Get Back to Let It Be...Dissected

Latest Updates

2011-06-15T23:54:00.002-05:00

June 15, 2011 I had surgery and I am now PAIN FREE for the first time in five years. It is like being reborn. I have gone from "if this pain does not end soon then I am checking out of this life" to "LUST FOR LIFE". Going to the gym five days a week to rebuild my muscle strength. Soon I will come back to this blog with a vengeance.

I will start fixing all the links that have gone belly up in my absence.

The Ultimate Audio Anthology

2010-04-25T15:05:00.008-05:00

The “Overview” section of this course which I began to publish this summer (the draft is completed and runs 150-200 pages; the first half dozen pages are published) describes in a highly condensed manner the major events that feed into one month, January 1969, in the career of the Beatles. The events are strung together like beads traveling through time along diverse cultural threads. Eventually, these threads came together forming the backdrop tapestry of the world stage upon which the Beatles forever changed popular music and culture.

The main body of the Overview describes my personal “I was there” take on the 1960's (and contrary to urban legend, I do remember every shimmering, and not so shimmering moment)”. It highlights the pivotal role that the Beatles played in the years of continuous socio-political upheaval. The main purpose of the Overview is to frame both the state of the world and the state of the Beatles as they stepped into Twickenham on January 2nd, 1969 to launch their third revolution. We all know that what they planned is not what ended up happening a month later.

The Overview includes many audio extracts of the sounds of the decade. It also includes a complete audio retrospective of the Beatles canon leading directly into and back out of the month that was Get Back to Let It Be. In this post, I am making the audio portions available until I get the rest of the Overview completed and published here.

This audio material utilizes official and unofficial material (i.e. readily available material that and been floating around for decades). I have tried to be fastidiously accurate in sequencing the material so that you can get a sense of the day to day creative process as it unfolded in real time. Some amazng things jump out at you as you listen to these recordings in sequence. Each idea leads to another.

For example, in 1965 George uses the volume pedal on "I Need You" to pleasing effect. However, on their very next recording, "Yes It Is", we find him using it again (presumably at John’s request), but to a much greater artistically satisfying effect, achieving the atmospherics of longing and of profound sorrow that form the basis of the song.

I am admitedly taking a creative license in how I use the BBC material, moving things about the time line for artistic effect. I am also taking a fair amount of creative liberty in editing the unofficial parts of the canon. As usual I played around a lot to try and boost the listening experience – especially with the unofficial material.

Friends with whom I have shared this so as to stimulate their comments and suggestions, have all urged me to share this on the website so that others can listen to this (sorry, no downloads for obvious reasons). This is something like what I would like to see Apple release in my lifetime: a true audio anthology digest spanning their whole career.

So, here are the eighteen volumes (including more art work for the first nine) that comprose this "frame of reference"anthology. This will give you all something slightly new to listen for the few weeks this post is available, allowing me to dive back into the main event. Cheers.

Volume One:1961 thru April 1963 "Lighting the Fuse"
Length: 1:19:44 PLAY LOUD

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Volume One takes you from the primitive but nevertheless appreciated Star Club recordings, the Hamburg recordings, thru the infamous Decca rejection audition, and into their EMI audition, the first two singles, and through all but the closing track on their debut LP "Please Please Me”.

Included are BBC radio bits to to give you a sense of experiencing it all in sped up real time. They were on the launching pad, with ignition, and all systems were GO. BTW: The third track, Chuck Berry’s “Talkin’ About You”, is the same song that John is trying to start on January 10th (someone please correct me if this is a false memory) when George casually announces that he is leaving the group.

Volume Two: April thru September 1963 "Lift off to UK Orbit"Length: 1:19:02 PLAY LOUD

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Volume Two takes you from the lift off of the final track on Please Please Me, through a dynamite third single, through the explosion of the fourth UK single which ignited Beatlemania, and into the With the Beatles LP sessions. The lucky rocket in which they rode was escaping the earthly bond of gravity, carrying them into the ionosphere and on their way to immortality.

Even at this early point of their career, they were establishing a pattern of behavior that they would follow until the end. The Beatles would release a body of work and then linger, elusively, just beyond our intellectual and emotional grasp. Suddenly and without warning, as we were catching up with them, they would vanish from our sight, around the next bend in the time line, leaving us behind in the dust.

At this stage, it was only their core fans in Liverpool who were being left behind, watching as their home boys, with an equal mixture of local pride and of heart breaking bitter sweetness, ascend the UK show business pyramid in far off London. They, and soon to be an entire generation of humanity, would continue to chase after them, drawing tantalizingly close, only to be eluded once again. This process of chasing the rabbit would continue through the rest of the decade until 1970, when they would vanish forever from the face of the earth, and live on in the collective consciousness of a generation, and of generations to come.

“We will never forget them this morning as they prepared for their journey, waved goodbye, and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.”

Volume Three: September 1963 thru March 1964 "World Wide Orbit" Length: 1:19:13 PLAY LOUD

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Volume Three captures the Fab’s explosive leap from a national phenomenon to masters of the global stage, touching down onto two Euro stepping stones(Sweden,well represented on this disk, and Paris) on their way to America and to glory. This rapid transformation is quite evident when you listen to the early take of “Can’t Buy Me Love”, recorded in Paris immediately before Ed Sullivan, followed by the released version finished after Ed Sullivan. The key signature drops, and the playfulness of the earlier incarnation is cast aside as the high energy and drive now infusing their lives turbo charges their post America sound.

The end of Volume Three and continuing into Volume Four is where the true seeds of their legacy, as we understand it today, were planted. Had they quit before recording the A Hard Day’s Night songbook, they still would have been remembered as this wonderful and unique British phenomenon from 1963. But they would not have changed the course of western popular culture. The A Hard Day’s Night body of work is their first Lennon McCartney songbook – they wrote all the compositions.

