Thread by @EddieRobson

Watched the first hour of Get Back. I really like the quick primer on the entire Beatles story, doesn't assume any knowledge. Plus you realise how much the events of January 1969 depend on context - the end of touring, the complexity of their recent recordings #TheBeatlesGetBack

The fact they're already saying on day one that the rehearsal space is terrible, but they don't find somewhere else, says everything about where the project is heading #TheBeatlesGetBack

Notable that the day they have the "I'll play whatever you want me to play" conversation - which is much more interesting here - Ringo has a dreadful hangover. Poor Ringo. #TheBeatlesGetBack

It does seem strange how they're up against it to get all these songs together, and yet there are really good songs that don't make the cut. All Things Must Pass sounds like a dead cert, in spite of John trying to "improve" the lyric. #TheBeatlesGetBack

Gimme Some Truth with Paul taking the lead vocal is startling - but again, why did it fall by the wayside? John was short of material for this album, why not do this one? #TheBeatlesGetBack

Just started watching again with the 11yo sitting in the corner. "I find that guy really annoying," he says of Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and he's not wrong. #TheBeatlesGetBack

Fucking hell John is SUCH a dick to George when he's playing them all I Me Mine. #TheBeatlesGetBack

The subtext there, I think quite clearly, is that they need songs for this thing and George is going home in the evenings and writing them and John's struggling to come up with anything, and he doesn't like it. #TheBeatlesGetBack

The bits matching footage of Linda taking her pictures to the pictures themselves are lovely. I wish the microphones had picked up that conversation between her and Yoko while they're playing Let It Be, I'd love to know what they talked about. #TheBeatlesGetBack

Day 7 captures what was probably the last civil conversation between The Beatles and Dick James, as he flogged off their song catalogue to ATV shortly afterwards. They're clearly not wild about talking to him here either. #TheBeatlesGetBack

Now this is where the idea that this doc would be a whitewash compared to the original Let It Be film is bollocks. You never saw George leave in the original, it was entirely glossed over. Here you see him actually stand up and say he's leaving the group. #TheBeatlesGetBack

It's amazing to have this on camera. And it doesn't come after an argument, just a morning where George is talking himself out of the group - "You need Clapton," to which John says "We need George Harrison" while Paul insists they *do* need two guitars. #TheBeatlesGetBack

And then the aimless afternoon footage is remarkable - John saying they'll replace him with Clapton, Paul jokingly offering Mo Starkey the job if she can learn three chords over the weekend. (Mo looks stunning in this, btw) #TheBeatlesGetBack

The parts where they're jamming with Yoko on vocals are basically The Plastic Ono Band feat. Paul McCartney, which is bizarre #TheBeatlesGetBack

Yes. The film reveals all the "unspoken tensions" you hear about were, in fact, spoken. None of them is pretending everything's fine, not even Paul. They constantly discuss whether this project can work and whether they can carry on as a group.

https://twitter.com/jonmacqueen/status/1464942563664842756?t=QfWZRn1SiUCQYdnp034ebw&s=19

George Martin is so brilliantly restrained when Lindsay-Hogg starts going on again about needing to settle on a venue for the gig and Martin points out that one of the group has quit and this might be a bigger issue to deal with first. #TheBeatlesGetBack

John Lennon's shirt says LGBTQ+ rights #TheBeatlesGetBack

Just watched up to the end of the first day recording at Apple, because all the Georgeless days were so painful: John trying to lighten the mood with jokes while a morose Paul talks about the importance of schedules and getting stuff done. #TheBeatlesGetBack

Paul anticipating the entire anti-Yoko discourse that would follow the break-up is brilliant, even down to saying "In fifty years' time..." #TheBeatlesGetBack

The John and Paul conversation in the canteen is a really extraordinary thing to have caught on tape, and hats off to Michael Lindsay-Hogg for underhandedly recording it. #TheBeatlesGetBack

The Apple sessions are a real relief after all that. It does feel more relaxed. Enjoyed Paul reading aloud the tabloid hatchet job on them in a Peter Cook voice. #TheBeatlesGetBack

Can I also just say how cool Yoko looks in all of this, her outfits are consistently great #TheBeatlesGetBack

Is Yoko reading a book of Beatles sheet music?! #TheBeatlesGetBack

The Beatles Bible knows all

https://twitter.com/beatlesbible/status/1464223820085137409?t=BDdNdLdreK4HqUqSc6G8wQ&s=19

The big difference after the move to Apple is actually John, not George. He's so much more engaged and interested and... awake, basically. He does look wasted in a lot of the Twickenham footage, and you wonder if this was raised at the group meetings. #TheBeatlesGetBack

