The Beatles song you're thinking about right now thread

[coffeepotman]

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... our-sanity

When I learned of the run-time, I feared there'd be a whooole lot of boring stuff in there. Like, the Anthology documentary was around 11 hours and it felt overly long.

Well after reading that article I'm going to try to sit through the first part before the Turkey Day festivities....which will include "amid acres of meandering chit-chat" with people I rarely ever see or want to see.

Ha! I'll bet a lot of people have uncles with very strong opinions about the Beatles that may or may not involve BLM, vaccination, and/or climate change.

That Guardian article is pretty spot on, I'm about an hour in and this is quite tedious, who ever thought to stretch this out to six hours was crazy.

[Dr. Medulla]

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... our-sanity

When I learned of the run-time, I feared there'd be a whooole lot of boring stuff in there. Like, the Anthology documentary was around 11 hours and it felt overly long.

Well after reading that article I'm going to try to sit through the first part before the Turkey Day festivities....which will include "amid acres of meandering chit-chat" with people I rarely ever see or want to see.

Ha! I'll bet a lot of people have uncles with very strong opinions about the Beatles that may or may not involve BLM, vaccination, and/or climate change.

That Guardian article is pretty spot on, I'm about an hour in and this is quite tedious, who ever thought to stretch this out to six hours was crazy.

I would have thought they do a two-hour version first and then a "special Beatles obsessive" version six months later that is the ridiculously long one.

[Inder]

I can't wait!

[Dr. Medulla]

The downloadening begins …

[Dr. Medulla]

Watching Episode 1 right now. I'm digging it, but I can certainly see how casual fans would be bored silly. Two current thoughts. First, for all the stuff about Yoko being disruptive, an intrusive element, it looks mostly like the four Beatles fully concentrate on each other. It reminds me of a former good friend and I. When we got together, we'd just fall into a rhythm with each other and everyone else in the room would fall away. Which was way shitty for our spouses, but it was just how he and I were, trading lines of conversation and following weird ideas. So it seems like Yoko is an ignored outsider. Second, as much as I dig George, he seems like such a sour pain in the ass in the room. Even his posture is frosty. I feel for Paul, who says he doesn't want to be the boss, but shit has to get done. He wants to be optimistic but there's this grouchiness. Granted, George has reasons for being snarly with his creativity sidelined by John and Paul, but, damn, he's a moody fucker. Paul (and Ringo, of course) from '68 onward is the hero of the narrative.

[weller259]

shit, when I heard there was going to be over 7 hours of stuff I got incredibly excited.
After watching part 1, I WANT MORE!
An observation from the first part .... the chemistry between John and Paul musically was so strong and while that's not exactly a surprise, being able to see it between them, and so very strongly, is simply awesome. Seeing them work together like that when they seemingly had nothing in terms of prepared material to play, etc., shows a very big reason why they were, as a band, so damn good.
I wish the special would be showing all 60+ hours, these moments in time with the greatest band ever, are priceless

[Dr. Medulla]

Just finished Part 1. George walks out and the mood—at least how it's presented—is much lighter. Jokes and noisy, goofy playing, with Yoko Yokoing on vocals. It's easy to read it as the band compensating for what's happening, avoiding it by goofing around, but maybe there's a certain relief that the black cloud has moved off. Still, the episode ends with George's "Isn't it a Pity," which is just a devastating choice, as the others decide to meet with George.

It does go on overly long but it's all quite mesmerizing in its own way. I mean, it's the fucking Beatles in the moment. I also never realized how attractive Linda was. She shows up to watch and take photos, and she possesses such a serene beauty.

[Kory]

Watching Episode 1 right now. I'm digging it, but I can certainly see how casual fans would be bored silly. Two current thoughts. First, for all the stuff about Yoko being disruptive, an intrusive element, it looks mostly like the four Beatles fully concentrate on each other. It reminds me of a former good friend and I. When we got together, we'd just fall into a rhythm with each other and everyone else in the room would fall away. Which was way shitty for our spouses, but it was just how he and I were, trading lines of conversation and following weird ideas. So it seems like Yoko is an ignored outsider. Second, as much as I dig George, he seems like such a sour pain in the ass in the room. Even his posture is frosty. I feel for Paul, who says he doesn't want to be the boss, but shit has to get done. He wants to be optimistic but there's this grouchiness. Granted, George has reasons for being snarly with his creativity sidelined by John and Paul, but, damn, he's a moody fucker. Paul (and Ringo, of course) from '68 onward is the hero of the narrative.

I got this way a bit toward the end of my tenure with that band I was in. It was just a bad fit. But they did suck, too.

