What we need is a schedule

Just here for the knowledge "There was a young man who was on a quiz show which had something to do with the Beatles. He was asked, “Which of the Beatles didn’t like cabbage,” and he said, “It’s not in the knowledge. It’s not known.” And it’s a fact that no one in the world knows which of the Beatles doesn’t like cabbage. Because it’s not in the knowledge."

[gardenschedule]

Quote compilations

Because I cope with my Beatles feelings by collecting and organizing quotes in a big ass spreadsheet and I may as well post them here divided up by topic:

The breakup

Quotes from each member divided by year, showing it was never so cut and dry that Paul always wanted to stay in the Beatles and John/George always wanted out

John Lennon’s sexuality

Internalized homophobia, intentionally spreading rumours about being gay + people thinking he was joking (John Lennon invented queerbaiting in 1963 did you know?), revealing comments from John and others about his sexuality, replacing Paul with Yoko, jealousy over Paul, flirting with Paul

Quotes about the Lennon-Mccartney rivalry & John's insecurity

The ramifications of Yesterday, a fear of abandonment, ego death, and having a relentlessly productive, competitive soulmate + further analysis

John not meaning what he says

"Yeah, I was lying" [laughs]

Paul hurting John

The extent to and ways in which John claimed Paul hurt him and Paul's struggle to understand wtf happened

Paul wrangling John

Paul understands the importance of public relations and affectionately straightening ties

Beatles defending each other

Only Beatles can talk shit about Beatles

Paul trying and sometimes failing to be chill about Yoko

WHO KNOWS, YOKO?

Just insane mclennon things

Shit where you're like "I can't believe that actually happened??" Often not in a good way

[gardenschedule]

Additional compilations

Perceptions of Paul as calculating & John's paranoia

Maybe Paul grew that moustache to twirl it villainously

Decision making within the Beatles

Unanimous decisions vs 3-1 voting vs just yelling

Before, during & after India

Are you even Beatles enjoyer if you don't frequently ponder What Happened In India?

Paul enabling John

Partners in life, in music, and in crime - "it was funny though, wasn't it?"

John probably liked Obladi-oblada

Because I'm sick of people slandering this banger on John's behalf, justice for obladi!

Paul & leadership, musically & otherwise

From annexing the Quarry Men to batting his eyelashes to get his way to being annoyingly good at music and telling everyone what to do.

Random opinions/asks

India vs New York trip

We Got Married

Dear Boy

Yoko's presence in the studio

Paranoia

Rivalry

Beatles & scandals

Get Back rewatch

Day 1 or tag

[gardenschedule]

[gardenschedule]

[hqbeatles]

[suemesueyou]

most likely beatle to be a serial killer?

John

Paul

George

Ringo

Voting ended onMar 13

[sgtpeppers]

Paul McCartney before one of the Wings Over The World shows, 1975/76. Footage from Man On The Run (2025).

[gardenschedule]

[thecoleopterawithana]

“Even though she “felt uncomfortable around the boys” with “no self-confidence” to ground her, the Hamburg nights were filled with a devil-may-care vitality that Dot had never experienced before. “Everyone was so alive,” she remembers “so full of hope.” But despite the esprit, she detected cracks in the facade. “You could see it if you just watched Pete Best,” she says. “He was very quiet in those situations, unable to join in the conversation with the other guys. He was never fast enough for their comments. John and Paul were fierce, and George was no threat to them.” But Pete was not the main issue. “Even though the girls loved Pete, Paul wasn’t really jealous of him. But he hated Stu.” In fact, everything Stuart did now seemed to enrage him. And after years of excusing this travesty, suffering Stuart’s arrogance and capitulating to John’s apologies - still, Paul was forced to swallow his anger. It wasn’t just the music and the hair and the clothes. “It’s true that Paul had his eye on Stu’s bass,” Dot says, “but in fact, he was jealous of Stu, especially Stu’s friendship with John.” What’s more, Stuart flaunted it. Time and again, he put it under Paul’s nose and gave it a scornful swish. Dot must have sensed things were coming to a head, because the next night, while she and Cynthia were “dollying up” at Astrid’s house, the phone rang. It was Stuart, convulsed by a white rage, sounding completely irrational. When he learned that Dot was there, “he insisted that Astrid toss me out,” Dot recalls. Astrid calmed him down enough to determine what had happened: Paul and Stuart had finally had it out, not in private but onstage in the middle of a set, in full view of an astonished German audience. They had been backing Tony Sheridan for the nine o’ clock set. Paul, at the piano, where he had recently been pounding out guitar chords with innate flair. Was muttering to himself, vexed by the enormity of Stuart’s mistakes. At some point, he let go with an utterly outrageous comment about Astrid that hit a nerve. Stuart dropped the bass int he middle of the stage, lunged at Paul and caught him “with such a wallop that it knocked him off his stool.” The fight, which had been brewing for months, was wild and fierce. Stuart and Paul rolled on the floor, punching and stomping each other, while the other Beatles and Tony Sheridan soldiered on. “They beat the shit out of each other,” says an observer, and thrashed about until the song ended when John, George and Pete finally pried them apart. Nothing was settled by the fight, but as Pete Best interpreted it: “It was the beginning of the end for Stu as a Beatle.” Sutcliffe realized the situation was untenable. There was no place for him on that stage anymore; Paul - and even John, by his neutrality - had made that absolutely clear. Stuart moped around for a few days, disillusioned with the band and with himself. The constant insults, the humiliation - he’d had enough. There were more important things than playing with the Beatles. He had barely touched a paintbrush in months. That alone struck him as absurd. He’d made a horrendous mistake in ignoring his art for so long and needed to reclaim that part of his life. Despite the consequence of Stuart’s decision, there was no formal resignation. Later that week he simply turned up at the Top Ten and told the others he was through with the band. It was all very matter-of-fact, devoid of lingering resentment or even drama. If any of the Beatles were surprised, no one let it show, nor did anyone try to discourage Stuart from leaving. Stuart, for his part, couldn’t have been more accommodating. In a magnanimous gesture, he even handed his bass over to Paul in an acknowledgement of proper succession, but as Paul pointed out “he was only lending it to me, so he didn’t want me to change the strings around.”

