Movie Get Back (Peter Jackson’s film based on unreleased video of Beatles Let it Be sessions) (1 Viewer)

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Watched the first episode last night, great stuff.

1) I had no idea the deadline they were on in recording and performing thanks to the Magic Christian

2) How they came up with those songs was so interesting (how they tinkered around with words and sounds until something fit).

3) I had no idea that “Get Back” was about immigrants, and that “She came in through the bathroom window” actually happened.
 
Watched the first episode last night, great stuff.

1) I had no idea the deadline they were on in recording and performing thanks to the Magic Christian

2) How they came up with those songs was so interesting (how they tinkered around with words and sounds until something fit).

3) I had no idea that “Get Back” was about immigrants, and that “She came in through the bathroom window” actually happened.
You probably already saw this halfway through the first episode, but band recorded both "Get Back" and "Enoch Powell" during these initial sessions due to massive support/blowback/political controversy that did lead to a significant impact on U.K.'s once-lenient, tolerant "Commonwealth"" immigration policy later on in the 1970's and beyond with Enoch Powell's "Rivers of Blood" speech made in late 1968. What's odd or off is that despite his racist, myopic bigoted hardline views toward newly-arrived immigrants from Kenya, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, then-apartheid South Africa, Jamaica, West Indies Powell actually supported or was tolerant of homosexuals, supported relaxing laws in 1967 that criminalized private consensual, homosexual acts, was kind of an old-line Euroskeptic, but was critical of the USA-U.K's "Special Relationship" that's held strong since late 19th century, Powell was in a long line of minority of British politicians, including even Old Labour socialist Arthur Henderson, that didnt feel that the U.K. and USA had to be the best of friends, all the time, every time. Powell actually didnt see the huge military and idealogical threat the Soviets posed to Europe before and during the Cold War or that the USSR necessarily was a strategic enemy of U.K. This position made him a bit of an political odditity to both even the Tories or the Labour factions of the post-WWII Cold War British political spectrum and establishment. From late 1940's to early 80's when Thatcher significantly altered U.K.'s economy to neoliberalism, while their were significant, idealogical, political differences between Tories and Labour, generally speaking, government policy composed from both parties typically wasnt too different and most government programs(NHS, Inland Revenue, creation of post-WWII welfare state, nationalization of public utilities under the Atlee regime) were generally followed even if overwhelming majority of Labour's political support came from its powerful trade unions(TUC) and some members of the old, imperialist conservative British establishment balked at, resented, or in the case of Lord Mountbatten, was approached and did seriously consider a 1967 shadow coup against the Wilson government that was heavily featured in Season 3 of The Crown.

The song, "Enoch Powell", to my knowledge has never been officially released, although I'm sure there's a long litany of bootlegs available to listen to on YouTube. The radio-friendly version of " Get Back" is a very tamed, nice witty less-politically biting version of what constituted the earlier versions.

Early in the first episode, band members aren't really building songs like they you obviously see later on with "Let it Be", " The Long and the Winding Road", "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down". That's also probably why Harrison's mood is more jovial, happier, less defeatist, broken-down and depressed in first couple of days when they rehearsing and throwing ideas around as opposed to later on when Lennon and McCartney begun dominating the music, lyrics, tempos, and general aura of the sessions by Days 4-7. The thing about George Harrison is that sometimes he wrote memorable great, songs but it wasnt always a constant like John and Paul did. They did, all the time, every time when the band's audience needed it and they knew they had to massively contribute to recording a Beatles album. George could do it sometimes, but not with the same frequency and God forbid, consistency, Lennon/McCartney did. I think both Paul and John recognized " All Things Must Pass" was a great song with great potential and eventually it transformed into just that, but in early 1969, does that make it a good Beatles song?

Is it just me but why do I get the sense that "Imagine" and "Let it Be" sound, appear and have a lot of same lyrical ambitions, musical piano and harmony chords, although the lyrics in "Let it Be" have more of a down-to-earth, This-is-the-way-it-is-but-Im-still-happy-and-hopeful about social and political change tone to them. "Imagine" sounds a lot like Lennon's answer to lyrical themes of "Let it Be", from my vantage point.

The original director of the Let It Be documentary, Michael Lindsay-Hoggs, has always believed, but has never been able to prove, that famous, legendary Citizen Kane actor/director/producer Orson Welles was his father. His mother never really confirmed or denied the accuracy of these claims. Despite his Irish/British accent, Hoggs was actually born in the USA in 1940 IIRC, in New York City.
 
