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I found Get Back incredibly inspirational. It's all just so ordinary, like any band rehearsal I've ever been in. It's kind of amazing to see The Beatles just do

I found Get Back incredibly inspirational. It's all just so ordinary, like any band rehearsal I've ever been in. It's kind of amazing to see The Beatles just doing the same stuff that everyone in bands does

marban 5y ago
Right time, right place, right people.
- JKCalhoun 5y ago
  Agree, the Great Man Theory puts too little emphasis on time and place. I feel the Beatles wild success in the United States is linked to the incredible sadness in the U.S. after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. These four English lads were the Pollyannas that the country needed, clung to, to get out of their national funk.
  - gerbilly 5y ago
    I think that the success of the 'British invasion' groups in America is that it provided a safe way for mainstream Americans to listen to black musical genres. The British musicians—who weren't as queasy about it—took R&B, Rock and Blues and played it back to the Americans from a safe distance.
    - leephillips 5y ago
      Interesting theory. But isn’t this exactly what white American musicians were doing themselves? For instance, the Beatles started out imitating Elvis, who himself was largely a[n inferior] imitator of black American popular music.
      - babyshake 5y ago
        They were imitating Little Richard a lot more than Elvis. In Get Back, they are mocking Elvis in a way that makes it clear that had been making fun of him this way for years.
        leephillips 5y ago
        Ahh, interesting. I’ll have to listen to that again.
        brg 5y ago
        The Beatles were inspired and constant fans of Elvis and his music. https://daytrippin.com/2018/10/08/john-lennons-lifelong-obsession-with-elvis-presley/ https://daytrippin.com/2018/10/08/john-lennons-lifelong-obse...
      - ableal 5y ago
        https://lithub.com/when-the-beatles-met-their-idol-elvis-presley/ https://lithub.com/when-the-beatles-met-their-idol-elvis-pre... (interesting find prompted by other, also interesting, answer)
      - pessimizer 5y ago
        Not by then. After Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis had their explosive starts in the late 50s (that went into pauses with cousin-marrying and military service), white music was determined to market versions of them with all the implications of blackness stripped out. Instead, you had teen idols and white doo wop groups singing "Mister Sandman, bring me a dream..." White rock and roll is dead until the British invasion, who consisted of people who gleefully mined US race/blues records (and Elvis, and Jerry Lee Lewis), and fed it back to Americans. That's a bit of what the movie Hairspray was about. The pause, that is. edit: honestly, rock and roll probably would have died then if it weren't for the British Invastion. The kids were getting into folk.
        leephillips 5y ago
        That makes sense. Thanks for laying it out. (And the Stones: I have the impression that Jagger became a bit of an ethnomusicologist.)
    - Joeboy 5y ago
      It seems relevant that Jimi Hendrix only made it in the US as a "British invasion" act, after breaking through in the UK and securing the enthusiastic backing of McCartney, Clapton etc.
tnolet 5y ago
Yes, it's all very very familiar. The setup, the sitting around the amps, the mumbling. It does away with the "magic" while simultaneously making clear you do need to have a natural talent for "coming up with stuff". Not so much "inspiration" but just being willing to be shameless and plug away at random things and follow intuition. The process is nothing special.
- tgv 5y ago
  Even back then?
- tekstar 5y ago
  > you do need to have a natural talent for "coming up with stuff" Where do you see that? Watching the documentary I see people who have been, for years, putting in the work. This is them going to work. Most people I know who have not met their songwriting goals do not put in the time, day after day, year after year.
  - nickelcitymario 5y ago
    Perhaps it's a little of both? But my takeaway from this scene was also more on the side of "this is how they did it: relentless hard work." ...but plenty of people put in the work and never come up with anything close to what the Beatles could. Including, it's worth considering, any of the fab 4 in their solo careers. Sure, there were a few hits. But nothing comparable to the insane productivity from when they were a band. So it looks to me like the formula is: hard work + talent + band chemistry = hit making machine. And only the hard work portion of that is within anyone's control.
    - greedo 5y ago
      I think some of this is just that anything done in their solo careers was continually measured against the best of the Beatles output. If you look at the number of hits and records sold by McCartney and Wings, it's amazing. And John Lennon's solo stuff is legendary. I still think that "Imagine" is as good as any of the Beatles stuff. And the Beatles had what I consider a lot of poor songs as well. It's just that their sheer volume of outstanding songs made it easy to ignore the lesser ones.

marban 5y ago

Right time, right place, right people.

