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"Get Back" film
- Thread starter AGCurry
- Start date
I recently co-hosted a podcast doing a deep dive into the White Album. I would hazard a guess there was lots of time wasting there as well, and without an imminent deadline.
Their MO seems to be: start slow and then ramp it up towards the end. on the White Album, they worked weekdays and took weekends off - very work-a-day - but worked straight through on Let It Be. Except for those few days they lost George.
In the film, it seemed to me that Lennon started off fairly antagonistic then by the end he was fully invested. McCartney was “boss” and that clearly pissed off George.
The magical moment for me was when Paul started working out the basics for get back - while strumming chords on his Hofner bass no less! George just looking on.
Their MO seems to be: start slow and then ramp it up towards the end. on the White Album, they worked weekdays and took weekends off - very work-a-day - but worked straight through on Let It Be. Except for those few days they lost George.
In the film, it seemed to me that Lennon started off fairly antagonistic then by the end he was fully invested. McCartney was “boss” and that clearly pissed off George.
The magical moment for me was when Paul started working out the basics for get back - while strumming chords on his Hofner bass no less! George just looking on.
I'm enjoying it - I'm about half way through part 2. The overall pleasantness of everyone involved really stands out. And there's a taped conversation between Paul and John about themselves and how it's impacted George and the future of the band that is really touching, and demonstrates how thoughtful and caring they really were about each other.
It's also interesting seeing their workaday process, and I agree that this was their "job" and it looks like everyone enjoyed it, even while George was feeling the weight of his role in the Beatles at that point in time. When he left and Paul and Ringo came back the next day, with Paul wistfully saying "and then there were two" with tears welling up was hard to watch. That would have been tough, especially with all the cameras on and the ridiculous direction of Michael floating about. I'm glad the director did what he did with cameras and mics, but wow, he was a fountain of bad ideas.
Also pleased to see how Yoko had developed her brilliant singing style even back then. That was a... uhhhh.... joy... to watch.
Kudos to Peter Jackson for not showing anyone making faces or rolling their eyes, I can't believe for a second that no one in the room had a "what the fluff?" response.
Glyn Johns, what a fantastic dresser that guy was - stylish and coordinated in every scene. Looks like a real rock star, or an extra in Austin Powers.
Mal Evans, seems to have been about the nicest, most pleasant person who ever lived. What a great record of the man for his family.
I've also been playing along with them the whole time. I started with noodling along on acoustic guitar, but then brought out a bass to play along. Very satisfying.
It's also interesting seeing their workaday process, and I agree that this was their "job" and it looks like everyone enjoyed it, even while George was feeling the weight of his role in the Beatles at that point in time. When he left and Paul and Ringo came back the next day, with Paul wistfully saying "and then there were two" with tears welling up was hard to watch. That would have been tough, especially with all the cameras on and the ridiculous direction of Michael floating about. I'm glad the director did what he did with cameras and mics, but wow, he was a fountain of bad ideas.
Also pleased to see how Yoko had developed her brilliant singing style even back then. That was a... uhhhh.... joy... to watch.
Kudos to Peter Jackson for not showing anyone making faces or rolling their eyes, I can't believe for a second that no one in the room had a "what the fluff?" response. Glyn Johns, what a fantastic dresser that guy was - stylish and coordinated in every scene. Looks like a real rock star, or an extra in Austin Powers.
Mal Evans, seems to have been about the nicest, most pleasant person who ever lived. What a great record of the man for his family.
I've also been playing along with them the whole time. I started with noodling along on acoustic guitar, but then brought out a bass to play along. Very satisfying.
I'm seeing from a Google search that in total there was over 60 hours of footage and over 150 hours of audio.
Let It Be was thought to be negatively slanted. Get Back is thought to be positive.
Ahh, the power of editing!
Let It Be was thought to be negatively slanted. Get Back is thought to be positive.
Ahh, the power of editing!
