Let it Be and Magical Mystery Tour on DVD

Word is that Let it be and Magical Mystery Tour will finally be 'officially' released on DVD. MMT in 2012 and Let it be in 2013 (with extras!).

It's about time and a little late considering the DVD market is going away in favor of streaming...kind of like the remastered CDs of the Beatles canon coming out after the CD market petered out.

Funny...the vinyl format was around for over 50 years before CDs took over (with a brief hiccup when cassettes were the best selling format in-between). And VHS lasted about 20 years before DVDs came along. Now, CDs and DVDs are both basically dead or dying.

George Harrison: Living in the Material World

The HBO doc by Martin Scorsese is pretty damn good. I've watched it a bunch of times now, and it's full of great interviews and insights by an all-star cast. Scorsese did manage to get EVERYBODY to participate in this thing.

Paul and Ringo provide some nice bits, but the best stuff is from folks like Jackie Stewart, Klaus Voorman, Jim Keltner, Phil Spector and Olivia Harrison that give us info that we haven't heard a million times before.

A touching moment comes from Ray Cooper who can't even discuss George's death. It still hurts him after ten years and is painful to watch.

A lot of the clips are leftovers from the 'Anthology' interviews, which is fine with me. I enjoy those clips.

One of the most interesting segments is a minute or so of Paul and George signing piles of legal documents that have something to do with the Beatles break-up. They are both really uptight and obviously just want to get it over with and can barely look at each other. From their haircuts, it appears to be from about 1973.

I always thought George was the most mysterious Beatle. That is, he was the hardest one to figure out. It might be because he was the most normal. That might sound strange considering his Indian/Spiritual quest, which on the surface doesn't seem normal. But it's no different than what millions of other people do in their own way.

After all, aren't there millions of 'self help' books out there? And don't the majority of people in the world seek some kind of religion or method of dealing with life? The fact that he was a Beatle, and his quest was public, and that he had the money to indulge it in a big way, just makes it seem bigger than it was. It was really no different than your sister-in-law deciding to become a Catholic. That kind of thing happens everyday.

I do wish there was more interviews with his two brothers who make only a fleeting appearance.

Cool to see some footage of the 1974 'Dark Horse' tour, which I'd never seen before.

Overall, it's a 'must see' for Beatle nuts and an important piece of the material out there concerning them. I only wish it was about two hours longer.