AIBU to think that the new Beatles Docuseries is an absolute waste of time?

[Nanny0gg]

Just watched fast forwarded through it as I thought, apart from the actual concert on the Apple Building roof (which I saw on the tele at the time) it was incredibly slow and boring.

Why is everyone falling over themselves to say it's amazing?

Bought Paul McCartneys book online as a Christmas present for my sister - I'd heard him reading bite sized snippets from it on radio 4 and thought she'd like it. It;s ginormous - the paperback is more than two inches thick.

I do appreciate that how thick it is isn't a brilliant way to review a book

It's great if you love The Beatles and enjoy hearing them jamming and messing around. I quite liked it, but I agree it was a sort of slow moving look at their everyday rehearsals, not a documentary with a story to it.

I’m finding the minutiae fascinating. It’s a brilliant piece of archive footage, it evokes time and place really well. Maybe one for fans or historians only.

Why do some people like marmite

I loved it.
It showed the birth of those iconic songs, the first few chords of British history, 4 fellas from Liverpool just sat talking, smoking, eating toast and then the music chord by chord, lyric by lyric.

It made me emotional too looking at them all, normal, everyday young men. I could relate them all to people I know.
Emotional to watch John Lennon knowing what was to be only 11 years on.

Yoko though, not sure what the point of her being there was. I wonder if she bugged the others being there all the time.
I enjoyed the banter, the general chit chat amongst them and I thought about all the people just milling around there unaware of what was being made and how significant it would be in the history of music.
I loved the simplicity of the equipment, no huge mixing desks, no glass screens and fancy microphones, just them sitting there with their instruments strumming & singing.
Loved it.

I've really enjoyed it so far especially the dynamic between Paul and George.

I found it quite emotional when Paul started playing Let it Be and seeing how much in love he was with Linda.

I've aways thought John was the driving force but Paul is so passive aggressive in this documentary!

@Vampiricouncil

I loved it. It showed the birth of those iconic songs, the first few chords of British history, 4 fellas from Liverpool just sat talking, smoking, eating toast and then the music chord by chord, lyric by lyric.

It made me emotional too looking at them all, normal, everyday young men. I could relate them all to people I know.
Emotional to watch John Lennon knowing what was to be only 11 years on.

Yoko though, not sure what the point of her being there was. I wonder if she bugged the others being there all the time.
I enjoyed the banter, the general chit chat amongst them and I thought about all the people just milling around there unaware of what was being made and how significant it would be in the history of music.
I loved the simplicity of the equipment, no huge mixing desks, no glass screens and fancy microphones, just them sitting there with their instruments strumming & singing.
Loved it.

I can't imagine the others were happy with Yoko being so much in the middle of it all just sitting there.

I can't imagine that they weren't irritated.

I did love watching the concert on the roof again. Can't get over how everyone, both on the roof and the pavement, just stood there! Not the slightest tapping of a foot even!

Wonder what those policemen thought of it all afterwards...

My DH has been loving it! He is a massive Beatles fan though

I've seen the first episode and found it really emotional. I was surprised at the tension between George and Paul though.

Yoko would have really irritated me. Especially sitting at the piano with John as she rubbed her face on him.

And the film maker trying to push them into going to Tripoli even when they were all saying no! Really awful.

It also really struck me just how young they all were. The jamming and banter and emotions between them is really interesting to see.

I can't wait to see the rest!

Dh will watch it. I certainly won't ...can't stand them.

Watched the first 20-30 mins and am surprised Yoko hasn't been drop kicked out of the way by the band. It's clear they know each other inside out and the sitting around rehearsing, composing and jamming comes from years of friendship - and she's sitting there looking bored shitless. Was it John or her insisting on her sitting at his elbow? So many red flags.

I don’t think it’s one for the casual viewer, I’ve been listening to The Beatles all of my life but only became an anoraky-fan of their post-1966 phase at uni and read all the books…. Before that a lot of what is in that documentary would have meant very little to me. And even as an anoraky-fan Let it Be is far from being my favourite album, whilst the rooftop gig was cool to see restored, I only really love about 5% of the songs they actually sing there.

I think it is to Beatles fans what LotR was to Hobbit-botherers, Peter Jackson clearly takes big projects that he has a passion for and makes them into epic, fan-serving things. There are a lot of Beatles obsessives online pouring over every moment of the footage, and good luck to them. It’s lovely to have this all restored not just for us now (and fans like my parents who were there at the time) but also for future generations. My 9yr old has recently started to appreciate the music and she’s been enjoying watching ‘Get Back’ with me.

The ‘Anthology’ series is more interesting as an overview of their work generally and I really enjoyed the ‘Eight Days a Week’ film from a couple of years ago too.

To the PP who said about McCartney’s ‘Lyrics’ memoir- it’s a really great book, I highly recommend it. Very readable and a fascinating insight, but it is really long. I read it over about a fortnight but was recovering from an operation so had the time to sit down (well, lay down) with it. In my normal life I suspect it would have taken me a lot longer to get through.

over how everyone, both on the roof and the pavement, just stood there! Not the slightest tapping of a foot even!

Wonder what those policemen thought of it all afterwards...
I saw an interview with one of the policemen and he was saying that they were sent to a “disturbance “, once there they became aware of who it was and the significance of having the best seats in the house at a Beatles concert.
Even their seniors stood in awe tapping their feet grinning until their faces ached!

@IntemperateSpirits

Watched the first 20-30 mins and am surprised Yoko hasn't been drop kicked out of the way by the band. It's clear they know each other inside out and the sitting around rehearsing, composing and jamming comes from years of friendship - and she's sitting there looking bored shitless. Was it John or her insisting on her sitting at his elbow? So many red flags.

They’d gone totally codependent at this point @IntemperateSpirits. As I recall she had recently miscarried and it hit them both both very hard. They ended up being unable to even go to the loo alone during that time and then they started using heroin together while those sessions were taking place. It was all pretty unhealthy both for them and for the other Beatles.

Have only watched the first episode so far but its fascinating hearing the development of the songs. And George getting more pissed off when no one appreciates his stuff

Rehearsals and writing sessions can be like that. And better, and worse.

You can have absolutely stonking arguments that are over in a flash or one of the most brilliant days you can remember. And having partners/spouses/friends around isn't unusual.

It's good to see that, rather than the mythical 'oh, well it's the Beatles so of course they aren't like any other musicians' and the boring trope of Ringo being shit.