Fun
Knit to This: The Beatles: Get Back
Dear Kay,
What I really, really wish: that the new Beatles documentary was showing in a movie theater.
It’s killing me to watch this in the isolation of my house. I would absolutely sit for eight hours at the Belcourt to share the experience of this documentary with other fans of the Beatles. Or I’d happily return three nights in a row to see it, with sleeps in between each part to digest what we’ve seen.
Everybody who’s watching this (and it feels like everybody I know is watching this) has their own take on what they’re seeing.
There’s agreement that it looks amazing, though one friend thinks the digital retouching makes the Fab Four too rubbery. I’m OK with the perfection of what we’re seeing—the whole thing is a fever dream, a bit of time travel back to 1969, and a glimpse of a band at work that we never thought we’d see.
Other things I’ve heard:
It’s tedious.
It’s perfectly made.
Paul is so very musical.
They look amazing.
They love writing songs together.
Ringo is the steady heartbeat of the band.
They love each other.
George is in a lot of pain.
Yoko is a neutral presence, not an irritant.
John is checked out, yet also totally there.
Paul noodling around with what will become “Get Back” is astonishing to watch.
They talk about Hamburg, Germany, a lot, their early stomping grounds.
I could go on all day about this documentary. And I haven’t even finished Part 3 because I’m watching it as slowly as possible.
Here’s a moment where Paul is writing “The Long and Winding Road,” one of my favorite songs.
What do you think? What are you seeing as you watch this documentary? I’d love to hear your thoughts, even if we can’t share popcorn and a Yazoo at the Belcourt right now.
The Beatles: Get Back is streaming exclusively on Disney+. Subscription required.
Love,
Ann
We absolutely LOVED it and have watched it twice. Here’s an interesting article from the Washington Post, how other songwriters reacted to it.
https://wapo.st/33mtDGc
Paul is definitely a genius.
Many, many takeaways; but my main one is that the Beatles (and Glyn Johns) had the best clothes in the history of clothing.
Glad you’re all ok down there at the MDK shop! Great documentary, brought back memories. What a talented group of musicians, and yes Paul is a genius.
This was surreal for me because Let It Be is by far my most-played album. I also can’t decided whose style I most want to copy–Linda’s or Ringo’s.
Not related, but ANN ARE YOU OK!?! And your family?
Hi Ronnie, all safe here, so heartbreaking to hear about the loss of life across the region that got hit this morning. I do feel that Nashville got tons of warnings that this was a dangerous storm, grateful to the forecasters for that. Nashville Severe Weather Twitter: those guys are brilliant, and they’re volunteers.
Glad everything is OK with you.
Loving it completely!!! And yes to Ringo’s and Linda’s outfits!!!
It goes on my list for when we drop Hulu and add Disney+. I had to Google Yazoo. How does it compare to Yoo-hoo?
I loved every minute of watching/listening to this, but it should come with a warning about earworms! There is nothing in my brain right now that is not being sung by the Beatles. Its worth subscribing for a month just so that you can wtch and listen to this.
You said it! Me, too.
I watched…and worked on my color explosion throw. Was wondering if it was crazy to want to watch again, but I’m convinced now that it is a brilliant idea!
Well I couldn’t watch the trailer without tears, so I’ll have to be prepared with a box of Kleenex. Does anyone know if Disney has a free trial period that lets you watch anything? Otherwise it’s waiting on my Netflix DVD list, which will be a few years probably. But I’ll still love The Beatles then, I’m sure…
It would be worth paying for a month of service and then cancelling.
Reading this before breakfast and now all I want is popcorn… I’m not far enough along to know what I think of it yet. L’il Mr 13 is the one in our house who wanted to watch it. Glimpses of the artistic process. It was fun to give him the rundown and background of The Beatles before we watched. He likes the music, but didn’t know much about the band yet.
Bring on the eagworms!
Husband has always been the consummate Beatles freak fan, and now, I am fully, fully there.
Listening to how they support (or not) each other during the music making.
John sitting cross-legged on the floor, guitar held so closely, strumming away.
It’s such a brilliant moment to sing along to Let it Be, when Paul doesn’t yet have the second verse down, and I do, right here, in my living room. No, Paul……it’s “speaking words of wisdom, let it be.”