I had no idea that Linda McCartney was actually from New York. I always though that she was British.

Nor did I know how influential Billy Preston was in the session. The 5th Beatle. I wonder if he was in England so much due to the view of homosexuals being so much more laced there (in comparison to how they were viewed here in the States). I knew that he did work with the Beatles, but I had no idea how big a fan of his they were. And his “I’m fine hanging around” during the session.

It’s wild to see how close to bringing in Clapton to fill in for Harrison. Or how the guy that actually broke up the Beatles (it wasn’t Yoko) shows up for 2 mins in the documentary. All these little Easter eggs are great.
 
I had no idea that Linda McCartney was actually from New York. I always though that she was British.

Nor did I know how influential Billy Preston was in the session. The 5th Beatle. I wonder if he was in England so much due to the view of homosexuals being so much more laced there (in comparison to how they were viewed here in the States). I knew that he did work with the Beatles, but I had no idea how big a fan of his they were. And his “I’m fine hanging around” during the session.

It’s wild to see how close to bringing in Clapton to fill in for Harrison. Or how the guy that actually broke up the Beatles (it wasn’t Yoko) shows up for 2 mins in the documentary. All these little Easter eggs are great.



I haven’t seen the doc.. but it’s funny you mentioned Linda; i had always assumed, or thought i had heard, that Linda EASTMAN McCartney was a member of the famous (and loaded) Eastman Kodak family.. it was only in recent years I discovered that - spoiler alert- she was not.


As for Billy Preston, i didnt realize he was openly homosexual.. the reason i say that, is becuase i used to work with this guy who had been a traveling bodygaurd /security for Preston in the 90s.. he would regale me with all these stories of Billy’s decadent lifestyle on the road, and he once told me, I’ll never forget, that BP had gone thru so many women that he eventually ‘got bored’ and decided to try sleeping with men.. i remember having this heated discussion about how impossible it would ever be to get *that* bored with girls, but he basically said that with all the drugs and craziness going on, it wasnt surprising that he’d be into experimenting with everything.


I didnt know that about Clapton.



Ok, who’s gonna share their Disney+ password with me so i can watch it. :hihi:
 
Allen Kline is the name of the manager who broke up the Beatles (but not really). When Epstein passed Paul wanted to be managed by Linda’s family, the rest of the Beatles wanted to be repped by Kline. That (not Yoko) really killed the Beatles.

The Preston bit I learned of yesterday after watching the series. It makes a bit of sense, it also makes you wonder how wild the band would have been had Preston and others been included in the Beatles full time. George made mention of “we should include Billy so we don’t have to pay him like a studio artist” (alluding to how expensive that might be). Then he mentions “we could include (Bob) Dylan and a few others.” I don’t think Dylan would have killed the Beatles personally, but that’s my opinion (The traveling Wilburys).

Every successful team/band/club needs a John and Paul to be amazing, but the secret sauce for any of those groups are the Ringos.

Also, if this was filmed today, the rooftop would be total “two kinds of justice”.
 
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I had no idea that Linda McCartney was actually from New York. I always though that she was British.

Nor did I know how influential Billy Preston was in the session. The 5th Beatle. I wonder if he was in England so much due to the view of homosexuals being so much more laced there (in comparison to how they were viewed here in the States). I knew that he did work with the Beatles, but I had no idea how big a fan of his they were. And his “I’m fine hanging around” during the session.

It’s wild to see how close to bringing in Clapton to fill in for Harrison. Or how the guy that actually broke up the Beatles (it wasn’t Yoko) shows up for 2 mins in the documentary. All these little Easter eggs are great.
Like I said in a previous post, it wasnt until 1967 that Harold Wilson's Labour regime passed laws liberalizing private consensual homosexual acts (before then, even up until the early 1960's, like here in the USA, homosexuals were put in psychiatric hospitals, mental asylums, or doped on on anti-psychotics like they were dangerous borderline personality disorder/violent masochist schizophrenics. Homosexuals weren't treated too terribly different or tolerated more openly in the UK any more then lets say, Afro-American expats who may have initially believed or assumed that just by living in London automatically makes U.K. a more racially just, tolerant society.

Now, sure in large, metropolitan cities like London and maybe some big provincial cities like Birmingham, or college towns like Manchester, or Canterbury the social climate was more progressive, tolerant, and relaxed. But in the small towns, cities, hamlets outside London, and especially in the Midlands region, the racial and social climate is a lot less tolerant, or accepting of immigrant groups, gays and lesbians, Afro-Caribbeans, or even outsiders, in general, honestly.


