I’ve finally gotten around to watching this. It’s wonderful.

Of course, for me, a musician since junior high, a guitarist forever and a lucky devil that managed to produce and engineer records for a decade, and whose first ever record purchased was Revolver, the documentary is more than it might be to most others who watch it. Forgive that very awkward sentence!

I feel this documentary, at times, viscerally. I watch it alone in the dark of my home studio/office and I often cry.

It is hard for me not to find so much of my past in it, to remember all the bands I worked with, studios I’ve been in, recording sessions I ran, music I’ve heard that, in many cases, few other people ever heard.

The Beatles are so similar to every band I’ve ever produced, in terms of their dynamics and relationships. Paul is a hard charger, literally bubbling over with music and ideas, and the others are a bit in his way at times. However, I find overall they are very polite to each other. I’ve witnessed much worse. I’ve seen bands break-up completely, dissolving in a fist fight after a few straws past the camels back. Perhaps there is worse behavior that we don’t see, but overall, these guys are gentlemen.

The relationship between Paul and John is present and clearly strong. There’s such a bond, conveyed in glances and smiles and laughs. They look like best friends to me. They have a partnership which is theirs exclusively. Ringo and George often look like spectators.

George… Part 1 is really George’s story. In many ways he’s the most grounded and practical out of the bunch, always with an eye towards logistics and how much things might cost. He did grow up quite poor.

The segment in which he discusses Eric Clapton: his (George’s) desire to improve, play better and become a better musician is evident. It’s also evident that he’s really looking for a simple compliment from Paul or John. Something akin to, “I love the way you play, George.” But he doesn’t get it. And the rest of the sessions he’s trying so hard to establish something interesting and different about his playing — he’s trying to earn that never-to-come-compliment so hard that he drives Paul up a wall. And how could he not? He’s noodling on a wha-wha pedal the entire time. It would drive anyone crazy.

But, SO MANY of the noodling parts wind up on the finished recordings of not only Let It Be but also Abbey Road, and although McCartney is annoyed, he’s also listening and filtering through all the ideas, and he’s stealing them liberally.

George is vindicated on Abbey Road, which, aside from being a fantastic record full of great songs, is a set of virtuoso performances by all The Beatles, but especially George, who plays his fucking ass off. Abbey Road is one of the great guitar albums, and George is like an LA session player on it.

More about George… he shows up to the sessions with All Things Must Pass — a song clearly better than anything else the other guys have at that moment, and it just comes and goes… isn’t it a pity?

John… people say he looks like he’s on heroin, but he seems much too sharp for that. There are a few segments in which he looks like he just had a joint, but overall he’s playing too well, and has all his wits about him. Especially interesting was the section where they’re discussing set design for a potential concert and John takes the ball and confidently runs with it.

Lindsay-Hogg seems like a poser. I’ve known guys like that. What a dick. But he does know where to put the camera, and he’s hired the right operators, because there are beautiful, intimate moments all over the place. Kudos to Peter Jackson for having the patience to go through all the footage and put this together. It strikes me as being heaps better, and far more accurate, than the very depressing Let It Be film that was pieced together from the same footage back in 1970.

Ringo. At one point Linda Eastman (who later becomes Linda McCartney) comments that she loves Ringo and he has a good heart. He is impossibly sweet in this, and impossibly patient. He sits and watches, silently waiting, more than he ever actually plays. But when he plays… godddamn! He’s RINGO! Even in rough jams with everyone wandering and looking for parts, it is impossible to miss the immediate connection between Paul on bass and Ringo’s kick drum. Those two guys are so effortlessly tight and on each other. And when the entire band plays together, Ringo…. yikes! He just pins the thing down so firmly, and they all climb on board and go, and it is so, so locked up and perfectly grooving… and then you realize the element that made all the different Beatles songs and styles hang together was very often Ringo.

Linda Eastman was beautiful. And so smart. There’s a wonderful moment where she and Yoko are talking, and Yoko seems so delighted to have another woman to talk to.

I think my favorite moment in Part 1 is when Yoko is leaning against John and she kisses his shoulder.

People, even our heroes, are really just insecure messes that go through the day fluctuating between celebration and falling apart.