Beatles Get Back 2021

[Sterbus]

I'm hoping that the Blu-ray will have the extended director's cut!

And a soundtrack too.

[ronmac]

Really? Not the review I read. Alex Petridis is actually a journalist with rather a decent rep.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis...is?wprov=sfla1

I'm kind of on fence about the films at this moment. As a fabs fan of course I am looking forward to seeing them but I have to agree with Petridis about Jackson's propensity for bloat. He has always been his own worst editor.

Anyways, part one for me this weekend, the proof will be in the pudding. At least my daughter will have Disney + for Xmas if nothing else. The inevitable Blu-ray will hopefully enable us to prune PJ's worst excesses.

Seems to me he lacks the proper context of the 50-year wait to give a fair review. It comes off as having an agenda attached to it, despite whether or not people feel Jackson's style lacks brevity. Maybe instead of a film and TV critic, they should have a music fan (not glowing fanboy, but someone with some genuine objectivity) review it. Perhaps, music fans aren't his target audience, though. I mean, aside from himself, that is.

[calyx]

I'm hoping that the Blu-ray will have the extended director's cut!

You're probably kidding there but it's a real issue. Jackson has explained that the reason why the doc turned out to be nearly 8 hours instead of 6 is that about 3 months ago he'd consulted Disney about the eventual BluRay release, telling them he hoped there'd be room on it for some of the footage he had to leave out to fit under 6 hours. Apparently they said bonus material was no longer an incentive for people to buy DVDs/BluRay's and so, no, there wouldn't be. Jackson was very frustrated by this and he says he hurriedly put together all the scenes he really didn't want to languish in the vaults for another 50 years (that's more or less what he said), and he revised the edit. But he didn't tell anyone (Apple, Beatles or Disney) about it, and simply sent the finished films to Disney, and never heard back from them about the extra minutes (nearly an extra 30 minutes for today's episode).

[jefftiger]

Ah, thanks for the explanation on the unexpectedly increased runtime of the finished product. I had not read about this before, other than in the last few days seeing mention that the final runtime had increased to 8 hours.

[lovecraft]

Seems to me he lacks the proper context of the 50-year wait to give a fair review. It comes off as having an agenda attached to it, despite whether or not people feel Jackson's style lacks brevity. Maybe instead of a film and TV critic, they should have a music fan (not glowing fanboy, but someone with some genuine objectivity) review it. Perhaps, music fans aren't his target audience, though. I mean, aside from himself, that is.

Sorry, don't see the agenda or sense the vitriol that you do. We'll agree to disagree.

Here is an interview with him about his career. I don't think you can say he's not a music fan.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...droidApp_Other

[jefftiger]

I just finished watching part 1. This was brilliant. Watching them come up with song ideas for what became Let It Be and Abbey Road was simply amazing. I found the portrayal of the dynamics between the four very illuminating. I suppose that there's no way that Jackson could be wholly impartial, but the vibe was so different from my distant memories of the original 1970 film (which I've never watched again, despite having a bootleg version on my computer). I definitely fall into the camp of finding the 157-minute part 1 as not being too long. I'll have to see how part 2 (at 173 minutes) works. The incredibly modern look of this high-def restoration also is jarring (in a good way). It's hard to believe that this all took place 52 years ago.

[FirthOf5th]

Yeah, I watched it and it’s fascinating. And I’m not a Beatles fanboy, and don’t know a lot about their dynamics and things like that.

My observations:

Paul is the creative leader at this point.

John contributes little.

George has a lot of great ideas, but is dismissed by others (mainly Paul).

Ringo doesn’t say much, and just seems glad to be riding these guys coattails.

WTF is Yoko doing there? Be gone!

[ronmac]

^^ I've read a number of reviews and they mostly seem to be whining about it being too long. But, the reviewers come off as not being big fans, who, let's face it, are the target audience. I know when I watch it, it will fly by and I'll likely want more. And that's coming from someone who has listened to all 97 hours of the film audio.

[pianomankd]

WTF is Yoko doing there? Be gone!

