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

I've still got a track somewhere around here of five- to ten-second snippets of each Beatles song, lined up alphabetically.

First time I heard it and "Free as a Bird" showed up after "For You Blue" knocked me back. Yes, I guess the canon changed!

What is interesting is that they have 2/3rds of a good album at the end of January and less than a month later they've dropped all those songs and started recording Abbey Road, many of which's songs were previewed in the Get Back sessions. I didn't realize was how little gap there was between the two projects. So what happens if they don't throw away the Get Back songs, but, as George suggested, come up with the rest of the songs to complete the album. So I played around with what it could it look like (only using songs that appeared in Get Back, so no Come Together):

1. "Two of Us" McCartney with Lennon 3:36
2. "Dig a Pony" 3:54
3. "Something" Harrison 3:02
4. "Oh! Darling" McCartney 3:27
5. "I Me Mine" Harrison 2:26
6. "Let It Be" McCartney 4:03

1. "I've Got a Feeling" McCartney and Lennon 3:37
2. "The Long and Winding Road" 3:38
3. "For You Blue" Harrison 2:32
4. "Get Back" 3:09
5. "Octopus's Garden" Richard Starkey Starr 2:51
6. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" Lennon 7:47

Preserved the Let It Be running order as much as possible. Might put Get Back as Side 2, Track 1, which seams its lot. What would others do?

old brown shoe should be on this speculative record

Old Brown Shoe and Don't Let Me Down would make it 14 songs.

I was sooooo pumped as an early 90s teen when "Old Brown Shoe" inexplicably showed up on The Blue Album

Totally forgot about Don't Let Me Down. But that AND "Old Brown Shoe" brings you to 50:58 which is too long. Plus, they weren't going to give Harrison 4 songs at this point. So how about:

1. "Two of Us" McCartney with Lennon 3:36
2. "Dig a Pony" 3:54
3. "Something" Harrison 3:02
4. "Don't Let Me Down" 3:36
5. "I've Got a Feeling" McCartney and Lennon 3:37
6. "I Me Mine" Harrison 2:26
7. "Let It Be" McCartney 4:03

1. "Get Back" 3:09
2. "The Long and Winding Road" 3:38
3. "For You Blue" Harrison 2:32
4. "Oh! Darling" McCartney 3:27
5. "Octopus's Garden" Richard Starkey Starr 2:51
6. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" Lennon 7:47

And holy shit I never new that both Don't Let Me Down and Sun King were taken from the chord changes in Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross".

that's actually a pretty interesting tracklist. but in this reality does "Abbey Road" as such ever happen? not a lot left to play with. i mean clearly any right-thinking person would begin building a concept album around "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," but with all the drugs and what-not i'm not sure John and George are seeing it that way in February 1969.

Peter Jackson speculates in the interview I linked to above that the reason they didn't pursue I Want You and Something for the Get Back album was they had settled on the idea of a no-overdubs album and songs like that seemed better off with more of a production on them on another project.

the more i look at that tracklist the better it looks. a pretty plausible 1969 release by popular rock act The Beatles. would probably play a little better than LiB as we know it.

a much worse use of the abbey road material though

1. "Two of Us" McCartney with Lennon 3:36
2. "Dig a Pony" 3:54
3. "Something" Harrison 3:02
4. "Oh! Darling" McCartney 3:27
5. "I Me Mine" Harrison 2:26
6. "Let It Be" McCartney 4:03

1. "I've Got a Feeling" McCartney and Lennon 3:37
2. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" Lennon 7:47
3. "For You Blue" Harrison 2:32
4. "Octopus's Garden" Richard Starkey Starr 2:51
5. "The Long and Winding Road" 3:38
6. "Get Back" 3:09

Get Back has to be last IMHO. Long and Winding Road is hot garbage and deserves to come after Ringo discovering A minor on the piano. I could also see switching #4 and #5.

Side 1 is amazing, tho

I spent the morning playing with the different versions of the above tracklist - prioritizing the rooftop versions and staying away from the 2019 mixes. I'm pretty convinced my tracklist would have been considered better than Let It Be and a roughly as good as any other Beatle album. I am enamored of the idea of them ending the album with the cut at the end of I Want You as a sort of callback to A Day in the Life.

