Placeholder Content Image

‘The Beatles: Get Back’ glosses over the band’s acrimonious end

<p>In the new film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9735318/">The Beatles: Get Back</a>,” “Lord of the Rings” director <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001392/">Peter Jackson</a> tries to dispel the myth of the the Beatles’ breakup.</p> <p>In 1970, Michael Lindsay-Hogg released “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/original-let-it-be-movie-michael-lindsay-hogg-peter-jackson-get-back-1250561/">Let It Be</a>,” a film documenting the band’s recording sessions for their eponymous album. The movie depicted George Harrison arguing with Paul McCartney – and it hit theaters shortly after news of the band’s breakup emerged. Many filmgoers at the time assumed this depicted the days and weeks during which everything fell apart.</p> <p>By the time it hit theaters, nearly 16 months after filming, this rehearsal footage got mistaken for a completely different time frame.</p> <p>In 2016, Jackson gained access to Lindsay-Hogg’s original footage. Over the course of four years, he edited it into an eight-hour, three-part series, thanks to a streaming deal with Disney+.</p> <p>In their press rounds, both Jackson and McCartney have been eager to recast the legacy of this period.</p> <p>“I kept waiting for all the nasty stuff to start happening, waiting for the arguments and the rows and the fights, but I never saw that,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/nov/20/i-just-cant-believe-it-exists-peter-jackson-takes-us-into-the-beatles-vault-locked-up-for-52-years">Jackson told The Guardian</a> and others. “It was the opposite. It was really funny.”</p> <p>“I’ll tell you what is really fabulous about it, it shows the four of us having a ball,” <a href="https://www.nme.com/news/music/paul-mccartney-says-the-beatles-get-back-documentary-changed-his-perception-of-their-split-3095528">McCartney told The Sunday Times</a> after seeing the film. “It was so reaffirming for me.”</p> <p>It seems to be working: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/arts/music/beatles-get-back-peter-jackson.html">A recent New York Times headline proclaimed</a>, “Know How the Beatles Ended? Peter Jackson May Change Your Mind.”</p> <p>A lot of these sessions contain the irrepressible gags that made the Beatles famous. (Lennon and McCartney singing “Two of Us” in grandiose Scottish brogue almost steals Part Three.) But in their interviews, Jackson and McCartney accentuate the positive as if to paper over the acrimonious <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/paul-mccartney-says-he-sued-beatles-save-band-s-music-n1235898">history of lawsuits</a>, <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/beatles-catalog-paul-mccartney-brief-history-ownership-7662519/">the loss of the Lennon-McCartney publishing catalog</a> and the lurching solo careers that followed.</p> <h2>A muddled chronology</h2> <p>The timing of the theater release of the “Let It Be” sessions seeded confusion over how the group unraveled.</p> <p>“Let it Be” was shot in January 1969, just weeks after the “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/review-the-beatles-white-album-186863/">White Album</a>” hit stores.</p> <p>The band then put these tapes aside to work on the larger project they intuited from this material, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-beatles-revolutionary-use-of-recording-technology-in-abbey-road-124070">Abbey Road</a>,” which they completed seven months later.</p> <p>The split actually came at a September 1969 meeting, when <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-the-beatles-messy-breakup-50-years-ago-130980">Lennon told the others</a> he wanted a “divorce.” They persuaded him to keep his departure quiet until the band completed some contract negotiations. Then, in March 1970, <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-the-beatles-messy-breakup-50-years-ago-130980">McCartney publicly proclaimed</a> he was “leaving the Beatles” to release his first solo album.</p> <p>An epic descent into suits, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-courtroom-hit-parade-the-beatles-top-ten-lawsuits-414216.html">countersuits</a> and press squabbles ensued. Harrison even wrote a song called “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzdw2WcSmb0">Sue Me Sue You Blues</a>.”</p> <p>Only in May 1970 did the “Let It Be” album and film come out, with the band’s messy divorce as the backdrop.</p> <p>After the initial theater run, “Let it Be” fell from view. For decades, the only way you could get a glance of it was through a black market copy. The Andy Warhol-esque, <a href="https://www.artforum.com/print/196704/the-value-of-didactic-art-36733">so-real-it’s-boring verité style</a> – the non-narrative approach then in vogue – flummoxed even 1970 audiences.