—

The Beatles by BOB SPITZ (via sweating-cobwebs)

So what I like about this version is that it’s sympathetic to everyone involved.  Paul’s jealousy isn’t being mocked and treated as something petty and childish.  Paul actually receives credit for enduring Stuart’s incompetence and tolerating his personality for as long as he did.

It also doesn’t paint Stuart as a martyr, like 99% of the books out there.  Instead he’s a real, flawed human being who might’ve actually enjoyed provoking Paul repeatedly.  

And Stuart’s less-than-100%-mature reaction after the fight (insisting Astrid throw Paul’s girlfriend out of the house) is almost never mentioned in other versions of this story.

Considering what we now know about the Let it Be era/sessions, it’s possible that the John-Stuart-Paul triangle was more complicated than people usually paint it.  By almost all accounts, Stuart seems generally well-liked by everyone in the Beatles circle except Paul (this is the main difference between Stu and Yoko, who NO ONE liked).    But due to his premature death I always feel like he’s achieved Saint status that no one (not even a 21 year old) deserves.  It seems pretty clear to me that the animosity between Paul and Stuart ran both ways (see Stuart’s shitty comments about Paul in his letters), but for whatever reason their beef is STILL often portrayed as one-sided.  I guess this is the best way to take power away from Paul, which is important for many Beatle biographers as it fits into the narrative of John being the “powerful leader” and Paul having to deal with the scraps.  Because even though Paul and Stuart literally came to blows onstage and it actually resulted in Stuart leaving the band a few days later, almost no one ever frames this as a WIN for Paul or a power move on Paul’s part.  Think about that. Is it because Paul exerting power disrupts the notion that John called all the shots?

Or maybe it’s just easier to dump on Living! Paul than Martyr Stu.  ?

(via sweating-cobwebs)

I think it’s both of those things and it’s also the fact that by the time researchers started unpacking this, it was fashionable to dump on Paul and propagate the fantasy that he’s a giant intolerable control freak. So Paul potentially “exerting power” quite easily turned into “Paul bullying Stu.”  Then when you add in Stuart being a romantic 21-year-old dead Lord Byron type of figure who does get spoken of in martyrish terms, of course this is the narrative we wound up with. 

Also I’ll point out that Dot and Spitz both have it wrong on the bass thing. Paul was not envious of Stu because of the bass, he at no point actually desired to play the bass, and he and John both in fact considered it (direct quote from Paul here) “the fat guy’s instrument.” 

It continues to be my belief that Paul and Stuart’s issues stemmed from mutual jealousy of John, period - especially given the scattered poorly sourced anecdotes we have that Stu and John were sexual together at times in Hamburg.

(via bakerstreetafternoon)

[gardenschedule]

One thing I rarely see mentioned is that John bullied Stu on the regular and if Paul was bullying Stu, it's often because he was joining in on it.

“Though utterly self-assured in his work, Stu was full of personal insecurities about his appearance and small stature. And even with so impressive a friend, John could never resist homing in on insecurity and frailty. ‘He generally toyed with people,’ recalls Bill Harry. ‘If you stood up to him, he respected that and wouldn’t try it on again. If he detected any weakness, he took advantage. Stu was very mild and gentle, and John would put him down verbally in a way he never did other people in our circle, especially not Paul.’”

Paul McCartney: The Life, Philip Norman

The Beatles had lots of little arguments amongst themselves, but nothing serious. It was mainly Stu and Pete, the relatively new boys, being picked on by the rest. Stu took it to heart, but Pete didn’t seem to notice. It all passed over his head.

