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shadowkatWatching 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. ]
There's a bit in the middle of the documentary about religion and materialism. Starting with an odd blurb of a 1960s talk show with two journalists and a very young Mick Jaggar discussing how young girls flock to the Beatles like they might to the Goddess, and the journalist commenting that outside of one other journalist - they were the only men in the audience.
The comment that radical youth are looking for a creed to follow, and aren't finding it in organized religion. The Beatles make Time Magazine - with the cover stating "IS God Dead" and inside, "Do The Beatles Believe in God"? Meanwhile we see news-reels of Billy Graham on his crusade in Britain.
George, John and Paul about acid. They first took by accident, their dentist gave it to them, and they didn't know what it was and had never heard about it. George: "Regarding this notorious wonderdrug LSD. When John and I first had this drug, we were having dinner with our dentist and he slipped it into our coffee, we never knew what it was. We had never heard of it and didn't know what it was. Which was a good thing. Because if we'd known what it was and all the paranoia attached to it...we'd have had a bad trip. Because the people who do know are on a bad trip before they even start. For us...it was a bit like Alice in Wonderland, a wonderful trip, and the happiest place I've been."
Paul described it as "organized weirdness". [LSD was reputed to change the chemical makeup of the brain, but it doesn't really, bath salts however actually do and you should stay away from those at all costs.] LSD lead George to look for something that didn't require him to continue using chemicals. He was looking for the truth and Peace of Mind (according to a close a friend.)
He hits a turning point and stops taking the drugs. Sees the drug culture for what it is. Just a dark addictive culture. So went for the meditation. (Strawberry Fields is the song about this period.)
Then George came up with Within You Without You which wasn't a commercial song by any means, but he had a way of interpreting the Indian music and transcribing it in a new way, changing it. It's a puzzle of a song.
The documentary then shows us the notorious Indian guru that the Beatles fell in love with Wales. Who Paul describes as this giggly little Indian guy. Marashi.
The mediation is to just let your mind go.
Song - My Guitare Gently Weeps. (Love this song. Don't know why. It makes no sense, but it is a beautifully haunting song about so many things.)
Eric Clapton played on My Guitar Gently Weeps. The friendship between Clapton and George makes sense...both are amazing guitarists. Harrison wrote My Guitar Gently Weeps.
That's the end of the documentary or part I of it. Now I have to find part II. Dang it.
Overall? Really good documentary. I find the Beatles fascinating.
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. ]
George Martin: George and Ringo were a bit behind at this point. Because George wasn't really a song-writer yet. Paul and John were the writers and lead singers. George was a kind of loner really, so outside the hits. John and Paul were the collaborators and their collaboration was a competition of sorts and George was left outside of that. And he had no one to collaborate with so he was sort of solo, on his own.
George Harrison: I decided to try to write a song. I mean if Paul and George can do it, anyone can, right? So I did "Don't Bother Me" in a hotel room, sick in bed. It's not a very good song, but if I keep working, I'll get better.
Eric Clapton: The sad part was that No one listened to them, except their fans who they'd cultivated I suppose, but it was made up of 12 year old girls. But there was this immense creativity and talent. George was combining Blues, R&B and elements of Rock and Rockabilly and creating something unique. Mixing styles.
What was good about being George's friend back then...was it was kind of like basking in the sunshine of this immense creativity.
There's a bit in the middle of the documentary about religion and materialism. Starting with an odd blurb of a 1960s talk show with two journalists and a very young Mick Jaggar discussing how young girls flock to the Beatles like they might to the Goddess, and the journalist commenting that outside of one other journalist - they were the only men in the audience.
The comment that radical youth are looking for a creed to follow, and aren't finding it in organized religion. The Beatles make Time Magazine - with the cover stating "IS God Dead" and inside, "Do The Beatles Believe in God"? Meanwhile we see news-reels of Billy Graham on his crusade in Britain.
George, John and Paul about acid. They first took by accident, their dentist gave it to them, and they didn't know what it was and had never heard about it. George: "Regarding this notorious wonderdrug LSD. When John and I first had this drug, we were having dinner with our dentist and he slipped it into our coffee, we never knew what it was. We had never heard of it and didn't know what it was. Which was a good thing. Because if we'd known what it was and all the paranoia attached to it...we'd have had a bad trip. Because the people who do know are on a bad trip before they even start. For us...it was a bit like Alice in Wonderland, a wonderful trip, and the happiest place I've been."
Paul described it as "organized weirdness". [LSD was reputed to change the chemical makeup of the brain, but it doesn't really, bath salts however actually do and you should stay away from those at all costs.] LSD lead George to look for something that didn't require him to continue using chemicals. He was looking for the truth and Peace of Mind (according to a close a friend.)