Ringo’s quiet, steady beat throughout all 8 hours, and then turns into the cut up when he’s not at his drum set.
the cigarettes. in everyone’s hands and in their mouth – haha
sensitive George
….the thing is, I can’t just cleanly sum up my experience of watching the creation of this music – it’s something primal
and husband is randomly blurting out “get back” throughout the house, for days now
The first time I heard Sargent Pepper I was 13 and I was mesmerized so I will watch this and knit with JOY !
Loved spending time with “the lads” again. I cried during the concert, knowing it was their last time performing in public, and knowing the film was ending. (And also wanting to yell at the bobbies “Do you understand what you are doing?”)
But seeing John up there on the roof in that coat reminded me of how negative many people felt about him and the group at that time. They were sort of seen as rebel outcasts who were using drugs and were no longer the loveable mop tops.
And they were so young! George was only 25, Paul 27, and John and Ringo 29!
Oh how I wish there was film of them creating all those other wonderful songs!
I have loved The Beatles since I was 12 years old and was a little worried that I may be disappointed with this documentary, seeing them up close for 8 hours. Not to worry, I was mesmerized and didn’t even knit! I didn’t want to miss a second and am loving it. We haven’t watched part 3 yet, maybe tonight. Best Saturday night date ever. And now, we have Beatles music on 24/7. One son asked if we know that it is the season for Christmas music, saying that “The Beatles will be around forever”. He is right about that. Kudos to Peter Jackson for an unforgettable experience.
I had an argument with my son when he was 13 or so (about 18 years ago). He was a Beatles fan, but claimed Green Day was just as good as the Beatles. One of my points was that people were still listening to the Beatles 35 years later.
We were laughing about it the other day and he said, “Well people ARE Still listening to Green Day.”
A few months ago my husband and I pulled out all of his Beatles albums for a dance party (note for context: he purchaed his earliest ones – like Meet the Beatles and Introducing the Beatles – with his teenage allowance the year I was born). I knew all the words, of course, but was never actually a gaga Beatles fan. Then we watched Get Back and I was floored! Seeing the fab four in this way changed everything for me. I can’t tell you how many times I paused to rewind and rewatch… especially to see Paul’s musical genius creating on the spot. Gave me chills! It’s nearly two weeks since we finished and I am still humming and singing. Enjoy the final bits of part 3!
I think for hardcore Beatle fans the film doesn’t offer “new information.” But . . . to actually watch these events unfold, to see the intimacy between Paul & John when they lean into each other to have a discussion, to witness George’s emotional pain, to see Ringo take on the role of comic relief, to watch the actual energy of the room change when Billy Preston enters the room . . . priceless.
I am so obsessed with the Get Back series. Getting lots of knitting done or trying to. I’m reading the subtitles and don’t want to miss a thing so I’m working on my drunk knitting projects.
What do I think? It makes me weep for what might have been. It makes me so very happy to have seen this group from the beginning – following the news in the early 60s about a group of Brit Boys playing in Hamburg. It makes me nostalgic to recall the screaming and excitement for the plane landing at JFK and then the appearance on Ed Sullivan. It makes me thrilled to see the overwhelming level of talent on display because the L/M collaboration still holds up all these years later. It makes me really cry hard all over again at the murder of John Lennon. It makes me so very glad to have been alive to experience every moment of these 55+ years of music genius.
Nancy, you expressed exactly how I feel. Thank you!!
I can’t add another word except to say that they were geniuses, truly. They were the Beethoven and Mozart of their own genre. No group has ever come close to the depth and breadth of their creativity.
OMG……Be still my heart from just the trailer! Beatles was my first movie at age 5 with my Grammy. (The same one that taught me to knit.) Family folklore has it that I stood on my theatre seat and screamed during the movie. Disney + here I come! Thanks, Kay!!!!
P.S. I still have two Beatles blow-up dolls from that era! LOL
What’s a Yazoo? Wish I could share it with you too. (I think).
I looked up Yazoo and found it’s a milk-based soft drink sold mostly in the UK.
We subscribed to Disney plus for this, watched it over 3 or 4 nights and then cancelled the subscription. Easy and so worth the $15 was it? I was completely enthralled, it felt very intimate to me, like I was there. Yes Paul is genius according to this doc and their voices! Gorgeous. Just writing about it now I could cry, I found it so moving for their youth and talent.
Yes to everything you’ve said. My husband found it boring and couldn’t believe I was watching the whole thing. I was mesmerized. I finished a few days ago and I wish we could see more – go back and see what they did after that, just everyday stuff. It is too long, but great to watch in 30 – 45 minute snippets.
