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

A staunch liberal, he actually has no problem supporting centrist or moderate Democrats if that's the only option

The opposite.

My mom owned every American Beatles cheapie through 1965. She doesn't own Rubber Soul or Revolver. Then she bought Pepper's and Abbey Road and a few singles in between: "Paperback Wrier," "Hey Jude."

About the same with my mom. Had the singles, Meet the Beatles, Beatles '65... then nothing again until Sgt. Pepper, like all of a sudden the Beatles were cool again. But then it drops off after Magical Mystery Tour with just the Hey Jude singles compilation.

Step-dad had Abbey Road on cassette, which is where I first heard it. Wasn't until the CDs came out that I realized that "Come Together" was the actual album opener, not "Here Comes The Sun".

greil's politics are about as strange as you might expect from someone who wrote a brilliant 500-page book about the situationists but loves jonathan chait and tom friedman and still defends bill clinton against the slightest hint of criticism.

The opposite.

We must be reading different things from Greil. As J.D. mentions, he's passionately defended Clinton (Bill AND Hillary, particularly against Bernie Sanders's supporters), and everything he's written in that area doesn't seem to contradict what I posted.

gtdae, that's a really interesting set of takes, not sure i've ever thought about any of those angles (the significance of not touring, the "between two stools" genre/hipness narrative, and the easy-listening covers = uncoolness narrative)... i'll have to percolate on those.

i wonder if the psych vs roots scenario might be a touch too schematic...? but on the other hand, it would offer some ways of reading their 70s solo work... and why in some ineffable way i've never quite filed them together with the whole rest of the body of Classic Rock. none of them ultimately landed on exactly one or the other (not that anyone had to). i guess paul definitely stayed closer to certain psych tendencies for much, much longer, without going down the instrumental freakout or proggy route in anything beyond a splash of color.

i just realized during the first run through of "old brown shoe" paul is playing george's guitar upside down. legend stuff.

My dad, then aged 40, bought 1962-66 on cassette shortly after its release, and played it in the car all the time. The reason I then bought 1967-70 (aged 11) was that my dad wouldn't, as he said that was when they "went a bit funny" (which I surmised was a) drugs, b) long hair, c) Yoko). There's nothing like the allure of forbidden fruit, etc. (My grandmother was actually quite saddened by post-67 Beatles: "they used to be such nice boys", she once sighed.)

Having got to know 1967-70, but still hearing 1962-66 in the car all the time, I imagined that the band must have cringed with embarrassment at the 1962-64 stuff, and assumed they must since have disowned it all; this was reinforced by the "She Loves You"-quoting outro of "All You Need Is Love", which I read as mockery of their juvenalia.

John's favourite Beatles single remained "I want to hold your hand" to the end.

The opposite.

We must be reading different things from Greil. As J.D. mentions, he's passionately defended Clinton (Bill AND Hillary, particularly against Bernie Sanders's supporters), and everything he's written in that area doesn't seem to contradict what I posted.

― birdistheword, Monday, December 20, 2021

It's a matter of emphasis. I don't see him as any kind of liberal: he's Schlesinger-esque in his defense of centrism.

Xp Contrarily, I think it's a perfectly understandable aesthetic preference to like early Beatles more than late Beatles purely on the basis of how the music hits you.

We do our elders a disservice by assuming they just didn't like long hair and drugs (loads of Boomers loved both). If you genuinely like three-minute pop songs, and prefer them to "Tomorrow Never Knows" or whatever, I think that may well be a perfectly valid de gustibus moment.

But sure, let's caricature the old squares as just not being able to handle the sublime artistry of (checks notes) "Piggies."

the peak of their 3 minute pop songs was revolver though

Sure, loads of Boomers loved both - but once you get to pre-Boomers (like my dad, born 1933) who came of age in the pre-rock era, they were a lot less likely to grasp the "weird" later stuff.

(My grandmother was actually quite saddened by post-67 Beatles: "they used to be such nice boys", she once sighed.)

Apparently your grandmother and Queen Elizabeth were of the same mind.

But did your granny take a triphave a Command Performance at which she rattled her jewels?

My granny took a very hardline anti-Yoko stance. But then she was a thundering racist, God rest her soul.

