Music The Beatles : Get Back

amolbhatia50k

Sneaky bum time - Vaccination status: dozed off
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This should be a real treat for fans of The Beatles and music in general really. I've been going back (lol) to their stuff these past few days and although they're one of the greatest simply due to the incredibly prolofic output of their melody writing I'm always unsure as to just where I put them, personally. I listened to Sgt Peppers yesterday front to back, and while it's a good album, when "A Day in the Life' hits I just realized that despite their quality, I'm not sure how much music they have that isn't catchy pieces of radio friendly tracks as that song is absolutely magnificent. Then again you have to consider this was the late 60s and they were well ahead of their time for a decade or more.

Either way, looking forward. Also, whose your favourite Beatle? Who had the best solo career? Feel free to discuss such never touched upon topics here!
 
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I've tried listening to their music but honestly it sounds awful.
 
The Beatles are a no go in the Caf, Amol. I think 19 years here should teach you that.
 
The Beatles were great. Anyone who says otherwise genuinely doesn't know what the feck they're talking about.
 
The more educated you become in music and the more you appreciate them.
 
Phenomenal.

Other bands/artists have written great songs obviously but I don't think anyone wrote anywhere near as many and as varied.

The early stuff was pop because of the times and because they wouldn't have got gigs/known without first being popular.. so you get Love Me Do, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Can't Buy Me Love which are pretty simple and arguably, other 60s bands did songs of similar quality.

But once they got going and were allowed more control over the type of music they released, it was like the floodgates opened... lots of different types of songs, bringing in orchestras, speeding/slowing recordings and splicing in, multi layered guitars, concept songs and all inputting (varied degrees obviously). There's no denying Lennon and McCartney were the top two but Harrison was no makeweight .. Something is a great song.

I think a sign of how good they were is trying to do an all-time top.10 of Beatles songs.. look at the ones you have to leave out, over 90% of artists would kill for the ones that don't make the top.10.
 
Donaldo said:
The Beatles are a no go in the Caf, Amol. I think 19 years here should teach you that.
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That's true. The MJ/hip hop fans tend to drown out the rest. But given it's a fairly British centric support base it does surprise me how polarized the views here are.
 
amolbhatia50k said:



Either way, looking forward. Also, whose your favourite Beatle? Who had the best solo career? Feel free to discuss such never touched upon topics here!
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Lennon was the best but I have a soft spot for George. I think they made the two best solo albums as well in All Things Must Pass and Plastic Ono Band. Paul obviously had the best solo career for chart topping success but I never really liked much of his stuff.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
That's true. The MJ/hip hop fans tend to drown out the rest. But given it's a fairly British centric support base it does surprise me how polarized the views here are.
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I think Beatles have always divided opinion (as much as one can say that about a band that is commonly regarded as the most influential ever and always at the top of 'greatest ever' lists) in the UK more than in the US. I have no scientific data to base that on, just anecdotal experience. The UK populace is more cynical and wary generally speaking, whereas in the US they have always put the Beatles on a pop pedestal.
 
The Beatles were more about impact and ushering in a new wave of pop culture than putting out an array of timeless classics. Beatlemania seems bizarre to have really been a thing unless you lived through a time before they emerged on the scene.
 
Irwin99 said:
Lennon was the best but I have a soft spot for George. I think they made the two best solo albums as well in All Things Must Pass and Plastic Ono Band. Paul obviously had the best solo career for chart topping success but I never really liked much of his stuff.
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Have to admit I haven't heard a single solo song of McCartney that I've really liked. Maybe Live and Let Die is decent and I wouldn't say I've heard a lot but what I have sounds bland.
 
The amazing thing about them for me was that after everyone of their albums people would say they were done. Their music was behind the current trends. They would release their next album and it would create a new trend in music. I have heard their music a lot, but do not seek it out now. Just as I loved Jimi Hendrix, but have heard it so much it does not entertain me much anymore.
 
Anyone watching? Didn't realise first part was 2.5 hours long. Not sure what to make of that
 
BD said:
Anyone watching? Didn't realise first part was 2.5 hours long. Not sure what to make of that
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Yeah it’s quite long. 2 and a half hours in when Yoko Ono starts wailing and barking I had to take a break.
 
Buster15 said:
Really. What makes you say that.
I would say that it is the other way around.
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Production, understanding their ideas musically with regards to chord progressions, melody choices, harmonies, instrumentation choices.
 
Part one is fascinating enough as a document of the recording process, but the fact that it's the actual fecking Beatles makes it twice as good.

I was mesmerised for the best part of three hours and thought it was absolutely fantastic.
 
Watching tonight with my son who is a musician but has no desire to listen to The Beatles. Once he saw that Peter Jackson was doing the documentary he is all in.
 
It’s just weird watching four musical geniuses interact. It’s so cool seeing them live like that. Sometimes it’s almost as if some people didn’t really exist until you actually have them on film talking. By the way Yoko is involved with everything
 
Absolutely loved it, it's so cool to have the band documented like that. They did an incredible job cleaning up the footage & I thought the presentation did a good job contextualising it while remaining brief.

McCartney's songwriting during that period will forever be staggering. Just watching him run through ideas that would be turned into great songs in the coming years was so fun. And they still ended up putting Maxwell's Silver Hammer on an album (which at least was one of the funnier bits of the film. I loved that they had to cart that anvil to the other studio). I'm glad that Lennon had some life back at Savile Row, after the drugged up indifference throughout the first part. There's so much great Lennon/McCartney interaction from that point on. I think seeing so much of Billy Preston with the band was my favourite part, it's just a shame he couldn't have been made a permanent member, might have got a few more albums that way. The complete indifference to George playing All Things Must Pass was funny too, considering how great the recorded version is. That & being able to see them work through songs - like Everybody Had a Hard Year with the awful background vocals they were trying, before the great final version of I've Got a Feeling. McCartney just reeling off Get Back as something he was playing around with the previous night, was great too. Could probably do without hearing that song again for a while, though.

The director Michale Lindsey-Hogg seemed so out of place throughout - some serious Chris Morris on The Time, The Place vibes. Not sure even he could have scripted that whole conversation about a possible concert at an orphanage, any better. The constant questioning of what they wanted to do did get pretty tiring - unresolved Beckettesque conversation loops are boring enough to have, let alone to watch. But I guess it's a perfect documentation of where the band was at. It's like Pink Floyd were listening in during the Tripoli talk. I'm glad something like Live at Pompeii happened, even if I prefer that they finally settled on the rooftop concert. Was weird how Jefferson Airplane never got a mention.
 
I think the bits where Yoko starts screeching like a banshee make good stopping points to break it up into smaller pieces.
 
Got to just over half way of episode 2 last night, they’ve relocated in Saville Row, George has returned, Billy Preston has come in on electric piano and given everyone a boost and they’ve just bashed out awesome versions of Don’t Let Me Down , I’ve Got a Feeling and Dig a Pony. Absolutely love it.
 
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