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

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

i was one of those kids who grew up surrounded by adults working on something. i was always puttering around, reading in a corner. there were always a lot of adults, but only a few i was willing to interact with. seeing Paul & co interact with the child (is this Heather?) reminded me of those people and it warmed my heart. doesn't say much about parenting but it was always nice to interact with an adult who i felt comfortable with.

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.

― big online yam retailer (ledge), Thursday, December 16, 2021 10:40 AM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yep, and while Zak Starkey speaks fondly of the drum lessons he got from Uncle Keith Moon (and drum kits, which Ringo later got the bill for), Moon was a generally not-present and not-great father to his own daughter.

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).

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat)

I knew about Julian, not about Zak! Damn.

Ringo was also abusive to both his wives and was getting through 16 bottles of wine per day and inhuman amounts of coke at his lowest point, so yeah, probably not the best father figure

he looked absolutely zonked out of his mind in this, like every day surfacing for air after some legendary bender the night before

And yet he still was probably the nicest Beatle of all. ✌️💟

Drummers will be able to comment better than me, but isn't it hard to keep time if you're zonked out of your mind?

depends on the individual drummers definition of zonked

also to me he just looked tired/exhausted

they'd also played in hamburg wasted and on pills for 5+ hours a night (right?) so maybe he was just used to it

I didn't think Ringo looked that bad, bar the one session near the end of Part 2, where he falls asleep at the kit.

Ringo is the only one who received no Paul direction, right? He's always perfect.

I didn't particularly notice Ringo seeming out of it, some of that is just his personality I think. He was definitely as on as he needed to be. One thing about being a drummer in that kind of setting is you need to conserve your energy when they don't need you, because then they'll suddenly want to do 6 takes in a row or whatever.

Missed the part where people were posting favorite Beatles songs, it's funny, I don't think I've ever tried to make a list. Let's see what 20 come to mind:

And Your Bird Can Sing
I've Just Seen a Face
It Won't Be Long
Day Tripper
Dear Prudence
I'm a Loser
I Feel Fine
Tomorrow Never Knows
Here Comes the Sun
Yer Blues
Helter Skelter
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (and Reprise)
Rain
Paperback Writer
Help
Don't Bother Me
You Won't See Me
The Word
I Am the Walrus
Strawberry Fields Forever

That's unranked, just the ones that jumped out. I like their power pop and hard rock about equally, and really love the mid-period folk-psych stuff too. And I like John being ridiculous more than Paul being ridiculous. "The Word" is such a template for psychedelia, just so great structurally and sonically.

lol apparently The Word was the first song they wrote while actually stoned in the studio, so, yeah.

Also now I realize I left off Norwegian Wood and She Said She Said, ah well.

iirc Ringo also had ongoing health problems didnt he? cant remember details off the top of my head though

yeah i don't mean zonked like fucked up on drugs i mean zonked like utterly exhausted and hung over. and yes he kills it every time obviously.

The movie begins w Paul giving Ringo directions, which he ignores. I thought that was funny.

Wasn't there a tiny bit of daylight between Ringo and the rest of them because of his pre-history with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes?

ILM is like a gathering of dogs when one starts barking pretty soon they all start barking, except instead of barking it's posting gratuitous lists and rankings. Now that its been made socially acceptable in this thread, I can't resist. Here's 20:

She Said She Said
And Your Bird Can Sing
Yesterday
Penny Lane
Ticket to Ride
Dear Prudence
Sexy Sadie
Revolution (single version)
In My Life
Here Comes the Sun
With a Little Help from My Friends
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Mother Nature's Son
Good Night
Paperback Writer
Hello Goodbye
The Ballad of John and Yoko
Lady Madonna
I Should Have Known Better

And yet no "Good Morning Good Morning"?

If they had decided not to release an album of the early 1969 material (except for what had already come out on singles), were there enough spare singles and outtakes sitting around to release a different final Beatles album, more like Led Zeppelin's Coda? Sort of a combination of the US Hey Jude, plus "Across the Universe", "You Know My Name", maybe "Not Guilty", "What's the New Mary Jane" etc?

Notable quote time:

Michael LH : "I'm the biggest Beatles fan here"
Linda : "Well, if you want a fight about it..."

Michael LH : "John.... We were talking..."
John : "What, about the space between us all?"
Michael LH : "um.. no..."

I don't remember them verbatim, but John had several quips when non-band people liked a song or a take where he said things like, "Well I'm a literal Beatle, you know." Just these little signals of how much confidence they had as a band, they conquered the world.

