I have had it up to here waiting for the Beatles catalogue to be remastered

George Martin, himself a man who repeatedly condescended to George (and to his credit spent decades apologizing for it), got it right in the Harrison doc: "John and Paul had each other to play against...George had to do it himself." God knows how George's considerable melodic talent + musicianship might have benefited from the nourishment of actual Harrison-Lennon or Harrison-McCartney collaborations. It's a miracle he came up with "Something," "Here Comes the Sun," and an album or two of solo chestnuts.

OTM the narratives are oversimplified. It's Christgau and the other boomers who advanced the John is Genius narrative, repelled by Paul's "professionalism" or whatever. Many of Harrison's mid '70s albums are glum, grotty affairs, but they're no worse than Paul and John's (which, again, is not to suggest his talent was equal to theirs).

I guess many of us too young to have known The Beatles as occupants of the center of popular culture remember the Ironic George of the Cloud Nine-Wilburys-Anthology who, finally nourished by the genuine respect from Orbison (!), Dylan (!!), etc., emerges as a singularly acerbic and anti-nostalgic voice from a generation replete with too many fatheaded sentimentalists. Maybe Paul, with his ad man's instinct, ceded so much ground to George in the Anthology because he recognized George was simply a better camera subject; it's easy to think if you knew nothing about the Beatles that, watching the thing, George was the leader, not John or Paul.

Finally, when y'all get to the final third, a discussion occurs about how the film will look. George assures everyone that the 16mm film will look fine if blown up to 35 mm. Paul -- immediately, without pausing for breath -- says NOPE SORRY YOU'E WRONG THEY LOOK LIKE CRAP. Lindsay-Hogg or someone steps in and says, "Um, well, actually, he's right."

And George would be the only one to produce films twenty years later.

john & paul writing together from the start while absolutely critical to their success definitely poisoned the creative well for the band as a whole

There's a part in the Lewisohn book where he talks about the second contract L&M signed with Epstein in October 62, specifically to do with their songwriting.

George perceived a subtle shift in the Beatles' chemistry, as George would put it, 'An attitude came over John and Paul of "We're the grooves and you two just watch it"'

the Dick James interlude in part 1 def underscores that fact

Yeah. Paul himself mentioned a walk he and John took in the early sixties where they wondered if they should include George in the partnership.

georges hk dudes just sitting there are way more annoying than yoko!

xp - Sets pre-1963 provided nearly equal lead vocal time for Paul, George and John.

loool @ those hari’s

Finished Ep.1 and adored it. I was transfixed. Ringo adores Paul, especially when he's creative. How honest is the depiction of John discussing plastic sets while Paul creates Long and Winding Road, I d'know. George going on about Clapton, then leaving and John's quip that they should replace him with Clapton had me laughing for about a minute.

What's with the Enoch Powell stuff when jamming Get Back? I've honestly never really thought about the politics of that track. Slightly unnerving. Especially with the Clapton context.

I do love when the band slip effortlessly and without conflict into recording "For You Blue," a song that means nothing to me.

My favorite moment in part 1 is “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window”

Am I right that while Jackson put this together, the Beatles estates had in essence final cut?

Olivia, Yoko, and Paul over martinis fighting over the remote.

btw here's my review of the whole thing.

Excellent review!

god it is worth trudging through the first 3.5 hours just to feel the full measure of relief and joy when billy preston shows up

I know, it's an enormous change. I posted this upthread, but when the companion book to the film and box set was published earlier this year, a lot of readers zeroed in on George's remarks about Billy Preston. With Preston's organ taking on all the fills George was going to do, it was major relief for George and took away the source of his biggest arguments at Twickenham.

"For You Blue," a song that means nothing to me

They probably had no conflicts because it meant nothing to any of them as well.

Hell, George gave them the easiest songs in his stash because they'd trigger the least trouble.

