Customer Reviews

Composing The Beatles Songbook: Lennon and McCartney 1966-1970

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"Composing the Beatles Songbook - Lennon & McCartney 1966 - 1970" is a documentary exploring the partnership, music, and impact of John Lennon and Paul McCartney as composers during their immensely creative period. The DVD incorporates rare footage, classic performances, and interviews with friends of the pair as well as with Beatles historians. We learn the hows, whens, and whys of such Beatles songs as "Eleanor Rigby," "Hey Jude," "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Revolution," "Get Back," and "I Am the Walrus." Seldom has the genesis of pop songs been put to such careful scrutiny. For those who remember those years firsthand, this DVD will provide both nostalgia and the back stories of the songs of youth. For those too young to recall those years, the DVD will shed light on the combination of talent, artistry, experimentation, and marketing that made the Beatles such an unparalleled phenomenon.

I was truly impressed by this review of the Beatles music, feeling the impact of their music to this day. Had to laugh at some of the comments of these experts on occasion, though, as some of the songs were just plain simple songs that were written on the sly, with no real intent to have all of these multiple meanings.

Still, it was refreshing to hear these insiders look at the songs from their vantage. If you want an intellectual lift on your favorite Beatles music, I highly recommend this informative DVD.

Composing the Beatles Songbook: Lennon and McCartney 1966-1970 is an independent DVD documentary examining the partnership and music of Lennon and McCartney, widely beloved creator of some of the most popular songs by the classic 60's rock band "The Beatles". Filled with rare footage including classic Beatles performances, and also testimony from friends of the pair, Composing the Beatles Songbook is sure to prove as inspirational as it is educational to songwriters today. Extras include extended interviews and biographies, in this superb gift for dyed-in-the-wool Beatles fans. 112 minutes, black-and-white.

There were only two people in this documentary who demonstrated first hand knowledge of the subject; Barry Miles and Klaus Voorman.

Other than Klaus and Barry the DVD featured the usual odd assortment of people a couple of degrees removed; critics, musicians and teachers looking to contribute to the subject and occasionally succeeding, but more often following their own opinions to the point of contradicting better informed sources.

All in all it's hard to know whether to recommend this to anyone. If you don't know much about the Beatles and the songwriting process that supported them, this film will not help you. The level of collaboration that existed between all four, even when they were fighting, is totally down played in this film in an effort to create a narrative that contrasts the songwriting of John and Paul. If you do know enough to understand the difference between this narrative and what others closer to the source have said then you're bound to be frustrated at wading through the seemingly endless reels of ill-informed conjecture to get at the new pieces of information. If you are hoping to hear Klaus on the subject (as I was) please note that he is featured very little in the film.

There are many mediocre to really bad Beatles retrospectives and documentaries out there and unfortunately, I own many of them. Composing The Beatles Songbook, however, is not one of them. The panel is first rate: people who were close friends of the Beatles during the sixties and people who are "experts" on the Beatles and their music. I particularly like the diversity of opinions on the panel. Some seem more partial to Paul's style and some seem more partial to John's style so it's not biased towards either of them. If you're a serious fan of the Beatles' music, you have to check out this series!

Being a life long fan of the Beatles, I stay in search of worthy content to view and help me gain knowledge of four men that helped me grow up. There is much shabby work for sale in the market that should never see the light of day and sometimes we are prey to people who sell junk to take your money. This DVD was a solid investment and a work worth watching repeatedly. This disc is full of insight into the Beatles music, their style of song writing and interesting details into the minds of Paul, John, George & Ringo from artists they worked with intimately. Its very seldom you come across this type of work and have it pull you in the minute it starts. I would have paid twice the price for it and Im tight with my money. The first thing I did after watching it was get back on Amazon and purchase a second copy for my sister who is an even bigger fan of the Beatles than me if thats possible. It was a treat sharing it with her after she had watched it because we compared notes about the film and talked of its detail. Fabulous addition to my collection, I am currently lining up the others in the series for purchase. If you love getting into the creativity of the artist, this should be a part of your collection.

I was truely impressed with the two DVDs on the history of Paul and John's writing experience. I am a true Beatle fan fourever and have hundreds of Beatles items and including DVDs, CDs, and memoriablia. There are truely some facts that I had heard about but was not quiet sure if it was true or not. The people that are in these DVDs are professionals, friends who were around them at all times, and people who know music, which include musicians, professors of music etc. These DVDs are for true Beatle fans who want to know more. Excellent, well done.

Interresting story and informations by friends and related about the fab but it is pity there no subtitles in other language than English ! For serious and complete collector.