I mean, they wrote and performed some of the greatest songs in their repertoire during these sessions. And performed well up on the roof. I don't know that the argument they weren't productive applies, what seems like chaos on screen is just their process.
I won't argue about the quality of the songs (a subjective judgment) or their rooftop performance. But a better-organized group would have worked out much more material in that amount of time (assuming that members brought viable ideas).
That's assuming better organization has no negative effect on their creative process. I think the reason they were able to come up with great material is in part because of a lack of structure and organization personally.
Well, I am biased (again, subjective judgment) in that I much prefer, for example, Rubber Soul to Let It Be and the White Album.
Although George Martin was present much of the time, I didn't see him getting involved in the music during these sessions. If I'm correct about his role with the Beatles, he provided much of the "structure and organization" which facilitated their innovative greatness.
I don't disagree, I prefer Rubber Soul to both also, but that's personal taste. I still recognize the evolution in song writing and musicianship, even if I happen to prefer Rubber Soul and Help! I think they were doing something fresh with Let It Be and adding Billy Preston brought on a new dimension, alot of soul to their (still) signature sound.
Honestly, the first hour of episode one was tough to get through. So much so that I had to turn it off and come back to it. You would think that as a musician, it would be fascinating to me, but it wasn't. So I went back to it and it does pick up later, particularly the songwriting parts. My brother said that episodes two and three have a better pace, so I'll get through those the week of Christmas (I'm the only one in the house watching it). 
As far as the quality of songs in "Get Back", I would say that you could tell there was possibly some intentional holding back of tunes for the reason that the writer of the song had arrangment and overdubbing ideas that would not be realized with the concept or approach used in this venture.
I mean, even "Get Back" itself is not that great of a Beatles song in my perspective. Maybe that will upset people though. It is a simple song with somewhat uninteresting lyrics. It is a good example of restraint and not including too much.
I mean, even "Get Back" itself is not that great of a Beatles song in my perspective. Maybe that will upset people though. It is a simple song with somewhat uninteresting lyrics. It is a good example of restraint and not including too much.
That item piqued me, so I just did a bit of googling. As late as 1963, even the BBC didn't so much as have multi-track recorders of any kind. The Beatles were the first to overdub and they did it by copying the recording to another tape. The portable tape cassette had only just been invented at Phillips about the same time. It was getting on the market through the 60s but only really became widespread in the 70s. I don't get the impression the Beatles were the type to write their ideas down in standard-notation sheet music. It might be that some of them might have picked up a portable cassette recorder as an interesting gadget but I think it's too early to expect a band to have a working system of recording to cassette at home and passing it around.
That's the kind of thing that fascinates me about the whole thing. The Beatles pull up to the studio in their Rolls Royces and mink coats. But apparently they don't own a guitar stand (very nerve-wracking for me to watch the instruments just strewn around the floor!). Just didn't exist, or at least wasn't on the radar as a thing they should have.
Yes I'm not quite finished the third episode yet but I've been surprised at how little screen time George Martin gets. I wonder if he was intentionally avoiding the cameras/not inserting himself into the process or if Peter Jackson just chose to edit him out of the footage. I've always read that he was the "fifth beatle" so I was expecting to see him offer more input.
Also Michael Hogg or whatever comes off as quite the doofus.
I always saw it as an attempt to market a bass register instrument to guitarists. It's set up to be played like a regular guitar. That may be why John liked it.
What kind of cracks me up is how many people think this music was written in notation at home and then passed around to them in the studio to read and play. That may be how some players write, but there are also many who do not work that way. I've worked in bands with highly accomplished musicians who were fully capable of notating and sightreading (music teachers at the university level, in some cases) and even they did not work that way in the band setting, although obviously they could write that way if they wanted to.
I didn't own a guitar stand throughout the 80's and didn't really know anyone who did. We leaned our instruments against whatever was available. I think they existed by then, but music marketing was sort of in its infancy in the 60's and I'm not sure there were a lot of ancillary accessories at that point.
