I certainly disagree with a lot of this, and that's neither here nor there. But hold on. You think Elvis was a better writer and musician?
not a writer because he barely wrote anything. Where did I say he was a better song writer. Better performer to me and huge icon as well.
I guess when laid out that way, but was just generally speaking in taste of music with that last post. As I said I get it and have no problem with them being considered the greatest and really wouldn’t argue against anyone. I like a little bit of their stuff as well. Just my preferences are elsewhere. Hell I like ELO better than them, but wouldn’t say they were greater than The Beatles. Subjective and just a taste preference
As I have become older, I’ve gained more and more appreciation for ELO. Totally underrated and ridiculous they only recently made the HOF. That said, they’re no beatles.
“Something in the way she moves attracts me like cauliflower” doesn’t have the same ring to it. Glad George figured it out.
Something that will probably be of interest to basically no one but myself, that rosewood Telecaster that George Harrison plays in that roof concert has a pretty interesting history. https://reverb.com/news/the-story-behind-george-harrisons-rosewood-telecaster Harrison gave it to Delaney Bramlett (of Bonnie and Delaney) later that year. In 1970 Jerry Garcia sat in with Bonnie and a bunch of other cats while on the Canadian train tour and played it on stage in Calgary. Spoiler
Makes sense though. It fits the cadence of the song and George was hung up on getting the lyric right. John was just saying "stick anything in there and come back to it after the music is done." Beatles famously did music before lyrics which, I believe, is not common.
Any big Beatles fan already knows this, but "Yesterday" started life as "Scrambled Eggs" before Paul found better lyrics. "Hey Jude" was "Hey Jules" as in Julian Lennon, John's son
Just doing a dynamite drop in to talk about the time I got to go into the Cirque du Soleil Love control room. My aunt was visiting when I lived there and we went to Love. She posted a picture pre-show and her old coworker saw it and was like my husband is a producer, I’ll have him come get you after. Anyway we got see the sets, then go into the audio room. We got to play the single tracks on the mixing board, which are reportedly the only masters every created by George Martin besides the originals, from them. Also sat on the couch in there where Paul and Yoko reportedly met or reconciled for the first time or something along those lines. I say reportedly because this is what the engineer/producer told us and I don’t know if it’s 100% accurate or not. Still very cool.
Reading George Martin's autobiography -- TIL the Sgt Pepper album was made using only a four track recorder That was the most available in 1967. The rest is pretty technical/difficult to explain, but further reading from Wiki: Spoiler The album was recorded using four-track equipment, since eight-track tape recorders were not operational in commercial studios in London until late 1967.[107] As with previous Beatles albums, the Sgt. Pepper recordings made extensive use of reduction mixing, a technique in which one to four tracks from one recorder are mixed and dubbed down onto a master four-track machine, enabling the engineers to give the group a virtual multitrack studio.[108] EMI's Studer J37 four-track machines were well suited to reduction mixing, as the high quality of the recordings that they produced minimised the increased noise associated with the process.[109] When recording the orchestra for "A Day in the Life", Martin synchronised a four-track recorder playing the Beatles' backing track to another one taping the orchestral overdub. The engineer Ken Townsend devised a method for accomplishing this by using a 50 Hz control signal between the two machines.[110] Listening to each stage of their recording, once they've done the first couple of tracks, it's often hard to see what they're still looking for, it sounds so complete. Often the final complicated, well-layered version seems to have drowned the initial simple melody. But they know it's not right, even if they can't put it into words. Their dedication is impressive, gnawing away at the same song for stretches of ten hours each.[111] – Hunter Davies, 1968 The production on "Strawberry Fields Forever" was especially complex, involving the innovative splicing of two takes that were recorded in different tempos and pitches.[112][113] Emerick remembers that during the recording of Revolver, "we had got used to being asked to do the impossible, and we knew that the word 'no' didn't exist in the Beatles' vocabulary."[114] A key feature of Sgt. Pepper is Martin and Emerick's liberal use of signal processing to shape the sound of the recording, which included the application of dynamic range compression, reverb and signal limiting.[115] Relatively new modular effects units were used, such as running voices and instruments through a Leslie speaker.[116] Several innovative production techniques feature prominently on the recordings, including direct injection, pitch control and ambiophonics.[35] The bass part on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was the first example of the Beatles recording via direct injection (DI), which Townsend devised as a method for plugging electric guitars directly into the recording console.[117] In Kenneth Womack's opinion, the use of DI on the album's title track "afforded McCartney's bass with richer textures and tonal clarity".