Yes. I almost hesitate to wade in with my thoughts about Peter Jackson's "Get Back" documentary of the Beatles recording and filming sessions for the "Let it Be Album" in 1970. We streamed it over the holiday weekend. Totally sunk in, bathed in every last minute of it. My first thought: Thank You Peter Jackson.
It is totally cool and amazing to see the Beatles alive and well in their late 20's. They meant so much to so many. How many hours spent listening to their music? How many human beings did they inspire to pick up instruments and start bands? Who didn't want to do what they did? I mean, you know, pretty cool job.
Safe to say, the Beatles were, and are, hugely influential. Undeniable. Every other band who came after them were judged against them. Even if you hated the Beatles you couldn't shake them. Pretty much all of their records are fabulous, worth playing over and over. You will be rewarded if you are a Beatles obsessive. You probably would not wade thru this documentary for any other band except the Beatles.
Hugely commercially successful, I mean, totally unimaginable success, and at the same time, hugely creative, innovative, cutting edge, always morphing and growing (be sure to spin "Please Please Me" "The Beatles Live at the BBC," "Past Masters I & II," "Rubber Soul," "Revolver," "Sgt Peppers," and the "White Album" to remind yourself of their genius) So yes, to see them in various locations doing their thing, is sort of breath-taking.
But man, at the same time, I was shocked and a bit repelled at how dysfunctional the Beatles were at this time in their career. As someone who loves to go to a rehearsal studio and create with other musicians, it was pretty off-putting to see how unproductive and unfocused these sessions were. I think the cameras and the observers had something to do with it. It was an awkward, forced situation, and clearly, Lennon and Harrison really didn't want to be there. Also not being a live performing band for three years, being basically a studio band, led to some hermetically-sealed eccentricities. Also, chalk some of this dysfunction up to bad blood, jealousy, rivalry, and too many fucking drugs.
The Beatles were probably one of the only entities on the planet who could burn so much film and audio tape. So much clowning, tom-foolery, idiocy, not getting to the point. You wonder was this a one-off situation? The worst point of their career, a sort of unique nadir? Probably so.
Remember they recorded their first album in one 16 hour blast. These are the same four lads who played 8 hour sets in Hamburg, Germany in their formative years. If you read Mark Lewisohn's "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions" you marvel at how creative and to the point they were in the recording studio for most of their career. Maybe it was the steady eye of George Martin, and the steady hand of Brian Epstein that helped them keep focus?
So much success. They had nothing to prove. And clearly Lennon and Harrison had no desire to perform live. Beatlemania seemed to have killed any joy or pleasure they derived from live performance.
Anyway. The movie is what it is. I do think Peter Jackson did a fabulous job of doing a day by day tick-tock. Some of it is thrilling, when Billy Preston shows up and sits in, everyone steps up, the music starts clicking. Billy should have been made a permanent Beatle, no doubt. That would have been fucking amazing. It is great when they perform a few songs on the rooftop.
Still much of the film is disheartening & confounding. I mean, shite, all that time and misery for 4 songs on the roof? Yikes! There were days of total misery. But then again some fabulous music came out even in the deepest dysfunction, songs like "Let It Be," "Get Back," "Don't Let Me Down," and the rough beginning outlines of a healthy portion of the songs recorded for "Abbey Road." Maybe the method was mad, I mean, for sure, lots of chaos, but who knows, maybe that was just part of the process? They seemed to trust each other, trusting that somehow it would all come together. I mean, finally it is hard to argue with the results.
Although skip Phil Spector's haphazardly-produced "Let It Be," (1970); it really is a botch-job, ruined by sappy strings and choir, with random studio jabbering. Instead, grab a copy of the alternative mix "Let it Be... Naked" (2003). Maybe a bit closer to Glyn John's original mix. Tighter, more focused. A better record by far. Plus, "Naked," includes John Lennon's great song "Don't Let Me Down," which Spector clownishly left off the original album.
Oh yeah, and by the by, it wasn't Yoko who broke up the Beatles, they were imploding all on their own. Dig it!
