Get Back (Finally got back)

[Notes_Norton]

I don't do TV, or streaming, or most anything that requires a monthly subscription. Why? Self-employed musician, there are times of feast and times of famine. I was out of work 2 years thanks to COVID, and never had to hit my savings to pay the bills.

 

So I went to my public library, and checked out the 3 disc DVD set of the Beatles' documentary, “Get Back”.

 

For me and Mrs. Notes, the first two disks were a waste. They guys are in the movie studio with no sense of direction. Not rehearsing, not even practicing, and when they are playing, sounding quite lame.

 

I hit the >> and >>| controls quite a bit. I'm sure I missed some gems of information, but the boredom was not worth it.

 

We watched parts of the entire 3 disk set in one evening, and while skipping around I did notice a few things.

 

* Ringo was the pro, always showed up on time, when the other musicians were working out chords or whatever, Ringo sat patiently at the drum set, quietly waiting. Many drummers I know start tuning heads, practicing licks or fidgeting on the drums in other ways when the rest of the band works on notes. I have a newfound respect for Ringo.

 

* I noticed Paul gets around on the piano pretty well, and has some very good musical ideas.

 

* Billy Preston is a gem, but then I've always like his piano playing.

 

* Children, wives, and significant others should not have been allowed in.

 

* Somebody needed to take leadership and focus the group, as they were unable to focus on the task, and neither John nor Paul wanted to let the other one lead.

 

* They expressed nervousness about playing in front of an audience again. They could have fallen flat on their faces and the fans would have swooned.

We watched the last disc in its entirety, and this is what hit me the most.

 

When they were on the rooftop, playing live, they were not only a band again. You could see the joy one can only get from live performance on their faces, especially Paul's. They were in their bliss.

 

I know that much of what they recorded from Strawberry Fields on could not be reproduced live, but I think they should have continued to play live to keep the band spirit alive. They might have gotten along better if they did.

 

That's my take, anyway.

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

[Greg Mein]

On 2/18/2023 at 6:24 AM, Notes_Norton said:

So I went to my public library, and checked out the 3 disc DVD set of the Beatles' documentary, “Get Back”.

 

 

We signed up for a Disney account preview so I could watch this back when it came out. I found it very interesting and you make some great points but what I really want to express excitement about is........the library!

 

My wife has encouraged me for a long time and finally, a month or two ago, I went and got a library card. I can't remember the last time I had one, I was probably still in school. It's a really amazing resource, especially now in the digital world where I can download books to read, watch programs on Hoopla and am even doing a Rosetta Stone course to learn Spanish.

 

I had been getting all my reading from Amazon/Kindle but that adds up and generally speaking (aside from technical/maintenance/instructional books/videos) once I've read something, I'm pretty much done with it.

I don't want to hijack the thread but I'm pretty pumped about re-discovering a forgotten resource.

[Anderton]

5 hours ago, Greg Mein said:

I don't want to hijack the thread but I'm pretty pumped about re-discovering a forgotten resource.

 

It's well worth hijacking the thread for that!! My wife reads a lot digital books that way. 

 

Libraries were how I learned about classical music. Every week, I'd check out half a dozen albums. It made it easy to find out what composers and orchestras I liked. 

[Notes_Norton]

17 hours ago, Greg Mein said:

I don't want to hijack the thread but I'm pretty pumped about re-discovering a forgotten resource.

 

It's a great resource. They have an uncountable number of actual books, thousands of DVDs, and an online package that offers quite a bit of learning and entertainment resources.

 

They are a far cry from the libraries of the past, even the "card catalog" is now digitized.

 

I've checked out a few music documentaries that I didn't have to spend a penny for.

 

If Mrs. Notes and I buy a book, when we are finished, we see if there is one of our friends interested in it, if not, it gets donated to our library. We read mostly non-fiction books, nature, science, and the like, so most of the times they go to the library. Our tastes are weird. How many wives would buy a hardcover book about slime mold and share it with her husband? (BTW, it was a great book).

 

As Craig mentioned, they have a lot of audio CDs there too.

 

Consider the tread hijacked. IMO threads are like conversations, and it's OK with me if they drift off on a tangent.

 

But to bring it back, I really enjoyed the Rooftop concert not only for the music, but to see the band doing what bands are supposed to do and enjoying it like we all should.

 

Notes ♫

[Strays Dave]

I ordered the 3 GB DVD's from Amazon for $20.  My girlfriend and I recently watched about one hour into part 3.  This was a repeat viewing.  I happened to catch Billy Preston picking his nose about 20ish minutes in.  That was fun.  IIRC, from a previous part (2?) , when Billy first sits in with the Beatles on the studio/band set, he lifted the musical mood, making them sound more complete.  

 

I'll go back and watch some earlier parts again. I see it as a historical document. And maybe beneficial for some young musicians to see how boring the process of making their creative sausage actually was.  Interesting to hear how they often sang in goofy parody style voices when playing thru some potential song.  I wondered if they we sometimes trying not to overwork their voices. 

 

A non musical friend was horrified when he first watched Get Back.  They sounded so bare and rough.   He compared them to how Stevie Wonder and said they sounded poorly.  I told him if he was going to compare them to "Songs In the Key Of Life",  he needed to listen to "Sgt. Pepper".  Whatever the case, I'm glad this time capsule has been resurrected. 

