You Think You Know A Band: Observations On The Beatles and Peter Jackson’s Get Back
The Beatles statue in Liverpool, England. Photo by Niamfrifruli, CC BY-SA 4.0
I’ll get to the Fab Four in a second. First…
My uncle spent a few years as a surveyor in Vermont and he had a friend in real estate. The real estate guy didn’t have a four-wheel drive vehicle, and one wintery storm day he had a client in town to look at some vacation type farm properties. He enlisted my uncle to drive the woman around, a favor my uncle was more than willing to grant.
He picked her up in the morning and they drove around, had lunch, and then he took her back to her hotel. Per my uncle, she was charming and grace and all the splendors. At the hotel he told her as a goodbye, “Miss Ross, it was a wonderful… wait. Are you Diana Ross?”
“I thought you knew,” she giggled.
I’m me, so I would have likely said something crude so I could tell people about the time Diana Ross smacked me, but that’s not my uncle. He’s a good guy, and his estimation is that she’s a good gal. I like when famous people turn out to be who you hoped they would be.
I’ve been a Diana Ross fan since I was a kid. Her voice is silk. I listen to mostly Motown and Atlantic Rhythm and Blues releases and very few of the singers wrote their own songs. There was a bevy of songwriters vying for attention and none of them were writing for the The Marvelettes (who were amazing by the way.) Everybody that put pen to paper was aiming to have their words come out of Ross’s mouth.
You can hear the occasional dropped note by all manner of artists in the genre and you say to yourself, “Ross would have had it.”
They sold the song to whoever, but they wrote it for her. That’s my theory at least.
One of my favorite displays of Ross’ talent was “Up the Ladder to the Roof.” It was, and is, perfect. Her voice seduces you, as always. You can hear a symphony.
I recently found out that the singer on that song was not Diana Ross. “Up the Ladder to the Roof” was the first single released by the Supremes after the departure of La Ross. She left two weeks before. The pitch perfect singing was done by Jean Terrell. Her name needs to be praised.
You think you know a band, or in the sense of the Supremes, since they didn’t play any instruments, I suppose I should call them a group. You think you know a group.
This is not a review of The Beatles: Get Back by Peter Jackson because I haven’t finished watching it. The observation is that I thought I knew that band, who, since they played instruments, I can call them a band. I thought I knew that band.
I misunderstood the dynamics.
I thought they grew together and then egos went nuts and Yoko went nuclear, and I understand the bad look on the nuclear metaphor with the only Japanese player but in my pre-documentary mindset she was the fracture that led to a few pretty good Wings albums and The Travelling Wilburys. Now I’m not so sure.
Ringo is in. George is frustrated and John is detached.
The first episode, at the one hour and two-minute mark, the most remarkable thing happens. Paul just starts playing. Ringo and George are there, and Ringo is attentive, eventually clapping to Paul’s random chords and non-words that fill the vocals. George picks his moment and chimes in with his gentle guitar. John comes in late and ads a bit and it’s good, but the line, per their agreement was that the song credits were Lennon/McCartney. The song they created, “Get Back,” was entirely a creature of McCartney.
At one point in the first episode George leaves. He came back, but in the interim when it looked like he quit, John says, as if it were nothing and he was wanting to follow the Pattie Boyd model, he suggested replacing Harrison with Clapton. He didn’t seem bothered by it. It was casual.
I thought of my Beatles as friends, and they probably were at a point, but this shows them as business partners. I kinda hate that.
The one thing that struck me though – this was Paul’s band. Ringo was there to play. George wanted to be more influential. John knew he was iconic and showed up. Paul was running the show. The Beatles were his.
This blew up my image of a favorite band. Amazing.
The review of the movie that I saw said, paraphrased, “Holy cow. I always thought that Yoko Ono broke up the Beatles. No. It was Paul.”Report
My takeaways from the doc:
It wasn’t Yoko, it was the death of Brian Epstein that led to to the eventual break up the Beatles. I think you can argue that they had already broken up but just didn’t know it yet.
That said, Yoko’s constant presence was a truly bizarre dynamic. I thought Paul demonstrated incredible patience having her sit in their creative circle every day for hours and hours. I know it was the price for having John participate, but it would have infuriated me. Would love to have seen how Paul handled it when that nonsense began – before he reached the acceptance stage.
George came off as a petulant middle child. I get why he was so frustrated but he came off poorly.
Paul wanted it more than anyone. He was the driving force. Someone had to be the leader.
John was super clever but not in a funny way. He is hard to like. At least for me to like.
Billy Preston was an amazing talent. He really was the 5th Beatle.
Ringo won the documentary. I really underestimated his contribution to the group. True professional and good dude.
In the end, I came away with the understanding that the break up was inevitable and they were all probably better off. The Beatles ran their course.Report
THIS. A thousand times this. In episode one, they mention that Epstein (who they always call Mr. Epstein) always kept them organized and on track. They way they talk about him is almost like he was their dad. And Paul is trying to fill that roll, with limited success.Report
I found the formality kind of intriguing. He was only a few years older than the band members, but he came from an entirely different social class.Report
Epstein (who they always call Mr. Epstein)
And who, it should be mentioned, did not kill himself.Report
I had a different reaction to Yoko’s presence. She’s just sitting there while the Beatles play. Just keeping to herself. It was kind of surprising to me, and I’ve read a lot of Beatles history.
That said, bear in mind that Paul and Yoko got prime billing as the producers, which no doubt influenced what footage made it on screen and what ended up left in the can.Report
We saw a lot of Yoko, but Linda was there quite a bit too, and we even saw some of Pattie and Maureen.
By the way, I just read Pattie’s book (the library had it); it’s worth reading to get a view of how nuts the rock star life was.Report
Yeah, we only see the dynamic in its last phase – edited by the participants. Yoko had been on the scene for over 2 years when the doc begins, so what we see might have been how it always was – or perhaps some negotiated and agreed to accommodation. (“ok, John, she can sit with us but can’t say anything…).
I dunno. It’s just weird. The band had lots of visitors during the sessions, but they all seemed to know their place – in the wings and out of the way. Yoko pulled up a chair and joined their creative circle.
Maybe not a disruption, but felt like an intrusion.
My other thought about Yoko: Did she really have *nothing* else to do?Report
WHat struck me was how Paul seemed like he was everything- He was always initiating every session, introducing the new songs, directing everyone to which key, what part and so one.
And it was easy to see why George felt stifled and frustrated. Who wants to be just Paul’s pliant session musician?
But what was amazing is what happened after he left. They spent the next couple days completely at a standstill. Paul stopped working and just goofed around, doing random screaming jam sessions with Yoko or just sitting idle.
I realized while watching, that the cameras and microphones were only recording a small part of what was going on. Half of their communication was nonverbal, either music or body language, and when they spoke, it was those sort of half sentences and phrases and loaded code words that only they understood.
Although Paul was the most vocal and assertive, all the others were vital contributors, and without even one of them, the entire process broke down.Report
Mal Evans was such a great presence too, always there to help no matter how bizarre the request (an anvil!)Report