[117] Some of the mixing employed automatic double tracking (ADT), a system that uses tape recorders to create a simultaneous doubling of a sound. ADT was invented by Townsend during the Revolver sessions in 1966 especially for the Beatles, who regularly expressed a desire for a technical alternative to having to record doubled lead vocals.[118] Another important effect was varispeeding, a technique that the Beatles used extensively on Revolver.[116] Martin cites "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" as having the most variations of tape speed on Sgt. Pepper. During the recording of Lennon's vocals, the tape speed was reduced from 50 cycles per second to 45, which produced a higher and thinner-sounding track when played back at the normal speed.[119] For the album's title track, the recording of Starr's drum kit was enhanced by the use of damping and close-miking. MacDonald credits the new recording technique with creating a "three-dimensional" sound that, along with other Beatles innovations, engineers in the US would soon adopt as standard practice.[120] Artistic experimentation, such as the placement of random gibberish in the run-out groove, became one of the album's defining features.[121] Sgt. Pepper was the first pop album to be mastered without the momentary gaps that are typically placed between tracks as a point of demarcation.[117] It made use of two crossfades that blended songs together, giving the impression of a continuous live performance.[122][nb 10] Although both stereo and monaural mixes of the album were prepared, the Beatles were minimally involved in what they regarded as the less important stereo mix sessions, leaving the task to Martin and Emerick.[124] Emerick recalls: "We spent three weeks on the mono mixes and maybe three days on the stereo."[125] Most listeners ultimately only heard the stereo version.[126] He estimates that the group spent 700 hours on the LP, more than 30 times that of the first Beatles album, Please Please Me, which cost £400 to produce.[127] The final cost of Sgt. Pepper was approximately £25,000 (equivalent to £457,000 in 2019).[128]
For that reason, I almost consider Abbey Road to be divine intervention. That band was DONE. They'd just gone through the Get Back sessions. Apple was falling apart. They were getting on each other's nerves. But then, George Martin says, Hey boys, got any songs for me to record on my new EIGHT-TRACK board? They came back in, laid down some of their best stuff and ended it all (almost) on a high note. It's like the only "modern" Beatles record. Everything else either sounded like it was recorded at Sun Studios or had Martin bicep-deep into a trick bag. Abbey Road was lush, thick, permanent.
They recorded that masterpiece, with that amazing B side medley, and then said "I dunno, should we do another?" It never happened but it's hard to imagine an album to follow up Abbey Road. I don't even consider Let it Be their last album. In my playlist it always comes before Abbey Road
Wasn't much of it recorded before Abbey Road? I may be off on my recollection. Either way, that last medley was a hell of a way to wrap it up, so treating Let it Be as second to last does seem to feel right.
Yeah I don't think they did any work in the studio for Let it Be after Abbey Road. They just gave the masters to Phil Specter to fiddle with.
The B side medley was basically them throwing out every piece of a song they had left. Not that they couldn’t have come up with more, but that was like the final emptying of the tank I’ve been really liking “mean mr mustard” lately. Amazing how their fragments of ideas still made good songs
I can’t tell if there is a bit of a sarcastic tone in George’s “is that one called ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’?” comment, but it almost sounds like there’s a little something behind it. Knowing his opinion of Paul at the time certainly makes it plausible. Maybe knowing his opinion of Paul at the time is causing me to hear things.
They definitely look a little nonplussed towards each other. That was the story when the original "Get Back" film was released -- this is the "breakup movie", they hate each other, etc. Supposedly this new/expanded edition is going to improve on that and show that it wasn't quite as frosty as it first seemed
Saw part 1. Watching them come up with let it be and get back among others on camera was priceless. Feel bad for George
The footage quality makes it look like it’s present day, but yeah when they mentioned it was elvis’s 30 something bday I was mind fucked
Paul is Mozart of his generation. He can come up with a ditty or a symphony on a lark or even in a dream. He can get all the praise he always gets and it will never be enough.
Watching part 2 now. Damn this audio convo of John and Paul discussing George behind his back is incredible fly on the wall stuff. Paul admits George had a right to complain and leave. John checks Paul by telling him yeah you are basically impossible to disagree with
Episode one has me asking the question, was George ever necessary? Or did he just get to come along for the ride because he was there at the start?
Necessary? Not really. Especially early on he was a subpar writer and often struggled with coming up with solos for many songs. A lightswitch flipped around Revolver and he became an awesome writer and guitarist that simply had little space to work with on albums. Still, he proved he was never as good a writer as Paul or John when his backlogue ran out in 70