*Rodgers

oh well, you get it.

Finished Part 2. I also separately watched the rooftop footage.
Billy Preston was absolutely phenomenal.

Outside of everything else you said, what I've learned is that John Lennon was quite a funny guy and I had always thought he was a train wreck since around the time of the white album. Clearly he had enough of his shit together for the Let It Be sessions as well as Abbey Road.

As Doug mentioned....any of us who has played in a band and tried to write music has lived this. It's quite a cool insight into how painful songwriting can be. The more people you add to the mix the worse it gets. There's a lot to be said for working by yourself and putting together a finished song and then LATER messing with arrangements. I totally see why George was bored and frustrated in part 1. Miserable experience to have to sit through Paul trying to figure out what he wanted in a song.

My other takeaway is that George Harrison was kind of a dunce. This doesn't really paint him in a good light, although as I said...he had justifiable reason to get frustrated and walk out early on.

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Yes and also didn’t realize Harrison ended up sleeping with Ringo’s wife among others. He was not a great looking guy or seemingly very personable.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

George's strength was in harmony, both vocally and guitar. He was miscast as a lead guitarist, which is why he brought in Clapton and then for his first album brought in every great lead guitarist in his orbit.

He had a great ear for music though. And I like the style he did his songs in. Lot of Flying Burrito Brothers in his work.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Right, you're just saying every song they ever made sucks

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

One of the biggest questions the documentary raises is how is George the only one that died from lung cancer? Good gracious that’s a lot of cigarettes.

No, I'm not. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" does suck though.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

Yeah it’s crazy, plus I never saw one ashtray. The floor at Apple studios must have been riddled with burn holes

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Boom

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Elections have consequences.

I am absolutely a fan of the Beach Boys and hold their works in very high regard. I have watched a ton of docs and movies on them and it never gets old. There is just something mesmerizing about the way Brian Wilson was able to work it back then that I can not get enough of. Its as if he knew what HD TV looked like, but had no idea how it worked so he went and created every single pixel until it resembled his vision.

As for the Beatles, I have never had any interest in them at all. I love listening to all kinds of music and going down youtube wormholes but the Beatles are a band I have never gotten into. I actually don't mind the bubblegum shit and I like the USSR song but thats about it. I just don't feel anything when I hear the majority of their music and I would probably turn it off it I ran into it on the radio. And for the Bulls reference....Wings is jordan with the Birmingham Barons....good god do they suck.

I would be interested to see what would have happened with both groups....without drugs.

I think I will watch this though and absolutely enjoy it. I love music docs and the more they show the sausage being made the better.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Musicians working without drugs? C'mon

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Prepare to get elbow-deep in them entrails.

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My Maserati does 186.

The Beatles would be relevant by dint of their popularity alone, even if their music wasn't very good. I think much of the debate here has centered around whether or not their relevance is earned or just a function of Boomer obsession and whether that obsession is preventing other worthy artists from getting their due.

As much as I loved this it makes me sad there isn’t one for the making of Sgt. Pepper’s. Even if they didn’t play a second of Beatles music in it, seeing the who’s who of music and society in 1966 show up just to watch them record as well as witnessing George Martin go hog wild would be enough.

Was listening to the Let It Be album and went back and rewatched some parts of it. My final opinions that no one was waiting for.

John: I never really appreciated how much I love his singing voice, it's the best part of many of the songs on Let It Be. Dude was insanely in love with Yoko, for whatever reason. Easy to see why he would "break up" the Beatles for her. That being said none of the footage, other than the unflattering vocal performances of her they put in, really show any tension with her. I attribute that to her being an executive producer though.

Paul: All of them are musically brilliant, but Paul was also just brilliant in general. I wonder how much of the vibe that Paul was being a dick a pushing them around was because Paul indeed was a dick, and how much he thought nothing would get done if he wasn't with Epstein dead. You could see it early in the documentary when he and John were discussing how to keep George happy in the studio and he basically says I want George to do it my way but I want him to think he's doing it his way. My god Linda Eastman was gorgeous.

George: If Paul was brilliant in general, George, uh, wasn't. Maybe that's why he got taken to the cleaners with My Sweet Lord. Would the Beatles have been "better" if they used his songs and input more? Probably. Being treated like the annoying little brother by Paul and John wouldn't help. Other than the quitting part (lol at John saying we'll just get Clapton), he took everything in stride though, full credit to him.

Ringo: Dude just loved being a Beatle. When it looked like the Beatles were over you could tell it was killing him. Big Glue Guy who was up for anything. Loved it whenever they showed footage of him or any other of the band member just strolling over to some instrument and looking like they've played them for decades.

Billy: Speaking of just picking up an instrument and looking like you played it forever, it was pretty cool when he got hold of that tiny handheld synth/organ/piano that some dude just brought in off the street and he just started shredding on it. Not sure they could have showed him less in the rooftop concert footage. I'm sure Jackson would have if there was any extra left.

I get the "climax" of it was the rooftop concert, but I'd have to think there was more interesting stuff the day after on the last day of recording. Just kinda wooshed past that stuff.

I haven't finished it yet, just trying to find time to watch it with the volume up enough to hear everything but I only have time after the kids go to bed.

George was so turned around by the end. He didn't even fully believe in his own music, you can hear him at points asking if he should just release his own "little songs" on his own album. Nobody really knew how good he could be. The songs of his that made the cut are not nearly as good as his All Things Must Pass album. Old Brown Shoe? I Me Mine? Nothing on the level of Wah Wah. So at some point there must have been a lot of refinement to his stuff, perhaps during Abbey Road.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Solid thoughts and agree on all points. Especially on John Lennon the vocalist. Nothing against Paul, who is also amazing, but John's vocally are a whole universe alone. As a said before, I was really surprised John still had such a great sense of humor.

I don't think Yoko broke up the Beatles. I think they all were just ready to do their own thing. There really wasn't much left for the Beatles to prove / do. I've seen interviews of 1970's George Harrison saying just that. Ringo probably would have wanted to stretch it out longer, but the other 3...they were all done. Funny thing....they seemed to be able to enjoy each other's company quite a bit. They had the most fun when they were just covering old songs.

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Agreed, solid analysis by KD. Also agree that in the end Yoko didn't break up the Beatles but back then I'm sure people were looking for a scapegoat and John and Yoko had no problems being out there in the media and doing some strange things so it was pretty easy to pin it on her. If there was animosity towards her from other members of the group it must have happened off camera because for the most part the guys seemed to pay her no mind, or any of the women really when they were playing the music. They all seemed to get along when sitting in the mixing booth listening to potential final takes as well. Their time as a group had just kind of run its course and other than Ringo they were all ready to break out and do something else. Honestly if John would have lived longer I wouldn't have been shocked to see them reunite later.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I found it to be incredibly interesting and on top of the rooftop concert being pretty good I rather enjoyed watching everyone stall the police officers for as long as they could, it looked like something straight out of a heist movie where you are trying to distract the police while you get away with something.

While George comes off a bit foolish, it is a real interesting glimpse into the dynamic. The way they just so nonchalantly say, well if he doesn't come back on Monday we will get Clapton on Tuesday pretty much tells you how replaceable they thought George was.

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I think that was their dry humor. I think they knew they'd be able to get George back under the circumstances. it was clear that none of them liked playing in that warehouse / studio environment with the cameras.

The rooftop performance was really quite fantastic. I would have loved to see that era of Beatles pull off a real live concert. Vocally...they all were just amazing.

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