Get Back: Part 1 - thoughts and reviews

[CooperCat]

Can you imagine what John and Paul could have accomplished if George wasn't such a wet blanket all the time ? Hell, Pink Floyd played Pompeii a couple of years later and the Dead played the Pyramids. I've really come to see George as a Debbie Downer.

Sorry to hit you up again, CC....

This is probably the funniest Debbie Downer segment. It's also the first.


The cast is totally laughing and breaking character, mainly because they had not yet performed it live, nor heard the "Womp Womps." Horatio Sanz, at one point, is dabbing his tears with a waffle off his plate.

HA HA !!

[Lord Reith]

Just finished watching part one. I shut out the world, turned out the lights and put the speakers up full.

All I can say is... wow! This was like a dream come true. It's like somebody has made The Get Back Journals into a tv series. We've been listening to some of these tracks for so long (going back 50 years for first generation fans) that we sometimes forget that a lot of it was also filmed. Sure, we all knew in the back of our minds that hours and hours of footage was shot, but it's always been an abstract concept, a footnote to put in Beatles books when they talk about January 1969. To actually see this footage in brilliant full colour is amazing.

The first thing that got me is the sound. Maybe I'm not listening to the right boots, but this sounded way better than any Nagras I've ever heard. Everything was so clear, and aside from a bit of reverb on the drums you'd never know it was done in a gigantic hangar. The picture has come in for a lot of criticism, but I found it perfectly okay when viewed at a distance (closeup on a computer screen it can look a bit like a Snapchat video, but who watches tv like that?) I had serious concerns about the cropping but after a couple of minutes I had forgotten all about it. It was obviously done very carefully and the widescreen picture really helped immerse one in the action. It wouldn't have half as much impact in 4:3

But really the genius here is the way he's actually telling a story. It's a bit like an episode of Big Brother. Paul and George have a row but then get over it. It's not like Twitter where people become dire enemies over a few words. It's like a couple of brothers having a disagreement: things get a bit heated, tempers fray a little and there's an awkward period afterwards where the participants calm down and become reasonable again. To imagine that The Beatles were somehow immune from arguing, or that an argument means they were splitting up is to seriously devalue ordinary human relationships.

I also found the group dynamic to be perfectly normal. Paul was an ideas man and would have them tumbling out of his head at breakneck speed as he tried to make sense of it all and communicate them. John and George were much more plodding and uncertain. But surely they were always like that? Just listen to the outtakes from I Want To Hold Your hand... Paul is behaving in exactly the same way, telling Ringo how to drum and John how fast he should play, while George says nothing. That was just The Beatles. It worked for them. The only reason I think it led to friction on this occasion was that Paul had too many songs. They were sick of doing his stuff.

Things get pretty dire when they are talking about where to do a show. They were always completely hopeless at planning anything. For ten years they had just gone along doing what came naturally and left it to others to organise things. I think taking on this kind of stuff was completely alien to them and beyond their capabilities. They were fanatastic at making music, but pretty hopeless at just about everything else! Lindsay-Hogg doesn't help much with his daft idea of a concert in Libya. Xenophobic Brits would have boycotted The Beatles. And what would "2000 Arabs" make of I've Got a Feeling? Not much, I'd imagine.

On the other hand, when they have a new song to learn you can see them getting pretty excited. But then they go back to the idea of rehearsing for a show and clearly no-one except Paul is interested. But still, they are amazingly civil to each other. They really are like a family: they put up with each others' crap because they like each other, have a history together and feel connected.

I actually saw the moment coming where George suddenly leaves because there is a moment around 2hrs18min where Paul unwittingly shuts him down and you can see George look taken aback, like "Oh here we go again." And he's literally being looked down on by Paul. Paul doesn't seem to get that George is tired of playing second fiddle all the time. He wants to have a bigger say in things. John just doesn't seem to care either way. But his reaction to George leaving is extraordinary, as if he took it as a personal insult.

So in essence the whole project was a badly conceived idea that was executed poorly, but we still got some great music out of it. But I do wonder that if the footage we had was of their 1961 Top Ten stint we wouldn't see exactly the same thing: arguments, yawning, boredom, moments of exilharation, great music, bad music, a lack of direction and a desire to go home. Had anything really changed that much?

Greatly looking forward to watching part 2 tomorrow and seeing how things pan out. PJ has done an amazing job on this. After the pig's dinner that was Eight Day's A Week, this takes me back to the excitement of Anthology 25 years ago. And this time, who cares if the genral public switch off? They can lump it. This is our day in the sun.

