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Post by OldFred on Nov 20, 2008 22:34:38 GMT -5
BBC Radio 2 will be running an hour long documentary on the Beatles White Album this Saturday, November 22nd at 7pm UK time. It can be streamed live on BBC Radio 2's website and can be access from their online archives for a week after the initial broadcast. Definitely worth checking out. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fnmcj
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Post by OldFred on Nov 22, 2008 20:44:45 GMT -5
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Post by superhans on Nov 23, 2008 9:37:18 GMT -5
Listened to it last night - albeit under the influence of several lagers. Inevitably, I suppose, most of the subject matter covered is already known to fans. A rather over-long appraisal of 'Revolution 9' got the programme off to a rather slow start (and made the programme quite difficult to sell to Mrs. SuperHans! ) The one theme that seemed to dominate the programme, coming across in a number of different interviews was one of focus. In the early weeks of recording the band really lacked focus. One of the engineers opined that they really needed a kick up the backside - but there was no one to stand up to them to tell them to knuckle down... ...in the end it was the looming release deadline that really clicked the sessions into gear and upped the energy levels and the general sense of band cohesion and togetherness. Interesting. One other highlight was a 1968 interview with George, where he comes across as fairly diffident and lukewarm about the album - apart from side one. The rest is a sort of murky alcoholic haze, I'm afraid.
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Post by John S. Damm on Nov 23, 2008 10:55:16 GMT -5
Listened to it last night - albeit under the influence of several lagers. ......A rather over-long appraisal of 'Revolution 9' got the programme off to a rather slow start (and made the programme quite difficult to sell to Mrs. SuperHans! ) .....One other highlight was a 1968 interview with George, where he comes across as fairly diffident and lukewarm about the album - apart from side one. The rest is a sort of murky alcoholic haze, I'm afraid. LOL! That is the only way to listen to these things. And I certainly can relate to the difficulty in convincing a cynical spouse to invest time in these Beatles' things. Anymore, I prefer to hear interviews from the Fabs contemporary to the events under discussion. I guess Paul's ever changing recollections these days has made me feel that way.
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Post by vectisfabber on Nov 24, 2008 4:14:11 GMT -5
The one theme that seemed to dominate the programme, coming across in a number of different interviews was one of focus. In the early weeks of recording the band really lacked focus. One of the engineers opined that they really needed a kick up the backside - but there was no one to stand up to them to tell them to knuckle down... That's interesting: it seems to fly in the face of accepted wisdom that they were focussed on returning from Rishikesh, but it disintegrated the longer they spent in the studio. And it puts an interesting spin on McCartney's work ethic - that, when pushed the most, they did their best work, so he pushed them.
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Post by superhans on Nov 24, 2008 4:22:15 GMT -5
The one theme that seemed to dominate the programme, coming across in a number of different interviews was one of focus. In the early weeks of recording the band really lacked focus. One of the engineers opined that they really needed a kick up the backside - but there was no one to stand up to them to tell them to knuckle down... That's interesting: it seems to fly in the face of accepted wisdom that they were focussed on returning from Rishikesh, but it disintegrated the longer they spent in the studio.
And it puts an interesting spin on McCartney's work ethic - that, when pushed the most, they did their best work, so he pushed them.One little titbit that comes back to me is that George Martin went on his summer holidays roughly half way through the sessions. When he returned he couldn't believe how much they had accomplished (7 songs in the can) while he had been away, based on their productivity during the early weeks. Is there a possible parallel with the 'Let it be' sessions here? I know Twickenham was a far from hospitable place to make music, but if you compare the productivity of two weeks at Twickenham with the ten days at Saville Row - with deadlines looming - the difference is remarkable.
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