</p> <p>But because the “Let It Be” album and film came out after “Abbey Road” – which was released in September 1969 – it quickly got mistaken for telegraphing their breakup, <a href="https://www.nme.com/news/music/paul-mccartney-says-the-beatles-get-back-documentary-changed-his-perception-of-their-split-3095528">a belief that the Beatles themselves seemed to internalize</a>.</p> <p>The Beatles’ own traumatic memories of this period kept the raw footage from this project in the vaults for over 50 years. In the meantime, bootleggers published nearly all of its audio.</p> <h2>Conflict brewing</h2> <p>Now at significant remove, the remaining Beatles – McCartney and Ringo Starr – <a href="https://variety.com/video/peter-jackson-get-back-beatles-secrets/">seem to have hired Jackson</a> for a rescue operation, disingenuously dubbing the film a “documentary” when they, in fact, served as executive producers alongside their Apple Records directors, Jeff Jones and Ken Kamins.</p> <p>In response to Jackson’s three-part series, which coincided with the release of <a href="https://variety.com/2021/music/reviews/get-back-book-review-beatles-let-it-be-transcripts-1235087090/">a book of transcripts from the “Let it Be” sessions</a> and McCartney’s songwriting memoir, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-paul-mccartneys-the-lyrics-can-teach-us-about-harnessing-our-creativity-170987">Lyrics</a>,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/arts/music/beatles-get-back-peter-jackson.html">media outlets</a> <a href="https://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/the-beatles-get-back">around the world</a> appear to have embraced this new version of history: that these sessions actually scanned as lighthearted, that – poof! – the scars had vanished.</p> <p>But the strange and beguiling thing about Jackson’s edit rises from how it displays an unstable mixture of groove and conflict.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Auta2lagtw4?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> <span class="caption">The trailer for ‘The Beatles: Get Back.’</span></p> <p>Despite the walkout from Harrison and continuous disagreements about what the project was – first a TV show, then a feature film and album, which needed a rooftop concert for a “payoff” – the band ultimately rallied to write the now-classic tracks “Something,” “Oh! Darling,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” along with Lennon’s “Polythene Pam” and “I Want You.”</p> <p>So Jackson’s “Get Back” clarifies the Beatles’ resolve to resume work and put their extra-musical squabbles aside. The music pulls them inexorably forward, and they trust these early song fragments enough to carry them. They have had bust-ups and walkouts and uncertainties and failures, and always found their way through. For Lindsay-Hogg and 1970 audiences, this all seemed bewildering and tense – the band kept a tight lid on internal rows. To the Beatles themselves, and to anyone who’s ever worked to keep a band together, it felt about par.</p> <p>Telling the average person to watch eight hours of freighted doubt and raw, undeveloped material is a big ask. <a href="https://www.theonion.com/new-beatles-doc-gives-man-greater-appreciation-for-how-1848132216">As The Onion joked</a>, “New Beatles Doc Gives Man Greater Appreciation For How Long 8 Hours Feels.”</p> <p>But there is a moment in Part Two of Jackson’s series – the first day on the set when Harrison doesn’t show up – when the rest of the band sits around talking about the situation. McCartney suddenly goes quiet. The camera lingers on him, and you can see him drift into a thousand-yard stare as he contemplates the looming uncertainties. He doesn’t quite tear up, but he does look as unguarded as he ever does, and markedly tentative.</p> <p>The moment catches hold because it’s so out of character – McCartney rarely displays himself unveiled, without pretense. The shot lingers and takes the measure of the man and the project, how much they have to overcome and how precarious everything suddenly feels.</p> <p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p> <p>In retrospect, the miracle is not that they finished “Let It Be,” but how these sessions served as the warmup for their final lap, “Abbey Road.” After upending expectations with the contrasting breakthroughs of “Sgt. Pepper” and the “White Album,” figuring out what to do next would have confounded lesser souls.</p> <p>That five-decade gap where fans waited for a refurbished “Let It Be” tells you a lot about how fraught January 1969 seemed to its four principals – and how deep those scars went.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169914/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tim-riley-440673">Tim Riley</a>, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director for Journalism, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/emerson-college-3140">Emerson College</a></em></span></p> <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-beatles-get-back-glosses-over-the-bands-acrimonious-end-169914">original article</a>.</p> <p><em>Image: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images</em></p>