The many wonderful oldies that they also recorded during these series of early 1964 sessions were delegated in the UK and Europe to EP’s, and in the US onto the bastardized compilation LP’s created by the silly twits at Capitol records. Examples include “The Beatles Second Album” (now there is an original title) and “Something New” (ditto). This “all original compositions” feat is one that they would not repeat until Rubber Soul, after which they would never record anything they did not write until Get Back to Let It Be.

The explosive growth in their cultural scope was reflected in their post American exposure song writing, which was now reaching out into multiple musical genre's all at once. Inventive and melodically creative with fresh sounding arrangements; quirky folkish and soulful mash ups such as John’s If I Fell, his intensely driven rockers such as When I Get Home, and new even ballad standards such as Paul’s And I Love Her. Celebrated mainstream singers such the walk-on-water Ella Fitzgerald began covering their songs, extracting from them new shades of sound and nuances of meaning with their unique vocal approach and arrangements.

On the A Hard Days Night LP, the Beatles first began to exhibit the trait that became their hallmark: creating new sounds that mankind had never heard before, that others would pick up and run with. George’s A Hard Day’s Night 12 string Rickenbacker sound literally became the sound that tweaked the fertile imagination of the then folk musician Roger McGuinn, who took the concept and sent it into orbit with The Byrds (it became their signature). George later returned the nod back to The Byrds unique sound on Rubber Soul with his If I Needed Someone.

Volume Four: March thru August 1964 "Parodox: John's Gains the World as he Sinks into Hopelessness" Length: 1:18:32 PLAY LOUD

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Volume Four finishes the sessions for A Hard Days Night, followed by a series of BBC radio performances promoting the film and the accompanying songbook. Their manager, Brian Epstein, kept them beyond busy and on an extensive three-legged world tour for much of 1964. One of the stops in Australia is represented on this disk. It was the wildest scene that they had generated to date (soon to be totally eclipsed by the final North American leg of the tour). In between these legs, they were racing about Britain virtually 24/7 – or “eight days a week”.

It is on this volume (and becoming more evident on Volume Five) that you witness John’s "Alexander the Great” life crisis. Like Alexander, having conquered the world and fulfilled his every dream as fully as one could fulfill them, there appeared to be nothing left on his horizon to strive for. He suddenly felt empty and rudderless – and in this vacuum his cracked and dangerously fractured subconscious began to eat away at his hard outer ego-shell and seep out thru the fissures and cracks. He began to slip into a deep depression (he later called this point in time "Eight Days a Week" time after the song from the period). His defense mechanism consisted of a threatening, confidently abusive self projection, so evident in all his previous compositions. This began to slowly morph into a growing depression that ate away the struts holding him together. This change in the composition of his surprisingly fragile and newly emerging psyche began to manifest itself in his new compositions.

In between gigs where he performed in the limelight of uncontested triumph before wild SRO world crowds, the Beatles would return to the UK and to the EMI Abbey Road studio to work on their next LP. John was now writing on loss and of emotional insecurity (“Baby’s In Black”, “I’m a Loser”). In many respects he was approaching an emotional and spiritual dead end, and he did not yet see the magic escape door he was soon to pass thru.

At the end of Volume Four and onto Volume Five, George’s latest guitar work played a BIG part in founding another future school of popular music: Country Rock, which really blossomed four years later in America.

Volume Five: August thru October 1964 John lurches from "No Exit", thru the dead end of "Eight Arms to Hold You" and to his self named spiritual low point: "Eight Days a Week" Length: 1:18:59 PLAY LOUD
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Volume Six: October 1964 thru April 1965 From "A New Hope: John Fires the Opening Shot of the Psychedelic Revolution" to "John and George on the Verge of Opening the Door" Length: 1:19:36 PLAY LOUD
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Volume Seven: April thru August 1965 "LSD, Help, and Ego Death: The Mirror Cracks" Length: 1:17:47 PLAY LOUD
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Volume Eight: August 1965 From "The Original Gathering of the Tribe", to "The Electric Koolaid Acid Test: Hollywood Hills Edition" (a/k/a "I know what it's like to be dead") Length: 1:17:47 PLAY LOUD
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Outside (top) and inner (below) cover sleeves. "Hollywood Hills" used by permission of artist Tony de Carlo (2002)

Volume Nine: October 1965 to May 1966 "Going Where No Person Has Gone Before" Length: 1:17:56 PLAY LOUD
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Below: "I'm Only Sleeping" used by permission of artist Tony de Carlo (2009)

Volume Ten: May 1966 to January 1967 "From the End of the Beginning to the New Revolution" Length: 1:17:56 PLAY LOUD
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Volume Eleven: January through October 1967 "The Summer of Love" Length: 1:17:56 PLAY LOUD
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Volume Twelve: October 1967 through March 1968 "The Last Trip Together and the Beginning of the End" Length: 1:19:56 PLAY LOUD
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Volume Thirteen: March through June 1968 "The Revolution Devours it's Young" Length: 1:19:56 PLAY LOUD
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Volume Fourteen: June through August 1968 "Hey Jude" Length: 1:19:56 PLAY LOUD
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Volume Fifteen: August through September 1968 "The Genisis of Get Back to Let It Be" Length: 1:19:56 PLAY LOUD
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Volume Sixteen: October 1968 through January 1969 "Get Back to Let It Be" Length: 1:19:56 PLAY LOUD
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Volume Seventeen: January 1969 "Get Back to Let It Be" Length: 1:19:56 PLAY LOUD
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Woke Up, Fell Out of the Middle Ages

2010-04-23T02:52:00.002-05:00

Woke Up, Fell Out of The Middle Ages (in progress)

So as the European masses began to learn about the larger world, a ferocious industriousness swept through the continent which we collectively refer to as “the renaissance”. There was an explosion in the types of human endeavors that to us today, seem recognizably modern and contemporary: art, science, literature, commerce, music, architecture, mass social upheaval, politics, and theatre.

In the Beginning...

