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Watching this extremely good HBO documentary on George Harrison and The Beatles which was done by Martin Scorsese, with Harrison's full participation before his death, that is entitled George Harrison: Living in a Material World. [Yes, that Martin Scorsese, which may explain why it is so good. Scorsese does understand how to do film editing. We have a brilliant filmmaker doing a film on a brilliant musician, doesn't get any better than that.]
Here's a great comment by Ringo about fame: "At first it's great, you get the best seat at the restaurant, the best car, get to go to the star's house, and then you just want it to all go away. You work really hard to get it, the fame, and then you do, and you wish it would just end, but it never really does - that's the deal." They got isolated and ended up hanging almost exclusively with each other because of that fame. Another story - when they went to NY for the first time, they got the entire floor at the Plaza Hotel, but they ended up all hanging out in the bathroom, because of the immense pressure outside.
Documentaries are a mixed breed. You either end up with a lot of boring talking head, you just give views, or you get actually story - with photos, songs, and interviews - this is a biopic documentary, told in an almost half non-linear style, from the little seen perspective of George Harrison. It's quite informative.
Paul McCartney on song-writing, and George and Ringo. "We'd write the song in the morning. Come in the afternoon, share it with George and Ringo who had never seen it or the music and they'd immediately pick it up, that's how good they were. The song how I love her, George came up with the riff - dooodedooo.. and if you think about it, that's the song, and its there because he said it needed a riff, but I didn't write it, but that's how extremely good he was. " George was also the only one who could really play guitare - he taught John Lennon how to play. They got him in the beginning, this is back way before Ringo, because they needed a guitar player and neither of them were very good. [What I love most about the Beatles is they are all very aware of how talented and how necessary the other people were. They were also very different personalities and clashed. But hey, human. But unlike the Rolling Stones - you didn't have a clear front man, or clear leader, you had four people who were all in charge in a way. John and Paul leading as the writers at first. John, Paul, and George were all extreemly versatile and accomplished muscians outside of each other. And very different in what they wanted. This lead to a versatility you don't see in other bands like The Stones, who stayed together longer. Also the Beatles were very young when they hit it big and they continued to create amazing music in a various venues and styles up until their deaths or in Paul's case in his mid-60s. ]
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Here's a great comment by Ringo about fame: "At first it's great, you get the best seat at the restaurant, the best car, get to go to the star's house, and then you just want it to all go away. You work really hard to get it, the fame, and then you do, and you wish it would just end, but it never really does - that's the deal." They got isolated and ended up hanging almost exclusively with each other because of that fame. Another story - when they went to NY for the first time, they got the entire floor at the Plaza Hotel, but they ended up all hanging out in the bathroom, because of the immense pressure outside.
George Harrison: "You do like the fans, and you don't really realize it's about you - that it's you who you are reading about in the paper, it seems to be about a whole another person."
Interviewer to George and Ringo: do you have a public persona?
Ringo: What public persona?
George: No, we're just us.
Ringo: Well we are, I don't know about the other two.
Ringo: George had two different personalities. There was the bag of beads personality who was really sweet and there was the bag of anger. He was very black and white.
George Martin: When I first met the Beatles in 1962, I wasn't terribly impressed. I didn't understand the sound they were doing. So I tried different things. Realized there was no real leader, and their voices blended best together. I took them around to the sound box and played a few things and said, listen, if there's anything you don't like tell us. And George said - "well, I don't like your tie for one thing", the others were horrified and thought they'd lost their chance, but I burst out laughing, that's when he endeared himself to me.
Documentaries are a mixed breed. You either end up with a lot of boring talking head, you just give views, or you get actually story - with photos, songs, and interviews - this is a biopic documentary, told in an almost half non-linear style, from the little seen perspective of George Harrison. It's quite informative.
Paul McCartney on song-writing, and George and Ringo. "We'd write the song in the morning. Come in the afternoon, share it with George and Ringo who had never seen it or the music and they'd immediately pick it up, that's how good they were. The song how I love her, George came up with the riff - dooodedooo.. and if you think about it, that's the song, and its there because he said it needed a riff, but I didn't write it, but that's how extremely good he was. " George was also the only one who could really play guitare - he taught John Lennon how to play. They got him in the beginning, this is back way before Ringo, because they needed a guitar player and neither of them were very good. [What I love most about the Beatles is they are all very aware of how talented and how necessary the other people were. They were also very different personalities and clashed. But hey, human. But unlike the Rolling Stones - you didn't have a clear front man, or clear leader, you had four people who were all in charge in a way. John and Paul leading as the writers at first. John, Paul, and George were all extreemly versatile and accomplished muscians outside of each other. And very different in what they wanted. This lead to a versatility you don't see in other bands like The Stones, who stayed together longer. Also the Beatles were very young when they hit it big and they continued to create amazing music in a various venues and styles up until their deaths or in Paul's case in his mid-60s. ]
( Read more... )