Movies

Placeholder Content Image

Lost song featuring The Beatles unearthed

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A previously unheard song featuring George Harrison and Ringo Starr has been discovered in a Birmingham loft during lockdown. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The song, titled </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Radhe Shaam</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, was written and produced by broadcaster Suresh Joshi in 1968 and features George on guitar and Ringo on drums at the height of their fame. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The track was unearthed in Suresh’s home by a friend who was checking up on him during lockdown, and was played for 100 people at the Liverpool Beatles Museum. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr Joshi was a good friend of George Harrison’s and was the one who introduced him to Ravi Shankar: one of India’s most celebrated musicians. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He was a big influence on the Beatle and famously taught him to play the sitar. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The broadcaster was working on music for a documentary film in London at the time the song was recorded, when George Harrison and Ringo Starr turned up and offered to play. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The pair were taking a break from recording <em>Hey Jude</em> at the same Trident Studios in London’s Soho at the time.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The track also featured </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">renowned Indian classical musician Aashish Khan, but Suresh Joshi said he never got round to releasing it to the public. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Time had gone on, [then] The Beatles were breaking up and had various problems so no-one wanted to [release it]," he said to the </span><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-59233136"><span style="font-weight: 400;">BBC</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However he said the coronavirus lockdown was a "blessing in disguise as we had nothing to do".</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Despite the track being locked away, Mr Joshi said the song is still relevant to today’s audiences. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"The song itself revolves around the concept that we are all one, and that the world is our oyster," he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"[That is] something that we have all realised during this pandemic."</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image credits: Getty Images</span></em></p>

Music

Placeholder Content Image

John Lennon's secret message for Ringo Starr

<p>Many years after John Lennon recorded demos of songs that were never released, a fellow Beatles bandmate found a hidden message. </p> <p>Lennon had written the song <em>Grow Old With Me</em> during writing sessions for his Grammy Award-winning record <em>Double Fantasy</em>, which was his last release before he was shot in 1980.</p> <p>After years went by, Lennon's fellow bandmate Ringo Starr was introduced to the song by Jack Douglas, who was the producer behind <em>Double Fantasy</em>. </p> <p><span>Speaking to the BBC, Ringo said, </span><em>“</em>I’d never heard about this track and I bumped into the producer, Jack Douglas. He said ‘Did you ever hear the John cassette?'"</p> <p><em>"</em>(I said) ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about<em>,'”</em><span> Ringo continued. </span><em>“</em>He said ‘I’ll get you a copy.'”</p> <p>When Ringo received a copy of the demo recording, he discovered a secret message left for him by his late friend and bandmate. </p> <p><em>“</em>It was hard to listen to in the beginning because John talks about me, mentions me<em>,”</em> Ringo revealed.</p> <p><em>“‘</em>It says on the beginning ‘This will be great for you, Ringo.<em>'” </em></p> <p><em>“</em>The idea that John was talking about me in that time before he died, well, I’m an emotional person<em>,”</em> described Starr.</p> <p>The emotional message prompted Ringo to re-record the track, enlisting the help of Paul McCartney to play bass. </p> <p>The new rendition was produced by Jack Douglas, and also featured the iconic string section from The Beatles' classic tune <em>Here Comes The Sun</em>, which was written by George Harrison. </p> <p><em>“</em>So in a way, it’s the four of us,<em>”</em> Ringo described.</p> <p>“John would have loved it.”</p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty Images</em></p>