At the end of Day 13 he's talking up the film to Lindsay-Hogg, confident that it's all going well, they can play the gig, maybe do half the LP in studio and half live. He's like this even before Billy Preston turns up and moreso afterwards. #TheBeatlesGetBack

It's significant that in that canteen conversation, Paul says John's still the boss and John seems to deflect it. But it's true, for all the work Paul put into defining the group's creative direction from Pepper onwards, he couldn't be the centre of it. #TheBeatlesGetBack

There's a line in Lewisohn's Tune In that says each member had his best relationship with John. And I think that's true, and you can see it here: when John isn't engaged, the dynamic starts to go awry. Paul isn't daft, he knows this. #TheBeatlesGetBack

But Paul is also the one with the drive and the ideas and the work ethic, whereas John is naturally quite lazy. So Paul is constantly trying to lead while not usurping John. Which is an unworkable dynamic and ultimately going to collapse. #TheBeatlesGetBack

But when John can be interested, it still works in fits and starts, and it's clearly what got them to the end of this project. #TheBeatlesGetBack

One of my story structure preoccupations is midpoints. This is the bit where the hero finds what they need to reach the end: a new piece of knowledge, a revelation about themselves, a change of approach. It's the pivot of the story.

Halfway through Get Back, this guy shows up.

Glyn Johns' outfits throughout Get Back are underrated. Every day he turns up looking exactly like you imagine a fashionable late 60s London guy would look. #TheBeatlesGetBack

I'm up to Day 15 and starting to hear stuff from the boxset - and stuff I wish had been on the boxset. The full band version of Her Majesty with George on lap guitar? C'mon! This should've been on there #TheBeatlesGetBack

Yes, a lot of the covers and old Beatles songs they played were actually just fragments or jokes, and they work better in the film - as does the evolution of Get Back (especially as the film provides context for the abandoned immigration-themed version)... #TheBeatlesGetBack

But I do feel like "if you can see it in the film you don't need it on the discs" is an excuse for holding stuff back for the film, and we could've had so much more. #TheBeatlesGetBack

I love the part where George says what a good sound they're getting at the Apple studio and George Martin immediately makes a jovial but pointed comment that Glyn Johns might have had something to do with it. I admire that solidarity. #TheBeatlesGetBack

You sense Martin might just have some experience of his hard work being taken for granted by the Beatles. #TheBeatlesGetBack

But also, he probably knows Johns might not feel able to say that to the Beatles, so he says it on his behalf, which is a very decent thing to do, I think. #TheBeatlesGetBack

George's psychedelic furry boots appreciation post. #TheBeatlesGetBack

When they're chatting about how they're going to end the film and you can see Paul DESPERATELY trying not to impose himself on the others even though he knows they need something that's not just them playing in the studio #TheBeatlesGetBack

Sally Burgess from the Apple press office appreciation post. #TheBeatlesGetBack

The run-through of Old Brown Shoe with George on piano, Paul on guitar and Billy on bass is great. #TheBeatlesGetBack

The 11yo said "What's Billy Preston doing there?" - I've been playing Billy Preston records around the house for the last few weeks but didn't explain the Beatles connection. There can't be many people these days who hear of Billy Preston before knowing he played with the Beatles

One notable thing here is that Paul says he can't work out how to do The Long And Winding Road *after* the version on Let It Be has been recorded, so it seems he was never happy with that version even before Spector got his hands on it #TheBeatlesGetBack

Day 19 and Glyn Johns has gone full Jimi Hendrix/Jon Pertwee. #TheBeatlesGetBack

I certainly did not expect to see an experimental rendition of Old Brown Shoe with Billy on stylophone #TheBeatlesGetBack

"Remember Bob Wooler!" chortles John, referring to the serious assault he committed at Paul's 21st birthday party in 1963 #TheBeatlesGetBack

Something and I Want You both pop up here - I think that means the only Abbey Road tracks not to get an airing at these sessions are Come Together, Here Comes The Sun, Because, You Never Give Me Your Money and The End. #TheBeatlesGetBack

In which Glyn Johns attempts to be tactful on the subject of Allen Klein #TheBeatlesGetBack

Ah, there's a conversation where Paul confirms the original idea was a TV show playing songs from the White Album. Which had only just come out, and would be a logical thing to do. I always wondered that. And Paul says they got together and decided to do new songs instead.

That is very typical of The Beatles. A show of White Album songs would have been great, and far less pressured, though it would've made this film much less interesting. #TheBeatlesGetBack

I love how they grump around for ages about how they're not ready and they don't have enough songs and then George Martin calmly produces from his pocket a list of all the songs and they realise actually they have lots and it's fine #TheBeatlesGetBack