2010-04-09T12:01:00.000-05:00

The Roots of Mass Popular Culture

Anthropologists and sociologists generally agree that the roots of mass popular culture reach back into the most distant recesses of human antiquity. Some broadly argue that the first group of humans who organized themselves into a social community that shared core beliefs, rituals, and stylized artifacts, in fact also formed the world’s first primitive mass culture.

Left: Cave Man YouTube

Below: Iron age decorated ice bucket (all we need is the Dom Perrigon)

Therefore by the broadest definition, we are referring to Paleolithic man of 100,000 years ago, or at least to his Cro-Magnon descendants. The latter lived at the close of this age from 30,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C. in areas around southern France, Spain, Asia, and northern Africa.

Below: The original Standing Stones and Paul McCartney’s 1997 remake

True mass popular culture as we understand it today, requires the means for ideas, ritual myths, customs, and styles that are part of the foundation of the culture, to rapidly spread between social groups, who might otherwise have no meaningful contact with one another.

The first ones to leap out of this starting gate were the

Mesopotamians who dwelt in what is now Iraq. Mesopotamia has been called the “cradle of civilization" because of the development of agriculture, animal herding and domestication, and most importantly, writing. On the human time line, this corresponds to the bronze/iron ages.

Right: 5,000 year old nag note that reads "Honey don't forget to pick up the dry cleaning"

Above: 1 Timothy 6-10: For the love of money is the root of all evil

Near left: The Goddess Ishtar

Far Left: The Royal Standard of Ur

Left to right: Gilgamesh, a Winged Bull, Marduk-nadin-ahhe, and the Great Flood

This great civilization passes a key test of cultural influence insomuch that masny of their religions beliefs and mythology spread to other cultures. Case in point: The Great Flood which made it into the Hebrew Bible in Genesis.

Below right: Babylonian scribe as Paperback Writer

Bits and pieces of the day to day cultures and practices of widely separated peoples did in fact manage to jump time, geography, and language barriers to become accepted components of other people’s cultures. While the propagation of such influences across the globe tended to be ploddingly slow and linear by today’s standards, there are one people who created one of the most seductively enduring and widely spread popular cultures of all time: the grand masters of civilization, the Egyptians.

The Egyptians established an enduring civilization whose influence spread far beyond the boundaries of their realm and into permanent imagination of all who have followed them, even charming us today. Even the Romans (who were quite impressive themselves) were filled with a sense of awe and mystical delight for all things Egyptian.

Archeology has unearthed numerous writings by ordinary citizens of Rome describing their adventures into the Kingdom of Egypt in search of spiritual wisdom. There are huge parallels between the western intelligentsia’s 1960’s fascination with India, and that of the intelligentsia of ancient Rome and their pipe-dreams about the exotica of Egypt. In both cases, there were widely held beliefs in the existence of mysterious enlightened gurus who dwelled in these lands, and who possessed a mysterious secret knowledge that provided answers to the age old mysteries of life. And like westerners, Roman citizens would go on Magical Mystery Tour pilgrimages to Egypt to seek out this knowledge.

Above: John and Yoko circa 1500 BC
Below: Egyptian Rubber Soul LP cover

Above: Pyramid Power

When in Rome

2010-04-08T00:54:00.000-05:00

It's All Greek To Me

Despite all the thus far mentioned historical examples of culture, for mass popular culture to flourish, there must exist both a media in which to express ideas, ritual myths, customs, and styles as well as a means to rapidly spread said ideas between social groups who might otherwise have no contact with one another.

By this measure, the ancient world champions are the Greeks. Their science, architecture, philosophy, concepts of democracy, and artistic works of literature, theatre, and sculpture spread among and beyond the people in their sphere of influence. And contrary to what the contemporary fundamentalist devotees of Christianity and Judaism wish to believe about themselves, the fantastically rich mother lode of supposedly “paegan” Hellenistic mythology and philosophy greatly shaped the customs, practices, and sacred mythology of both religions. Greek influence has passed down through the centuries, touching every aspect of our own lives, our communities, and our spiritual lives in today's world.

Building upon the foundation of culture laid by the Greeks, came the massively long lived ascendancy of Rome. For 1000 years, a homogenized Roman commonality spread through out the entire Mediterranean world, into the Middle East, and Britannia. Loved or hated, Rome's power and cultural influence in the lives of its inhabitants was absolute.

Above: Shadows of Ancient Rome Below: Roman Love Shack

Rome was not only a great enforcer of cultural standardization, it also was, much like the Anglo people of planet earth, a great assimilator of other cultures, borrowing ideas, styles, language, and customs wherever and whenever it was deemed appropriate. And so went Rome for centuries, devolving from republic, to empire, and to dictatorship ruled by an entire series of psychopathic misfits. Most of the rest of the Western world was dragged along for the Roman ride to varying degrees, resisting whenever the opportunity presented itself. That there are parallels one can draw between Roman world and America is obvious, though thankfully, it still remains debatable as to what those parallels might be.

Constantine, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity set the Empire onto the transformational fast path. Constantine immediately lifted the persecution of Christians. He eventually went far beyond this act in three important ways: 1) He opening the imperial purse for Church specific projects including the Church of the Holy Church of the Sepulcher in Jerusalem; 2) he issued edicts that helped the Church to thrive and to grow; and 3) he brought the Church clergy into the governance of the imperial realm. Thus the Roman Empire began its transformational journey into both a theocracy, and into the mother church of a major new world religion: Christianity.

One final act of Constantine, which in scope and consequence rivals his conversion to Christianity, was to build a stunning new capital on the site of the ancient Greek city of Byzantium, and renaming this remade city as Nova Roma, and upon his death, Constantinople. The effect on the empire, which had already been split empire into east and west halves was enormous. From this point on, two separate religious, cultural, social and artistic cultures began to diverge from one another. The eastern half with a Greek flavor, and the western half Roman. . The roots of our story, and yes, this is all about Get Back to Let It Be…Dissected, lie entirely in the western half.

Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 395 by order of Theodosius. Thus, like mammals emerging from the shadows during the age of Dinosaurs, this religion was set to eclipse and to absorb the Roman state, eventually becoming the state. What ensued was a battle of Christian sects, traditions, ideas and orthodoxies, which was settled both by the cigar chompers in smoke filled conclaves, and by the point of the sword. Thus, the new Christian Pharisees and Sadducees were born.

"Go sacrifice yourself – I don’t subscribe to your religion" (Ringo in Help, 1965)

These are the spiritual descendants of the hateful fundamentalists with whom John Lennon would come into conflict in 1966. Lost on all of these so-called spiritual leaders was the undisputable fact that Jesus hated religion, with its pile of arbitrary man made notions. After all, his real message can be summed up as "Love God, and Love One Another".

Let's Play Family Feud

2010-04-07T00:21:00.001-05:00

He Said He Said

Hell broke out with the Iconoclasm controversy which began in 726 in Byzantium under Leo III (in response to Muslim Taliban-like criticism of icons). This really got the the East/West family feud going, leading to the bitter schism between the Roman and Eastern Orthodox halves (they still refuse to make up today). Western world cultural uniformity, which had been in a steady decline, ended. Popular culture once again became more localized and parochial in nature across what had been organized for 1,000 years into a somewhat homogonous Roman State.

In 1054 AD the Pope and the Patriarch representing the two halves of the church excommunicated each other and went their separate cultural ways. Our story lie with the western half.

Wars and Rumors of Wars

During the 1,000 year long medieval era (A.D. 500-1500), western culture simmered in pots placed on endless numbers of highly localized back burners, stirred by mankind’s second favorite preoccupation: warfare. During this time, the native peoples of the British Isles were subjected to near continuous campaigns of invasion by Scandinavian forces, most notably the Vikings and the Danes. Then, in 1066 the successful invasion of total conquest and of assimilation by the Norman’s led by William, Duke of Normandy, infused and enriched the culture of the British, doubling the size of the English language and flooding the Brits with fresh and vital cultural, artistic, intellectual raw material. The foundation was now laid for Britain to one day rule the world.

Above: A troika of Lennons standing guard against the establishment Idiocracy
Below: Charlemagne is crowned emperor by Pope Leo III

The foundation of medieval era culture was the written word, which existed in the form of manuscripts. Each manuscript was a unique one-of-a-kind object created by a scribe who copied existing works by hand. Lavish illustrations adorned the manuscripts, sometimes depicting a scene from the text, and some purely decorative. The process was understandably labour intensive, and therefore expensive to make, and more importantly, to own. Thus, the use of manuscripts was limited to those with deep pockets: Kings, Nobels, and of course, the Church. The topics addressed included the Bible, related religious dogma, tales of battles, flattering portraits of Kings, and literary works. Hardly the kind of stuff to excite the chattering illiterate masses.

The next major leap in the means for the mass culturalisation of populations was an invention that allowed for the economical replication and distribution of the written word, and by extension the rapid spread of ideas between widely dispersed peoples. We are of course referring to the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450.

The Gutenberg press with its wooden, and later metal movable type outsourced the job of printing that was work formerly done by the scribes. It made the printed word affordable and therefore available to the masses. It also sent the scribes to the unemployment lines. That this invention played a large role in the rise of the age of enlightenment is beyond dispute. Thought began to move about the realm at a quickening pace.

Act One Scene One: Roll 1-A

2010-04-04T18:39:00.000-05:00

Act One Scene One
The Morning of Thursday, January 2nd, 1969

One by one the Beatles arrive on the Twickenham film studio sound stage to begin both a new year (1969) and to begin the new project that they have each signed onto. Their collective understanding of the project being the following:

1. Write a batch of new songs m eant to be performed and r ecorded live without any overdubs

2. Film every step of the creative process capturing the writing and perfecting the batch of new songs for a television documentary

3. Perform the new numbers live before an audience in some sort of grand show.

They each arrive on the set with their own virtual sack of potential candidate songs in various states of completion.

Press to Play

Tape Roll	CD Track	Time	Title	Description
1A	1	00:21	"And Now We're Gonna Tape The Beatles"	Before the Beatles arrived on the Twickenham sound stage, filmmaker Michael Lindsey Hogg shot various filler scenes including several takes of the drum kit with the Beatles logo being carried across empty soundstage by Beatles road manager Mal Evans. One of the takes from this series of shots was used to open the film Let It Be. This cut is an edit of several of the opening shot elements including : Michael's officially starting off the project with his comment "And now we're gonna tape the Beatles so I'll be quiet" (a promise he fails to live up to) Brand Recognition is Everything Mal Evans walking across the sound stage carrying the drum kit logo. Mal and a stage hand pushing the piano into place
1A	2	00:29	John Tuning Up	John arrives, starts to tune his guitar, and to warm up. You hear the film technician announce "slate four take one" to help with the synchronization of film and sound during post production.
1A	3	00:43	George Arrives, Tuning Up, All Things Must Pass (001)	This cut is an edit of several elements including: George's arrival and greeting the set with "Hello, Hari Krishna" to which John responds "Hi". George beginning to tune up with John George slipping under the radar to sneak in the first official song of Let It Be: a short passage from his memorable composition All Things Must Pass. All during this project, new George compositions are usually introduced by him in such an informal and unannounced manner.
1A	4	03:22	Don't Let Me Down (001), Ringo Arrives, "I Like Simple Tunes"	George and John run through this new John song for the first time. Ringo arrives, and he starts drumming about 1:18 into the song. Obviously, even from a single listen of this new composition, George already likes the number as he happily sings along. At the end of the song (more of a break down than a proper musical ending) they both greet Ringo and wish him a Happy New Year. Having just arrived, Ringo promptly ducks out of sight and vanishes from the set. John and George discuss the song, John stating that this song is the most finished one he has to which George responds "That's a good one: I like simple tunes".
1A	5	03:00	Dig a Pony (001)	George lights up a ciggie and mumbles a few lines of Don't Let Me Down. Then the two of them engage in a bit of conversation regarding the disadvantages of rehearsing on a voluminous movie sound stage. John: "I think it's probably better to rehearse in a small room" George: "It would be nice for the acoustics in a cozy dressing room". This topic is to be revisited many more times in the following days and become a source of growing irritation. John then starts another of his new compositions: Dig a Pony. George stops him mid song, asking him if the phrase is "dig a pony" to which John answers in the affirmative.

