Get Back : The Unauthorized Chronicle of the Beatles' " Let It Be" Disaster

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Summary: The ultimate example of scholarly work on the Beatles
Review: Be forewarned: this is not light reading for the casual Beatles fan. What it is is one of the most stunning examples of scholarship yet exhibited on the Beatles: a finely crafted piece of detective work, one that reconstructs an entire month of Beatles recording sessions and places the available bits and pieces of tape in their proper historical perspective. The focus is tight and meticulous, and so is the research. Far from being a "mere paraphrase of available bootlegs," the authors spent hours upon hours piecing together the "Get Back" puzzle from what was previously a jumbled mess of fragmented bootlegs. The bootlegs are still jumbled and fragmented, but they are no longer a mess. Indeed, the entire Beatles collecting community has quickly adopted this book's method of cataloguing the sundry performances, and you cannot refer seriously to a moment from these sessions without quoting Sulpy and Schweigardt. That, to me, is the most simple and eloquent testimony to the worth of this book. In short, the book is a dense and sometimes tedious micro-examination of one month of the Beatles' lives. But that month was, by its very nature, dense and tedious. The authors cannot change the monotony of that history, they can only explain it. They do it eloquently, with a book that not only serves the collector's community by helping identify stray performances, but one that contains an identifiable dramatic arc as the tensions between the bandmembers flare and fizzle, as the group literally disentegrates before our ears. If you are a die-hard, hardcore Beatles fan, you cannot find a more entertaining way to get to know "the boys" better than to obtain a large number of "Get Back" bootlegs and listen while you're reading this book. It is an experience that will never be forgotten.

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Summary: Good Old Rock and Roll
Review: Doug Sulpy and Ray Schwieghardt captured The Beatles during their demise. There appears no doubt that the group no longer shared the passion they shared in the beginning. Through hours of tapes, Suply and Schwieghardt dissected and attempted to get every nook and cranny of the Beatles'conversations. The authors show how the Beatles attempted to resusitate a musical entity that could no longer breath despite numerous attempts.

Indeed, Get Back: The Unauthorized Chronicle of the Beatles' Let it Be Disaster, did not offer any information that has not already been documented in fragments from various authors and publications. And the one thing that Sulpy and Schwieghardt do not dirctely do is answer their question of who or what broke up the Beatles. It is obvious that Yoko Ono played a major role in the breakup (Sulpy and Schweighardt's observations show her overbearing control over John's creativity and attempt at the Beatles' as well, which will play out during the Imagine sessions)along with how John, Paul, George, and Ringo changed and matured as individuals during time in which the Get Back or Let it Be sessions occurred.

The most insightful aspect of the book had been Sulpy and Schweighardt's method of chronologically showing how each track developed and evolved. What the book does is show an inkling on how the Beatles'quickly directed their musical endeavors toward being solo artists. As you read each synopsis of each song that each member was attempting to collaborate lyrically or musically, you also see several of the songs, which will eventually become solo works by each respective member down the road. One unfortunate thought comes to mind, "hey, that could have been a Beatle song." Nevertheless, it was written by a Beatle.

Despite that thought, the Beatles possessed a diverse musical heritage. This was displayed in various parts of the book describing sessions where two or all four members jammed to songs dating back to their youth, and to artists of their time --Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Bob Dylan, The Band, and various standards. They would later intertwine the melodies of those songs into the songs in which they were working on.

Get Back should not be considered a record of the Beatles' "swan song", but rather a representation of their love for various musical genres and collaboration as four individuals, which contributed to what the Beatles were and always will be: a part of Rock and Roll history and culture.

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Summary: it's a big job, but someone had to do it
Review: the authors did a wonderful job of recording the happenings of the tapes available to them at the time. however, even since 1994, many new tapes have surfaced and are easy to come by in bootleg circles. i found this out by following along with a 17-disc set and realizing that i had a complete version of "bye bye love" that the author's hadn't heard (at the time). so, the book needs a new edition, certainly.

however, as one other reviewer already stated, the author's need to take a break from reading beatles' minds. it's not so much that they take sides (though Yoko seems to get bashed just because the author's feel obligated to), it's more that they actually believe they know what's going through the beatles' minds. and then sometimes they contradict themselves so obviously that you wonder if the book was ever edited.

for instance, for some reason they decided to say that paul "enthusiastically" reherses everyone's songs, even george's. first of all, several pages earlier, the authors mentioned paul yawning while george explined the chords of "all things must pass." then, one page after they claim how much more enthusiastic paul was, they say how bored paul is with someone else's song and that he really wants to just play his piano numbers. a stupid mistake.

still, get this book and get some GB sessions bootlegs. you'll become a more intelligent beatles fan :)

Rating:
Summary: Highly Illuminating
Review: This book is a must for any more-than-casual Beatles fanbecause it sheds a great deal of light on the breakup and clears up anumber of misconceptions. Although the literary style is pretty dry, it does lend the book a measure of objectivity: the authors are simply presenting what happened, with very little interpretation or commentary. So what did happen? Well, the Beatles seemed to be facing two major interpersonal problems in early 1969. One was John's use of heroin and consequent unwillingness to communicate. He generally used Yoko as his mouthpiece, to the understandable consternation of the others. The other was George's frustration at the shoddy treatment of his material by John and Paul- and as the book shows, John bears the brunt of the responsibility, since Paul was enthusiastic about all the material in his effort to motivate the band to work. In short, there is really no way to understand the breakup of the greatest group of all time without reading this book. (And incidentally, I would not call these sessions "ill-fated"- they produced some wonderful music: "Let It Be," "Get Back," "The Long and Winding Road," "Two of Us" and "Across the Universe.")

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Summary: Some gems among a lot of tedium.
Review: This book is organized by giving a summary of each song recorded during the "Get Back" sessions. But when a song is interrupted for conversation between the Beatles, that is considered part of the song. Those "songs" where the Beatles talk are the only interesting "songs" to read about. The songs where you are told who played bass, who sang, etc., and no talking is done; that trivia gets boring after awhile. You have to wade (or skim) through a lot of pages of boring "who-played-what-instrument" trivia to get to the conversations that are in face quite riveting to read about. Some surprising things are revealed in those conversations. When George quit the group, it has always been said--by some of the Beatles themselves--that it was a tiff between George and Paul that exasperated George into leaving. But these conversations in GET BACK show that it was bad feeling between George and JOHN that caused George to temporarily quit. And the traditional story also has been that Paul was the Beatle who most disdained Yoko, and let his hostile feelings be known, and that decided John into leave the Beatles. But these conversations show that when others were criticizing Yoko, IT WAS USUALLY PAUL WHO DEFENDED YOKO!!! Quite a revelation for anyone familiar with the standard story. It is tid bits like these that make enduring the other boring bits worth while.