 

My same non musical friend has a theory that the scene when Peter Sellers pays a visit (early in part 2?)  he's tripping. Who knows. 

I learned that the "Long And Winding Road"  bass part that I'd long admired was played by John, with Paul on piano.  But Paul coached John (in part 3) on just what to play.  

[Greg Mein]

It's kind of interesting to me that the bass player who's been coming over recently would like to do Get Back. I'm able to fake through it easily enough on guitar for rehearsal but thinking back; out of all the band, fill-in, one off gigs I've done over the last 30-40 years I don't recall this ever being on a set list that was handed to me. It's hard to believe and I must be mistaken!

 

Recently I've had a strong desire to get back to performing as a true live act and getting away from creating/using backing tracks. Building the tracks has always been time consuming and often tedious work. The beauty of having everything timed correctly, effects switching in and out automatically and sounding like you have a world class group backing you is tempered by the sometimes sterile constraint of staying tightly synced to a click.

 

It's taken some time but I've found a drummer and a bass player that appear to be very enthused to work with my wife and I so we've been rehearsing the last two or three weeks. It may take some time and we'll be gone on vacation soon but we'll keep slogging away and see what happens. It helps that we're all retired so things are some what relaxed and although I want it to be the best it can, it also has to be fun.

[Anderton]

As I've often said...if told I could only play music in the studio or only play music live, I'd take live. 

 

However, that's the player part of me talking. The composer part is eternally grateful for home studios

[Notes_Norton]

9 hours ago, Anderton said:

As I've often said...if told I could only play music in the studio or only play music live, I'd take live.

That's definitely me, too.

 

I've done a bit of 'sax for hire' in commercial studios, and recorded a few songs with a band or two. That kind of studio work is OK for me, and I alway prepare for it with the aim to get it down in one take.

 

I make my duo's backing tracks in my MIDI studio. I tried purchasing MIDI files, but I spend so much time 'fixing' them for our desires, that I figured I could make them myself in that amount of time. Since I play sax, wind synth, flute, guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards in various levels of competency, it's something I can do. And by making my own tracks, I know the chords, substitution chords, and everything else about them. It's better to improvise a solo if you know any substitution chords, or the chords of a song with multiple chord versions.

 

I'm not much of a composer. Perhaps I'm too hard on myself, but everything I try sounds like rehashed whatever came before. If I try to get beyond that, it sounds like self-indulgent improvisation. Then, when it comes to words, everything I write just sounds stupid. to me

 

But when I get in front of an audience I'm in that place where there is no space, no time, no me, and just the music flowing through me. I get to sing, and/or play sax, wind synth, flute, or guitar over the backing tracks I labored over, and when I'm improvising a solo, sometimes what I play even surprises me. And if I make a mistake, and play a bad note that I'll slide to a safer one (hopefully) the moment won't last forever.

 

It's the most fun I can have with my clothes on. Looking at next month, so far I get to gig 19 times.

 

Most people don't know about the behind the scenes work that it takes to play, record or compose music. And I think that's probably a good thing. All we want them to see is the magic and the bliss.

 

In the same way, I don't want to know all the behind the scenes work getting the Hubble in orbit, I just want to enjoy the beautiful and interesting images.

 

I'm lucky to be able to make a living doing nothing but music, and the majority of it comes from preparing and then playing live for an appreciative audience.

 

Life is the best way to pass the time of day.

 

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

[Greg Mein]

I dug out my Beatles Complete Scores (the big white book) and did a dive into Get Back today. Some great licks that aren't complicated but yet have taken a little while to get under my fingers.

[Notes_Norton]

BTW, one additional thing I noticed was Paul playing the bass line live in "Don't Let Me Down".

 

Paul progressed from his country tinged bass lines in the early albums to something more Jameson inspired licks rather rapidly. Then to a giant jump to the bass lines on the Abbey Road medley. It was more in the John Paul Jones territory.

 

I assumed it must have been a studio player, because the leap was so sudden. But no, it was Paul.

 

Sorry mate for underestimating your talent.

 

That alone was worth the price of admission.

 

Notes ♫

 

 

[AnotherScott]

29 minutes ago, Notes_Norton said:

BTW, one additional thing I noticed was Paul playing the bass line live in "Don't Let Me Down".

 

Paul progressed from his country tinged bass lines in the early albums to something more Jameson inspired licks rather rapidly. Then to a giant jump to the bass lines on the Abbey Road medley. It was more in the John Paul Jones territory.

 

I assumed it must have been a studio player, because the leap was so sudden. But no, it was Paul.

 

Sorry mate for underestimating your talent.

 

That alone was worth the price of admission.

 

If you haven't seen it, you might want to check out this video...

 

 

[Notes_Norton]

On 2/25/2023 at 9:49 AM, AnotherScott said:

 

If you haven't seen it, you might want to check out this video...

 

Thanks. I hadn't seen it until now.

 

Notes ♫

[Strays Dave]

I've long admired Paul's inventive bass playing.  I would have thought he sometimes played without a pick. The YouTube "Boring/Genius" video plays with a pick all the through.  I don't know. 

[Notes_Norton]

When I played bass, I used fingers on stage, and pick in the studio.

 

There is more than one right way to do that, it was my way.

 

I played for a few years when saxes were out of favor. I can still double on bass.  I even played for Freddie "Boom Boom" Cannon for a short concert series. But Paul is much better than I'll ever be. On the other hand, I bet I play saxophone better than he does.