Act Two Scene One: Rolls 25-A + 57-B DRAFT OUTLINE

2009-11-08T01:14:00.015-06:00

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Tape Roll	CD Track	Time	Title	Description
25A + 57B	6	02:01	Conversation (027) George compares and contrasts himself with Eric Clapton	It has been an extremely long and productive day (5:10 PM), and George’s All Things Must Pass has received the longest single rehearsal of any song in the project to date. Despite having taken it as far as can be reasonably expected for the first days rehearsal, 25A+57B begins in the middle of a conversation break before the return to ATMP. George tries to describe the profound difference in guitar style, between himself and John on the one hand, and Eric Clapton on the other. George correctly understands that both he and John are guitarists who play highly structured guitar bits that are an intrical part of their compositions. He also credits the large amount of singing that each do in the band. George in fact is underrated as a vocalist, possessing a pitch perfect bell clear voice, which is an ever present albeit subtle presence in the Beatles memorable vocals. He goes on to contrast this style to that of Eric Clapton, who being the only guitar in Cream, must carry the whole shebang, keeping it moving along (i.e. acting as a rhythm guitar) and supply all the accents and extraordinary instrumental sparkle and brilliance (i.e. acting as a virtuoso lead guitarist). John sees it quite differently believing that "its just a matter of learning the solo". George disagrees stating that it is much more than that, reinforcing the idea of Eric sustaining a musical idea through such classical-like forms as introduction, development, recapitulation and resolution. He also draws attention to Eric’s fantastically fast fingering, which he contrasts to blues guitarist Albert King (who was already mentioned earlier in the day). John is prompted by the King reference to mention blues musician Taj Mahal. George wraps it up by again stating that what Eric is doing is way beyond what he (George) provides as a guitarist in a band. Paul, who has been listening to this discussion sums it up with “It’s jazz, man”.
25A + 57B	7	01:00	All Things Must Pass (001)	They sing the song to the first chorus. Paul stops and asks George about the timing of the break back to the verse.
25A + 57B	8	00:16	All Things Must Pass(001)	Another attempt. Interesting.
25A + 57B	9	00:18	Conversation (001)	More discussion and trying out musical ideas.
25A + 57B	10	00:51	Conversation(001)	Interesting comments and discussions. Finally at John's direction (George is playing his guitar) George sets the guitar sound to John's taste.
25A + 57B	11	01:22	All Things Must Pass (001)	Dreamy version to fade ends the days work on the song. But Paul has ONE more new song to introduce so the VERY LONG DAY CONTINUES.
25A + 57B	12	01:53	gggggg(001)	George leads
25A + 57B	13	02:09	hhhy (001)	Now George .
25A + 57B	14	02:05	pHip (001)	Now begins
25A + 57B	15	03:12	jjhjj (005)	Paul attempts

Act Two Scene Two: Roll 26-A DRAFT OUTLINE

2009-11-07T00:01:00.000-06:00

Notes for me: Most incredibly they manage to roll out one final new tune for this early evening finish to what can only be described as MARATHON day. They break for the weekend and resume Monday Morning on the road to musical immortality and to George quitting the Beatles.

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Tape Roll	CD Track	Time	Title	Description
Let It Be Dissected: Volume Three begins here
26A	1	01:09	Maxwell Silver Hammer (002)	The time is 5:45 PM. Song starts out with Paul calling out chords to others who follow along. This scene appeared in the film Let It Be. Note: insert vid here
26A	2	01:04	Maxwell Silver Hammer (003)	Rehearsal continues. George is most unexpectedly enthusiastically participating and even singing. Notice John's comic "A dog came to the door" comment.
26A	3	03:07	Maxwell Silver Hammer (004)	And continues. George offers his comments on song structure which Paul takes.
26A	4	03:00	Maxwell Silver Hammer (005)	And continues. George offers more of his comments on song structure which Paul again takes. George really likes this one. Perhaps the serious attention paid to HIS song has brightened his mood. Song keeps bouncing and rolling along.
26A	5	01:40	Maxwell Silver Hammer (006)	Song continues. "A DEAD" death comment by Paul (murder being one of the themes of the song after all) will be fully explored in a few minutes.
26A	6	01:37	Maxwell Silver Hammer (007)	They finish this arrangement. Then George asks if Paul would like to switch to piano. Answering in the affirmative, George then prepares to switch to six string bass.

Act Two Scene Two: Roll 27-A + 28-A DRAFT OUTLINE

2009-11-05T22:34:00.000-06:00

Press to Play

Tape Roll	CD Track	Time	Title	Description
27A	7	01:22	Maxwell Silver Hammer (008)	Paul now on piano rolls out the "DEAD MUSIC" bit of Maxwell Silver Hammer which did not make it to the final version. He envisions a bit of melodrama and murder mystery movie music. Notes: Add Silent horror film art posters
27A	8	03:14	Maxwell Silver Hammer (009)	Clowning about while the malfunctioning PA is attended to.
27A	9	03:14	Maxwell Silver Hammer (010)	More work on the DEAD MUSIC musical bit. Terminated by a feed back problem
27A	10	03:14	Maxwell Silver Hammer (011)	Complete run thru of the song with DEAD MUSIC bit included. Notice that words are not yet completed.
27A	11	03:14	Maxwell Silver Hammer (012)	Screeching screechy joke version fading into DEAD MUSIC, more DEAD MUSIC, and John doing a Spanish guitar version of DEAD MUSIC. Then they practice verses. Ends with a double time run thru.
27A	12	00:34	Maxwell Silver Hammer (013)	Great complete version. Not bad considering what they had already accomplished on day two and that this is after all a newly introduced song. John adds this funny guitar flourish during the breaks.. Ends with a George repeat of the final bit solo on bass.
27A	13	01:03	Maxwell Silver Hammer (014)	George asks about the storyline line "Do the Words Resolve the Story?" and Paul answers that there is more yet to write to complete the story. Then they restart song to fade.
28A	14	03:14	Maxwell Silver Hammer (015)	An In-progress version from the middle bass break. Ends with fade out whistling version. Paul later in the month picks up on the whistling idea and runs it into the ground
28A	15	03:14	Maxwell Silver Hammer (016)	Band is breaking up for weekend but George lingers to practice his bass part.
28A	16	05:01	Conversation (XXX)	Leaving for the weekend. George discusses his personal eight track REVOX recorder and quotes PENNY LANE in describing how he once lent his to EMI and they returned it leaving it is the street in the "Pouring Rain…Very Strange". Mixed multi conversations as they leave.

Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely (or How the World Learned To Stop Worrying and to Love The Bomb.)

2009-04-28T14:54:00.000-05:00

On February 25th, 1967 an American radio personality up in Seattle on managed to get a hold of Beatle George Harrison on the trans-atlantic telephone (it was his 24th birthday). He broadcast the conversation with George live on the air.

During the conversation George said that they were back in the studio working on a new album. He went on to enthusiastically describe a new song that the Beatles had just completed only two days earlier, titled A Day in the Life. Finally, George played the song live from Britain over the long distance telephone wires for the benefit of the unbelievably lucky Seattle radio audience that was tuned into radio station KJR that afternoon.

What they were treated to was yet another new mysterious Beatle composition that started out sounding vaguely acoustic and folkish, only to twice morph into a growing sonic crescendo of gargantuan proportions that resemble the take off of a Boeing 747 live in the recording studio..

The disc jockey was as stunned and speechless as the listening audience. The detonation countdown on the Beatle doomsday device was now initiated and the coming super nova was now unstoppable

The buzz began to spread everywhere that something absolutely brilliant and wonderful, a once in a life time cultural event was about to explode on our watch. Radio stations started speculating about the coming Beatles album describing it in mythical proportions months before it was released.

Even teen magazines such as “16 Magazine” which had more or less moved on to the Monkees contained psychedelic lifestyle photo shoots of the Beatles such as Paul McCartney conducting the Day in the Life orchestra in a butcher’s apron.

Other music artists began a countdown watch for the next Beatles album. Print and broadcast media picked up on the fact that something of unfathomable cultural significance was about to happen, and there was again an up spike in Beatles related coverage.

And that spring of 1967, the rivets that held together the structural vestiges of the cultural establishment, some that had successfully withstood the 1964 onslaught of Beatle mania, began to pop off. A catastrophic failure of the establishment was imminent.

The San Francisco psychedelic city state which had been cooking for a couple of years on the national back burner began boiling over the cultural pot in which it had been stewing and enveloped the front page of the national consciousness, and even of the greater collective consciousness of the western world.

And in London, a home grown psychedelic sub-culture was mushrooming and overtaking the British Empire and western Europe. In addition to the Beatles, it featured an up and coming band named The Pink Floyd and an American born phenomenon named Jimi Hendrix who was exploding across the island nation and set to sweep over the entire planet.

As the release date of the mystery Beatle Album approached, news and print media picked up on them again and the chain reaction began to reach critical mass once again. On Am radio, an actual countdown began of the number of days until “we have that new Beatles album”. Then at the beginning of June it hit the public like a nuclear bomb embedding itself into the body politic of the world.

Across the world, radio stations put the LP onto the turntable and let it play without interruption except to occasionally break in with “oh my God!!!” followed by their attempts to try and describe the cover to the listening audience or to even grasp the cultural significance of the event.

Sergeant Pepper’s One And Only Lonely Hearts Club Band has left the building

And thus was unleashed a second 1960’s revolution uprooting and toppling cultural institutions both great and small. It is hard to over state the sudden, immediate, and irreversible effect that the release of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band had on mass consciousness that golden and idyllic summer of love. It was art of the highest order

Downloads

2009-04-03T01:59:00.001-05:00

Let It Be Dissected: Volume One -- Disks One and Two, PDF track listing, plus CD tray Art work. Nagra rolls 1-A thru 15-A, and 50-B thru 51-B, all from January 2nd and 3rd, 1969. Click HERE Updated April 3rd, 2009

Let It Be Dissected: Volume Two -- Disk One, the beginnings of Disk Two, and a PDF track listing. Nagra rolls 15-A thru 23-A and 52-B through 56-B, all from January 3rd, 1969. Click HERE Updated April 2nd, 2009

The Making of "Get Back" on January 27, 1969 -- This is the "throw-away" work I did as an expirement documenting the session that produced the fantabulous single "Get Back". Corresponds to Nagra rolls 510-A thru 516-A and 1099-B thru 1105-B. In progress. Click HERE

The "Rooftop" on January 30, 1969 -- This is the "throw-away" work I did as an expirement documenting the rooftop performance. Click HERE