It's very possible there is no Abbey Road in this time stream, but there is material around if you wanted to construct an "Abbey Road" that comes out in 1969 or 1970. Side 2 of Abbey Road is completely intact. Side 1 is rough (Maxwell's and Teddy Boy is death) unless you seriously dig into the 1970 solo releases:

1. "Come Together" Lennon 4:19
2. "All Things Must Pass" George Harrison Harrison 3:44
3. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" McCartney 3:27
4. "Old Brown Shoe" Harrison Harrison 3:18
5. "Teddy Boy" McCartney 2:24
6. "Ballad of John and Yoko" Lennon 3:37

1. "Here Comes the Sun" Harrison Harrison 3:05
2. "Because" Lennon, McCartney and Harrison 2:45
3. "You Never Give Me Your Money" McCartney 4:03
4. "Sun King" Lennon, with McCartney and Harrison 2:26
5. "Mean Mr. Mustard" Lennon 1:06
6. "Polythene Pam" Lennon 1:13
7. "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" McCartney 1:58
8. "Golden Slumbers" McCartney 1:31
9. "Carry That Weight" McCartney, with Lennon, Harrison and Starr 1:36
10. "The End" McCartney 2:05
11. "Her Majesty" (hidden track) McCartney 0:23

But I think the more likely answer is that there is no Abbey Road.

Another possibility is they release this version of Let It Be, they decide to take a break on slightly more amicable terms, release solo albums in 70-71, and decide to regroup in 1972 or 73 for a collective effort.

Something like that has always been my "only way the Beatles could have stayed together" daydream. I dunno if it's really plausible though --- surely the time apart, calling the shots on their own terms, would only make it harder to come back together and find those old habits/dynamics limiting things again. Plus just the "I only get X songs per record again?" effect, unless it's a double album which I guess is plausible. Sad, because all of their 72-73-era material would surely have benefited tremendously from both the collaboration and the necessity of editing.

Peter Jackson speculates in the interview I linked to above that the reason they didn't pursue I Want You and Something for the Get Back album was they had settled on the idea of a no-overdubs album and songs like that seemed better off with more of a production on them on another project.

― Alba, Thursday, December 16, 2021 6:01 AM (forty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this was my interpretation as well, i assume that's why they abandoned "maxwell's" too

a lot of ppl upthread complained that they'd rather see the making-of literally any other beatles album, but i kinda love that they had so much footage documenting this one slow motion failure in the discog. it's the first conceptual framework paul introduces that just falls apart instantly. humanizing

two days before the rooftop concert and they're like "we can't bring the piano up there so we can only focus on the 3-4 rockers" and half the band isn't even sure they want to play on the roof still, what a fucking mess, amazing

yeah, this aspect is really what has gotten me interested in actually watching this someday. whereas if they had this footage of the making of Revolver or Sgt. Pepper's, it'd be an incredible historical document watching people create something amazing. but i'm guessing the actual surprises and "Spinal Tap trying to find the way to the stage" type moments would be few and far between.

four people driven gradually insane by their self-imposed expectations and the ambient expectations placed on them just for being the beatles

doc needless to say you'll love every minute of this thing

funny thing, wild to me that a lot of the expectations *were* self imposed. they'd just released the white album. . . why do they have to work on new music and come up with Let It Be? And then start on Abbey Road right after?

i'm def interested, just resistant to signing back up for Disney to just watch this one thing. which is silly cause if i just thought of it like buying a movie ticket, it's like whatever... it just annoys me.

The family has had a subscription for awhile, but this was the first time I created a profile on the account.

Now I get ads saying things like, "You watched 'The Beatles: Get Back', ready for some Taylor Swift?"

I keep returning to the recessive, almost sullen George Martin, giving the impression he wants nothing to do with a farrago he sees coming, so it's moving when history aligns with what we grew up and he agrees to produce Abbey Road only if he can do it like he used to.

