paul's solo career would be. For every keeper Paul (alone or with Linda) or Wings would cut, they would drop about ten or eleven turds.

lol @ "Big deal."

that song sucks so fucking bad

i hate it, i've listened to the rest of the album a million times but that song maybe only 3-6 times all the way through

Yeah the other thing they all lost when they broke up was an editor. None of them benefited from the freedom, really.

I went to see The French Dispatch yesterday, and it made me think about how the whole rooftop concert kind of plays out like a real-life Wes Anderson clip. You have the historic building, madcap escapades, officious but befuddled policemen, and it comes with its own '60s rock soundtrack. Just needed a chase scene.

speaking of editors, Wes needs one.

i love "maxwell's" but i also love a great deal of macca solo/wings

plus it's obv Paul would've recorded "Maxwell's" by himself in 1969 if he had to.

speaking of editors, Wes needs one.

Yup. Tho I enjoyed more than you, I think. (Me being the kind of guy with actual New Yorker covers on my living room wall.)

omg i just had a *feeling* brad would show up and i'd have to reassess this piece of music in light of that

i just find it sharply written and extremely demented in a good way. those piano breaks

if i were playing it for three days straight i would hate it too prob

do ppl really think Paul just made up "get back" right there? i assumed it was just something he had in his back pocket or whatever. i haven't watched this whole thing so ignore me if i'm off

I don't at all dislike "Maxwell's." Too well-constructed. And those Moog flourishes never get credit.

he plays a single riff on the guitar over and over again until the song all of the sudden emerges, it’s dope you should see it

Sure looks/sounds like he made it up or at least developed it right there. Who knows if he'd been tinkering with the riff already, but it starts out pretty unformed.

alternate reality: beatles get so fed up with Paul they break up in January 1969. in a huff to prove them wrong, he spends the remaining year almost entirely in the studio, meticulously working all his half-finished ideas to absurd degrees of gloss and perfection. his debut solo album features not only "Maybe I'm Amazed," "Teddy Boy," "Every Night," etc., but also "Let It Be," "Oh! Darling," "Another Day," the smash Linda duet "Two of Us," and the staggering art-rock medley closer, "The Long And Winding Road (Silver Hammer)."

i am aligned with Brad on Maxwell
i like the dementedness & as a kid i was super into the morbid angle

and I like a lot of solo McCartney/Wings too

I don't like that song but in retrospect, it probably wasn't the biggest crime-against-humanity in their catalog. And even if it is, well, what of it?

Logically speaking even the Beatles have a worst song. A song that took longer than it was worth. If this is theirs, well, something had to be.

Like, does anyone bother to hate on, say, "Piggies" as much or as exhaustively?

these two thing rule wrt “maxwells silver hammer”:

the vocalless chorus with the harmonizing guitars
the moog wailing

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmers across the water (ding ding!)
haaaaaaaaaaaammmmeeeeers across the sky

I don't hate Maxwell but I wish we had that kind of footage of them working up Come Together, e.g.

xp - no i saw that part. i figured it was something he had already which is why i was more blown away with George being like here's "i, me, mine" wrote it last night. i mean it's fucking incredible regardless

i hate it, i've listened to the rest of the album a million times but that song maybe only 3-6 times all the way through

Pretty much the same here. I just skip it altogether now - the album feels like a perfect masterpiece when I can forget it was ever wedged in.

Every time I see that Beatles parody on The Simpsons where the Apu complains about Homer's shitty songs, I immediately assume Homer's Paul and that the unheard Mr. T song is about as shitty as "Maxwell's."

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmers across the water (ding ding!)
haaaaaaaaaaaammmmeeeeers across the sky

LMAO.

Maxwell came in
stinking of gin
and proceeded to lie on the table

as far as their worst track of all, Scik Mouthy already moderated a comprehensive album-by-album survey, capped by abanana's seemingly definitive poll of the results: Worst Beatles song ever relevant precursor thread here: Worst Beatles song on Abbey Road

i've always enjoyed "Maxwell's," but not sure i could really mount a defense. i' m just someone who's generally open to paul's goofy bullshit and de-doot-de-DOO-doo embellishment. i like the lush recording. the chorus is catchy. i fell headfirst into this album when i was 13 or 14 and i'm just never going to hear it with the same ears as someone who arrived as an adult, for whom it perhaps stands out from the Abbey Road tracklist like a hammer-smashed thumb.

Maxwell could have been Paul's Chinese Democracy, a song he kept changing and adding to until it's a 3-hour Maxwell Chronicles that he finally releases in 2023 as a VR movie.

lol now my preferred alternate reality is one where the tapes are all shelved and it acquires the same mystique as "Carnival of Light"

do ppl really think Paul just made up "get back" right there? i assumed it was just something he had in his back pocket or whatever. i haven't watched this whole thing so ignore me if i'm off

Was it upthread on here or somewhere else that someone gets annoyed with people believing that the song is developed in real time in that clip? I read the debunking before so I saw the clip so I'm not sure what I'd have thought otherwise.

imagine all the die-hards complaining about every new Anthology/reissue/remaster/Naked production, "JUST GIVE US MAXWELL'S SILVER HAMMER YOU COWARDS!!!"

I will say it's well-produced on Abbey Road. George, God bless him, adds some nice guitar licks. And I think it may have George Martin who was smart enough to convince Paul to get rid of the monumentally shitty whistling bit. But it's still pretty inane, especially the dopey funny-voice harmonizing (a weakness that would only get worse on Paul's records throughout the '70s).