George was writing shitty dirges the night before and bringing them in the next morning as legit pieces I'd be mean too

"I Me Mine" is the only shitty dirge he brought. "Old Brown Shoe," "All Things Must Pass," "Something," "For You Blue"? Nah.

what is it with you and old brown shoe lol

finally, the main question on ilm comes out

I was kind of shocked that Paul had completely forgotten "All Things Must Pass" when he did at Harrison's tribute concert a year after his death - like he had no idea how the song went and had to be taught it from scratch. Granted it had been 32 years since they rehearsed it (even if they did run through it MANY times over multiple days), but it wound up being the title track of George's multiplatinum, chart-topping AOTY-nominated album. Like even then, Paul still didn't give a shit.

*when he did it at

you cant be serious

First thing I do when I pick up a bass is play the opening lick of "Old Brown Shoe".

Old Brown Shoe is balls.

AMAZEballs, that is.

It always sounds like nobody knows what speed they should be playing.

lol

What's with the Enoch Powell stuff when jamming Get Back? I've honestly never really thought about the politics of that track. Slightly unnerving. Especially with the Clapton context.

Watching GH helping Ringo along with Octopus' Garden at the start of Ep3, so so great.

And in their generally musically fraught environment, it comes across as an act of genuine friendship.

Swap out “Maxwell’s” for “Old Brown Shoe” and Abbey Road improves considerably.

Watching GH helping Ringo along with Octopus' Garden at the start of Ep3, so so great.

― Maresn3st, Saturday, November 27, 2021 4:52 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

best part of the original film, the episode i’m most looking forward to

but it wound up being the title track of George's multiplatinum, chart-topping AOTY-nominated album. Like even then, Paul still didn't give a shit.

Paul has said that, after the breakup, it was years until he could listen to Beatles records again. I imagine that George — the bandmate he was most dismissive of — having a far bigger (and universally acclaimed) record than him was very difficult to swallow in 1970. Paul probably didn’t even listen to the whole thing until the late ‘70s.

Or even 'at all'

not sure when i'll watch any of this thing, but just wanted to say there's been some really excellent posts itt this week! great reading for a beatle fan.

Jeez did they really have to start this thing with the 1000th "history of the Beatles" montage? Jfc

Whenever I listen to Old Brown Shoe, I wish zz top were doing it instead

really wish George had attempted to do one of his solo LPs in the style of ZZ Top

well, in 1968, he did Wonderwall in the style of Oasis.

My Sweet Legs

If the rooftop concert had happened in the United States, police would’ve just arrested Billy Preston and left.

— rick (@yes2nola) November 27, 2021

i've only watched part 1, but it was difficult to see george being dismissed so nonchalantly, knowing how deeply his friendship with paul and john had touched him. i can definitely see how this served as a catapult to release all things must pass

it also nicely portrays how everything paul did was done in a charismatic way to underplay his vicious intentions. it's a pretty dangerous approach because without knowing all the baggage between him and george, you'd think george was the uptight one. so it's easy to gloss over the fact that for years george had wrote hundreds of songs and neither paul nor john wanted to play them. that's pretty much indicative of how out of place he was

john went on record to say something really awful about all things must pass, as well. "I think it's all right, you know. Personally, at home, I wouldn't play that kind of music, I don't want to hurt George's feelings, I don't know what to say about it."

i just read a lot of jealousy in that statement

it's funny how the songs george proposed in get back turned out to be on an album that was momentarily bigger than the beatles and the most accomplished post-beatles album

John was also the one who insisted George get "The Inner Light" and "Old Brown Shoe" as B-sides and said "Something" should be the A-side. It's complicated!

right, but how many george songs did he actually allow "in"? he was as much of a gatekeeper as paul with a bit more heart, sure

I would not have allowed "Only a Northern Song" anywhere near my record but y'know

Well didn't George Martin veto that one and GH came up with 'Within You..'?

yep

this is obviously subjective, but songwriting is an exchange of ideas and sometimes re-working them may be necessary. i think quite a few of george's songs that weren't on all things must pass could've benefited from paul's and john's input. that would've probably put the beatles, what, 5 to 10 years ahead of their time? but it didn't work out that way

george was arguably the least difficult beatle to work with, which i'm sure only makes the process of songwriting easier. in some ways, all the beatles' virtues turned to negatives by the time the band drifted apart. their unwillingness to work with anyone else turned to the members in their own band. george was so malleable he went along with everything until he felt completely disconnected and alienated from them. if anything, you see george as the one who really wanted to expand musically and culturally