Labyrinthitis

Having watched my way through all 800 hours of Get Back , Peter Jackson's documentary built (mostly) from the raw footage resulting from the filming sessions that resulted in Let It Be , here are a few random thoughts and extemporizations... (1) It will be of little interest to anyone who is not interested in The Beatles, and in the process of how a band creates and refines songs, and records them.   (2) If there was any mystery as to why and how The Beatles split (and there shouldn't be), this clears it up once and for all. It's clear from the start they're not  a band any more.  Only Paul seems particularly motivated towards making new Beatle music (albeit, with a heavy dash of wanting said music to be done his way). John is only interested in getting high and Yoko, and seems bored with the whole proceedings.  Ringo looks bored and tired.  And George is in a snit the whole time because John/Paul won't pay any attention to his latest songs (among other things). 

When I was a kid, about 13-14, I saw Tina Turner being profiled on ABC's 20/20 news series.  This would have been around `80-`81.  She was working the comeback trail, playing clubs and I guess at one point working day jobs to keep food in the fridge.  I wasn't the immersed music geek I am now at that age.  I was just getting into listening to rock radio a lot.  I didn't know much about Tina Turner.  I'd seen her on variety shows a couple of times but didn't know quite what to make of her back then. I knew there was such a thing as spousal abuse, or as we called it back then, wife-beating.  But I was shocked that such a powerful-seeming woman could have been subjected to it.  And by the gruesome realities of it she so unflinchingly shared.  And I watched a clip of her belting out an aching, gospel-y version of "Help". The music I head there didn't necessarily move me (though I later came to appreciate her version of "Help"), but her story did.