Get Back

[David Morris]

Parts 2 & 3

https://jabberwocking.com/more-notes-on-peter-jacksons-get-back-from-parts-2-3/

I finished up Parts 2 & 3 of Get Back, Peter Jackson's epic Beatles
documentary, a couple of days ago. I have less to say this time around
since I already said a lot about Part 1,
<https://jabberwocking.com/a-few-notes-on-peter-jacksons-get-back/> but
here goes anyway:

   - Lennon comes across quite differently than he did in Part 1. I don't
   know if this was the result of editing or of Lennon just being in a better
   mood, but he's much more engaged during the later stages of the session and
   just generally in a friendlier mood.
   - Conversely, George Harrison comes off worse. That's a bid odd since it
   was in Part 1 that he stormed off, but throughout the rest of the session
   his mood is mercurial, and quite often grim and argumentative.
   - Yes, Heather Eastman was adorable.
   - I did not know that McCartney's original idea was for "Get Back" to be
   a political song condemning Enoch Powell and his band of anti-immigrant
   zealots. Interesting!

   <https://jabberwocking.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/blog_beatles-2.jpg>
   - Every genius has a debacle or three, but watching McCartney's
   obsession with the execrable "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" was hard to stomach.
   It was sort of like Picasso painting a bullfighter on black velvet and then
   spending weeks insisting that it would be great if he just changed
that brushstroke
   over there and this bit of color here.
   - The personality conflict between McCartney and Harrison is famous, so
   it's fascinating to hear McCartney—in a secretly recorded
   conversation—telling Lennon that Harrison's songs had improved to a point
   that they were as good as anything they themselves wrote, and it was high
   time to acknowledge that. Lennon appeared to be noncommittal about this.
   - It's also famous that Harrison had long been exasperated by
   McCartney's constant stream of suggestions about how to improve his songs.
   I get that. At the same time, I kinda feel that when you get criticism from
   a guy who might be the greatest songwriter of the century, maybe you should
   just bury your frustration and take it.

And a final note on Part 1. I've read a lot of commenters going on and on
about seeing the moment when McCartney first started picking out the melody
that would eventually become "Get Back." And sure, from a historical
standpoint it's interesting to see it. But to call it a rare private look
at an "act of creation" is kind of silly. Nearly all acts of artistic
creation come out of nowhere, after all. There's nothing special about this
particular one.

For what it's worth, I thought the most interesting "moment" was the one
where Lennon first mentioned that he was going to go see this guy Allen
Klein. This is arguably the moment that led inexorably to the band's
breakup.

On Mon, Dec 6, 2021 at 11:08 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> I haven’t seen it yet, but here’s a blog review of Part 1:
>
> https://jabberwocking.com/a-few-notes-on-peter-jacksons-get-back/
>
> I'm a big Beatles fan, and I've read quite a bit about them, but raw
> documentary footage is almost always a bit of a slog and this was no
> exception. Honestly, if it were about any other band I don't think I would
> have made it to the end.
>
> Going into it, I was under the impression that it put paid to the notion
> that the Beatles were at each others' throats by 1969. But it didn't
> really. They had agreed to do the TV special, of course, but beyond that it
> was pretty obvious that no one was having much fun. Here are some random
> observations.
>
>    - To say that Paul McCartney was the engine of the band at this point
>    is to massively underrate him. As near as I could tell, he was almost
>    literally the only one actively interested in making music during these
>    sessions.
>    - Except for George Harrison, that is, who tried to bring in a few
>    songs he'd written at home. These got a tepid response, eventually leading
>    to his famous 12-day "resignation" from the band. (McCartney eventually
>    decided that Harrison's songwriting had improved enormously, but it was too
>    little too late.)
>    - John Lennon spent the sessions apparently stoned and completely
>    disengaged. He smiled amiably and played his parts, but that was about it.
>    - Ringo Starr was Ringo Starr. He mostly just hung around while the
>    others figured out the music. This is the fate of many drummers.
>    - The whole thing was remarkably haphazard. They were rehearsing in a
>    huge, bare film studio just because someone offered it to them. They wanted
>    certain kinds of equipment and had a hard time getting it. The acoustics
>    were terrible. These were the Beatles! Nobody could be bothered to set
>    up a nice rehearsal space for the greatest rock band of all time?
>    - At one point McCartney says he's been acting as sort of the leader
>    of the band and doesn't feel comfortable with it. This may or may not have
>    been disingenuous on his part, but the only one to even respond was
>    Harrison.
>    - All this said, except for Harrison storming out at the end of Part
>    1, there was no real animosity on display. Just a bunch of guys trying to
>    put together a bunch of new music on an insane timetable and seeming a
>    little dispirited about it. And yet, they'll do it!
>    - The only times when the foursome seem to be really enjoying
>    themselves is when they're jamming on old classics written by someone else.
>    When the pressure of creating music is off, they still get a kick out of
>    playing with each other.
>    - It's surprising not just how unprepared they are, but that over the
>    course of a decade they still haven't settled on how to do recording
>    sessions. These habits usually emerge over time and then become stable just
>    through inertia. In this case, if you didn't know who these guys were, you
>    might guess that it was the first time they had ever made a record
>    together. I imagine this was partly because there was no firm leader of the
>    band that everyone looked up to.
>    - One of the problems with Part 1 is that it shows the period when the
>    songs are just barely taking shape. This is historically interesting but
>    musically a bit tedious. I'm genuinely curious to see how Parts 2 and 3
>    shape up, when the lads are trying to resolve their personality conflicts
>    and are playing their songs in more recognizable form. I will watch them
>    shortly.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 6, 2021 at 10:29 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> imho, not really. There's so much footage that I don't feel he was a
>> distraction. He was in a tough spot, dealing with the drama and the open
>> secret that the group was nearing its end. Some of his or others
>> suggestions sure were wacky: a cruise ship or a concert in Libya. filming
>> at Twickenham was a mistake. No one cared about the footage afterwards
>> which explains the dismal vibe of Let it Be; Get Back provides better
>> context. It will be interesting to see what's in Mal Evans' archive. I'm
>> not sure he was ever properly compensated and the band did treat him like
>> a
>> gopher of sorts. I think he ended up getting shot by the LAPD in the
>> mid-70s
>>
>> rich
>>
>> rich
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 6, 2021 at 10:08 AM Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > One of the reviewers in the Guardian said he thought Michael
>> Lindsay-Hogg
>> > was an annoying distraction and a try hard throughout the film, do you
>> > think that’s fair comment?
>> >
>> > On Monday, December 6, 2021, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Hiya
>> >>
>> >> Watching the Get Back documentary and identifying the scenes from the
>> many
>> >> photos that were released over the years around the sessions, it
>> reminded
>> >> me of that contraption/invention in AtD, if I'm remembering correctly,
>> >> that
>> >> takes a photograph and allows the viewer to see what happens after,
>> those
>> >> in the photo coming to life to continue on their way in whatever they
>> were
>> >> doing.
>> >> Beyond that, it's simply an experience to view them Beatles, even at
>> the
>> >> end of their run, even the boredom, frustrations, amongst the times
>> when
>> >> things click. Let it Be the film feels like Kansas, drab, dingy; Get
>> Back
>> >> is like Oz, man. the colors alone and clarity is quite a feat.
>> >>
>> >> rich
>> >> --
>> >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >>
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>