Disliked by the Beatles and released to a confused public mourning the band’s break-up, Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s documentary has been pushed to the margins for decades. But is that treatment deserved?
It's a similar situation with the documentary-style books too. The new one you referenced, edited by John Harris, is a glossy, authorised, coffee-table effort, effectively an edited transcription of the audio tapes. A similar, unauthorised work by Doug Sulphy and Ray Schweighhardt, originally published in the '90s, I vaguely recall being absorbing in its grim, monochrome monotony.
Like Lindsay-Hogg's film, the earlier book is hard to find - in terms of UK availability, it appears just a single copy currently exists on ebay, yours for a mere £100 - but it would be interesting to compare that work to this new approved version.
Personally, the ANTHOLOGY project was sufficient for me to be dubious of any nostalgia project, mono reissues aside, the b(r)and has been directly involved with.
> They were a band with nothing to prove but they proved it anyway. They passed the audition.
What a great line.
Me upset about Let It Be going down memory hole, but me also glad to hear Get Back give us more moments of Beatles rediscovering joy of being in this band.
That being said, any film about band, whether documentary or biopic, have to wrestle with problem of band approval. Me wish we could still see Let It Be, even as companion piece to Get Back, and me wish even more we could have seen Sasha Baron Cohen take on Freddie Mercury which was nixed by band. (Apparently surviving members of Queen wanted to make movie where Freddie die halfway through and rest of movie is about them soldiering on with series of lesser frontmen!) And me not know how to balance people's right to have some say over how their story get told, and audience's desire to get unvarnished truth of story.
It's a similar situation with the documentary-style books too. The new one you referenced, edited by John Harris, is a glossy, authorised, coffee-table effort, effectively an edited transcription of the audio tapes. A similar, unauthorised work by Doug Sulphy and Ray Schweighhardt, originally published in the '90s, I vaguely recall being absorbing in its grim, monochrome monotony.
Like Lindsay-Hogg's film, the earlier book is hard to find - in terms of UK availability, it appears just a single copy currently exists on ebay, yours for a mere £100 - but it would be interesting to compare that work to this new approved version.
Personally, the ANTHOLOGY project was sufficient for me to be dubious of any nostalgia project, mono reissues aside, the b(r)and has been directly involved with.
> They were a band with nothing to prove but they proved it anyway. They passed the audition.
What a great line.
Me upset about Let It Be going down memory hole, but me also glad to hear Get Back give us more moments of Beatles rediscovering joy of being in this band.
That being said, any film about band, whether documentary or biopic, have to wrestle with problem of band approval. Me wish we could still see Let It Be, even as companion piece to Get Back, and me wish even more we could have seen Sasha Baron Cohen take on Freddie Mercury which was nixed by band. (Apparently surviving members of Queen wanted to make movie where Freddie die halfway through and rest of movie is about them soldiering on with series of lesser frontmen!) And me not know how to balance people's right to have some say over how their story get told, and audience's desire to get unvarnished truth of story.