You DO know the history of the Beatles right?

[ronmac]

You DO know the history of the Beatles right?

[calyx]

The stuff involving Yoko is musically just as horrible as I expected it, but I was surprised at how little she ever says. I was expecting her to offer unsollicited comments and advice, which she's often been criticised for (maybe unfairly, or maybe at other times - maybe "White Album" era), but there's hardly any. Interestingly, when Linda (who doesn't appear nearly as often as Yoko) does offer unsollicited opinions, Paul jokingly says "shut up, Yoko", or words to that effect, which suggests this may have been something Yoko had been guilty of, but evidently not during those particular sessions.

[FirthOf5th]

The Fab Four are sitting there writing music, and Yoko is sitting there with them. Linda never encroached on their writing/jamming space, she was off in the wings (no pun intended).

It takes a lot of nerve, and absence of shame, to even want to be sitting with the band like that, even though I’m sure John invited her. The proper response from someone with a modicum of humility would have been “ thank you John, but I’m not a Beatle, I’ll just sit off over there and observe from afar with the hari Krishna’s if you don’t mind.”

[pb2015]

The stuff involving Yoko is musically just as horrible as I expected it, but I was surprised at how little she ever says. I was expecting her to offer unsollicited comments and advice, which she's often been criticised for (maybe unfairly, or maybe at other times - maybe "White Album" era), but there's hardly any. Interestingly, when Linda (who doesn't appear nearly as often as Yoko) does offer unsollicited opinions, Paul jokingly says "shut up, Yoko", or words to that effect, which suggests this may have been something Yoko had been guilty of, but evidently not during those particular sessions.

I believe Doug Sulpy's book about the sessions mentions some overbearing Yoko comments, mainly in discussions about the film concept with ML Hogg (and also mentions comments made by Hogg in Yoko's absence about his annoyance with her). I haven't seen the new documentary yet so I don't know if it includes any of that.

[calyx]

I believe Doug Sulpy's book about the sessions mentions some overbearing Yoko comments, mainly in discussions about the film concept with ML Hogg (and also mentions comments made by Hogg in Yoko's absence about his annoyance with her). I haven't seen the new documentary yet so I don't know if it includes any of that.

Hogg is more annoying to me in the film than Yoko, surprisingly (to me).

[ronmac]

Cue all the Yoko hate, right? The woman pretty much saved John's life. She showed him a positivity that he thought was lost in modern art and opened his eyes to so much that he was missing as a Beatle.

Between all the racist hate that she put up with when they first got together, the decades of ignorant accusations of her breaking up four strong men that followed, the cold-blooded and senseless murder of her husband, and just plain bullshit that continues to this very day, hasn't she endured enough?

I would be a shame that, in the wake of this long-awaited and overdue documentary, a byproduct of it would be the renewal of such unnecessary vitriol.

[FirthOf5th]

Yoko, “Oh no!”

[pb2015]

Hogg is more annoying to me in the film than Yoko, surprisingly (to me).

Sulpy also mentioned that the Beatles seemed annoyed with Hogg at times.

[Top Cat]

I haven't seen any of this film yet, I'll have to wait for the DVD release.
Regarding Yoko...the Beatles were sacred ground to many people, and once Yoko came in to the scene, she is a very strong personality, and her own career as an artist was considered weird and avant-garde. So she had several strikes against her. This coupled with John starting to want to do things outside of being a Beatle, and also projects with Yoko, made it appear she was pulling him away from the Beatles.
And yes as Ron mentioned, I'm sure there was some racism from some people. At the time I was married to a woman I met in Japan, and we later married. Because it was during the Vietnam era, people didn't think of the difference between Vietnamese and other Asians, and there was a lot of racism that existed, and I can testify to quite often feeling uncomfortable when we were out together.

