The Beatles Band • Page 29

Can't believe the documentary completely ignored their hip hop era, they were so ahead of their time

 

i loved every moment of this thanks

 

I take this as a historical document from a Beatles superfan, without fawning over their heroes. He could have either done the planned feature-length movie for casuals and lost some of the nuance of everything that happened during those sessions or gone whole-hog and showcase a ton of it to really get a feel for the looseness and tension that went on for a band that was clearly holding on to the ever-expanding chasm in their foundation and how/why that wasn’t sustainable (while making less committed viewers say “8 hours? Nah, I’m good”).

Even though I wasn’t entertained by all 8 hours, I found the whole piece compelling and personal. It really made these four guys that were built up as giants as people that had faults, egos and loved dumb shit like dick jokes and making weird noises, while also at the same time being musical geniuses.

 

When I went to London with my wife for our honeymoon a couple years ago, we hit a bunch of Beatles locations, including the infamous old Apple Corps building where The Beatles played on the roof. From ground level, you really can't see anything that may be happening on the roof whatsoever. The street is so narrow that you can't even back up far enough to see anything. Watching the performance on this documentary, seeing all the confused people, it totally makes sense, haha.

For anyone interested in seeing what the building looks like today, here it is on Google Maps.

 

Just finished Parts 1 & 2. I swear those 5-6 hours just flew by. Crazy how in sync they were creatively. What other band could get together for 3 weeks and have an album like Let It Be come out? Plus all the Abbey Road and eventual solo material that you see them toying with throughout the film.

Most emotional part so far is the beginning of Part 2, where Ringo and Paul are the only ones who showed up and they're unsure if John is about to quit. Paul's actually defending Yoko and standing up for their relationship, saying if this is where John's finding happiness who are they to stop him.....but then the camera stays on him and you can see his eyes are watering up. Even though they continued on for another 7 months, you can see in that moment Paul realizing that this amazing thing he's a part of is eventually coming to an end.

Part 3 tonight. This was all pulled from like 55 hours of footage, right? I would honestly watch all of that if they had put it out haha

 

Starting this again now

 

Just pure magic that we can watch the studio debut of Octopus's Garden

 

watched Part 1 last night, was amazing. I see there's a shit ton of conversation in here but I'll probably never go back and read it haha. Part 2 tonight if things go well

 

steve is a completist for every album any of the four has ever played on but won’t read two pages

 

I wish there was something like this but for 1966-68. This was obviously a significant time in their career but musically so much more down to earth and blues-y compared to the experimentation of the prior ~4 albums. So some of the stretches of them just working through the same songs over and over are the parts that test my attention span, and make me imagine what a similar video of them recording stuff from like MMT or “Tomorrow Never Knows” or whatever would be like

 

I’m firmly in the “Yoko did basically nothing wrong” camp but it is hilarious watching her just passively sit there through the whole thing. Maybe prior gfs had done the same thing but it seems so absurdly awkward. And apparently several months later when they were recording Abbey Road she had to get bedrest for some medical condition and John literally had a bed brought into the studio for her lmao

 

I haven't finished the movies yet!!!! Spoilers, duh

 

I have been dragging my feet finishing episode 3 but lol at them singing Two of Us through clenched teeth. They are clearly having fun even then lmfao

 

In a stunning twist of events, Harrison actually snaps, punches McCartney in the face, knocking out two teeth, and gets arrested for battery.

 

Part 3 was great, but I'm just a little disappointed that there wasn't some epilogue blurb explaining what happened afterwards.
They seemingly finished recording the album on January 30th, however something happened that made them just abandon the album. They got back together 4 months later and recorded Abbey Road, and released AR in August. Let It Be ended up getting released post break up in 1970, a full year after they recorded it.
I dont think I've ever understood the release time line with these two albums.

 

It's confusing for sure - but Wiki explains the timeline AFTER January 30th like this:

In April 1969, the Beatles issued the single "Get Back", after which engineer Glyn Johns prepared and submitted mixes of the album – titled Get Back and subsequently rejected by the band.[3] The project then lay in limbo as they moved onto the recording of Abbey Road, released that September. In January 1970, four months after John Lennon's departure from the group, the remaining Beatles finished the album with the completion of "Let It Be" and "I Me Mine". The former was issued as a single in March 1970, and like all the album's recording to this point, was produced by George Martin.

When the documentary project was resurrected for a cinema release, as Let It Be, Lennon and Harrison asked American producer Phil Spector to assemble the accompanying album. Among Spector's changes was to include a 1968 take of "Across the Universe" and apply orchestral and choral overdubs to four tracks. His work offended McCartney, particularly in the case of "The Long and Winding Road".

 

Basically it was shelved for a while, they released Abbey Road, and then Lennon and Harrison went around McCartney to have Spector finish mixing/mastering the Let It Be sessions, and they released it.

 

Must've felt crazy to them to have these amazing songs like Across the Universe and Let It Be, and have to sit on them and move on to a new album lol

I'm on team McCartney when it comes to bringing on Spector. The strings ruin Long and Winding Road. Also who in their right mind would remove Don't Let Me Down and replace it with basically 2 skits?

 

Imagine at the time being a fan, and no internet to rely on for information .... Lennon leaves the band in September of '69 - effectively making all fans assume the band is done. And then they randomly release an album in May of '70.

My Dad has often told me how confusing and odd that was to him at the time as a tween/Beatles nut.

 

Agreed on DLMD being way higher quality - but remember at the time singles were a big deal, and DLMD was the B-side to Get Back which was released in April of '69 , which is likely why it was left off the album.

 

I don’t think Lennon publicly announced he was leaving the band. I think the world learned the band was effectively over when Paul announced he left the band in April 1970

 

The old guy on the street saying he would love for his daughter to date a Beatle because they've got money is a fucking king

 

Well that makes much more sense.

 

omg the newspaper article was right!!!!!!

 

The reactions on the street were so great lol