Having an established, acknowledged guitar genius like Clapton might've hurt or bruised Lennon's ego because Eric Clapton destroys him on guitar solos, riffs, or the amazing Hendrix-esque musical pyrotechnics he showed on a nightly basis for years with The Yardbirds, Cream, and Blind Faith. So, I don't know if that would've been such a great idea as it might've seemed to rest of them after George temporarily left.

Eventually, Linda's father, John Eastman managed the affairs of heavy metal bands like Grand Funk Railroad after their nearly disastrous split from original manager/record producer/former Detroit DJ Terry Knight.
 
Like I said in a previous post, it wasnt until 1967 that Harold Wilson's Labour regime passed laws liberalizing private consensual homosexual acts (before then, even up until the early 1960's, like here in the USA, homosexuals were put in psychiatric hospitals, mental asylums, or doped on on anti-psychotics like they were dangerous borderline personality disorder/violent masochist schizophrenics. Homosexuals weren't treated too terribly different or tolerated more openly in the UK any more then lets say, Afro-American expats who may have initially believed or assumed that just by living in London automatically makes U.K. a more racially just, tolerant society.

Now, sure in large, metropolitan cities like London and maybe some big provincial cities like Birmingham, or college towns like Manchester, or Canterbury the social climate was more progressive, tolerant, and relaxed. But in the small towns, cities, hamlets outside London, and especially in the Midlands region, the racial and social climate is a lot less tolerant, or accepting of immigrant groups, gays and lesbians, Afro-Caribbeans, or even outsiders, in general, honestly.


Having an established, acknowledged guitar genius like Clapton might've hurt or bruised Lennon's ego because Eric Clapton destroys him on guitar solos, riffs, or the amazing Hendrix-esque musical pyrotechnics he showed on a nightly basis for years with The Yardbirds, Cream, and Blind Faith. So, I don't know if that would've been such a great idea as it might've seemed to rest of them after George temporarily left.

Eventually, Linda's father, John Eastman managed the affairs of heavy metal bands like Grand Funk Railroad after their nearly disastrous split from original manager/record producer/former Detroit DJ Terry Knight.
That’s an interesting point about Clapton. I’d imagine that had they brought him in it would have been a bit harder to break him than it was for John and Paul to break George (if you could call what they did breaking). Given Clapton’s own success he probably would have told them to pound sand if they tried putting him into some sort of square peg round hole position. It is certainly something to ponder on. I suppose it would have been like had Metallica accepted Les Claypool when Metallica’s original bassist died.

That concert on the roof is interesting as I had thought that once it was over that was it for the group (like the USA beating the USSR in Olympic hockey) but ‘‘twas not the case. There was still a day left to record. I do wonder what might have happened if they landed on playing in the park (or at the children’s hospital) as they had previously planned.

Regarding homosexuality, and how it was received in the US vs England, you can speak to that better than I can. I just imagine that London in the 1960s and 1970s (when Preston lived in England) was more accepting of the lifestyle than Houston, Texas (or Texas in general) at the same time. Those poor folks, to say that they or there families have ever had it easy would be an understatement.
 
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I think all this talk about Dylan or Clapton joining the Beatles is rubbish.
 
Allen Kline is the name of the manager who broke up the Beatles (but not really). When Epstein passed Paul wanted to be managed by Linda’s family, the rest of the Beatles wanted to be repped by Kline. That (not Yoko) really killed the Beatles.

The Preston bit I learned of yesterday after watching the series. It makes a bit of sense, it also makes you wonder how wild the band would have been had Preston and others been included in the Beatles full time. George made mention of “we should include Billy so we don’t have to pay him like a studio artist” (alluding to how expensive that might be). Then he mentions “we could include (Bob) Dylan and a few others.” I don’t think Dylan would have killed the Beatles personally, but that’s my opinion (The traveling Wilburys).

Every successful team/band/club needs a John and Paul to be amazing, but the secret sauce for any of those groups are the Ringos.

Also, if this was filmed today, the rooftop would be total “two kinds of justice”.
I’d begun to notice your ‘Ringo’ thing in several of the companies I was part of - the stars were always obvious, but the ‘glue’ seldom was. And quite often directors didn’t even recognize the glues’ value (and sometimes the glue didn’t even know they were glue)
For long term survival, the glue is as important as anyone
 

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