Paul McCartney & Rick Rubin teaming on 6-part TV docuseries, "3, 2, 1"*

i don't thing the average fan really cares about it.

 

Thank you @MaybeI'mMrsVandebilt for this link. An interesting read.
I'd also like to highlight this section that gives us some info on how international branches may show these shows:

"We cut a trailer together just before the holidays last year, and then we started to have conversations about where it should be placed. We considered all the obvious possibilities—Netflix and Amazon, Disney+ and Hulu, HBO and Showtime—and we went to all of them. But one of the biggest Beatles fans on Earth is Bob Iger, and Bob had bought the Peter Jackson Get Back film for Disney+. Immediately, we thought that this would be a great bridge to prep the ground for the epic that was about to come. And it is epic. But they felt that Hulu, at least for the U.S., was a better platform. However, internationally, it’s going to be on Disney+. So we’ll launch in the U.K. on Disney+ in about four weeks and then roll out a few weeks after that on Disney+ in other territories around the world. I don’t know how they decide what it should be on, but Hulu is only North America. Well, Hulu acquired it for the world, but then it just goes through the greater Disney network.

Amazon were really interested, but Disney/Hulu felt more harmonious because we didn’t want a Disney competitor to go up against the Peter Jackson film. So this was the right home, because that would ensure that any media support and the way it was marketed would not be in direct conflict with what’s about to come with Get Back.

We did The Beatles’ Eight Days a Week, the Ron Howard film, with Hulu when it was in its infancy. And we thought we were going to go to HBO with that, but Hulu really made a big play, with more imaginative marketing and a bigger commitment than HBO. So they took a chance going with Eight Days a Week with Hulu, so it wasn’t a new conversation. And again, largely driven by Bob Iger."

 

In my post, I forgot to thank @EmceeEscher for the heads up on that link a while back. It's a good read. Given that this doc was fairly spontaneous as was McCartney III, it could be that we'll see more content/music in the near future, fingers crossed anyway. It seems to me that Paul is definitely up for things so long as someone has a good idea and goes to him with it. So here's hoping that more people pitch their ideas to Paul. I certainly hope that someone out there encourages him to embark on a docuseries of his solo career.

 

As we were listening to this on our drive, my wife turned to me and said “every good idea apparently was Paul’s idea.”

She’s a fan but was a pretty unbiased listener!

 

It was a programme about Paul as a musician and so mostly focused on his bass and piano playing. He gave lots of credit to others in passing but it wasn't a programme about all of the Beatles or their musicianship, it was about Paul... clue is in the title McCartney 321. So the ideas discussed were predominantly his.

 

And at times he was self deprecating as to his always wanting to try something else and that caused friction in the band.

 

Supposed?

 

I don't know if it's been mentioned before, did anyone notice that in the credits, they listed Dear Prudence as "Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play"?

What's up with that??

 

I've only seen the first two episodes (watched both of them twice) but I'm loving this. And Rubin, who is often hard to tolerate, handles things perfectly, imo. The little bit in episode two where Paul sits down at the piano and demonstrates a chord transposed several octaves and makes an impromptu song from it, and despite being something crapped out in a few seconds really demonstrates the towering genius of McCartney as a songwriter. And he's my third favorite Beatle.

 

We have to go as far back as we do to get a John who didn’t carry on throughout the seventies against Paul…a John who took all the credit, did megalomaniac interviews and who downed Paul and even George constantly. I mean the guy Paul has lived till almost eighty and he has his fans hating him for now not having a mnemonic memory and accusing him constantly of lying about his life when it’s his life and memories and just assuming John who regularly exaggerated stories against him was truthful but Paul always lied and any Beatle era stories he told weren’t true but John’s always were. That paul boy..takes all the credit, dumbs down his answers…imagine saying this about any other Beatle…would give total blasphemy about the saintly John and George boys. I have mixed feelings about folks/fans who think like you.

 

well said (and I've always been Team John). and frankly, when we've got people who couldn't find middle C on a piano with a map decrying McCartney's talents, I stop paying attention.

 

Yep…my post not directed at you but to the lying, taking credit dumbing down answers Paul post.

 

lol, I didn't think it was but thanks for the clarification nonetheless.

and this show deserves credit for one huge achievement so far: getting me to actually care about "Penny Lane," a song I've basically despised for decades. the isolation of the piccolo trumpet part got me on board with it.

