Geoff Emerick’s book (Here, There and Everywhere) is great, he was there for REVOLVER and the White Album (though not for the GET BACK stuff afair).
Emerick is kind of pro-Paul, because Paul was nice to him, but you can still discern a lot of truths about the band dynamics from that book.
The big takeaway for me was that the relationship between John and Paul wasn’t simple. They might not always be close, but it sounded like they always had mutual respect—they knew they were the big dogs in the room.
…the material looked good…but as always with jackson…a long shot…only prooving, after all, yoko ono killed all the band vibe indeed…since there simply was no avangarde in pop yet, at that point in history…
if u ask urself, which kanye album are u…in my case, 808’s&heartbreaks…
u also have to ask urself which beatles album are u…in my case…revolver…tomorrow never knows literally nailed/predicted too much tomorrows…
Being a Beatles maniac from my childood (a long long time ago) Get Back is pure gold for me!
There are too much things to say about it!
We see the Beatles at the end of the road, depressed, divided and almost a dead project. But their creativity was so great, so vulcanic, to push them to produce tons of masterpices anyway. A stunning “swan song”!!!
Ringo: his calm mood and his sense of humor seems to have been an important ingredient of the band’s chemistry.
George: how the fuck fragile he was! He seems to be truly pressed between Paul and John.
Paul and John chemistry: it is a great show on its own. They had an astonishing interplay, a magic feeling.
John’s voice: a wonder! It’s raw, super expressive, ironic, punky before punk. Rock and roll!
Paul devotion to the band and to the music. He was the engine, the power station. When everyone else was asleep he worked hard to push the Beatles a meter ahead. He was the only one to believe in the project, at that time.
Paul’s songwriting: to see him create music is inspiring. The song only matters, all the rest are only tools: the song is the beginning and the end of his mind process.
I came away from the documentary happy that the (bigoted) blame placed on Yoko was disproven once and for all. Paul even made fun of the idea she had anything to do with it.
Interesting, I watched the doc a while back but I got the reverse opposite from it. Yoko didn’t have anything to do with it, I remember Paul even joking about the subject matter.
What you could however see was how George wanted to fly but couldn’t as a beatle. You could also see how Paul was trying to keep the entire thing together but was going against the current.
Many of my most beloved songs were written by John. But Paul was such a driving force not only in writing but also experimentation. People often assume Paul was the ballad guy and John the psychedelic experimentation guy, but as you said Mc Cartney was interested in studio techniques and experimenting. Famous example - the manipulated tape loops on Tomorrow never knows
I didn‘t get this impression from the movie at all. I imagined her presence to have a much bigger effect on the band
From what I read it was worse on the white album sessions, where she showed up for the first time
The best book about the Beatles in this period will be the third volume of the Mark Lewishon biography, assuming it ever comes out. Glyn Johns’ book Sound Man is also a lot of fun overall and has some relevant content.
One really interesting thing about George Martin is that he grew up very poor, and made the most of joining the RAF to move up in social standing. Although he was more ‘straight’ and establishment, he had a bold and anarchic side to him and bucked the EMI brass on several occasions. His early work on comedy albums from Spike Milligan and the like both endeared him to the Beatles early on (who loved the Goon Show and paid attention to who produced a record) and paved the way for some of the more experimental recording techniques they used later.
This season of the Nothing is Real podcast had a lot of episodes discussing this time period of the group. The episodes are pretty focused so it’s a bit more digestible for people who aren’t totally obsessed (yet).