Act One Scene One: Roll 2-A

2009-01-27T00:04:00.000-06:00

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Tape Roll	CD Track	Time	Title	Description
2A	6	01:34	Let It Down (001)	George introduces another candidate for the project: Let It Down. John offers accompaniment. Afterwards, John makes a joking comment about the song being ‘the same three chords’. George stops after playing a particular chord reassuring John that it is “a great chord” and then goes on to show John how to form the chord. George later recorded this song for his All Thing Must Pass LP released in November, 1970.
2A	7	01:05	Everybody Had A Hard Year (001)	John plays this song fragment left over from their trip to India in February of 1968. Later in today's session, it becomes obvious that the idea of joining this fragment to Paul’s song I’ve Got a Feeling had already been decided.
2A	8	01:44	Child Of Nature (001)	John plays another song dating from their 1968 India adventure (the song failed to make it onto the White album) with great energy and enthusiasm supplied by George. George appears to favor this song as he asks to rehearse it several times during Let It Be. This song was later given a new set of lyrics and a softer, more feminine approach by John and re-titled Jealous Guy. It appeared on John’s Imagine LP released in 1972.
2A	9	01:58	I Shall Be Released (001)	John starts this cut with a rambling guitar riff and then observes “we’ll probably write some fast ones, here together, all of us”. This proves to be a problem in that everyone has a wealth of slowish candidate tunes, but nary a fast one. Then George exhibits the first instance of a behavior he repeats throughout Let it Be. That is, he makes apparent musical commentary on the moment at hand by playing slices of various Dylan tunes. This particular song is one he returns to on several occasions during Let It Be. John is obviously familiar with the song and joins in. After finishing the White album George had spent the previous Thanksgiving visiting Dylan in his home in New York having been invited by The Band. George was deeply impressed with both Dylan, and The Band: their style, their approach to making music, and their choice of material. George will go on and on regarding his admiratiion of The Band in the coming weeks to the point of irritating John. This particular song is on both Dylan’s Basement Tapes LP (which George liked enough to give to Ringo as a gift) and the Music From Big Pink LP.
2A	10	01:41	Sun King (001)	At this stage, John has a musical fragment that he appears fond of as it surfaces multiple times during Let It Be. It is recognizable as the instrumental bit that went on to form the song Sun King, found on their final Opus: the Abbey Road LP. This is a nice performance of that instrumental fragment by John and George.

Act One Scene One: Roll 3-A

2009-01-26T00:01:00.000-06:00

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Tape Roll

CD Track

Time

Title

Description

04:20

Don't Let Me Down (002),
Paul
Arrives, "Happy New Year"

A wonderful bouncy and spirited rendition of John’s song. Ringo has apparently ended his tea break and climbs back onto the drum kit and joins John and George at 1:08 into the song. Great fun. George sings and plays passionately demonstrating that he clearly feels he has a personal statke in the song.

As the song ends Paul makes his fashionably late appearance, joining in on vocals. Later, he can be heard issuing a round of “Happy New Year” greetings to his band mates, and to the participants on the set.

As the track fades, you can hear George apparently reading the 1966 American tour set list that is still taped to Paul's Hofner bass. That list includies Rock and Roll Music, She's A Woman, Nowhere Man, and so forth. On January 7th, it will be Paul who reads this same set list during a bizarre span of Across the Universe rehearsals, inspiring John to lurch from lethargy to mania as he launches a fantabulous version of Rock and Roll Music.

01:37

Don't Let Me Down (003)
Rehearsals

A conversation starts this track, where film director Michael Lindsey Hogg is asking the Beatles to turn down their amps a bit so that he can better record their conversations. George seems a bit surprised and alarmed at this prospect and asks “Are you recording our conversations?”.

His show of concern and suspisicion really is not as odd as it might sound for two reasons.

1).Contrary to what one might imagine, George by far has the earthiest mouth of the four Beatles (you'll get to hear his randy mouth in action on January 3rd) and therefore has the most to worry about being captured on tape.

2). George resented more than any of the Beatles the price of fame: intrusion into his private life, and constant wear and tear on his nervous system. Thus the realization that his every remark in what otherwise would have been a private sanctuary surely struck him as one more bit of his self being sucked out and put on display.

On top of this conversation, John starts a tender rendition of Don’t Let Me Down. Once Paul joins in he immediately floats an idea to change the song into a “call and response” type by singing “Yeah don’t let him down” in answer to John’s “Don’t Let Me Down". John finally issues a singing correction thus ending Paul’s musical gambit.

However, not one to give up gracefully, on day three, Paul will re-float a variation of his idea and proceed to run it into the ground. This sets the stage for the legendary blow up with George that was partially included in the film Let It Be.

00:42

Teacher (001)

A tight little warm up improvisation that comes up out of nowhere. George adds some "Johnny B. Goode' Chuck Berry type lyrics as an ending chorus.

01:40

Group Discussions (001):
The Show

The first recorded group discussion of “the live show” project at hand. Having spent a significant portion of their life locked together in the bubble prison of fame, they have learned to communicate in an abbreviated shorthand style. So where normal conversation may take long sentences to get points across, they appear to be able to communicate in an accelerated manner that requires the fewest number of words to get points across. Thus conversation topics advance at an amazingly fast clip.

Also, it is quite remarkable that musical rehearsing continues on a parallel track while they talk. This trait is to be demonstrated all during Let It Be (playing and conversing simultaneously).

A description of what they discuss in this brief extract follows.

John starts things off by airing his negative thoughts about rehearsing on the dreary sound stage by pointing out that the cameramen will not need three weeks of practicing their camera shots that will be used for the live show. The three week date puts the tentative date of the show on or about January 23, 1969.

Paul tries to defend the choice of a sounds stage while John suggests that they should be using a small room, and then suggests they should be using a PA which of course is at odds with his small room suggestion.

Next they discuss the problem of all the strangers drifting onto the set and watching them rehearse. Paul says he discussed the problem with roadie Mal Evans and had suggested that Mal should order them out. But them Paul says he realized that they should just let them drift in so that they would be used to them.

This shows that Paul was definitely comfortable with and in favor of the idea of getting the Beatles back in front of live audiences. John then adds that “they would show up wherever we went…they’d drift in” showing he is resigned to that fact being an unavoidable part of their fame.

George then makes an obvious suggestion that “maybe we should learn a few songs”.

John agrees and then complains that Ringo should be closer so that they can communicate. He again suggests they should be using a PA. More comments on the poor acoustics of the room. George notes that it is echo prone and then suggests that they get a Binson echo unit like the one they had used in the Top Ten club in Hamburg.

Ringo remains the ever silent observer who only speaks with his drums.