I thought The Queen loved the "Yellow Submarine" film?

kinda surprised my parents took the time to watch the whole doc, sounds like it definitely opened up some old wounds for them re:"why did john have to go and get so weird?"

Ha ha, John being weird was definitely not my takeaway from the film.

Too busy watching all five seasons of Pinky Blinders

Lmao imagine trying to flex by bragging about watching Peaky Blinders and spelling it wrong, I wonder if Greil posts Facebook memes that are pictures of Tom Hardy with misattributed quotes say shit like "I'm the most loyal person you know, but cross me and you'll unleash the wolf in me" in Impact font

from a 2000 article in time:

George W. Bush also claims to be a big admirer of the Fab Four...However Bush does add a caveat to his appreciation. "I liked their early stuff. They did some good records. But then they got a bit weird. I didn't like all that later stuff when they got strange."

my mum always loved George but still complains about their beards and long hair and them getting “weird”

i guess when all you know is radio pop, the bar for weird is very low

Picturing George W. Bush at Yale or wherever, turning on the TV in his frat after his 17th beer, seeing this:

https://i.imgur.com/xBOsmRb.gif

and going Fuuuuuucccckkk THAT SHIT!

Trying and failing to find a video of Elvis during the jam session part of the Comeback Special talking about The Beatles and The Beards.

Been itching to post this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFNrCSsPpc8

Now, THAT'S what a recording session in 1969 should look like!

Ha!

Complete with James Burton on the Pink Paisley.

that’s lovely.

Love how Tutt digs into that Ringo fill.

enjoyed that video, thanks!

would love to see them then warp time and turn it into "Pink Cadillac," would have mopped the floor with it imo.

Loved the fake-out ending.

That video is kind of addictive.

Mister P...So Addictive

i feel like Elvis is due for the Get Back/Last Dance treatment soon. there has to be enough shockingly great rehearsal tape out there. kids don't know the story.

agree

HBO did a pretty good doc a few years ago

a Get Back studio behind the scenes would be amazing

fewer goofy voices

if i went to see a 'pop' band and they rocked as hard as the Beatles do on Please Please Me thru A Hard Day's Night, i'd feel pretty darn rocked.

― I Am Fribbulus (Xax) (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 7 December 2021 14:44 (two weeks ago)

what's up guys. I was keeping up-ish, a day or two behind, with this thread and getting totally enthused, but ran out of time to keep track at at this point.

half an hour in to watching, and going back to FP every single one of you maniacs who posted 1,000,000 words about this without saying how insanely hideous the hyper-cropped and computer-animated picture is

Darin's dog video was cool though

I think there was some discussion way, way back about the kind of creepily smooth, doll-like skin textures.

The cropping is a much bigger issue in my eyes, though I can see that it’s kind of commercially essential for broadcast today. Peter Jackson said that his team had restored the whole 60 hours, not just the eight and a half hours shown, and I assume (hope?) that the restoration was on the full frame.

Jackson told Maron last week that this whole project was an unplanned sidebar from "restoring" his own 16mm features - dnw imo!

Cropping, AI shit doesn't bother me as much when it's actual historic footage 🤷🏻‍♀️

So the audio AI stuff, ie isolating individual instruments/voices, could be used to totally reimagine the art of sampling, no?

the footage of the band in the studio listening back to the rooftop material is beautiful. the part when paul/linda are holding hands and ringo creeps into frame cracked me up.

I thought the footage looked/sounded great. The only distracting thing for me were those moments when the audio and image were way out of sync (especially in the early segments, when they were still in that soundstage).

I’m sure this has been discussed; this is the first time I’ve clicked into this thread (just finished the doc last night).

I'll have to watch again but I think the 'out of sync' moments were basically when audio existed that they wanted to include, but no film to go with it, so they stuck some vaguely suitable footage from the same day up to accompany it rather than just put up a still or whatever.

Right I believe you’re correct

My editor friend calls it 'goldfishing'

It’s wild, because they find footage close enough where it looks like it’s really supposed to fit; and there’s sort of an “uncanny valley” effect when it doesn’t quite match up.

It’s an abused trick in reality shows where they cut in reaction shots from other moments in the footage etc