The Beatles, Hunter Davies

They argued as usual amongst themselves, but most of all they picked on Stu, the newest member of the group. John, George and Paul had been with each other long enough to know that rows and arguments and criticism didn’t mean much. If it did, you just argued back. ‘We were terrible,’ says John. ‘We’d tell Stu he couldn’t sit with us, or eat with us. We’d tell him to go away, and he did.’ At one hotel they stayed at, a variety show had just left. There had been a dwarf in the show and they found out which bed he had slept in and said that would have to be Stu’s. They certainly weren’t going to sleep in it. So Stu had to. ‘That was how he learned to be with us,’ says John. ‘It was all stupid, but that was what we were like.’

The Beatles, Hunter Davies

George and Paul appear to have been slightly jealous of Stu and his influence with John, not that outsiders could see how much John admired Stu. John picked on Stu all the time and hurt him when he could. Paul, following John’s lead, also began to pick on Stu, even though he was interested in art and, like John, was getting from Stu a lot of new ideas and fashions.

The Beatles, Hunter Davies

PAUL: It wasn’t just me. Legend so often divides these things neatly down the middle: John was hard, I was soft; John loved Stuart, I didn’t. But John was perfectly aware that Stuart couldn’t play and it wasn’t just me telling Stu to turn his back to the camera, it would often be John saying that. We used to ask him to turn away and do a moody thing looking over his shoulder so no one could see that his fingers weren’t in the same key as the rest of us. It wasn’t a good thing for a group to have someone who was such an obviously weak link. I think John felt a sense of relief when Stuart stayed in Hamburg. In a way, it was actually very convenient. Nobody wanted to sack him; it would not have got to that because of his personal friendship with John. But nobody was that sad to see him stay in Hamburg. It seemed right that we all had to move on and I quite easily got into bass.

Many Years From Now

You can’t help it, if there’s somebody in the group who doesn’t click. Like Stu. Stu was a great guy, a lovely guy, and I didn’t understand him, it’s true. There’s a lot of people in my life I haven’t understood; I’m not the world’s most psychic person. I make a lot of mistakes, and I misread people, I’ve read a lot of stuff about Stu since that I didn’t know about; I was taking him all wrongly. But it certainly wasn’t just me who was getting at him, everyone had their little goes. But I suddenly come out as the ‘go-getter’ and the ambitious one in the group. And John’s portrayed as the kind of nice guy who always falls into situations.

Paul McCartney

Plus the previous quote from above:

Sutcliffe realized the situation was untenable. There was no place for him on that stage anymore; Paul - and even John, by his neutrality - had made that absolutely clear. Stuart moped around for a few days, disillusioned with the band and with himself. The constant insults, the humiliation - he’d had enough.

The Beatles, Bob Spitz

If Stu could feel that humiliated and affected by only Paul insulting him, then that would indicate that Paul did have a lot more power than is typically assumed. Or, more likely imo, is that it was John + Paul bullying him together that made Stu feel humiliated (just check out my other quotes about them being a nightmare duo). As Mick Fleetwood said:

They were a team, a rhetoric team to say the least. As you can well imagine, John Lennon on form, in form, and Paul as well, it was catastrophic. I mean if they wanted to rip you apart, you were a dead duck... I thought, I would never want to get caught between those two, ever. You know, count me out, they were on top, sharp as tacks.

That's about how they treated GEORGE btw so imagine how bad they could have been to Stu, who Paul actively disliked and while John was in his peak schoolyard bully phase.

It's typically portrayed as John and Stu ganging up on Paul, who was left behind by them and could only seethe impotently at Stu taking his place as John's bestie. But John was clearly playing both sides and it seems ultimately he saw Paul as more of an equal- or more of a threat- and triangulated him and Stu against one another.

[irisasis]

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe at Top Ten Club, Hamburg (1961) Photographer: Jurgen Vollmer Source: TheBeatlesSource

[muzaktomyears]

During the ‘difficult days’ at Apple (1969ish) this sort of message arrived in my office or at home fairly frequently (though rarely so explicit and never so artistic as this one) from Paul. There is some humour in the drawing, I think, and it is an accurate, if hard, representation of a press hang-out. At the time, the cartoon made me doubt, even dismiss, our worth as a press office but with hindsight I know that Apple would not have been nearly as good as it was without us lot on the second-floor back (Richard, Carol, Mavis, Sally, Frankie and me and all the others) nor as much fun and despite what may have been said, written or imagined, Apple was often very very good and a happy and creative place to be. We believed in Apple to the end - and beyond.

Fifty Years Adrift, Derek Taylor (1984)

[mrsfurley]

They got mr baldwin mclennoning

[destrokkit]

The Springsteens have THAT photo of John and Paul writing together hanging in their house.