John ends the conversation by asking Paul if he’d like to sing a few. He starts up I’ve Got a Feeling, sings a line from it, and Paul agrees to the song selection for rehearsal by saying “Yeah, I’ve got a feeling”. This exchange shows John was already familiar with the song and therefore, it id most likely that his Everybody Had A Hard Year song fragment already been joined to Paul’s song.

03:17

I've Got A Feeling (001)
Rehearsals

The Beatles first tentative go at I’ve Got a Feeling. Not bad really as they make their way thru the song. John and George add bits of backing vocals. George has to stop Paul on the break asking what the chord changes are showing that unlike John, he is not familiar with the number. This suggests that John and Paul still had a collaborative bond that George was not privy to.

Paul calls out the chords for the middle break and calls out “Stop” for where he wants the band to stop and for George to insert a guitar link. Not surprisingly this does not pan out and it falls apart. Paul says “A longer stop where” and John jumps in voicing his agreement with Paul’s assessment stating “Yeah”.

Again this shows John feels this is partially his song. He and Paul then show George how the break should work and then recycle back into the song at the second verse and run thru the middle section and break again.

Notice that Ringo appears to rarely need any instruction: he instinctively is able to follow anything any of the band members toss out.

Act One Scene One: Roll 4-A

2009-01-25T00:18:00.000-06:00

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Tape Roll	CD Track	Time	Title	Description
4A	16	00:51	I've Got A Feeling (002) Rehearsals	A bit of discussion as they twiddle about on their instruments. John is speaking about his “Everybody Had A Hard Year” part of the song at the end. Then Paul turns his attention back to the guitar break that he wants George to play. George rehearses the descending line several times at high volume. While he plays Paul and John converse on matters musical.
4A	17	01:34	I've Got A Feeling (003) Rehearsals	Already Paul is beginning to micro manage George’s playing by now obsessively focusing on the guitar break that follows the chorus. This sets up a familiar pattern that plagues Let It Be: the harder Paul pushes on George, the more George slyly exhibits passive resistance by never quite playing what Paul wants for this break until: • January 28^th when he finally eases into playing it as envisioned by Paul (especially after Paul leaves the room to attend a meeting, which is very funny) • Again on the Rooftop performance of January 30^th where George makes up for his having held back by delivering two blisteringly perfect performances. Resisting Paul’s irresistible force (ego) is a dirty job but somebody has to do it and George appears to be the perfect immovable object. Although he is the youngest Beatle, George had a reputation from the beginning as a rebel. By 1969, the group psychology of the Beatles was such that Paul represented the “the established order” that George was only too willing to rebel against. In the Anthology book George comments that from Sgt. Pepper on, Paul started to dictate all the guitar parts for his own songs. In contrast, John who was much more open to letting everyone freely experiment in his songs, and see what they come up with. As a musician, George found John's approach to his own composiitons songs was much more satisfying than Paul's approach. George further states that his understanding of Let It Be was that the Beatles would return to an earlier live mode of recording. He took this new approach to mean that they would also return to jointly playing as a band to feel out the new numbers together. However, he soon found that Paul still wanted to micro dictate every facet of his own songs, leaving George to feel like little more than a hired session man. This of course is just George’s perspective. It must be noted that John actively participates in shaping what is essentially a Paul composition, so perhaps it is more of a case Paul treating John differently than he treats George.
4A	18	03:01	I've Got a Feeling (004) Discussion and Rehearsal	John: “So now I think the next move is for George to get on lead”. George (a bit defensive sounding): “Get on what?” John: “Get on lead” Paul: “Yeah” The above illustrates that it may have appeared to George to be a tag team gang up on him at moments such as this. A discussion follows where Paul tells John that he has been doing those breaks, especially the one where he wants George to play something very specific. John agrees saying that he has only been playing the break just to get the timing. Paul then switches over to an acoustic guitar and demonstrates what he wants by playing the middle section and the break singing along in a falsetto. The band immediately plays the break. Then they try the middle section and break several times in succession. George is playing the break as a series of recognizable descending steps that we will learn is not what Paul wants. Then they continue forward until George questions a specific three chord bit and they rehears that bit several times. Paul suggests it should be played like Peter Townsend of The Who after George has played it in a drop dead spot on impersonation of Peter’s style.
4A	19	01:11	Instrumental based on a theme from I've Got a Feeling (001)	A continuation of the previous track. The band plays a beautiful little improvizational instrumental variation of the song. It quickly peters out into dribs and drabs playing and ends.
4A	20	02:58	I've Got a Feeling (005) Discussion and Rehearsal	A proper count in by Paul starts this take. George is now “getting on lead” as John suggested he do playing around in the song in a delicious manner. However he is still playing the break as a series of recognizable descending steps. He sounds like he freezes up on that break. Paul's cry of “Take it Johnny yeah boy” introduces us to a full recitation of John’s Everybody Had A Hard Year song that has obviously already been tagged onto Paul’s composition. All and all a great version of the song considering this is the first new song of the new project to be properly worked on by the entire band. The song concludes with a super cheesy Paul cliché ending.
4A	21	00:22	Discussion (002): Can you play back on that little tape?	As the band prepares to take a break, Paul asks Glyn “Can you play back on that little tape?” After Paul receives verification that Glyn has been taping their ongoing rehearsal he asks if he can listen to some of it. The tape’s he is of course referring to are the very same A cam (and later B cam) Nagra mono tapes that make up Get Back to Let It Be…Dissected. One of the problems the Beatles had with this new approach is that at this point they did not have the ability to play back these tapes and sometimes they did not recognize when a musical idea was working, or not working. This becomes painfully evident on day three when they work on Don’t Let Me Down.
4A	22	01:46	Discussion (003): Sound, Acoustics, Recording, The Show	Beatles producer George Martin arrives on the set. As the Beatles minus Paul rehearse an unidentified number, George Martin, Paul, Glyn and Michael discuss the challenges related to the Twickenham soundstage and acoustics, recording, and the show venue. Paul fatalistically sums things up by saying “we’ll move out of here when we are ready. Or maybe we won’t”.