George on spirituality: You can't believe in something until you actually perceive it. It's better to be an outspoken atheist if you don't perceive or can't see the face of God or hear God and actually perceive the soul, otherwise you'd be a hypocrite believing in something you can't perceive. (I'm paraphrasing.)
Ringo: We have to thank Paul that we made as many records as we did, because if it were up to John and Me, we wouldn't have done anything. The phone would ring and we would look at it and we'd always know it was him - he wants us to work!
George: We went to Haight Asbury - and it was really just a bunch of bums. They looked at me like I was some kind of messiah, and it was scarey, because they were into the Beatles but in a kinda of really twisted way. They kept offering me drug, but I turned them down.
He hits a turning point and stops taking the drugs. Sees the drug culture for what it is. Just a dark addictive culture. So went for the meditation. (Strawberry Fields is the song about this period.)
Paul: We stopped touring about mid-sixities, were recording, and lost our spiritual direction. Looking for ourselves. So we were doing a lot of experimenting with music. I wrote this odd little song, the title song for Sgt. Pepper, which I presented the other fellows with a song that provided us with a different persona. The idea was we could be anything we wanted. There was no longer any lid on what we could do.
George Martin: I listened to the song and found it to be boring. Which I told him. Can you come up with some new way of going about it come up with something else. [Cue the song Within You Without You - which is really interesting song.]
Then George came up with Within You Without You which wasn't a commercial song by any means, but he had a way of interpreting the Indian music and transcribing it in a new way, changing it. It's a puzzle of a song.
The documentary then shows us the notorious Indian guru that the Beatles fell in love with Wales. Who Paul describes as this giggly little Indian guy. Marashi.
Paul: We were at Marashi's camp when we got the news that Brian Epstein died. And he was more than a parent to us.
George: We had just gotten into this meditation. It may not sound like a big deal, but it was, and for Brian to kick the bucket on that particular day, it was pretty far out.
The mediation is to just let your mind go.
Interviewer: Then the aim is essentially to reach the point in which you have no thoughts.
(It's a way to turn off the brain.)
Song from Tao Te Singh - "The further one travels, the less one really knows..." (We hear the Beatles sing the song, and see the passage, and the camera pulls back showing Harrison reading the book).
George: The word Mysticism is really to hide people's ignorance. There's nothing mystical about it, it's only ignorance about what it entails.
Patty: When you glimpse something you can understand, but you can't be there but there is something earthly holding you back - tremendous frustration. What was holding him back was the other three Beatles who wanted to create this empire, Apple Records, and all he wanted to do was retreat and stay in the meditation, that state, which he had become obsessed with. He wanted to remain in that place he had glimpsed.
Paul: had two sides to his character. I'm his mate so I can't tell too much. But his a guy, a red-blooded man, he would like the things that guys like.
Yoko: George, John and I did "Number 9" and George was very matter-of-fact about it, let's just do it. Its very interesting to know what the Beatles do, I come from an avant guard background and here they were making music that had a power of its own, and I thought and this is what you can do. George had two sides to him, and we all do, sometimes he was very nice and sometimes he wouldn't be very nice at all, he would just say what he was thinking, let's just say he wouldn't mince words. And John would say - well that's George and I got used to it.
Paul: I remember a particular occassion where I had written Hey Jude, and was going Hey Jude Don't Make it bad, and George was going "bang dang wang wang" tried to play a guitar riff after line, and I had to say George that you know you couldn't do a riff after every line, doesn't work. But I knew he couldn't do it, maybe he knew he couldn't do it. But it created tension. And it gave me this reputation of dictating things and I was dictating things, because I knew how I wanted my song to go. And John was the same way, he knew the way he wanted his song to do. And dictated it. We all did.
Patty: The intensity they had together must have had to its limits. It had to explode at some point. They were out in London traveling alot, having different people influence them, so when they came back together it didn't work as well.
Ringo: I quit the band in 1967, on the White Album. I was in an emotional state that I honestly felt I wasn't playing as well. Something was off. And felt outside of it. I thought the other three were really close. And I went to each of them, and discovered they all felt the same things - "but I thought it was you three". And I thought oh shit, I'm going on Holiday, and I went to Sardina. They begged me to come back and when I did, George decorated the whole studio for me. It was really sweet. (paraphrasing)
Song - My Guitare Gently Weeps. (Love this song. Don't know why. It makes no sense, but it is a beautifully haunting song about so many things.)
Eric Clapton played on My Guitar Gently Weeps. The friendship between Clapton and George makes sense...both are amazing guitarists. Harrison wrote My Guitar Gently Weeps.
That's the end of the documentary or part I of it. Now I have to find part II. Dang it.
Overall? Really good documentary. I find the Beatles fascinating.
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Date: 2011-10-16 03:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-16 03:25 am (UTC)