Get Back rewatch & musings - day 20
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
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.
“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.
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.”
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