 

Always loved penny lane particularly the piccolo part. Penny lane had a great video and us a very British sounding song.

 

and those two reasons, among many others, are why I disliked the song so much.

 

That’s what I said…I mean John was sued over the song…

 

Disagree with your reasoning but giving you a like. Beatles did great British sounding music.

 

McCartney, at his best, is peerless - and much (read: most) of his output falls within that category. But he's a massive cornball, and there are times when his cloying sentimentality and pathological tendency toward cheese results in, like, a supernova of saccharine.

That said, there's no denying his genius.

 

True.
Coincidentally, last night I was browsing on Youtube and I saw Paul's interview with Stephen Colbert, from 2019 I think. Colbert actually said

"'Yesterday' was written in a dream? I didnt know that, please do tell".

... Stephen Colbert is a beatles aficionado for decades.

 

Penny Lane: I thought they’d bring out the amazing keyboard tracks that Paul stacked on top of each other (which he recorded before Ringo even laid down the drums). If you ever get a chance to hear the isolated tracks it’s a real treat. He even recorded individual piano notes at double tape speed (which sound like lower than low moaning bass notes and piano notes at half speed (which then sounded almost like piccolo feedback).

I know the piccolo thing was a more obvious choice, but the keyboard tracks are pure McCartney genius.

 

For another in-depth analysis of Penny Lane, focusing on modualtion, you might want to check out this documentary by Howard Goodall on the music of Lennon and McCartney (if you haven't seen it already). The whole documentary is fascinating and well worth watching, but the Penny Lane segment starts around 20 minutes in.

The Beatles - a musical appreciation and analysis

 

I've gotten a chance to watch this. This is a lot of fun! I've heard many of the stories before, but it was fun hearing things isolated. There was some cool spoken-word stuff at the beginning of "Band on the Run," and all that extra stuff on "Maybe I'm
Amazed!" Not only was there that extra guitar (wisely mixed out of the final mix), but it sounds like it went on a lot longer. There must be so many cool, hidden gems on these tapes.

But man, the thing that jumped out to me was "Something." His bass playing is phenomenal. It drives the song. It is, in many ways, the heart of the song, to me. I hadn't fully realized how he is putting his everything into that bass part. The way I think of his contributions to George's song is that, since he didn't have to think of the lyrics or chords or melody of the song, his brain is fresh to use all his creative juices towards the bass part. The same goes for "Come Together." Try to imagine how this sound would have sounded had John pushed it forward to POB or even Imagine. Paul completely overhauled that song, and he is solely responsible for what it became, having slowed it down, adding that iconic bass part, and playing the electric piano. He kills it on that song. How would it have sounded as a Lennon solo song? Klaus giving it a simple bass line, if that, and it would have surely been at its original, faster speed. These two songs are examples of how all four elevate each other's material. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. And I love the comments about Paul being bossy. Hey man, if Paul being bossy or inputting his opinions equals the bass on "Something" or the overhaul of "Come Together," then good. I'm glad they addressed that. He added immense value with his opinions on songs. What a talent.

I loved watching this. My god, the isolated vocals for "This Boy." Stunning. Absolutely stunning. Same with "Here, There, and Everywhere." Even something unexpectedly fun like the isolated rhythm for "Another Girl." It lets you view the song in a different light. I'm forgetting a lot of other cool things, but this was a fun series to watch. I hope they put it on blu-ray with bonus features.

 

I don’t understand this point.

The doc is called McCartney 3,2,1. It’s about Paul McCartney. And Rubin “let McCartney have Center stage?”

Isn't the point of the entire doc to put McCartney on Center stage?

And the show was planned? Show me a TV show that isn’t planned. Even Magical Mystery Tour was “planned” to some extent.

I get that this doc is not everyone’s cup of tea, I’m just puzzled by this critique.

 

I share your sentiments! I've been marveling at Paul's "Something" bass part for years, to the point at which I now tend to listen to it more than the song's melody line! I used to listen to the beautiful acoustic guitar in "Here Comes the Sun", but now I'm afraid the same thing has happened: it's all about the bass. So, don't try to focus on the bass line in that song either or you'll never hear it the same again!

 

I don’t think George ever forgave Paul for those bass parts, at least the bass part on Something.
George called it “busy”
I think this is why George’s 1974 comments about preferring Willie Weeks on bass than McCartney was a real dig at that time, which is strange because I thought they were starting to get along.
But who knows with those two, tough to figure them out.