Documentaries!

[inisideguy]

Thanks for the recommendations! I appreciate them. I know many British bands loved dudes like Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. I just never heard the Beatles liking that stuff.

They literally played all of that type of stuff along with early rock stuff for the first 6 years as a band in the clubs. Before the ever laid down an album.

I mean this is from their last show what would you call this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCtzkaL2t_Y&t=193s

[Albert1981]

I dare you to watch Jean Luc Godard's ONE PLUS ONE/SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL all the way through, no fast-forwarding. I've sat through this in a movie theatre, twice. I believe the version I saw was the director's cut--there's a producer's cut but even that is a slog. There is some great stuff--good performances--but Godard has a lot of long takes and confusing scenes, so you have to suffer through that to get to the good stuff. I love Godard and all his movies are quite challenging, but I think this was the hardest movie I had to sit through. After it, I felt like I should get a medal or a certificate of honour--I survived ONE PLUS ONE.

Yeah, you deserve an award for that. I like Get Back so far, but it feels really challenging to get through it. The William Randolph Hearst documentary I saw earlier one was long, but digestible. I might just check out the Scorsese documentary on Harrison first.

[Albert1981]

They literally played all of that type of stuff along with early rock stuff for the first 6 years as a band in the clubs. Before the ever laid down an album.

You don't say? This is interesting! I personally would have enjoyed seeing the Beatles in Hamburg playing rock and roll music before they got famous. Too bad they didn't record those performances for posterity.

[inisideguy]

You don't say? This is interesting! I personally would have enjoyed seeing the Beatles in Hamburg playing rock and roll music before they got famous. Too bad they didn't record those performances for posterity.

They have a ton of the R&B stuff on their live at the BBC albums. Lord knows how many tracks.

[Kirby101]

There is a list here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_a...Beatles_album)
And it is all on Youtube and Spotify.

[Jim Kelly]

I recommend watching THE BEATLES: THE FIRST U.S. VISIT. It's a good behind the scenes look at the Fab Four as they travel through the States, appearing on ED SULLIVAN. They call into radio stations with requests and clearly love the Motown sound.

[TheBlackTerror]

I’ve had The Compleat Beatles in my collection for years, I dunno how hard to find it is now, but I always considered it a terrific overview of the history of the band

[Kirby101]

I’ve had The Compleat Beatles in my collection for years, I dunno how hard to find it is now, but I always considered it a terrific overview of the history of the band

I agree, excellent.

[Jim Kelly]

I had/have a lot of Beatles stuff on VHS tape. I hardly have any of that on disc. It's pretty easy to find this stuff online.

I used to have a complete set of the Beatles CDs, but almost all of those were stolen from my old apartment. However, since then, with all the re-releases, I've got just about all of it replaced. I'm still waiting for LET IT BE to get a new CD release (I have NAKED). And I have everything on vinyl.

[Albert1981]

OK. Thanks so much for the recommendations. I really appreciate them!

And for the record, my all-time favorite Beatle song is Here, There and Everywhere from the Revolver album. I prefer the Beatles' earlier material, but that song is fabulous!

[Kirby101]

Watching the series. it was apparent they were all using drugs of some sort. Paul was smnoking pot and maybe doing coke, Ringo looked hungover half the time, George looked like a strung out junkie and he was thin as a rail. But I did not realize how bad it was for John. It isn't talked about how mush drug use impacted their break up.

In 1969 the fifth Beatle was heroin: John Lennon's addiction took its toll on the band

[Jim Kelly]

The Beatles had an agreement from their early days that all four had to agree to something or they wouldn't do it. This is why three of the Beatles going with Allen Klein bothered Paul so much, because he didn't want to do it--and by rights they should have never have signed with Klein. And in the end Paul had to break up the group legally so he wouldn't be entangled with Klein--as Harrison and Lennon later came to regret.

Now that George and John aren't here--Yoko and Olivia each have a vote. So all four--Paul, Ringo, Yoko and Olivia--had to approve the GET BACK cut or else Peter Jackson woudn't get the okay. Over the years I've heard people say that Paul stood in the way of LET IT BE being re-released, but I think it's more likely Yoko didn't want it re-released. You sort of have to know what was going on with John at that time--but it wasn't a secret.

The drug-use was widely known at the time. At one point in GET BACK they say that John and Yoko are doing an interview with Canadian television (CBC). They don't show it in GET BACK. It's half an hour and known as the "Two Junkies Interview" (you can find it on youtube). It was clear to many that they were high. Immediately after the interview John vomited. That's probably something that Yoko wouldn't want shown.

John and Ringo were the ones I heard the most about in terms of addiction. Paul got arrested for pot, but I don't think he was ever addicted to hard drugs--he was a workaholic. George referred to the drug use in interviews, but I think his religion got him out of that scene. If anything, he was a sex addict--always having affairs with women that were not his wife.

[Kirby101]

Good info Jim. In Martin Scorsese's doc on George, that made it clear he had a pretty serious heroin addiction, but I forget the timeline of when it started.

[Albert1981]

Just a remainder: PBS will be airing a documentary on American dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey tonight from 9:00 PM to 10:30 PM. It's part of the American Masters series.

[ed2962]

There's a pretty good one on PBS called The US and The Holocaust. It's aired a couple of times. I wouldn't be surprised if they re-run it again.