As far as her saying much, one doesn't have to say a word to put a bad vibe in a room. Not saying she did this, but I remember in the early 70's when we had our band Plastic Hammer. My friend Darel played keys and synth and he was married to a girl who hated the music and the band. Every now and then she would sit in while we were writing or rehearsing and she never said a word, but the negativity and vibe she put in that room made you want to pack up your mic and guitar and run out to the car and drive away as fast and far as you could go. I still get the shivers thinking of her sitting in that room with us. Thankfully for my friend's sake, they parted ways and he later found his soul mate and was married a long time until his passing in Dec of 2017.

And let's not forget how much people hated Linda McCartney. They also thought she was interfering with the Beatles and distracting Paul
It was much much worse when she joined Wings. Oh my, that dear woman must've had balls of steel or a crust of confidence that shielded her from the hits she took.

[Yesola]

Reviewer comes off as a real asshole. I guess he's paid to shit on things. Instead of whining, how about some informed insights? "Nope, that's not my job."

People miss the point, although some of this might be a bit long somewhat like Linda says in the first part "People want to see them." as mentioned here by some they would watch all 72 hours or whatever it is.

The Beatles are the one band that I actually care about their inner stuff, because it's so tied in with their existence. The self awareness they have as to what is happening to them, all while being able to to come up the 14 songs and concert of new material is stunning.

[aith01]

Yoko, “Oh no!”

That’s it?

[aith01]

hasn't she endured enough?

[Munster]

At the risk of making this thread a mouthpiece for The Guardian, here is a very considered article (IMO) - and I promise that this will be the last time (for a while) that I post something from the newspaper.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...esent-fab-four

[Guitarplyrjvb]

I just watched Part I. Hmmm. I'm a Beatles fan, big time. I found this thing to be interesting but to a casual fan not intrigued by how the sausage was made, it's boring.

They clearly needed somebody besides Paul McCartney to be the ringleader. Glyn Johns is no producer; he's way too timid to insert himself into the proceedings. He's almost apologetic when he offers ideas.

The whole idea of the concert at the end of the songwriting sessions becomes a study in the ridiculous. Taking an audience to Libya on the QE2?! Somebody should have corralled that Lindsay-Hogg dude.

It's quite amazing to me that such fantastic music could result from these chaotic proceedings. Much of the time, they just sound like a bad garage band, but in the end, they strike gold. I guess you have to remember that they were all in their late 20's and just basically kids and kids, without any supervision or direction, will just horse around. They definitely needed some discipline and common sense.

Some other observations. George Harrison really lacks confidence in his guitar skills, John Lennon is pretty much a non-factor, and as other have said, Yoko is not that imposing a presence. The end, where she's howling into a microphone while the 3 remaining Beatles accompany her with cacophonous noise, is really the only place she asserts herself. I think, at that point, they were just going through the motions after George quit. Oh, a final observation. I feel like I'm going to get lung cancer from just watching this given all the smoking going on.

I'm definitely going to watch the other 2 installments. I just don't think a casual fan is going to sit through all of this.

[pb2015]

Yes, I think Yoko refrained from getting involved in the music, other than jumping on a mic for the scream improvs when she got a chance. She did get involved in discussions about the concert, but they may have left that out of the documentary.

Glyn Johns has had a fine track record as a producer, but the Beatles sessions may have been a tricky situation, as it was unclear whether he or George Martin had the producer role.

[calyx]

I just watched Part I. [...] I'm definitely going to watch the other 2 installments.

As you will see, the next two episodes have a few surprises in store if you think that would be the last word on the band's inner dynamics. Lennon is much more lively in the next episodes, returning as the band's leader and main decision-maker, with Paul no longer needing to assert himself that much. George, and it will come as no surprise to those who know about his pet hates (like Mark Lewisohn, who is getting little help from Apple in his efforts as a result, 20 years after George's death), is difficult to get along with, and definitely playing second fiddle to John and Paul in the decision-making process, and it's not just about songwriting. Clearly John and Paul have a vision for the band, albeit a shifting one, and he doesn't. And Ringo is happy to go along with the majority - unless they want to travel to Africa for the concert finale, which as a result ends up taking place a few floors above where they've been recording, much like they shot the cover for "Abbey Road" on the road outside EMI Studios.