Paul McCartney's bandmates George Harrison and John Lennon are ghostly presences on "McCartney, 3,2,1."
In the Hulu docu series, McCartney and producer Rick Rubin look at the inner workings of Beatles recordings, forever preserved on their original tapes.
During the six half-hour episodes, Rubin feeds tapes into a mixing board, pushing controls to play separate parts of selected songs. McCartney recalls how a bass progression, guitar riff or vocal harmony was produced.
The series also examines several songs McCartney recorded with his band Wings and during his solo career after the Beatles broke up in 1970.
The 79-year-old McCartney, his youthful spirit still fresh, recalls Harrison and Lennon's songwriting and musical ideas. As the songs recorded so many years ago play, he seems transported back to his youth, a wistful look on his face.
While McCartney gives full credit to Lennon and Harrison, he inevitably emerges as the group's dominant creative force. McCartney acknowledges that much of the band's innovative studio productions after they stopped touring in 1966 came from producer George Martin's ability to translate McCartney's raw ideas into music.
McCartney's familiar stories about his childhood friendships with Harrison and Lennon in hardscrabble Liverpool hold their Dickensian power. As McCartney says, back then he was playing guitar with a bloke named John. Now, he looks back at writing songs with John Lennon.
Warm reminisces of Ringo Starr reveal the drummer's underrated contributions. Along with his "Ringoisms" giving the impetus to songs like "A Hard Day's Night," and "Tomorrow Never Knows," Starr was the essential element that transported the band to stardom, McCartney affirms. Meeting Starr in Hamburg, where the Beatles served a grueling apprenticeship, and Starr replacing Pete Best as the group's drummer energized the band's sound, he says.
While Starr's role in solidifying the group is a familiar story, McCartney steps forward in extolling Starr's ability as a drummer, citing his innovative technique.
Yet in one of the few anecdotes that highlight tensions among the band before their breakup, McCartney recalls Starr's irritation when McCartney gave detailed instructions on how to perform on "Back in the U.S.S.R." Starr steamed off, and McCartney ended up playing drums on the song.
London's 1960s music and art scene shines brightly in McCartney's anecdotes, such as hearing Jimi Hendrix play in a small London club. McCartney says that Hendrix performed that night before a sparse crowd, but word of mouth acclaim resulted in a packed house the next week.
McCartney looks back at other musical superstars. Harrison's generosity is cited in allowing Eric Clapton to play the lead solo on Harrison's "My Guitar Gently Weeps." When Rubin asks if Clapton was McCartney's friend, he shakes his head and says he was Harrison's friend.
When Rubin asks if other groups influenced the Beatles, McCartney cites Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" as challenging the Beatles to record "Sgt. Pepper." He also expresses the band's admiration of the Kinks and associating with Pink Floyd at the famed Abbey Road Studio during the recording of "Dark Side of the Moon."
Tellingly, no mention is made of the Beatles' greatest rival, the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the other Stones must have occupied a separate sphere in the Beatles' estimation.
In an amusing aside when Rubin inexplicably plays "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," McCartney recalls that Moog synthesizer inventor Robert Moog was at the studio when the novelty number was recorded, and lent a hand.
A segment on the polarizing "Yesterday," viewed as a masterpiece by some but disparaged by others as overly sentimental, reveals that the other Beatles wanted nothing to do with the song. McCartney recorded it alone with his guitar, and Martin added schmaltzy strings.
A young McCartney is shown performing the song alone in concert, batting his eyes with Barry Manilow sincerity.
McCartney’s hard-rock authenticity is paramount in a dissection of “Maybe I’m Amazed” from his brilliant self-recorded solo album following the Beatles’ breakup. The searing guitar solos, pulsing drums and bass, and aching vocals, all performed by McCartney, blaze like a comet.
Rubin goes too far in manipulating the tape machine, often ruining a song by cutting away to just the bass and drums. His admiration of McCartney at times crosses the line into fawning.
While Lennon before his tragic death discounted the Beatles' fame, McCartney expresses pride at the band's positive influence in the world. Images of his famous cherubic face through the years testify to his presence in world culture. His visage shows a serene wisdom, but his eyes still shine as they did when the Beatles first burst upon the scene
McCartney never learned to read or write music. In one scene in "McCartney 3,2,1," he sits at a piano and shows Rubin how he created his music from a few simple chords.
The Beatles' rise might have been miraculous. Yet, as the docu-series proves, they built their career note by note.