[Dr. Medulla]

Watching Episode 1 right now. I'm digging it, but I can certainly see how casual fans would be bored silly. Two current thoughts. First, for all the stuff about Yoko being disruptive, an intrusive element, it looks mostly like the four Beatles fully concentrate on each other. It reminds me of a former good friend and I. When we got together, we'd just fall into a rhythm with each other and everyone else in the room would fall away. Which was way shitty for our spouses, but it was just how he and I were, trading lines of conversation and following weird ideas. So it seems like Yoko is an ignored outsider. Second, as much as I dig George, he seems like such a sour pain in the ass in the room. Even his posture is frosty. I feel for Paul, who says he doesn't want to be the boss, but shit has to get done. He wants to be optimistic but there's this grouchiness. Granted, George has reasons for being snarly with his creativity sidelined by John and Paul, but, damn, he's a moody fucker. Paul (and Ringo, of course) from '68 onward is the hero of the narrative.

I got this way a bit toward the end of my tenure with that band I was in. It was just a bad fit. But they did suck, too.

It happens in all kinds of relationships. The former friend of mine I reference above, his family was amazing for not letting shit build up. When someone was pissed off, they just let it out at the other person. Feelings got hurt, but people got over it fairly quickly. A few of us witnessed how his family talked to each other and it was kind of uncomfortable, and yet long run much better. My family is much more traditional; if you don't say it out loud, it's not there. Just keep shoving it down until you throw the whiskey bottle at the referee.

[JoseUnidos]

The bit where Paul conjures "Get Back" out of thin air.. wow.

[Dr. Medulla]

The bit where Paul conjures "Get Back" out of thin air.. wow.

Cool, huh? I'll shit on post-Beatles Paul as much as anyone, but he—all of them—was just beyond belief in the 60s.

[Inder]

I am enjoying this impromptu Macca appreciation.

[Dr. Medulla]

I am enjoying this impromptu Macca appreciation.

[Dr. Medulla]

Finished the final part. With the exception of the full rooftop concert, it's the draggiest.

Random thoughts …
• For all the talk about this changing the narrative of the Beatles final year, I'm not seeing it. This confirmed what we pretty much understood was the state of things: Paul is the workhouse trying to keep the band together because John does care because of multiple reasons (tired of the pressure of being a Beatle, more into Yoko, more into heroin, more into the self-loathing part of his psyche); George is pissed off by his status within the group; and Ringo is steady force throughout. It's not hard to see why the band is close to being past tense here.
• Despite mostly substandard Beatles material here, they're still magical and when they get to it, they do enjoy playing together.
• John's addiction is impossible to ignore. He's either checked out or wired. And in those moments where he's energetic, it's mostly snarky. For all the talk about Paul being bossy, he's dealing with two bandmates who aren't truly trying here. If Paul isn't firing on all cylinders in terms of writing and organizing, what exactly does the band bring to the table? We do see embryonic Abbey Road songs, plus stuff like "Old Brown Shoe," but it ain't ready for whatever reasons (drugs, shit fit, holding back because they don't see themselves as committed to being Beatles?)
• Yoko has good reason to shriek when given access to the mike having to sit thru so much bullshit. One of the highlights of Part 3 is Heather Eastman coming to the rehearsals and doing cute kid stuff, but also shrieking like Yoko.
• Man, to have been able to have this kind of constant footage when the band was really a band and on a tear—like Rubber Soul, Revolver, Pepper.
• It's long and involved, but worth it.
edit: Also, Ringo: "I farted."

[Inder]

Finished off the series last night and loved it! For all the grousing in some media about the length, this is exactly how a fan would/should approach unprecedented access to a tightly guarded archive when given the opportunity. If one of us was somehow put in charge of getting together a new Clash thing and were allowed to use anything from the vaults, we’d for sure slap everything on there plus kitchen sinks, cupboards and appliances.

There are lots of things for trainspotters as well — there’s a bit where George Martin tells John he’s out of tune and Lennon stands up and jokingly says something like “I’ve had a glass of wine, remember Bob Wooler?” who was the guy he drunkenly beat the shit out of after a disagreement in 62. Also Magic Alex’s rotating guitar and Glyn Johns’s (who I did not expect to look like that) amazing wardrobe.

As far as the narrative thing is concerned, I think Jackson was taking about the idea that the sessions were a miserable and unhappy experience etc. Although it obviously wasn’t the smoothest ride, I thought everyone was pretty engaged given the circumstances — especially once they left Twickenham. Also, Wikipedia probably still says that All Things Must Pass was bumped because Paul and John were disinterested in it, but Paul included it a few times as part of the proposed live set.

Anyways, I’d watch another 100 hours of this, easy.