This Is Just Too Much For Me.

I'm so sorry that my timing's off

But I can't move on if we're still gonna talk

Is it wrong for me to not want half?

I want all of you, all the strings attached

Oh, I'm good at keeping my distance

I know that you're the feeling I'm missing

You know that I hate to admit it

But everything means nothing if I can't have you

I can't write one song that's not about you

Can't drink without thinking about you

Is it too late to tell you that

Everything means nothing if I can't have you?

-If I Can’t Have You (Shawn Mendes)

Get Back Narrative

I’ve received a couple of asks seeking clarification regarding my earlier post about how the Get Back documentary was redefining the Beatle narrative.

I’ll try to summarize. 

1. Media articles like this, this and this regarding Ono’s presence. While it’s obvious that the band was heading toward dissolution with or without Ono’s presence, Ono’s continued presence in the studio, her unsolicited participation in band business (no, she didn’t just sit there and read, as some would claim), and her willingness to speak on John’s behalf is hardly exculpatory. Even Time magazine, which at least attempted a more considered analysis of the Beatle break-up era, claimed, after watching Get Back, that ‘Yoko’s presence was not a huge negative factor, and that none of the band members appear much bothered by her constant presence; they joke and talk with her comfortably”.  This is a shocking claim, given that a) the documentary clearly depicts the deleterious effect of Yoko’s presence upon band members during the failed meeting at George’s house, and b) George, Paul, and Ringo have all gone on record regarding their discomfort in Ono’s presence and the disruptive nature of her involvement in band business. 

(As an aside, I would also like to know in what workplace, no matter how creative or unorthodox, it would be acceptable to bring your lover or spouse to work everyday and insist that the presence of that person was absolutely benign.)  

2. The exclusion of information which would provide context to behaviour, such as John and Yoko’s heroin addiction. “By the advent of the “Get Back” sessions, Ono openly joked about taking heroin being the couple’s form of exercise”).  This was excluded in the Get Back documentary and, as a consequence, from mainstream media. Obviously the inclusion of this information would more accurately contexualize John’s behaviour in the band, including his insistence on Yoko’s presence.  

Another compelling piece of information that was not included in the documentary was that Patti Harrison briefly left George around the time of George’s departure from the band.  Since there was no mention of this event during filming, Peter Jackson decided not to share it, claiming he didn’t want to make any “moral judgements.” To whatever extent his brief estrangement from Patti affected George’s judgement we’ll never know (George didn’t even mention it in his diary of that day), but its exclusion in the documentary is regrettable. 

3.  Editorial Choices by the filmmaker.  Peter Jackson has gone on record that he was not influenced by Ringo or Paul, and nor by Olivia or Yoko at any point in the making of the Get Back Documentary. And there’s no reason not to believe him.  But:  the Get Back documentary reflects his editorial choices–what he believed was important to leave in, and what he believed was acceptable to leave out.  As Erin Torkelson Weber indicated in this earlier post, “the reality is that, without unrestricted access to the hundreds of hours of actual audio and visual tapes Hogg and Jackson used to make their films, fans are still being offered only someone else’s interpretation/vision/translation of the primary source material…so we have to rely on evidence that has already been framed and filtered.” 

And that reality–that we are watching someone’s else’s version of the truth, has escaped mainstream media and a certain cohort of Beatle fans who either find the Get Back version of the Beatle break-up era more commensurate with their own beliefs, or simply don’t know any better. 

I so love this night.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon in Obertauern, Austria, 18th March 1965.

The Beatles were filming Help! in Austria in March 1965. On the evening, Paul McCartney and John Lennon took part in a jam session at the Marietta Hotel in Obertauern.

2003: The Quarrymen have conflicting hazy memories on what happened the day John and Paul first met. (Note: In order of appearance: Rod Davis, Len Garry, Colin Hanton, Eric Griffiths. Ignore the erroneous lower third that pops up indicating Len Garry; it’s Eric Griffiths.) 

Some pictures of the Beatles with each others’ children

Nice

1976

Lovely

Thinking about them

McCartney didn't give two hoots about being cool, about being a social rebel. In particular, he couldn't care less that he was not John Lennon.

We cringe to think that he can have fun making A Wonderful Christmastime with absolutely no embarrassment whatsoever.

How dare he not despise the world and not torture himself?

An almost Lennonesque arrogance, one might think, but carried out by McCartney with a sense of fun so guileless that he is hated for it.

---

Imaginative storytelling is nothing less than the basis of all art and science.

McCartney's songs tend to be blown like bubbles and have a life of their own. He watches them at play with a certain detachment. [...] Even when profound they often have a sort of tenuous, weightless quality. This I believe is part of their peculiar charm.

The meringue-light medium is the message.

It is almost physiological. Prick him, and a song wells up.

---

Truant Boy, by Martin Shough

JOHN LENNON: "When the Beatles were depressed -thinking the group was going nowhere, and this is a shitty deal, and we're in a shitty dressing room- I'd say, 'Where are we going, fellas?' And they'd go, 'To the top, Johnny!' And I'd say, 'Where's that, fellas?' and they'd say, 'To the toppermost of the poppermost!' and I'd say, 'Right!' Then we'd all sort of cheer up."

Y’know, now that I know about how Paul saw John multiple times before meeting him at the fete and was somewhat infatuated with him, really has me hearing I Will in a whole new way.

Who knows how long I've loved you

You know I love you still

Will I wait a lonely lifetime

If you want me to, I will

For if I ever saw you

I didn't catch your name

But it never really mattered

I will always feel the same

Love you forever and forever

Love you with all my heart

Love you whenever we're together

Love you when we're apart

And when at last I find you

Your song will fill the air

Sing it loud so I can hear you

Make it easy to be near you

For the things you do endear you to me

Oh, you know I will

I will