The Beatles

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PeteM said:
It was tit.
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Totally. And exposed that the script writers had zero idea about the history of popular music. Just one example: it's well documented (and admitted by both of the Glimmer Twins) that The Stones would have remained a Rhythm & Blues cover band if John and Paul hadn't encouraged them to write their own songs.

I could literally write all day about just how completely crap that film was.
 
Greentea12 said:
I'm huge Beatles fan. I'm surprised it's taken so long for them to get their own thread. I've read so many books and watched endless documentaries and have never grown tired of them.

I haven't watched Yesterday and have no real inclination to.

Looking forward to some good tea!
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I loved the Beatles film Help! Where their houses are all joined together. I Loved Ringo in that.
 
I love Imagine, hate Hey Jude or long and winding road. I saw Help in theatres, when my Friend’s older sister took us as long as we promised to scream and kick the seats in front of us. my other friend and I parted ways, when her dad got tickets to take us to Shea, my mother said no way, and insulted friends dad for having no brains. That was the end of that friendship. Never cared for Paul, too cute and sugary. After John, there was something about Ringo I love to this day.
great thread btw!
 
thenorthremembers said:
I loved the Beatles film Help! Where their houses are all joined together. I Loved Ringo in that.
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Help was amazing, so daft and funny! I really liked Hard Days Night too.

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Edited to add, it’s so lovely seeing Beatles fans’ comments and memories here.


Has anyone seen this comedy clip. It’s a Beatles documentary “from the future”.

“it’s been almost 1000 years since The Beatles walked the earth“.

 
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I've no secret Beatles-related tea. I was born in the 1970s, so I was raised on Paul songs, discovered John songs in my teens, and have settled into appreciating both Paul and George as artists.
Paul I admire for making the most of every opportunity - not just materially but artistically.
Meanwhile George is both fascinating and exasperating. He created works as beautiful as Something and Here Comes the Sun...and then wrote diatribes against the Taxman 😔. He had a deeply spiritual side - I think he converted to the Hare Krishna faith? - yet seemed intent on shagging around on his wife and clearly had no respect for his friends' marriage vows (affair with Ringo's first wife). What gives??
 
What's wrong with diatribes against the taxman? Don't forget that the highest rate of income tax was an eye watering 95% in 1966, hence the "Should five percent appear too small be thankful I don't take it all" line in the song. For reference, the highest rate of income tax these days is 45%, less than half what it was when Taxman was written.
 
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EleanorRigby said:
What's wrong with diatribes against the taxman? Don't forget that the highest rate of income tax was an eye watering 95% in 1966, hence the "Should five percent appear too small be thankful I don't take it all" line in the song. For reference, the highest rate of income tax these days is 45%, less than half what it was when Taxman was written.
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To be honest, I think Taxman is a great song. But he was of a generation that benefited hugely from the welfare state (which had to be paid for somehow). Plus, I think it's a bit tone deaf to be literally leading a rock & roll lifestyle - paid for, largely, by adoring fans scraping their pennies together to buy your work - and moaning about giving millions to HMRC.

Still, I can put that down to George being young and clueless. But the truth is he STILL moaning about high taxes in the 1980s. With his gorgeous big house & gardens, hanging out with the Formula 1 set. I mean...
 
Eirawen said:
John MUST have known how horrendous she was and that people would take the Michael.
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John was a horrible shitbag of a person. Albert Goldman, as much as people hate it, brought it to the fore of his biography of Lennon. Even if you read other books by people who are more of the 'John is awesome' bent, his meanness and unpleasantness comes through.
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George was known for sleeping with young groupies, Paul was selfish and controlling. Ringo seemed genuinely OK.
 
BigCatFace said:
John was a horrible shitbag of a person. Albert Goldman, as much as people hate it, brought it to the fore of his biography of Lennon. Even if you read other books by people who are more of the 'John is awesome' bent, his meanness and unpleasantness comes through.
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George was known for sleeping with young groupies, Paul was selfish and controlling. Ringo seemed genuinely OK.
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This is one of the things I liked about Nowhere Boy, it didn't shy away from John being cruel and frankly a little tit to everyone around him. I also liked that it explored why he was so fucked up. I know it's not totally historically accurate but I think it captured how difficult his childhood was. Yes, Paul lost his mum as a child too but the whole Julia and Mimi thing would screw with any young head.
 