I wouldn't have counted myself as enough of a Beatles fan or muso nerd to sit through six hours of them, or any band, farting around in a studio but this thread convinced me to check it out and everyone otm, and yes the shambolic nature of the whole thing is a huge part of its appeal, an almost fyre festival sense of incredulity about the whole lack of organisation or even basic ideas about what they were trying to do. But lots of positive moments too, maybe helps that I have a daughter close in age but I had a huge smile on my face whenever Heather was on screen. And I'm now getting into Billy Preston solo albums.

funny thing, wild to me that a lot of the expectations *were* self imposed. they'd just released the white album. . . why do they have to work on new music and come up with Let It Be? And then start on Abbey Road right after?

― a (waterface), Thursday, December 16, 2021 7:33 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

afaict their release schedule was packed before the white album and the six months of relative radio silence after that and "hey jude" was pretty unusual. paul was determined to get everyone working in the same room again bc the fractured method of making the white album had clearly taken a toll. but yeah everything else is this invented rubric of what they thought they should be doing

paul in the let it be film: a tyrant making things happen

paul in get back: "i have literally no control over this situation"

maybe helps that I have a daughter close in age but I had a huge smile on my face whenever Heather was on screen

Heather rules and it warmed my heart when John teased her ("kitten pie," which should've found its way into a lyric).

John and Heather's pie talk might be my favorite thing about this. reminded me of how my uncles messed with me at that age

yeah that and the little bit where shes sitting w/ringo and she hits a drum and ringo jumps like a foot in the air in mock surprise

re:their ridiculous release schedule, i kept having to remind myself that the idea of one big album per year being enough for a major band hadnt fully become settled law yet at that time. what a world-famous band 'should' do, what fans could expect from them, what kind of shape their career should take, seems like everyone was kind of still figuring that out in real time to a certain extent.

funny thing, wild to me that a lot of the expectations *were* self imposed. they'd just released the white album. . . why do they have to work on new music and come up with Let It Be? And then start on Abbey Road right after?

Heather rules and it warmed my heart when John teased her ("kitten pie," which should've found its way into a lyric).

I believe the original idea for the TV show/concert was to do White Album songs though.

yeah! one of them mentions this in the 2nd or 3rd episode

Purr Together

why do people hate Teddy Boy so much?

It's another "Little Nicola"

Funny, history has it that John envied Paul's easy way with little Julian, and yet here's two where he messes with kids and they don't run off crying..

Maybe he made a better Uncle than a Dad.

the doc made me appreciate "teddy boy" for the first time

Yeah, it’s crazy to realize that the White Album had come out just two months before the Get Back sessions started (and recording had finished just a month before that)

oh lol yeah my timeline upthread is incorrect

Funny, history has it that John envied Paul's easy way with little Julian, and yet here's two where he messes with kids and they don't run off crying..

yeah in one of his last interviews while explaining the genesis of "Hey Jude," he manages to toss as an aside re Paul, "He's always been good with kids, you know," not without envy. But it looks like they all are?

Mal’s the best

his enthusiasm playing the anvil

I could not play the anvil with half the skill and enthusiasm of Mal Evans.

that White Album promotion idea blows my mind. the sheer overachiever ambition of turning "we should do a TV special to promote our recent album, a thing a normal band might conceivably do" into "we should write, rehearse, and record an all-new album in front of these cameras," with the same timetable!

As if they were making "Please Please Me"

yeah in one of his last interviews while explaining the genesis of "Hey Jude," he manages to toss as an aside re Paul, "He's always been good with kids, you know," not without envy. But it looks like they all are?

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, December 16, 2021 10:08 AM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Julian has been pretty blunt about what a shitty dad John was. And Zak Starkey has said that Ringo was a pretty awful father as well, strenuously trying to dissuade him from taking up the drums (among other things).

Yeah there's quite a gap between being able to entertain a small child for a short while and being a present and loving parent.

heres some stuff re: Nicola filming MMT and having a great time with all of them

http://www.meetthebeatlesforreal.com/2010/12/no-youre-not-said-little-nicola.html

See also shots of young Ari at VU rehearsals. #OneThread

Meant to say something like, Ari underfoot, Ari being wrangled by Paul Morrissey, etc.