[i-am-the-oyster]

with love from Paul (McCartney)

(I'm not 100% certainly it's "McCartney" in brackets but I really love the idea that it might be)

[gardenschedule]

I'm sure it does say (McCartney) cause he does like to put his last name in brackets :)

[gardenschedule]

Get Back rewatch & musings - day 21 & 22

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Day 21- 30/01/1969

Today's the day!! I don't expect I'll have much to say though, since they are actually getting down to business instead of talking to each other, and I'm not insightful at all when it comes to music

Main character vibes (or am I biased? yes)

I'm in love with his outfit too, he must have been freezing but he suffered for beauty and we all benefit from it

Not to dismiss the others, John looks like a majestic lion with the hair and the coat

Then you've got George as stylish as ever, look how perfectly his shirt and socks match. He also matched his socks to his coat and added acid green pants for a pop of colour! Fab!

And Ringo being the most recognizable of the whole group in his (Mo's?) bright red raincoat. Their outfits honestly add a lot of mystique, they each look so distinct and it's such a change from all their other shows where they look like cute suited up mophead clones

Also there is every chance I learned about them/this performance from The Simpsons first

The interviews/split screens are interesting the first time you see them, but I'd prefer a clean version of purely the performances

I love seeing Paul watch John for cues and John's smile when they nail it

This is probably my most watched youtube video ever, I just can't get over the vocals and that moment when Paul goes so hard he gets dizzy

Paul's joy at seeing the cops! He got his wish!

And John got his wish to smile and communicate with people, even if it's from the other side of the road

I feel like their body language changed a bit from their early tours. John still did his usual front facing stance, but he was also more loosey goosey and not so stiff. Paul's still bouncing around but it's a bit more masc and involves less anime girl legs

Yessss George turning his amp back on, he doesn't want to go on the roof but he doesn't want to be kicked off it either! And he's totally having fun, you can tell

Debbie is the MVP, she's hilarious gaslighting everyone who comes in to complain

At the end, everyone ducks under the railing except a certain someone who has to jump over it

Cute, George smiling at John singing gibberish lyrics

In this bit when they're listening to the playback, this is probably the least John and Paul have interacted or looked at each other the entire time, they have fully retreated back to their gfs (speaking of, when did Linda turn up? She wasn't on the roof). It's interesting because they were obviously having such a moment together while performing, you'd think they'd be in the mood to celebrate together and bask in their success. Maybe it's one of those things where they feel awkward after getting close and need some space.

Like I said, I don't have any profound insight into music so please accept my surface level judgement- they just sound SO fucking good, the vocals are so strong, the playing is on point, the songs are high energy rockers that let them show some intensity. It's amazing that they pulled it off to this level. It's like, they haven't performed live in years. Even when they did tour, they weren't at their best because of technical issues. They fuck around rehearsing for a couple of weeks and it's not very good (Sulpy is constantly describing their playing as bad lol like "John plays an awful accompaniment" etc etc). But when the day comes they just suddenly, magically play like they needed to remind everyone who the best band in the world is

But it's lowkey devastating honestly

I feel like the biggest loss from their breakup is not that there's less music, but that we never got a big, definitive late era Beatles tour. The rooftop proves they would have been incredible. Their early tours are so, so limited by the sound quality, b&w film, loud audiences, short performances, set lists that only include a small portion of their career. They were just too early for the sort of quality we expect from stadium tours in the 70s and onwards. So to see how damn good they were with the bare minimum of rehearsals, it drives home how disappointing it is that they never got to do it for real.

I'm going to describe my ideal fantasy fixit just for funsies: Paul suggests they do small shows at the divorce meeting, and instead of breaking up with him, John agrees. They do their solo albums to have a break but stay together. They perform semi-anonymously at tiny venues, fans lose their shit but have also aged out of screaming, so you get this super exclusive, intimate tour that include the Beatles having fun, connecting with their audience, bantering with fans and each other, playing all the covers, solo songs and deep cuts they want, improving their live performing chops, doing wild shit on stage and all the while repairing their relationships with each other by getting back to what originally brought them together- playing shows. Once that's done, they feel confident enough in their skills to put on a large scale tour, they have some actual discipline and rehearse hardcore to perfect their show. So we get something as high quality as Wings Over America, except with all 4 of them at their musical peak and all the Beatles songs we could wish for in a concert. This era goes down in history as one of the most iconic rock tours of all time, and the Beatles are even more beloved and respected than now. They stay on good terms and continue working together forever and ever. The end!

Day 22- 31/01/1969

Oh look, it's my 2nd most watched youtube video!

See, another cool girl just there to aura farm

I like how everyone changed clothes except Paul, who knew the suit was too good a look to waste on one day only

Love John's little ditty: "I suddenly discovered I was halfway out of tune but I continued playing because I'm no goon"

The series ends so appropriately: Paul declaring they're going to do one more take just because, and John being like "We've got so many of the bastards."

This day is just credits, not much to talk about so I will leave you with one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Look at those faces! Paul is sooo fricking fond and John just, like, I've never seen him smile that way at anyone else

~the end~

Thank you for reading my rambling and sincerest apologies for my shameless bias throughout!

