Yes! Nice preview of how the Please Please Me album might sound with a narrower sound field. AHDN and If I Should Have Known Better have centered drums.
It’s always kind of surprised me that George, post breakup, continued to work with John and not Paul, even saying he’d never be in a band with Paul McCartney again. I get the bossiness thing and not liking being told what to play but at least he played on George’s songs and seemed to take an interest in them (maybe after they’d worked on 10 of Paul’s lune George famously said). But he plays and sings on them, while John (with a few exceptions) does not. Always an interesting part of the group dynamic I often wondered about.
I think part 1 does a good job of showing the highs and lows of the sessions - the initial fun giving way to frustration. It is long but is always interesting, so it doesn't feel like it drags. The digital image smoothing seems excessive, however. From a distance, the image quality looks good but, closer up, there's a lot of blurring. Once you notice it, it becomes a bit of a distraction and I think it adds to the disconnect between the visuals and the audio - even on the synced scenes/shots, the audio and video don't quite seem to marry together. Aside from those technical quibbles, I did enjoy it and am interested to see the next two parts.
George was a "realist", a bit of a Debbie Downer, but in this case, he was right - there was no way the Beatles were going to be on a stage in two weeks with a new album of songs. They weren't capable of writing like Dylan (John Wesley Harding was written and recorded in the studio in 3 days, right?).
I sensed some jealousy of various types that had built up and remained….wanting to be part of the John Paul duo, desperately wanting John’s attention and credit from him. What all John repeatedly said about George in the seventies was very dismissive but for awhile George kept chasing John then. I never thought paul had ten tunes to work on ahead of George’s though realized he was more prolific than George and realized both John and George greatly exaggerated these complaints about Paul and the number of his tunes, paul takes, etc, as later recording evidence and boxset releases demonstrated they did. Paul knew how wanted his songs to sound but throughout that time George seemed want to do wah wah pedals, jams, improvisational stuff, I guess similar to other late sixties groups, etc. Because George kept struggling even earlier solo era for acceptance as an equal from John, it doesn’t at all surprise me he kept jumping when John wanted him but he eventually figured out John didn’t return to favor to him.
No joke…as Beatles were way too scattered by then to tighten up their writing or band on such a narrow timeline then.
Yeah, to go from this to Abbey Road sessions tightening up as a band, and getting along just like they were previously. Not that scattered by then really. They were simply going for a much more casual approach to producing an album, but not a "by then" thing really. The rooftop shows that their setlist was coming along just fine in fact.
The end of part 1 was definitely sad but the post-breakup frustration freak-out montage with the feedback, Yoko singing, and Paul swinging from the rafters was hilarious.
It’s obvious that Paul and George just can’t agree on how to rehearse. Paul is like the writer who has to make sure the first page is perfect before moving on to the next one, while George just wants to churn out a few crappy drafts so that the necessary revisions will reveal themselves in time. (John seems to prefer George’s method, btw.) There is no “correct way,” but this appears to be the root of the clashes between George and Paul— the former wants to “feel” his way through the song, while Paul wants to plot it as he goes.
The group was…literally falling apart…John had met Yoko somewhere in here or later told the group wanted to divorce them as they’d interfere with his yoko projects, George was enamored with touring Delaney and Bonnie and playing like Clapton, ringo was making movies….Some time then or later had all these variables…but paul had been trying and failing to hold the group together after Brian died but despite all his efforts, the more he struggled with them, the more they resented him. On a personal note his relationship of many years with jane had just fallen apart so he met Linda and like John did with yoko, paul brought linda into some recording sessions. Beatles money business was in horrible mess and the arguments over who’d manage them were seriously heating up.
I always thought greasy appearing hair and beard but certainly no worse looking than John or ringo hair.
Ironically, they may have pulled it off if they were willing to use more of George’s songs. He (and Paul) probably could have generated 14 songs between them in two weeks.
I'm not sure they weren't willing. George does say at one point he doesn't want to use any of his songs because they'll just come out crappy (played live). Paul had a metric ton of songs ready to go. I think the problem was an absence of simple, rocking songs suited for a live presentation.
Paul has always been a chatterbox…early Beatle days when folks enamored with them noted this, end of Beatles when blaming paul for the breakup, used vulgar language to describe his chattering. He’s a Gemini who are born talkers.
It's what the story called for, really. Some drama and suspense. And rather than bring back some passive observer for moral support (a Krishna or wife, etc.), when he came back, he brought back a player with him - a glue guy to jump start the sessions.
Yeah..I read this then..George was saving them I think for a later possible solo album but wanted to prove his point that…he and his songs were overlooked and he was unfairly treated. I enjoyed George’s LIB songs and b side but didn’t think they were his best, compared to ATMP songs.
It was quite illuminating to see this moment with video. To me, it looked like John was clearly just joking around. And it appeared to me that George may have accepted John’s tomfoolery as just that. In the next sequence, John is dancing to the song; he seems to accept Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s proclamation that it would be in, and add variety to, the TV special. I am learning it is a bit hard to interpret audio comments without the benefit of the visuals. It’s perhaps led to some imprecise Beatle lore over these past 50 years. Similarly, when George says, “I think we should forget the whole idea [of the TV special / performance]”, he flashes a wry smile, like he’s just pulling MLH’s leg, like he was just joking around. Sounds like George wasn't, at that moment, against the idea of performing a concert, perhaps not at any point. Sure, he didn’t like the trajectory they were on, but it seemed to have more to do with the evermore dysfunctional John and Paul show, plus maybe the where, when, and how of doing the live show. He didn’t leave due to being against any live show at all, IMHO.
Yeah very true. Guess I was speaking more in the literal sense in that he had so many songs stockpiled. It’s a shame, because All Things Must Pass in particular could have been a wonderful Beatles tune.