Entry 591: Beatlemania

I finally finished all seven and a half hours of the new Beatles documentary Get Back. It took me a week, but I did it. It's really good, even if, like, 70% of it is just them sitting around playing the same few songs (often poorly at first) over and over again. I kinda fell in bro-love with 28-year-old Paul McCartney. He comes off as the coolest, most talented dude to ever live. There's a scene of him working out the beats for "Get Back" for the first time that's just phenomenal. He also seems like he's the only one who genuinely wants to keep the Beatles together and move them forward in new ways. John seems so sick of it all -- cynical and sarcastic; George is clearly resentful of the band's hierarchy and wants to move out from behind the Lennon-McCartney shadow and do his own thing; and Ringo comes off as the go-with-the-flow, happy-to-be-there, ride-this-train-while-it's-running role player, which I appreciate because that's probably how I would be. Billy Preston is also in a lot of it. He stops by one day to say hi, and the band adopts him as their electric piano player. Imagine being such a good musician that you can just walk in off the street, join the Beatles, and make them better -- so badass.

I found myself getting really annoyed by John in the first part of this doc. I've long thought he was a bit of a charlatan and a hypocrite. The "deep" thinker who actually has nothing interesting to say. But then at about hour three or so, during a break, I read an old Playboy interview he and Yoko did in 1980 (only a few months before he died), and I revised my views a bit. The weird thing is that the only reason I read the interview is because I heard John was very critical of Paul in it, and I wanted to be indignant about it, but then I found myself liking, or at least understanding, John more and more as I read on.

He is needlessly brutal to Paul in it, but he at least acknowledges his own failings -- except when he doesn't. That's the thing I came to appreciate. It's not that John was a hypocrite, it's that he was a genuine contradiction. He didn't have perfectly formed ideological boundaries, and I think that's something most people can appreciate. A lot of his quotes remind me of quotes from '90s grunge rockers who were simultaneously embarrassed and enthralled by their fame -- like Kurt Cobain publicly mocking Nirvana's world-wide success, while privately facilitating it. It's not hard to see how this type of internal struggle could really mess with somebody's soul, especially if you toss heroin into the mix (as it was for both Lennon and Cobain). 

We've seen a lot of rock 'n' roll icons come out the other side of this and grow into lovably cantankerous old coots, and we've seen a lot die young. John falls into the latter category, but, who knows, if he wasn't tragically murdered maybe he and Paul would have totally reconciled, and we would have had a Beatles '88 tour that would have made like a $100 billion and been slightly disappointing to everybody who attended it. I mean, Paul and Yoko apparently have an amicable relationship now (and have for years). They were co-producers of the documentary. If a history of rock 'n' roll feuds have taught us anything, it's that they usually fade if everybody lives long enough to let that happen.

Also, part of why I didn't like John very much, I now realize, might be my own personal pettiness. Few things are more deflating than loving a piece of art and then hearing the artist shit on it. Yeah, you know that thing that means so much to you? It's actually very insignificant and you're an insignificant person for thinking it's actually meaningful. Get a life, man! It's makes you feel like a fool. (It's still real to me, dammit!) I mean, in the interview, John talks about his time with the Beatles as if it was just a job he once did with some dudes he once knew and nothing truly great came out of it. (Although, it's tough to say if this sentiment is heartfelt or if it's a defense mechanism. I mean, he claims his music with Yoko is better than his stuff with the Beatles and that history will vindicate his opinion. That is something nobody could actually believe.) I prefer artists like Quentin Tarantino who love their art at least as much as I do and don't pretend like they don't. But artists should be able to feel any way they want about their art. If I don't like their opinion on it, then that's on me, really.

Another thing is that I always thought I liked Paul's Beatles songs more than John's, but when I actually look at the list, it's a lot closer to 50-50 than I thought. In fact, I might even give the edge to John (and George has some bangers too). Let's test it: I'm going to pick my three favorite* songs off of each Beatles album and tally up the results. One point goes to the composer of each song listed below. If the composer is not a Beatle or it was composed by two Beatles, then the primary singer gets a point. If it was a true 50-50 collaboration, then both collaborators get a point. I'll link to my very favorite* song from each album and give a bonus point to its composer.

*My favorites right now, as I write this. Catch me on a different day and I might pick totally different songs. 

Here goes...

Please Please Me: "I Saw Her Standing There" (McCartney), "Love Me Do" (McCartney), "Do You Want to Know a Secret" (Lennon)

With the Beatles: "It Won't Be Long" (Lennon), "All My Loving" (McCartney), "Don't Bother Me" (Harrison)

A Hard Days Night: "A Hard Day's Night" (Lennon), "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" (Lennon), "And I Lover Her" (McCartney)

Beatles for Sale: "No Reply" (Lennon), "I'll Follow the Sun" (McCartney), "Eight Days a Week" (McCartney)

Help!: "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" (Lennon), "I've Just Seen a Face" (McCartney), "Yesterday" (McCartney)

Rubber Soul: "You Won't See Me" (McCartney), "I'm Looking Through You" (McCartney), "In My Life" (Lennon)

Revolver: "Eleanor Rigby" (McCartney), "I'm Only Sleeping" (Lennon), "Doctor Robert" (Lennon)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: "Getting Better" (McCartney), "She's Leaving Home" (McCartney), "A Day in the Life" (Lennon/McCartney)

Magical Mystery Tour: "The Fool on the Hill" (McCartney), "I am the Walrus" (Lennon), "Penny Lane" (McCartney)

White Album: "Back In the USSR" (McCartney), "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (Harrison), "Blackbird" (McCartney)

Yellow Submarine: "All Together Now" (McCartney), "Hey Bulldog" (McCartney), "All You Need is Love" (Lennon) 

Abbey Road: "Come Together" (Lennon), "Something" (Harrison), Medley (Lennon/McCartney)

Let It Be: "Two of Us" (McCartney), "I've Got a Feeling" (Lennon/McCartney), "Get Back" (McCartney)

Non-Album Songs Early: "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (Lennon/McCartney), "Day Tripper" (Lennon), "Paperback Writer" (McCartney)

Non-Album Songs Late: "Hey Jude" (McCartney), "Don't Let Me Down" (Lennon), "Old Brown Shoe" (Harrison)

Final Tally:
McCartney 34
Lennon 24
Harrison 7

Well, there you have it. I guess I do like Paul best. Although if you just look at very best songs from the albums, it would be Paul 7, John 6, and George 3. (The latter is pretty impressive considering how few songs George wrote for the band.) So, at their best, they were all pretty close.

And that, I guess, is the takeaway: The Beatles were all brilliant. They were a once in a century collaboration, which is why I just did a blog post on them, even though they broke up almost a decade before I was born. They are perhaps the most enduring pop culture entity ever, and I would gladly watch another eight hours of tape on them if such footage ever gets unearthed.

Until next time...