*A-hem* Make that second album. Pretty interesting though.

You know, sometimes I actually kinda think that the American Meet The Beatles album is a stronger record than the British With The Beatles. I mean, I know it's really just a compilation of the best tracks from With The Beatles and some non-album tracks from the same era, and a killer cut from the Please Please Me, but it's still a fantastic record in terms of overall quality. The opening volley of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "I Saw Her Standing There" and "This Boy" is a really formidable opener, for example.

I'm a big Beatles fan, and have numerous albums of theirs - notably Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band; The White Album; Let it Be; Abbey Road; Revolver; and Rubber Soul. Also, one of my first musical memories was hearing Sgt. Pepper's on on the original Vinyl as a kid back in the day (late 1970's). I do definitely feel they are one of the best rock/pop groups of all time & that their music will never get old. It's also notable that - AFAIK - their albums have never gone out of print (OOP).

And, last Fall I finally watched The Beatles: Get Back 3-part documentary on DVD - this was first available via streaming around late November 2021. Amazing. This was incredible, and has already become one of my favorite documentaries. Some comments/thoughts:

-The Picture Quality/Sound on these discs was stellar. They obviously put a lot of work into cleaning up/remastering the print & the audio in the production process, etc.

-The doc. was a fascinating "behind the scenes" look at the band; the creative process behind how their music/songs were written/sung; and the dynamics between the members & their management/production staff.

-It was interesting that Lennon & McCartney were almost the de-facto "leaders" of the group, while Starr was very low-key. Obviously there were tensions with Harrison, who left the group at one point during the doc. - but did thankfully return.

-I was amused that they were trying to figure out where to have their "free concert" & couldn't come to a consensus on where to play. So, they finally decided to have the concert on the roof of the studio where they were recording their last album (Let it Be) - in the cold January weather. Very simple solution, but not one you expected they would have chosen ahead of time.

-The whole doc. was obviously leading up to this roof-top concert, which was amazing. Though this took place before my time, it would have been incredible to have been there & heard this unexpected Beatles concert - even if you couldn't see it too well from the street

Here's the official trailer for the doc.

The Beatles are my favourite band of all time, bar none.

I've had the original Let It Be film on bootleg VHS (and later DVD) since the early '90s, but yeah, the picture/sound quality of those editions was not too great. Though, of course, an official re-release of the original 1970 film could look and sound just as amazing as Peter Jackson's Get Back, if it were ever to be issued

Personally, I think Let It Be should be available, as it still has historical significance as the edit of that footage that The Beatles and director Michael Lindsay-Hogg wanted out in 1970. For that reason alone it would've been really nice to have gotten it as a bonus extra on the Get Back Blu-ray release.

The editorial narrative and focus of Let It Be is quite different in tone to Get Back though, and it presents a much more downbeat picture of that period than Jackson's later re-working does. This is likely why it has never been released on home media and has largely remained unseen since the early '70s (except for a limited Australian release on VHS Video and Laserdisc in the early '80s). Jackson's editorial narrative is much more focused on the up-beat moments in those sessions, which I'm sure pleases Apple Corp. and the surviving Beatles, as it doesn't particularly damage the Beatles' "brand" (something that Let It Be is perceived as doing among the Beatles camp, allegedly).

Regarding Jackson's Get Back documentary, I loved it for what it was. It provided a treasure trove of previously unseen footage of the band in the recording studio and a fascinating insight into the working relationship and methods of the four Beatles – John and Paul especially. It also showed just how much McCartney was the driving force of the band by this time, with Lennon being bored and having to be urged to contribute new material and Harrison resenting his lower standing in the band's hierarchy and wanting out!

When the documentary came out in late '22, I read a number of critics and commentators saying that it completely rewrites the narrative of those sessions and that they were clearly quite the opposite of the tedious, angst-ridden misery that we've always been led to believe they were. But I disagree with this reading. I don't think Get Back does "rewrite the narrative". I think that, actually, there's quite a lot of passive aggressive sniping at each other between the band members on display, McCartney is almost in tears because John and George have failed to turn up, and of course the infamous McCartney/Harrison argument is in there too. Also, it's clear early on in Jackson's film that the band are aware that the film-makers are recording their conversations, so they probably kept anything really controversial or unpleasant that they had to say to each other away from the prying eyes of the cameramen or sound recordists.