[gardenschedule]

Get Back rewatch & musings - day 20

previous

Day 20- 29/01/1969

Bless you Glyn Johns, it must be intimidating to try and talk Joh Lennon out of his new infatuation with a crook but at least you tried

A monumentally silly statement from Ringo. What the FUCK did Klein say to get these guys so delusional about his intentions so quickly? How do you convince the biggest celebrities in the world that you are a benevolent figure with regards to them alone, despite your intention to rip off everyone else for their benefit?

Awww, Paul repeating John's sentiment "No, it's the best bit of us, always has been and always will be, is when we've got… when we're backs against the wall" And it's nice that this is how they think of themselves

Iconic Ringo moment

Did Paul move his tea away because he didn't want fart particles in it?

"you gotta be sneaky with The Beatles, or else we'll just go on forever in a circle, you know?" Are we talking about the same band that essentially changed pop culture forever on a yearly basis right up until the end? The sneakiness worked I guess!

"Yeah, well, that's why I'm talking to John, not you." oooop there's that bitchy side of Paul coming out when someone tries to penetrate the Lennon-Mccartney bubble. You can totally imagine dynamics like this: But the two could be unforgiving and relentless. “Say the wrong thing, contradict them, and you were frozen out. A look would pass between them, and afterwards it was as if you didn’t exist.” (Colin Hanton) They were a team, a rhetoric team to say the least. As you can well imagine, John Lennon on form, in form, and Paul as well, it was catastrophic. I mean if they wanted to rip you apart, you were a dead duck. (Mick Fleetwood)

Except it was totally unwarranted bitchiness because GM is pure class and Paul needs someone to step in and tell him to calm his shit, he's getting cold feet and acting wishy washy about the plans just at the time when everything looks to be coming together

John is, as previously mentioned, very tolerant of Paul and good at being reassuring in the face of Paul being high strung and anxious

Paul acknowledges that he doesn't have the power to 'produce' John: "Now I know how to get this TV show together in about a week. But I can't do it with you. I can't produce you" or the Beatles as a whole "Or else I really feel like I'm trying to produce The Beatles, and I know it's hopeless. I just can't do it, you know. And no one can do it 'cause the four individuals are too strong individually."

But it seems like his plan was to create a situation in which things get done regardless? "That's why I'm creating artificial frameworks for us to do it…" as usual I find it hard to understand what John and Paul are saying when they talk to each other

John's been mentioning how physically tired he's been for a while: "But, man, physically, yesterday we tried to learn the next half. But physically we were too tired." And when Paul invited him to climb on that chain thing he said he was too old. But liiiiike he's only late 20s my god that should not be when you feel too old to do anything. And I don't know how tired playing and singing makes you, but it would probably help if he ate better than a few pieces of marmalade toast and didn't wash it down with heroin later

George's looking into the camera like The Office moment when Paul is like let's just not talk about it anymore or make any decisions lol I feel you

When George says "I don't want to go on the roof" my head just plays this moment from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (you know George would approve)

Peak cringe moment from Paul's brother I can't even look at it

John sits so cute and bisexual, he really does seem quite flexy

George explains his plans to have a solo album to John, and the ensuing conversation supports the idea that both of them thought they could have breaks from the Beatles without breaking up, and very well could have been expecting to get back together. George: "Yeah, but it'd be nice if any of us can do separate things as well. That way it also preserves this, the Beatle bit of it, more." and John: "Have an outlet for every little note you want."

Compare that to these other quotes from John. From Sept 12 1969 (literally like a week or two before the divorce meeting!!):

See they’re growing up too, you know. And uh, we all want Beatles still cause it’s, it’s a big power and it’s good power, you know. And we’ve no intention of splitting it, you know. Any of us. I can’t be specific about it, you know. But obviously, I’m deeply involved with Yoko, it has some…you know, maybe less reliant on the others but so it goes for the others too, you know. That as we’re all sort of branching out. Which we were occasionally all the time, you know. Like I did How I Won The War, I wrote In His Own Write and Paul wrote the music for Family Way, etc. and George went off to India with sitars and that. So it’s only, you know. We nip off and come back and do some work then nip off again, you know.

And Dec 69:

“This is why I’ve started with the Plastic Ono and working with Yoko . . . to have more outlet. There isn’t enough outlet for me in the Beatles. The Ono Band is my escape valve. And how important that gets, as compared to the Beatles for me, I’ll have to wait and see.

And Feb 70:

Because there was a lot of tension around the Allen Klein coming in days and the ATV thing going on, and the Beatles were under a lot of pressure and we had to be together all the time, fighting and arguing and listening to all the different business things. And so we’re taking a break from each other like we always did after a tour end. The business thing is like a heavy tour, in it we may get back in abbey road and a couple of singles and under a great strain you know, doing that business. And so now we’re just taking a break from each other.

And from George in May 70:

“Well, I don’t… I couldn’t tell, you know, if they do or not. I’ll certainly try my best to do something with them again, you know. I mean, it’s only a matter of accepting that the situation is a compromise. In a way it’s a compromise, and it’s a sacrifice, you know, because we all have to sacrifice a little in order to gain something really big. And there is a big gain by recording together – I think musically, and financially, and also spiritually. And for the rest of the world, you know, I think that Beatle music is such a big sort of scene – that I think it’s the least we could do is to sacrifice three months of the year at least, you know, just to do an album or two. I think it’s very selfish if the Beatles don’t record together.”