Paul was the heartbeat… and a bit of a bully. Yoko…yuck she’s like a teenager who won’t leave her first boyfriend alone. George is walked all over by John and Paul and it’s painful to watch. Ringo… amazed he just rides along and doesn’t let it get to him much. John, oh grow up. Loved seeing Cynthia and seeing Paul interact with her and their daughter.
I watched it, completely absorbed. It was amazing. I loved seeing how they worked together, or didn’t, and how the dynamics of the group shifted depending on who was in the studio with them — I loved watching them all goof around with Linda’s daughter. I also cried, because my brother was the big Beatles fan and he died in 2013. He would have loved this special, and we would have spent hours on the phone, talking about every little detail.
I’m definitely going to watch it again, probably next week while we’re traveling. That, and knitting the color explosion throw. It’s a long trip from Colorado to Illinois.
I’m a casual Beatles fan, and I loved this doc. Beatles songs are the water we swim in for the last 50 years, it’s hard to imagine anyone not knowing their songs and all the stories and rumors.
Besides watching great songs being pulled from the air (which is the creative process, as knitting), it is pretty incredible when you think of the endurance and love of those songs through decades.
My favorite part of watching, however, was watching their interactions with each other; the psychology of relationships is fascinating to me. It becomes clear all the stories of a bad breakup and feuding were completely false. They were dear friends, and they had spent their years from teens to late 20s inseparably, because they were having fun and working so well together. But then they were adults and going in different ways, their separation was completely normal. How many of us spend every day and our life’s work with friends from our teen years? John and Paul also said more than once how Brian Epstein was their ‘father’ and when he died they were kids without a father and how they needed a father figure to guide them. It was so forlorn and made me so sad.
I love how this finally rights so much wrong information about their friendship.
Watch this, even if you’re a casual fan of the Beatles. I don’t imagine there is any knitter who doesn’t appreciate seeing art being made out of nothing.
I was just knitting to this last night.
Completely fascinating to watch iconic songs evolve.
Stunning that they were writing on the fly days before a major television event.
Astonishing how YOUNG they were.
Absolutely delightful to watch them “play” with music and each other like excited children.
Being in a bit of a amateur band myself, I really feel Paul’s frustration with what he experiences as a lack of investment in the project. John is equally his genius, but had such a different method of getting from A to B.
My favorite part so far (just watched part 1) was Ringo discussing the show with someone, looking over at Paul noodling on the piano and saying something to the effect of “we should just film him playing piano all day.”
I’m smitten by the whole thing.
OMG…I absolutely loved this! It made me happy and sad at the same time. Happy because I was watching new footage of The Beatles and sad because of who we have lost. I was yelling at the TV “George, stop smoking! It’s going to kill you! John, don’t move to NYC!” But it reminded me of so may memories I have tied up with their music. I even stopped knitting while watching certain parts.
I watched each segment over Thanksgiving weekend as it came available. I didn’t realize how much my life resonated to the music. I’m still catching myself singing some of their songs. I have such clear memory of: being six and watching them on the Ed Sullivan show at the insistence of my eight-year-old brother; middle school with friends mourning their break up; sleeping overnight at JFK on my way to Italy and on waking seeing the newspaper headlines about John Lennon being shot. What most surprised me? How much they really liked each other! And who knew John was such a goofball and George was so sweet. What was my favorite thing? Watching them help each other with songs and the phenomenal creativity.
Absolutely loved this! While I loved everything about the Beatles and remember when Let It Be was released, I was too young to really know what was going on behind the scenes. All I knew was that me and my friends (good Catholic school girls that we were) loved the record. “Mother Mary”…it was religious, right? I think I may watch it again.
We finished watching the other night. After the famous concert on the roof, I just felt bereft, as if they’d just split up all over again. Also, there’s so much boring and riveting about the rest of it. Great to knit to!!
Id love to be in a theater where they’d removr me for for yelling, ” ok Yoko.. go the fuck home!” … Paul’s musicality is only exceeded by his eternal adorableness. Sixth grade me had such good taste
Well, I am a super fan—saw them twice in Chicago, and once my dad drove my friends and I to the airport to scream at them when they landed —I am taken back to that time in my life when they were a revelation to me, and millions of others—watching this took me back to that frame of mind—-and I loved it.