This film gives you a really strong impression that The Beatles were Lennon & McCartney and ONLY Lennon & McCartney. For most of the film, George and Ringo basically sit there silently doing what they're told, contributing very little. It also seems that at this stage of the band, Paul had taken a leadership role.
shareNot all who talk a lot are leaders, George was just a gentleman but certainly contributed as much as John or Paul musically at times, Ringo was...well...Ringo.
shareGeorge was easily their best musician, but he had little influence on the direction of The Beatles. I don’t know what the movie implies, but Paul was always “the cute one.” I could never see him dominating John. I remember John’s poignant post-breakup song to Paul, who
was then fronting Wings along with his wife. It was titled, “How Do You Sleep?”
Some people talk a lot and loud, others are more reserved, which doesn't mean they're lesser participants. As for Ringo, within his technical limitations he was a better drummer than he is usually given credit for, and his style fit the Beatles perfectly. Both George and Ringo were essential.
shareCompletely transfixed by Ringo's eyebrows, is it just me? What the actual feck..
share"It also seems that at this stage of the band, Paul had taken a leadership role."
The movie seems to give that impression, but according to Billy Preston, "John was the boss Beatle."
Maybe he saw something there that the movie didn't show.
He talks about this at 3:27 of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHwyU6y0Y3A
I agree with your take. George was playing lead riffs & fills on the majority of the tunes. But by then, he was writing spiffy songs of his own. But he was steam-rollered by the other two. Ringo was just a sweet guy, a good steady background drummer, who was trying to keep everyone happy.
The thing is, we only saw a small portion of what went on, I expect we missed a lot of the actual rehearsing, because those songs tightened up -enormously- from the beginning of the doc to the end, but we didnt see so much of that tuning.
I wished they had showed more playing and less goofing.
George didn't think so! No, he walked out in the first episode, because Lennon and especially McCartney treated him like an employee and not the full partner he thought he deserved to be. And IMHO really did deserve to be.
It's sad to see that Ringo had accepted his "less than" role in the band, he's almost entirely silent during the brainstorming sessions, although he did speak up long enough to push "Octopus's Garden"... during which Lennon and McCartney ignored him. No wonder he was slowly edging into acting, clearly the music business wasn't bringing him much happiness.
Very talented employees though.
Ringo was a very creative drummer, who used the drums not just to set the beat, but as another musical instrument, to give each song a unique style, and to give the Beatles a unique sound. His easy-going personality made him a glue guy, holding the band together and reducing the friction between domineering personalities like John and Paul, and the more sensitive George.
George was very talented guitarist and song writer, improving all along, and eventually writing some of the Beatles' best songs. He had a number one album with his own songs after the Beatles broke up.
Paul wasn't just the cute one, he was a musical genius whose talent eventually forced him into a leadership role in the group, as John got interested in other things and went further into drugs. He could sing anything and play any instrument, and you can see in Get Back how he didn't just write songs, he taught the other guys how to play them.
John got the band started and contributed a great voice and some immortal lyrics, but even near the end of the band you could see how he insisted on holding the groups to the Beatles' own high standards. If Paul was the main creative force, it was John who made sure everything they did was first rate and polished.
This happens to every organized group and it's only natural
share