[beatlesondvd]

What I'd love to watch is Peter Jackson's 56 hour-cut, synced to audio, with dual screens for the A and B camera footage, and black screen for the bits where no footage exists but where we have audio.

[Egg_Crisis]

Just finished watching part 1. Wonderful. It's amazing to finally get to see some more footage after all this time!

At the beginning it mentions "more than 150 hours of audio recordings".
A/B Road was around 98 hours. Does that mean there's a lot we've not heard, or does that 150 hours include the duplicated parts where both Nagras were running at the same time?

[Lord Reith]

Just finished watching part 1. Wonderful. It's amazing to finally get to see some more footage after all this time!

At the beginning it mentions "more than 150 hours of audio recordings".
A/B Road was around 98 hours. Does that mean there's a lot we've not heard, or does that 150 hours include the duplicated parts where both Nagras were running at the same time?

I think so.

I've always wondered who was saying "Bye then!" at the start of high heeled sneakers. Now I see it's Dick James. And John going into the song is a pisstake at Dick: "put that wig upon your head!"

[Egg_Crisis]

I love all the little visual things that you don't get from just listening to the audio that adds a new dimension to the whole thing.
Paul taking his cigar out of his mouth and mouthing "crap" at the camera when John is singing "Baa baa black sheep".

[malomojo]

I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but I have been reading some of the fan opinions on SHF throughout the day and am amused that some actual fans are saying that it should have been aimed more at the casual viewer. What?! Pardon me, but f**ck the casual viewer! We've had every Beatles project in living memory compromised by "the casual buyer". Finally, we have gotten our day in the sun, with these faceless entities finally given second place to us true fanatics. Water down our 8 hours so that they can slip it in between episodes of manalorian? No way! They can bloody well watch the entire eight hours! And if they don't like it, we'll force them to watch it over and over again until they do!

YES HE SAID IT!!!! Lord Reith, couldn't have said it better myself brother. I will put my two cents worth in later however. But, you are right. I keep hearing that the casual Beatle fan this, and the casual Beatle fan that when it comes to this. And, I agree. Who cares. I will argue that there are more of us then there are of the "Casual" Beatle fan.

[fabwill]

The career retrospective opening was unnecessary and chronologically incorrect.

I agree, I mentioned this last night. And some of the historical clips he used we have in better quality ourselves! That sort of recap would be aimed at casual viewers needing to be brought up to speed, while the rest of this was definitely not for them! So this edit was a bit in conflict with itself.

The recap seemed to be the only concession to casual viewers - it helped explain Paul's 'He's clean' comment about the Hare Krishna attendee and the reference to Manila. But that aside, it really was squarely aimed at the hard core like us. I loved part 1, but my wife, who is definitely a fan, fell asleep partway through and assumed I must have started part 2 when she woke up an hour later (I hadn't).

I cannot believe Jackson got it past Disney and/or Apple, because it is definitely not for casual fans. It makes me wonder if this heralds a new era in which we might get more comprehensive official releases. If Disney can make an event out of releasing 8 hours of 50 year old footage of the Beatles, why not officially release all Lord Reith's BBC sessions? Or all of all of the sessions?

[Lord Reith]

I will argue that there are more of us then there are of the "Casual" Beatle fan.

Me too. As far as I'm concerned there are only three types of people in the world: those who are huge Beatles fans, those who don't like The Beatles, and those who like The Beatles but have not yet become huge fans.

I have to admit I can't stand that second category. If someone says to me, "I hate The Beatles" then I know straight away that I have nothing in common with that person. It's actually very useful. But when I meet someone who likes The Beatles but isn't yet a big fan, I always know that a gentle push is all it will take to turn them into full blow Beatle Loony like us.

I bet you anything all the people who lost interest after 45 minutes will come back to it sooner or later. It's not like it's going anywhere.

Honestly, why wouldn't anyone enjoy it anyway? They don't have to watch each episode in one sitting. I'm not a massive Dylan fan but i really enjoy listening to that big sessions box from 65 or whatever it is. Listening to artists at work is always interesting.

[Hozman]

I hope in the (fingers crossed) eventual blu-ray release we get the full scene with Peter Sellers. His visit comes across as a very awkward encounter in Get Back but that's due to the content of the scene having been eviscerated (for perhaps obvious Disney+ reasons). I think Sellers' and Lennon's drug riffing is hilarious!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJN7xFRJ_X0