JKCalhoun 5y ago
Agree, the Great Man Theory puts too little emphasis on time and place. I feel the Beatles wild success in the United States is linked to the incredible sadness in the U.S. after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. These four English lads were the Pollyannas that the country needed, clung to, to get out of their national funk.
- gerbilly 5y ago
  I think that the success of the 'British invasion' groups in America is that it provided a safe way for mainstream Americans to listen to black musical genres. The British musicians—who weren't as queasy about it—took R&B, Rock and Blues and played it back to the Americans from a safe distance.
  - leephillips 5y ago
    Interesting theory. But isn’t this exactly what white American musicians were doing themselves? For instance, the Beatles started out imitating Elvis, who himself was largely a[n inferior] imitator of black American popular music.
    - babyshake 5y ago
      They were imitating Little Richard a lot more than Elvis. In Get Back, they are mocking Elvis in a way that makes it clear that had been making fun of him this way for years.
      - leephillips 5y ago
        Ahh, interesting. I’ll have to listen to that again.
      - brg 5y ago
        The Beatles were inspired and constant fans of Elvis and his music. https://daytrippin.com/2018/10/08/john-lennons-lifelong-obsession-with-elvis-presley/ https://daytrippin.com/2018/10/08/john-lennons-lifelong-obse...
    - ableal 5y ago
      https://lithub.com/when-the-beatles-met-their-idol-elvis-presley/ https://lithub.com/when-the-beatles-met-their-idol-elvis-pre... (interesting find prompted by other, also interesting, answer)
    - pessimizer 5y ago
      Not by then. After Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis had their explosive starts in the late 50s (that went into pauses with cousin-marrying and military service), white music was determined to market versions of them with all the implications of blackness stripped out. Instead, you had teen idols and white doo wop groups singing "Mister Sandman, bring me a dream..." White rock and roll is dead until the British invasion, who consisted of people who gleefully mined US race/blues records (and Elvis, and Jerry Lee Lewis), and fed it back to Americans. That's a bit of what the movie Hairspray was about. The pause, that is. edit: honestly, rock and roll probably would have died then if it weren't for the British Invastion. The kids were getting into folk.
      - leephillips 5y ago
        That makes sense. Thanks for laying it out. (And the Stones: I have the impression that Jagger became a bit of an ethnomusicologist.)
  - Joeboy 5y ago
    It seems relevant that Jimi Hendrix only made it in the US as a "British invasion" act, after breaking through in the UK and securing the enthusiastic backing of McCartney, Clapton etc.

tnolet 5y ago

Yes, it's all very very familiar. The setup, the sitting around the amps, the mumbling. It does away with the "magic" while simultaneously making clear you do need to have a natural talent for "coming up with stuff". Not so much "inspiration" but just being willing to be shameless and plug away at random things and follow intuition. The process is nothing special.

tgv 5y ago
Even back then?
tekstar 5y ago
> you do need to have a natural talent for "coming up with stuff" Where do you see that? Watching the documentary I see people who have been, for years, putting in the work. This is them going to work. Most people I know who have not met their songwriting goals do not put in the time, day after day, year after year.
- nickelcitymario 5y ago
  Perhaps it's a little of both? But my takeaway from this scene was also more on the side of "this is how they did it: relentless hard work." ...but plenty of people put in the work and never come up with anything close to what the Beatles could. Including, it's worth considering, any of the fab 4 in their solo careers. Sure, there were a few hits. But nothing comparable to the insane productivity from when they were a band. So it looks to me like the formula is: hard work + talent + band chemistry = hit making machine. And only the hard work portion of that is within anyone's control.
  - greedo 5y ago
    I think some of this is just that anything done in their solo careers was continually measured against the best of the Beatles output. If you look at the number of hits and records sold by McCartney and Wings, it's amazing. And John Lennon's solo stuff is legendary. I still think that "Imagine" is as good as any of the Beatles stuff. And the Beatles had what I consider a lot of poor songs as well. It's just that their sheer volume of outstanding songs made it easy to ignore the lesser ones.