And Spring 70:

The Harrison quote that went around the world that spring was purely optimistic: 'Everyone is trying to do his own album, and I am too. But after that I'm ready to go back with the others.'

John is putting the intense eye contact on Billy Preston

"We're all sleeping at George's tonight. Get in the mood." Beatle sleepover, adorable!

"WHO KNOWS YOKO" fucking kills me, a close 2nd for most cringe moment after Mike playing the piano lid. You can see him recognizing his own cringe in real time. lmao. But I bet after all Paul's fussing and worrying about whether they're going to do it, the last thing he wanted was Yoko asking about it and he could not hide his frustration

next

[gardenschedule]

Get Back rewatch & musings - day 19

previous

Day 19- 28/01/1969

Evidence of John supporting George: "I'm trying to get us to do one of George's for the first batch."

I mentioned previously I was gonna discuss George asking for advice, and it's this bit that makes me think about it most: "What could it be, Paul? Something in the way she moves. What attracted me at all?"

What George is doing here is making a Bid for Connection in the form of seeking advice, which is a concept in psychology that mostly relates to romantic relationships, but it applies here too: "Bid for connection" refers to a small, everyday action or gesture used to initiate or maintain emotional connection with another person. These bids can be verbal or nonverbal, direct or indirect, and can range from a simple smile to a question or a shared laugh. Responding positively to these bids, known as "turning toward," strengthens relationships, while ignoring or rejecting them can create distance. More info:

So George and Paul have a disagreement, specifically about Paul being too overbearing in the studio, and George's reaction is to actively engage with Paul and encourage him to participate in the shared activity of song writing, in an attempt to repair the relationship and reassure Paul specifically that his input is wanted

Reactions to bids for connection (whether you turn towards or away) are a significant predictor for divorce - John kind of jumped in and answered so Paul didn't get a chance to reply, but if Paul had a habit of 'turning away' from George's attempts at connecting with him, that would explain a looooot about the deterioration of their relationship

Like, for example: John could be more blatantly mean to/about George than Paul was (as far as we know from what's public), but George always seemed to resent Paul more - maybe he simply felt more rejected by Paul in subtle ways over a long period of time

Sulpy does say Paul replies with some advice though: During the course of the rehearsal George had asked Glyn to mix his vocal microphone into the P.A. system. Glyn asks about this as Paul suggests some further lyrics.

In discussions about Get Back lot of emphasis is placed on George being bitter and over it and hating Paul's guts, but here I see the opposite- a willingness to forgive and move past their issues, a desire to stay connected with each other, emotional maturity

John talking about Klein, fucking SIIIIIIIGHHHHHHH. Just, the way John is so immediately and totally smitten by this guy he barely knows... "he knows everything about everything." "he knows me as much as you do."

John loved a guru and was always looking to put his faith into some new saviour, he was aware of this trait in himself but apparently had some unwarranted confidence in this instance: "Allen was a human being, the same as Brian was a human being. It was the same thing with Brian in the early days, I made an assessment and you know I make a lot of mistakes, characterwise, but now and then I make a good one."

Klein's appeal to John is obvious: "He's gonna look after me, whatever." Brian Epstein, known Johnguy, is no longer around and John needs a new Johnguy on his side to stack the deck against Paul. I seriously, unfortunately, think it comes down to that. As much as I love shipping Mclennon and think it affected the band dynamics a tonne, I think the competitive nature of Lennon-Mccartney superseded other issues in their relationship

Klein came in and flattered John, specifically in comparison to Paul: “I thought John was losing confidence in himself, and I really didn’t know who had written exactly what, so I couldn’t give John the encouragement he needed. If Paul was really the main factor in the making of records — I mean, if things were really going to fall apart without him — I needed to know that and be able to deal with it. It turned out, of course, that John had written most of the stuff. He’d forgotten a lot of what he’d contributed … John wrote … 60 or 70 percent of Eleanor Rigby. He just didn’t remember till I sat down and had him sort through it all … Everybody thought McCartney was the genius songwriter who did it all by himself and it wasn’t true.” which must have been exactly what John needed to hear at this time, when he wasn't feeling secure about about himself or his place in the band

It's hard to say if Klein approached John first because he truly thought John dominated the group, or because he saw him as the weak link (both are true in some ways). But, for as much as John thought Klein knew everything about everyone, he clearly misread Paul. Thinking Paul would submit to John, or let himself be bullied, or cave to peer pressure and isolation, massively blew up in Klein's face

George requesting a shoe salesman to come over is his 3rd request for clothing in these sessions. He's still wearing the bow tie Mal got him, maybe he ended up preferring it to bolo ties

"I've had some wine, you know? Remember Bob Wooler." John's crazy for casually joking about that