I downloaded the mono White Album. Whoa -- who knew "Long, Long, Long" had a piano?!

Michael LH : "John.... We were talking..."
John : "What, about the space between us all?"
Michael LH : "um.. no..."

yeah lol I liked this bit. John's favorite Harrisong too!

john loves quoting beatles lyrics unbidden

There were so many lines like that, that if someone had written it as fiction, would appear as too corny. But, there they are...

One other side effect of Get Back has been a lingering desire to where a fur coat, which has never even occurred to me previously.

But not to grow an accompanying
beard?

I grew one to see if I could.

This would be in 1987, I was 26

I downloaded the mono White Album. Whoa -- who knew "Long, Long, Long" had a piano?!

oh man there are people who are so dogmatic and obsessed with the mono versions it is crazy.

FWIW I like the mono white album and sgt pepper though I'm hard pressed to say they are 'better'. For all the talk about mono pepper being the approved mix, it still sounds sloppy to me compared to the stereo one.

You're meant to listen to it with just one ear, I believe.

God I love macca’s bass sounds starting in the psychedelic era.

No argument with that.

I’ve been dreaming - nearly going so far as to contact folks to propose it - but in the end knowing I’m not going to sell this idea to anyone - so I’m just gonna drop this here so I can forget about it -

I want the world’s best Beatles tribute band to sit down and play the what-if game: what if they hadn’t had the shit kicked out of them by the loss of control of Northern Songs, what if John hadn’t blurted out he wants a divorce, what if Paul had picked up on John’s signals throughout late ‘69 that he was open to continuing, what if the 4/4/4/2 meeting had gone just a little better … and instead of breaking up, they continued making records into 1970-74? What would John & Paul have contributed to the best of each other’s solo songs of the period? How would Ringo and George have played on “Maybe I’m Amazed” and “Back Seat of My Car”? Would the words & melody of “Working Class Hero” have gotten married to the groove of “Momma Miss America”? Maybe coming at the Beatles with a bit of a fresh start even allows John & Paul & George to actually write together occasionally.

So I want this band, with their intimate physical knowledge of how the Beatles played, to essentially “write” another 5-6 Beatles albums based on the existing solo material but not slavishly keep to the solo arrangements or even to the exact words/tune/structure of the songs & to deeply imagine their way into a plausible alternate early 70s where the band kept the vibes going a little longer.

That’s not too much to ask, right?

The part where Heather is singing into the mic and John goes, "Yoko!" has already been mentioned.

But I've had that bootleg of "Dig It" for years and have always thought that the guest vocalist was Yoko. Had no idea it was a six-year-old.

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 don't remember the source, but one of the reasons "Ballad of John & Yoko" was released as a single was because Apple was hemorrhaging money.

That’s not too much to ask, right?

― war mice (hardcore dilettante),

yes

j/k

No manual existed in 1970 instructing bands at The Beatles' level of fame how to amiably keep together. It's possible allowing John, Paul, and George (and okay fine Ringo) their solo careers at the same time as functioning as a band might've served as a pressure release; one conversation between John and George during this time features the former encouraging the latter to do just that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSmbd00zsqQ

My latest theo is..

If they had released"Get Back" the album at the time, they may well have continued on for longer. But having to return to it after "Abbey Road", soured them

That's not what the Beatles said then and afterward. George Martin himself admitted the sessions were peaceful (except for "Maxwell's) because they all knew it would be the last.

Oh, and war mice..

They would have written more/different songs if they had continued, not necessarily ones they did solo.

Xpost the latest intelligence suggests they did not know it was their last.

The Beatles & Heather McCartney 😍 #TheBeatlesGetBack pic.twitter.com/rUU4nGhnwu

— get back, kristen! (@swaying_daisies) November 27, 2021

(and okay fine Ringo)

Sure, no one’s gonna mount a serious defense of Ringo’s solo records (though “It Don’t Come Easy” and “Back Off Boogaloo” are up there with any solo Beatle singles), but from 1970-74 he had no fewer than eight top 10 US hits. That’s as many as Paul, and more than John and George combined in that period. And three of those hit #1 — George had one #1, and John had two.

I'm not dissing Ringo! I'm saying he had a solo career because what else was he going to do. His burning ambition was to drum for the Beatles forever, and why not?

and, yes, a couple of his solo hits are fantastic

Ringo's "Early 1970" is a really charming b-side.

No one seems to like "Blindman" but me