No, I think that you have to place greater emphasis on the testimonials of the four Beatles themselves than you do on Jackson's particular edit of the available footage. Lennon and Harrison were both particularly outspoken in the following years about just how unpleasant those sessions were for them, and even Ringo and Macca weren't very complimentary about them.

I've owned hours and hours of those January 1969 session tapes on bootleg CDs since the early '90s, and the overriding impression that I've always gotten from listening to them is that this was a band that was really bored of playing together. Watching the Get Back documentary hasn't changed that opinion. The vast majority of the music the band play in the film is pretty ramshackle and uninspired IMHO, something that both Lennon and Harrison themselves made mention of in numerous interviews during the '70s and '80s. Although, they certainly pull it together in the end with a collection of a dozen or so great songs/performances.

For what it's worth, as far as the music of that period goes, I still think that the original 1970 Let It Be album, as produced by George Martin and Phil Spector, is the best collection of that stuff. The later Let It Be...Naked or the excerpts released on the Anthology 3 album or the shelved original 1969 track listing and mix (which was included on 2021's Let It Be: Special Edition) are just variations on a theme to me. They all contain great music, for sure, but the original Let It Be album is absolutely still my go-to choice if I want to listen to that stuff.

You're absolutely right, I'm not a fan of Spector's production on Lennon or Harrison's solo material -- too much reverb, too muffled sounding.

To be honest, although I realise and appreciate how influential his production techniques were in the '60s, I'm really not much of a fan of Spector's classic wall-of-sound productions, such as "River Deep, Mountain High" or "Be My Baby" -- I mean, they're great, great songs for sure and very powerful sounding, but to my ears they've always sounded much too busy, too cluttered and again with too much reverb.

But I think his work on Let It Be -- contrary to what some people might say (including McCartney himself) -- is actually pretty restrained and, more importantly, covers up a multitude of sins in terms of the band's musicianship. A good example of this would be "The Long and Winding Road", in which Lennon's sloppy bass playing is nicely massaged and hidden by Spector's strings and choir. On the Anthology 3 version (which is the exact same take as on the original album, but without Spector's additions), Lennon's bass playing is exposed and the bum notes are very audible indeed. Little wonder then that it was an alternate take of "The Long and Winding Road" that was selected for the Let It Be...Naked album.

Slight correction, which you no doubt know, but Let It Be wasn't technically the band's last album -- it was the last to be released, yes, but not the last to be recorded. They recorded Abbey Road after the Get Back sessions, which was released in September 1969. The delayed Let It Be album then appeared in May 1970 to tie in with the film of the same name.

I have bought the "Now and Then" single, but that's because I'm a massive Beatles nerd and had to have it in my collection, rather than because I think it's an amazing piece of music.

Having heard the finished track today, my feelings are that it's alright. It won't tarnish The Beatles' reputation, but it is just alright...nothing amazing. Which is pretty much what I expected having been familiar with John Lennon's 1978 demo for years, courtesy of bootlegs.

It's much less of a song than "Free As A Bird", I think, or even the Beatles' version of "Real Love" from the mid-90s. Which is precisely why George Harrison vetoed it back in 1995, of course. Apart from some technical challenges that made it difficult to realise the song as a finished Beatles track in the mid-90s, George also felt that Lennon's songwriting had tailed off towards the end of his life and dismissed "Now and Then" as, "f***ing rubbish!" Funnily enough Apple Corp haven't seen fit to incorporate that particular quote into the marketing for the new single!

Interestingly, the Beatles' version of "Now and Then" omits a whole section of the song, as heard on the original demo. Some of the lyrics of this missing section were incomplete though, which is doubtless why it was excised from this new version. But I can't help wishing that McCartney had written some new words and sung that part himself, as he did on "Free As A Bird".

Anyway, yeah...it's alright. I don't dislike it. But it is just pleasant nostalgia rather than something that is Earth-shatteringly good.