Why did George Harrison walk out during Let it Be?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by helter, Apr 5, 2011.

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  1. Chris M

    Chris M Senior Member In Memoriam

    That's the tape where Yoko goes on about how nice Paul has been?
     
  2. nikh33

    nikh33 Senior Member

    Location:
    Liverpool, England
    Yes, all mind games, isn't it.
     
  3. Yovra

    Yovra Collector of Beatles Threads

  4. hoggydoggy

    hoggydoggy Forum Resident

    The accounts I've read suggest a very weird vibe that day, although there were apparently some very good sessions during that Summer.

    So far as identifying the end of any focussed (and unforced) Beatle unity is concerned, I'm tempted to nominate when the last of the other 3 Beatles drove away from Kinfauns on 29th May 1968.
     
  5. Thanks for this!

    Seven months with keeping the lid on it... Must have been a true eternity to John Lennon...
     
  6. brainwashed

    brainwashed Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    It's telling and probably a fortune of luck that Klein was able to have solo albums count as "Beatles" albums when he restructured the Capitol deal. Hey Jude and Let It Be counting the same as Imagine and All Things Must Pass. QUITE fortunate. Without this caveat the breakup would have been even more devastating to them financially. Without the solo albums the contract would have been considered null and void and millions and millions would have been forfeited and/or returned. The Capitol contract didn't say they needed to remain a 'group'., but had to release a specific quantity of albums and singles. It's possible they would have come together and either re-grouped or just included solo songs as a "Beatles' album" .... you know, like the 1970 Fantasy Album we've all compiled, to keep in good graces with the contract stipulations. Ron

    PS John was advised to keep quiet about leaving because Klein had yet to restructure the Capitol deal. By April 1970 the deal was in place and as I mentioned, there was nothing saying the band had to remain a viable band. Solo albums and singles (and compilations) counted as "Beatles" product. Lots of nasty things can be said about Klein but all four of them should have been grateful that he got this proviso... and LOTS of money.
     
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  7. Jose Jones

    Jose Jones Outstanding Forum Member

    Location:
    Detroit, Michigan
    Yoko knew enough that John was rich and famous that after the infamous first meeting at the Indica Gallery, she ran after John as he left and tried to get in the limo with him, shouting "Take me with you!".

    Yoko stalked Lennon, showed up at Kenwood unannounced and uninvited, waited for hours and hours at the gate, wrote to him, dropped off her book.

    Groupie is very much accurate. John may have preferred to remember the early days of their "courtship" differently, of course.
     
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  8. MikeP5877

    MikeP5877 V/VIII/MCMLXXVII

    Location:
    OH
    At least not verbally. There's one segment where Paul is trying to ask him something and John replies by playing guitar riffs. I think the same thing happens a few days later when Michael Lindsay-Hogg tries to engage him in conversation and John just replies with his guitar.
     
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  9. Jose Jones

    Jose Jones Outstanding Forum Member

    Location:
    Detroit, Michigan
    No wonder George's guitar gently weeped.
     
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  10. No Bull

    No Bull Forum Resident

    Location:
    Orlando Florida
    George new he was a mass of contradicitions. Check out the lyrics from Pisces Fish on Brainwashed.

    Some times my life it seems like fiction
    Some of the days it's really quite serene
    I'm a living proof of all life's contradictions
    One half's going where the other half's just been
     
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  11. No Bull

    No Bull Forum Resident

    Location:
    Orlando Florida
    Heroin, Yoko, and Stress was a nasty combo for John.
     
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  12. No Bull

    No Bull Forum Resident

    Location:
    Orlando Florida
    It's weird... I always forget that the Fabs (sans Ritchie) were just kids when they met. The dynamics established in Liverpool and Hamburg definately could have forshadowed later events.
     
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  13. No Bull

    No Bull Forum Resident

    Location:
    Orlando Florida
    Sounds like this was pre heroin John..so why would he be crappy like this? I guess paul was just being a PR guy by being nice to a fan backstage. Stories like this make me cringe.... then you see John in Imagine befirending a deeply troubled fan/stalker...and you think to yourself..what other rock star would invite a homeless dude into his house and break bread with the dude? John could be very nice...or downright cruel... I guess we all have it in us.
     
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  14. maxheadroom

    maxheadroom Senior Member

    Location:
    Sao Paulo, Brasil
    Let's not forget that Doug's book and the Nagra tapes merely offer us a snapshot of John's life (and all the others as well). That's just January, 1969.

    I know I had my ups and downs the last decade, and if you get the "right" snapshots of some periods, I might come off as the ultimate a**hole.
     
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  15. Slokes

    Slokes Cruel But Fair

    Location:
    Greenwich, CT USA
    John had his good and bad moments, like everyone else, but that fan/stalker scene in Imagine always struck me as John playing to the camera rather than showing sincere concern. I'll agree he does offer some much-needed tough love to the guy.
     