Music

Placeholder Content Image

A life in pictures: Celebrating musical legend Ringo Starr

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Born Richard Starkey on July 7, 1940, Ringo Starr rose to fame in the early ‘60s as the drummer of the legendary rock group The Beatles. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The veteran musician officially joined the group in 1962 after replacing Pete Best. Quickly a “Beatlemania” took hold and they climbed to the top of the charts all across the world with their single </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">I Want To Hold Your Hand. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“When I was 13, I only wanted to be a drummer,” Ringo said on his </span><a href="http://www.ringostarr.com/about"><span style="font-weight: 400;">website</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This year, the former Beatles member, with the help of his friend, Sheila E. Richard Lewis, is hoping to create “a wave of peace and love across the planet.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For his birthday, the 79-year-old sent an invitation to fans to join him on the streets of Chicago to celebrate his birthday by saying or thinking words of “peace and love”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I’ve said it before but I really can’t think of a better way to celebrate my birthday, or a better gift I could ask for, than peace and love,” Starr said in a statement. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It’s so great how every year it keeps growing, with the wave of peace and love starting in the morning on July 7 in Australia and ending in Hawaii, with celebrations in all the time zones in between. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I am so happy to be back at Capitol Records, and for our great sponsors who are carrying the message of peace and love around the world, like the David Lynch Foundation, Life is Good, SiriusXM, Modern Drummer and Starbucks. I also want to thank each and everyone of you for continuing to help spread peace and love, Ringo.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Scroll through the gallery above to see Ringo Starr’s life in pictures. </span></p>

Art

Placeholder Content Image

8 things you never knew about Ringo Starr

<p>Seventy-seven years ago today in Liverpool, England, Richard Starkey was born. Ringo Starr, as he came to be known, soon became one of music’s most iconic figures as drummer for The Beatles, after which he continued his success as a solo artist.</p> <p>To celebrate his birthday, let’s take a look at some interesting facts you might never have known about Ringo Starr.</p> <p><strong>1. He almost died as a child</strong> – Twice, in fact. At the age of six, Ringo had his appendix removed. The routine procedure left him with peritonitis, leaving him comatose for a number of days. It took him 12 months to recover, and due to so much missed school, he was illiterate even at the age of eight.</p> <p><strong>2. He learnt to drum in hospital</strong> – When he was 13 years old, after having almost caught up at school, he contracted tuberculosis and was admitted to a sanatorium for two years. It was here he discovered a love of music, joining the hospital band as its drummer.</p> <p><strong>3. He never shakes hands</strong> – Understandably, Starr was a little shaken by his many childhood health complications. As a result, he’s a bit of a germaphobe, and prefers to bump elbows rather than shaking hands, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/being-ringo-star-beatles-cover-story-20150415" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><span style="text-decoration-line: underline;">Rolling Stone </span></em><span style="text-decoration-line: underline;">magazine</span></strong></span></a> revealed.</p> <p><strong>4. He’s left-handed</strong> – He’s widely regarded as one of the world’s best and most influential drummers of all time, but his playing style was actually a result of limitations placed on him as a left-handed drummer forced to play on a right-handed set.</p> <p><strong>5. He was the original narrator of <em>Thomas the Tank Engine</em></strong> – The role of narrator has since been filled by Michael Angelis, George Carlin, Alec Baldwin and Mark Moraghan, but Starr was the original. He left after two years to pursue a solo music career.</p> <p><strong>6. He hates doing drum solos</strong> – Despite his talent and love for drumming, Ringo was never a fan of solos. In fact, Paul McCartney said he “never met a drummer who more hated the drum solos,” revealing the band had to “beg” him to do them.</p> <p><strong>7. He married a Bond girl</strong> – While filming<em> Caveman</em> in 1980, Starr met Barbara Bach, who had starred as Bond girl Anya Amasova in <em>The Spy Who Loved Me</em>, just three years earlier. They married in 1981 and are still together 36 years later.</p> <p><strong>8. He’s never had a pizza or curry</strong> – Despite having appeared in a Pizza Hut commercial in 1995, Ringo has never eaten a pizza in his life. “I’m highly allergic to onions and garlic and spices,” he explains. “I’ve never had a pizza, never had a curry.”</p> <p>What’s your favourite song from Ringo Starr? Let us know in the comments!</p>