Bit too much wine going round on this day maybe

As per Sulpy: "Following the performance, John mentions how he and Paul had given The Rolling Stones “I Wanna Be Your Man” in 1963 to record as their second single. John reveals here that he had tried to give them “One After 909” instead, but The Stones were not interested." they fucked up One After 909 is way better in my opinion, in fact I recall John saying they gave I Wanna Be Your Man to the stones and Ringo because it wasn't very good

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Get Back rewatch & musings - day 18

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Day 18- 27/01/1969

While John is wearing unwashed continuity clothes, Ringo's matching his fit with a 5 year old and Paul's pants can barely contain his ass, George simply cannot help but show them up. He didn't have to do all that! But he did

I think about this moment and comment just about every single day of my life

Look how much fun they're having... John thrilled to be getting twirled

Trickle down advice in the Beatles: JOHN: [singing operatically] Well, let me tell you… [Small laughs] Everybody has all the ambitions. Everybody’s full of ambition, and uh, it’s like – uh, once I gave George the advice on songwriting, [which is] that when you start one, finish it. And I think I got the advice from Paul, or working with Paul. George's willingness to ask for advice is something I wanna talk about later cause I think it's important

George getting in on the eye contact, nice to see him having fun

Daddy has to step in and restore order when the kids are whinging and talking all over each other and Paul's going into an anxiety spiral

This is the 2nd time during the sessions they've insisted that they/their equipment sounded better in Hamburg. That seems... unlikely. I'm gonna go ahead and assume it's rose coloured glasses due to nostalgia and warped perception due to being less attuned to sound quality back in Hamburg (because they were inexperienced and on copius amounts of amphetamines).

J&Y making out and celebrating her divorce during Oh Darling! is diabolical, though he is professional enough to not stop playing while they do it

John is directly addressing Paul to announce Yoko's divorce. Paul's standing off to the side, why not announce it to the room in general? Especially if Paul was as big of a hater as John liked to claim: “Lennon stated that “there’s some underlying thing about Yoko in [Get Back]”, saying that McCartney looked at Yoko Ono in the studio every time he sang “Get back to where you once belonged” Ok John well you look at Paul every time you announce your gf is finally divorced so what does that say about you

Note that although Yoko's divorce was confirmed this day in January (finalized early Feb), John didn't bother to actually make plans to marry her until 12th March. For reasons: “On March 12, Paul married Linda Eastman at Marylebone Register Office in London, amid scenes of hysterical grief from his female fans. None of the other Beatles was present. The news reached John as he and Yoko were driving down to visit Aunt Mimi in Poole. Yoko’s divorce decree had become final a few weeks earlier, and, in a resurgence of Beatle copycat, John told her they, too, must get married as soon as possible”

Legit funny af that the staff hop on their instruments when they're out of the room.

Way easier to tolerate Paul doing silly voice newspaper readings when this is the visual accompaniment. Is this shot the most historically and culturally significant moment of Get Back? Quite possibly. And I cannot help but mention how hard he is mogging Yoko in this shot. It's almost cruel to her.

PJ is not subtle with those shots of news articles about J&Y being in love while Paul is singing Strawberry Fields. Paul is not subtle singing Strawberry Fields in John's vicinity either.

They often seem to have random cool looking girls around who never interact with any of them. For what purpose? Aura farming?

Now Paul's doing boredom induced not-blowjobs to the mic

When you can't drag his attention away from the guy who would only be a threat if he was a woman, so you just hope he telepathically senses your offer of gum

From Sulpy: "Paul is ready to forge ahead even though the guitars are out of tune. He jokes about speaking in French — presumably a reference to the accents that he and John had used earlier when fooling around with “Get Back” (see 27.5). John comments in French how filthy he thinks that language is." I don't know if French is filthy but maybe John's mind is when it comes to that particular country.

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Get Back rewatch & musings - day 17

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Day 17- 26/01/1969

John: "I think Paul would wanna do drums, wouldn't he? With his strong left arm." ok sus, and yes obviously Paul loves a chance to play drums (and oh yep confirmed by Sulpy : "Paul will, in fact, get his turn at the drum kit later in this session.")

Thanks for the reminder PJ I would definitely forget which one is Paul without your help. This is almost as good as his day 1 entrance I must say, the hair and the coat and the family in tow

Seriously wtf @ PJ for cutting out the bit about the dream. We really could've used his clarification on what exactly is said. He leaves in this line from John, uncontextualized and potentially incorrect, for some reason: "Very strong one." What possible justification is there for keeping that one part of this exchange? Amoralto's transcription:

JOHN: Hey! Did you dream about me last night?

PAUL: [long pause] I can’t remember.

JOHN: Very strong dream. We both dreamt about it. It was amazing! Different dreams, you know, but I thought you must’ve been there. [inaudible] I was touching you. [inaudible]

PAUL: Nothing to worry about, though?

JOHN: Nothing to worry about, no.