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  16. brainwashed

    brainwashed Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    True, but there's also a scene (kept in the film for some reason) of Paul aimlessly doodling on his bass while John discusses the idea of ressurecting Across The Universe and sort of taking George's side after Paul scolds him for playing too many fills. Paul looks sooo bored and probably didn't want to revisit the tune (just my opinion of course) or want John backing up George.

    As an aside, the first 10 minutes or so of Let It Be is a poorly-paced mess. IMO. It would have been far better starting with the wonderful, electric version of Two of Us, leading into say the "good morning" version of I've Got A Feeling, into Suzy Parker. Personally, I would have started the film with the wonderful standup version of Get Back that shows all four Beatles rockin' and having fun, but this version didn't even make the final cut. The intro as it is, with Paul attempting to play Adagio For Strings that goes directly into that AWFUL version of Don't Let Me Downstraight into the disjointed (and poorly edited) performance of Maxwell's Silver Hammer has baffled me since 1970. Then there's the "George getting shocked bit" that doesn't even include his performance (All Things Must Pass?). I'm no Michael Lindsey-Hogg, but the editing and direction of Let It Be (especially the Twickenham stuff) could have been so much better than it ended up being. Ron
     
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  17. brainwashed

    brainwashed Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Boston, MA
  18. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    I wouldn't be surprised that when Scorsese's Harrison movie comes out, it will be honest, but not do anything to make the others look like ogres. Truths will come out, but not all truths.
    As for John, interviews that maybe seem to gloss over things, he felt as early as 1966 that he was running out of steam. After revolver and no touring anymore, he mentioned how he felt bereft of ideas. Maybe he felt his songs that came out of drug influences were not really a good thing, who knows? He certainly did feel insecure when the others did outside music work, while he did How I won the war. Hard to say if Yoko coming around at the time was a good thing, but it was what he needed to inspire himself to get going again, much to the chagrin of the others.
     
  19. mbleicher1

    mbleicher1 Tube Amp Curmudgeon

    Location:
    Washington, D.C.
    I would argue that John never lost his ability to write a great tune or a clever lyric; however, his personal issues sidelined him, one way or another, for much of his post-1966 career. One of the things LSD promoted was introspection of a sort that Lennon had never experienced before, and we can see this in "Strawberry Fields." I think as the traumas of his childhood and adolescence were compounded by the problems of Beatledom (isolation, rapid success, hangers-on pushing drugs, a loveless marriage, Epstein's death, etc), Lennon became unable to function, turning to heavy drug use (and Yoko) as an escape and a crutch. All of this was distracting, and the drug use was not conducive to songwriting. When he was in India, with nothing stronger than weed, he seemed to have probed a few more layers of his psyche, resulting in a massive outpouring of songs, many of them highly personal. Then he went back to London and onto heroin and barely wrote anything for two years. Then he did Primal Scream with Janov, which required him to be clean, and wrote another brilliant album's worth of songs. Reports vary as to what his mental and physical state was for the rest of the seventies, and his songs are a mixed bag, too.
     
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  20. vonwegen

    vonwegen Forum Resident

    Quite the opposite for me--too many searches come up totally empty. I get much better results by using Google.
     
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  21. Lord Hawthorne

    Lord Hawthorne Currently Untitled

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    Having a camera on you can influence your behavior.
     
  22. soundQman

    soundQman Senior Member

    Location:
    Arlington, VA, USA
    Did Klein deliberately pull a fast one on Capitol/EMI? Did the company know those implications of the deal? I've sort of wondered why in the world they all agreed to a new contract that went out to 1976 if they were on the verge of breakup and had such turmoil within the group. Why would John Lennon in particular want to make such a long-term commitment at that time? My impression from reading the story long ago is that John even announced he was leaving the group before the deal was signed, or do I have that wrong?
     
  23. brainwashed

    brainwashed Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    Details are sketchy, but I think John announced his intentions to leave (to the band and Klein) just after they signed the new deal. There's pix of Paul, Ringo, John, Yoko and Allen Klein hooting it some Apple Office photoshoot in late September 1969. The pix are not from signing with Klein as some may believe. Thing is, NONE of them made this announcement publically. As late as June 1970, George was still hopefull that they would reconvene later in the year for an album session (after they all put out their own solo albums). Of course Capitol had no idea the band was breaking up at this point. Ron
     
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  24. maxheadroom

    maxheadroom Senior Member

    Location:
    Sao Paulo, Brasil
    I'm 110% with you here, brainwashed. It's a shame you're not MLH because I also think that "Let it Be" is a poorly edited MESS. Not only did they chose the scenes poorly, but the edits and/or the "assembly" of the movie is horrible.
    Some scenes show Ringo playing totally off-sync, there's that "I've Got a Feeling" ending (with John doing some disjointed riffs) that appears twice for no good reason, there's Mal Evans' anvil also out of sync... there are all sorts of problems.

    This movie didn't deserve a simple re-release, but a remake.
     
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  25. CCRider

    CCRider Forum Resident

    I REALLY hope that this is what ends up being made.
     
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