Do you think George really wanted to do the anthology documentary?  | Page 2 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

robert said
George is extremely uncomfortable in these takes and I think there’s a multitude of reasons – many of which have already been mentioned. But I will add one more reason/opinion. And I say this without necessarily being a major ‘Paul fan’ at all – nonetheless I offer the following:

Anthology is a story that has an ending – 4 guys who were united broke up in large part due to a business issue (as the immediate catalyst – lots of other issues as well for sure).

In the break up two were firmly united (John and George), one went with the other two (Ringo) and one stood his ground and opposed the other 3 (Paul).

The story ends and Paul was right. Klein was a thief. Apple was getting bilked.  The partnership was dissolved, they each go their own way, Paul’s in-laws made him a boat load of money and Paul’s solo career (in terms of financial success) dwarfs the other three. And the whole world knows it.

I think for George reviewing the Beatles history is a looking at story with a conclusion – and for him not a good one. It only magnifies Paul’s position and diminishes George’s. Also remember that from Pepper on pretty much every Beatles project (other than the White Album ) was a Paul project.

So a trip down memory lane always ends up in the same place. George’s melancholy temperment makes such memories always end bad. Because they Beatles break up was so bitter and so splintering the last year 69-70 dominate the story and so the end point is that Paul was right – about almost all of it – right down to Abbey Road album (heck he even re-did Let It Be ).

And please note – I am not talking about music quality, musicianship, song writing, social causes, or anything but the business and the direction of the band.

History is written by the victors and in this case it was Paul. And so for George to have to come to the charitable hand of Paul McCartney is about as distasteful a thing he could do. Add to that no John to keep Paul in check and you get the awkward footage you get.

My 2 cents and over priced at that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great points!

trcanberra said

meanmistermustard said
I don’t think George wanted their help, he would rather have been a moderate success of his own than piggyback on the Beatles name which would have happened if John or Paul had gotten involved. If anything he wanted to lose the connection to his ex-band that was always attached whether he liked it or not.

Wonderwall was all George’s idea & concept with no other Beatles involved.

I suspect there is something in this.  There is a Lennon interview where he says George approached him to help him finish a song.  John said he had to bite his tongue trying not to tell him to bugger off because he only worked with Paul.  I suspect George picked up on the vibes so maybe didn’t ask again.

 

That song was Taxman and yes, John admitted as much that he wanted to tell George to f**k off but he sucked it up and helped him anyway. John was also almost ALWAYS “coincidentally” absent from the studio when it was time to record George’s songs, especially ’67-’69, whereas Paul always helped out and did extra duty on instruments, vocals, and arguably turned in some of his best performances (see “Something ,” etc) yet to his dying day, George idolized John and would s**t all over Paul. Complicated guy!

parlance said

DrBeatle said
 yet to his dying day, George idolized John and would s**t all over Paul. Complicated guy!

Why do you keep saying “to his dying day” when they clearly had made amends?

parlance

 

Maybe I’m exaggerating, but from the stuff I’ve read, George and Paul came to some sort of peace/reconciliation, but it’s also been said George never truly forgave Paul even at the end. *shrug* None of us know for sure, of course, except for the two of them. But in my view, strictly as an outside observer, it seems like there was always just a little bit of that resentment toward Paul still lingering on in George even after they made amends (which, if I’m not mistaken, was around 1999/2000).

bewareofchairs said

DrBeatle said

trcanberra said

meanmistermustard said
I don’t think George wanted their help, he would rather have been a moderate success of his own than piggyback on the Beatles name which would have happened if John or Paul had gotten involved. If anything he wanted to lose the connection to his ex-band that was always attached whether he liked it or not.

Wonderwall was all George’s idea & concept with no other Beatles involved.

I suspect there is something in this.  There is a Lennon interview where he says George approached him to help him finish a song.  John said he had to bite his tongue trying not to tell him to bugger off because he only worked with Paul.  I suspect George picked up on the vibes so maybe didn’t ask again.

 

That song was Taxman and yes, John admitted as much that he wanted to tell George to f**k off but he sucked it up and helped him anyway. John was also almost ALWAYS “coincidentally” absent from the studio when it was time to record George’s songs, especially ’67-’69, whereas Paul always helped out and did extra duty on instruments, vocals, and arguably turned in some of his best performances (see “Something ,” etc) yet to his dying day, George idolized John and would s**t all over Paul. Complicated guy!

That attitude of John’s always annoyed me, tbh, because George was always happy to help him with his songs, and he benefited a great deal from it. George appreciated Paul’s help and has said as much. In fact he was probably on better terms with Paul throughout the 70’s than he was with John. I think his reluctance to publicly criticise John was more to do with John being likely to turn on him if he felt offended. You only need to look at how he reacted to George’s book, and Yoko not being allowed to perform at the Concert for Bangladesh to see why George might’ve felt he had to walk on egg shells. Paul, on the other hand, was like family and the fact George felt comfortable enough to say whatever he wanted about him is I think in a way a testament to how strong he felt their relationship was.

EXACTLY! It’s been widely and factually shown over the years, too, that George was nasty to Yoko from day 1 and he never softened his stance on her, whereas Paul even got them back together in the mid-70s, to his own detriment (John had planned on writing and recording with him and Wings for the V&M album before Paul got him back with Yoko, who promptly put the kibosh on that!). Don’t forget that Paul, in addition to letting George use his house for his dying days, also paid a large part of George’s treatments in that last year. I know that George deep down did love Paul like a brother…hell, all FOUR of them felt that way about each other. It was just some of the lingering resentment that George had a hard time over the course of his post-Fabs life.

I’m currently reading and will subsequently review the new George bio, “Behind the Locked Door,” and I’m interested to see what it has regarding this very complex relationship between Paul and George.