There's also the Get Back book transcription:

John: [to Paul] Hey… did you dream about me last night?

Paul: I don't remember.

John: Very strong dream. We both dreamt about it… Amazing. Different dreams, you know. I thought you must have been there. I mean, I was touching you.

George: Was it sexually oriented?

Paul: Oh, you know, John, don't worry about it.

John: There's nothing to worry about.

And Sulpy's description: "John, certainly a believer in E.S.P., then tries to verify his suspicion that he and Paul had had simultaneous dreams the previous night. George sarcastically comments on this, and George Martin ends the discussion by requesting that Ringo play “Octopus’s Garden” one more time."

Heather is so cute and everyone there is so cute with her. I've seen it said before that being a girldad would have suited John better and honestly I can see it? Julian said this about John as a parent: [Paul] used to be a lot of fun, I remember. I mean… well, he was good with kids. [laughs] I’m not saying that Dad wasn’t, or is, or whatever. But uh, as far as I can recall, whenever Paul came round, we used to wrestle and fight and run around. Which was not something we did every day with Dad. So, maybe John wasn't into the sort of physical play and roughhousing people typically do with boys, but would have been more comfortable with a girl doing imaginative play and talking like he did with Heather.

Not to reinforce stereotypes (obviously that is not the necessary or only way to engage with kids) but if you lack confidence in your ability to play, like John did, it could be based on those stereotypes. And naturally the literary Beatle would be more at ease having silly conversations than most other types of play. Whereas we can see from this documentary alone that Paul loves jumping all over the place like a child himself.

But jeeez Julian got it right that Paul is good with kids, he and Linda have only been together for like 6 months? And Heather is already so comfortable with him. Not to gas Paul up too much (who am I kidding that's all I ever do), it's kind of amazing that as a 27 yr old rock star he adopted her so quickly. Men are so misogynistic and disdainful of single mothers and step parenting these days (and they were disdainful of divorced women back then, both Linda and Yoko copped judgement) that even loser basement dweller incels would think they're too good for that. But one of the most eligible bachelors of an entire decade just went 'yep I'm dad' and that was that.

I do sometimes wonder about the adoption though- usually step parents wouldn't adopt a kid if there was a living, functional parent elsewhere, right? I haven't heard that Heather's biological dad was a disaster or abusive or anything. Was he completely uninvolved? Did he not want legal rights to her as a parent? I honestly don't know too much about the situation, except that Heather went to live with him eventually and had some mental health issues later on. It makes me think Paul and Linda might have rushed into it a bit in their enthusiasm to be a family. It could've gotten complex as Heather got older.

Heather's mouthing the words to Let It Be! You know you've got a classic on your hands if a kid gets into it that quickly

Never getting over Ringo and Heather twinning like that, how perfect. And they're adorable drumming together. And fucking Paul telling Ringo to go lighter not knowing that it's probably Heather playing heavily haha. Ringo's not a snitch though.

Relentless direct eye contact

Is it weird of me to notice John's hands here? Maybe it's cause Yoko is so tiny but they look big hmmm Paul I get you

Paul being more blunt and direct in telling John what to do than he has been with George the entire time: "It sounds like you're doing too many notes"/"It's too, sort of, regular."/"Don't do that"/"No, but I mean, don't do any note there" (btw if you wonder why I keep pointing this stuff out, it's not because I think it's a huge deal, it's just that I'm trying to contradict mainstream narratives I hear about all the time).

George is quite involved with the discussion for how TLAWR is going to be done

Truly they are so cute though...

Local man cannot hide his embarrassing crush, more at 11: "Paul continues to enthuse about the acetates, and delightedly points out the humorous touches that John gave to his performances on “I’ve Got a Feeling” and “Dig a Pony”. These off-the-cuff elements are what Paul enjoyed so much about the dubs, other aspects of the recordings being comparatively irrelevant." I have noticed that Paul loves to have John's little studio chatter bits on his songs, it's sweet that he wants those moments of John's personality imbedded in his songs (his babies).

Hate being reminded the Beatles are gross :\ "George is leafing through a men’s magazine and pointing out the various women to Paul. It doesn’t take much to follow John’s train of thought as he’s reminded of an American group called The Motherfuckers." (actually what is Sulpy suggesting John's train of thought is here? Does a woman in the magazine look like one of their mothers? Is it a dig at Paul for bringing a kid along? A reference to his own sexual attraction to his mother? Does one of them have a thing for MILFs?) "Oblivious to young Heather’s presence, John and George continue to peruse the girlie magazine, giving John the idea to create their own magazine using Apple’s female employees. Following this exchange, the magazine will find a place of honor on George’s music stand." (smh leave your employees alone...)

"Paul brings the conversation about The Motherfuckers to a close by kicking into this song [Suicide]. " But see this is why I keep forgetting that they're gross, because there's things like a 14 year old boy in the 1950s writing a surprisingly empathetic song about a woman who is unable to leave her abuser. What business did he have knowing about dynamics in abusive relationships??

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