Music

Placeholder Content Image

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunite

<p>The last two members of the Beatles came together for a studio session.</p> <p>Ringo posted a picture to social media thanking Paul for the session and years of friendship. “Thanks for coming over man and playing great bass. I love you man peace and love,” the 76-year-old musician tweeted to his 1.46m followers. </p> <p>Fans have responded to the picture with various responses of happiness, with some begging for them to do a proper Beatles reunion and others bursting into tears.</p> <p>Ringo the former drummer of the Beatles, is working on a solo album to follow his 2015 album Postcard From Paradise.</p> <p>Paul came over to jump on the bass for him during his home studio recording session. The last time the pair collaborated was when Paul played the bass for Peace Dream and sung Walk With You.</p> <p><strong>Image credit: Ringostarmusic via Twitter</strong></p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/music/2017/01/read-the-brutal-letter-john-lennon-wrote-paul-mccartney/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Read the brutal letter John Lennon wrote Paul McCartney</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/music/2017/01/musicians-who-hated-their-albums/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>6 musicians who couldn’t stand their own albums</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/music/2016/10/14-pieces-of-wisdom-from-the-beatles/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>14 inspiring pieces of wisdom from Beatles songs</strong></em></span></a></p>

Music

Placeholder Content Image

8 things you might not know about Ringo Starr

<p>Arguably the world’s most famous drummer, Ringo Starr, born Richard Starkely, has packed a lot of drumming, touring and talent into his years.</p> <p>Here are eight things you might not have known about the former Beatle. </p> <p>1. He got the name “Ringo” because he enjoyed wearing rings. The name “Starr” originates from his time playing with Rory Storm &amp; the Hurricanes, where he had his own featured slot called “Starr time.”</p> <p>2. He's married to a Bond girl. Ringo's wife, Barbara Bach, is a former Bond girl. She appeared in the James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me.</p> <p>3. As a schoolboy, other students would get Ringo to talk and then laugh at him because his sentences would often contain malapropisms, later known as “Ringoisms.” One of his most notable Ringoisms is "Hard Day's Night".</p> <p>4. In the mid-80s, Ringo provided the original voice for the narrator and Mr. Conductor in the children’s TV series Thomas The Tank Engine.</p> <p>5. Ringo is a vegetarian, but more due to health reasons than ethical ones.</p> <p>6. Ringo was naturally left-handed, but played on a right-handed drum set. His grandmother helped him become ambidextrous by teaching him how to write with his right hand as a schoolboy.</p> <p>7. Ringo’s not a big fan of redoing his drum parts, preferring to record them live in the studio with the band playing along, in one take! This style of recording is partly influenced by the Beatles sessions with George Martin, in which he had to learn to play quickly to prevent the tape from running out.</p> <p>8. Ringo was the last Beatle to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his solo career, in 2015. He has released 19 solo albums to date, more than any former Beatle apart from McCartney.</p> <p>What’s your favourite song from Ringo Starr? Let us know in the comments below.</p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/entertainment/music/2016/04/paul-mccartney-and-john-lennon-secret-fight/"><em>Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s secret feud</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/entertainment/music/2016/03/surprising-facts-about-the-beatles/"><em>8 facts about The Beatles most people don’t know</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/entertainment/music/2016/03/video-of-the-last-time-the-beatles-played-together/"><em>Video of the last time The Beatles played together</em></a></strong></span></p>

News

Our Partners