BigCatFace said:
John was a horrible shitbag of a person. Albert Goldman, as much as people hate it, brought it to the fore of his biography of Lennon. Even if you read other books by people who are more of the 'John is awesome' bent, his meanness and unpleasantness comes through.
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George was known for sleeping with young groupies, Paul was selfish and controlling. Ringo seemed genuinely OK.
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Haven't heard much about him but that he beat his first wife Cynthia up a lot
He treated his eldest son badly and just seem to dump him when Yoko came along. As for Paul he always comes over as super arrogant in interviews. Now Ringo, here's a story, I used to work in an animal hospital in central London and before my day Ringo had expressed an interest in adopting a cat from the charity. He turned up in a Rolls and was nice to everyone he then insisted that the nurses get into his rolls and told his chauffeur to drive them round the London sights at night. He was a legend in that charity and he ended up adopting an old moggie, top bloke.
 
I grew up on them, as born and brought up in Liverpool. I was 12 years old when John Lennon was shot dead. It was hugely shocking.

I appreciate Lennon’s talent but I didn’t like him. I didn’t like his singing voice - I also found his speaking voice nasally and annoying. I found him selfish, unpleasant and self obsessed.
Lots of Beatles tracks that I love, and I am another who doesn’t like Imagine.

There is an Alan Partridge joke in this, but I have really grown to appreciate Wings in my older years. I love a lot of their music now 😆
 
EleanorRigby said:
He may have moaned but he used his money well. The fabulous Monty Python films would not exist without his financial backing. He was absolutely instrumental in preventing the British film industry from total collapse in the 1980s, financing a huge range of domestic films.
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It all went a bit wrong in the end. He had been convinced by his manager that investing in films was 100% safe and he would make millions. A lot of Handmade's later films lost huge amounts of money that were personally guaranteed by GH. He later sued the manager and won about $11 million. Handmade went bankrupt in 1991.

Harrison lost a lot of money and it is rumoured he was in danger of losing his house when the anthology came around.
 
Reverend said:
It all went a bit wrong in the end. He had been convinced by his manager that investing in films was 100% safe and he would make millions. A lot of Handmade's later films lost huge amounts of money that were personally guaranteed by GH. He later sued the manager and won about $11 million. Handmade went bankrupt in 1991.

Harrison lost a lot of money and it is rumoured he was in danger of losing his house when the anthology came around.
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Indeed. But my point still stands, we would not have the genius of the Monty Python films without his investment, nor other gems such as Withnail and I.
 
Speaking about Anthology, it was about a year before that I'd started taking an interest in The Beatles. A great time to discover their music with what followed a year or so later. I didn't get around to buying the DVD boxset until a few years ago but I'll dig it out at least once a year. So glad the project came off but had read that a factor in George taking part was due to needing the money.

I finally got around to doing the Magical Mystery bus tour and Cavern Club last year but would recommend to anyone who has even a passing interest in The Beatles to do both.

As for "Imagine," I've gone through phases with the song including listening to it all the time when I first discovered it to hardly listening to it. I'm somewhere between the two extremes now. I like it but I prefer other John songs. However, I really rate the imagine album.

I like a lot of their solo material but especially Wings. Red Rose Speedway is one of my favourite lazy afternoon in the sun albums to listen to.

Getting the Beatles in mono CD box 2 years ago was one of the best Beatles purchases I made. So many of those albums and singles are better in mono and there numerous differences with the mono mixes felt like I was rediscovering the songs.
The other great discovery for me in the last 2 years has been Paul's demo version of "Goodbye." I love it!
 
I had forgotten how young George Harrison was when he died. He was only 58 years old.
Whilst lung cancer was the cause of his death - the attempt on his life only 2 years before, must have also had a devastating effect on his health. He was suffered a punctured lung during the attack and over 40 stab wounds.
 
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