Knight
I guess I should have figured Santa was a Beatles fan.
How else do you explain the fact that during this 2021 holiday season, Beatles enthusiasts are offered not one but two opportunities to satisfy our recurring Fab Four fix?
This year we devotees have two more reasons to immerse ourselves in the British group’s distinctive music as well as re-imagine once more the sense of positive freedom their art and its times evoked.
The first gift is the release of filmmaker Peter Jackson’s Get Back, a documentary of the group’s last times recording together. For the new film, Jackson used 57 hours of footage from 1969 some of which became the 1970 film Let It Be. Over the years Let It Be has been understood as a video chronicle of the Beatles breakup. I admit it was a shock back then to see them not as those happy Fab Four whom I had grown up with, but as individuals who can be petty, selfish, and who would argue with or ignore each other. Jackson’s remake is a welcome antidote to that somewhat toxic, negative film. There is a positivity in the new one that is lacking in the original.
Upon learning Get Back would be shown in three installments on Disney+, and knowing there is no cable TV where I live, I knew I would need to get by with a little help from my friends. This help came by way of Retro Dan who invited me over to check out the first segment. Watching it with my longtime musical partner (We have played music off and on since 1974) just made sense. In 1964, ten years before we met, we had both decided to try our hand at learning guitar (I’m still learning.) Some of the first songs we played together were Beatles songs (We still play them as the Retro Brothers.) For both of our musical lives, the band has been our constant, guiding star.
Santa’s other gift is a two-volume book titled simply “Paul McCartney: The Lyrics.” It is a book of nearly all of McCartney’s lyrics From his first attempt at songwriting in 1956 (“I Lost My Little Girl”), to his collaboration in the ‘60s with John Lennon in the Beatles, through his ’71 to ‘81 work with Wings, and beyond to present day.
The book resulted from approximately 50 hours of interviews with the poet Paul Muldoon in New York City, taking place over twenty-four sessions between 2015 and 2020. The Lyrics is arranged alphabetically by songs. Paul remembers the particulars of each song, and talks about the people, places and situations during the creation of the music. It is a bountiful sources of information and insights from one of the great modern composers. This is probably as close to an autobiography as we will get from Sir Paul.
My personal takeaway from both Christmas gifts is the insight I gleaned into the creative process. In the documentary I see how serendipity plays such a vital part of invention and how “goofing around” can lead to a successful work of art. In the book, McCartney talks about the possibilities going through his mind as he works on a new song. Maybe this is one where the chords go down as the tune goes up. Chance also plays a part. Talking about “All My Lovin” he relates, “I made my way to a piano and somehow found the chords.” Found the chords. It can seem very magical, and it is, but it also requires sticking to it until you get results.
For nearly my entire life I have attempted to write songs and lyrics as well as try other forms of writing. Sometimes I stumble onto something; sometimes I get in the zone; sometimes I feel the magic. This holiday chance to read and view master craftsmen in action is such a wonderful gift.
Thank you, Santa.
