09-11-2024, 13:16
The Beatles: Get Back
![[Image: 220px-TheBeatles-GetBackposter.png]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/91/TheBeatles-GetBackposter.png/220px-TheBeatles-GetBackposter.png)
A VERY long documentary film - something like eight and half hours. I watched it over some days. Extraordinary - I do not know how they put up with being filmed liked that. Really in your face. And the surprise to me is that none of them totally lost the plot, although there were moments, and obviously not every single thing is on tape. This covers the 21 days leading up to the infamous rooftop concert and is a somewhat voyeuristic (admittedly) and fascinating look into a different world. These guys were between 25 and 28 when this was made - already super famous and wealthy, but in an odd kind of way, it's also just like watching any group of people that age, and aside from the clothes and hairdos, nothing much has changed in the world! Super interesting to watch Paul McCartney coming up with "Get Back", from out of nowhere. And it was all a bit muddly and disorganised in studio - the way they rehearsed and wrote, so the culmination of it all - the performance on the rooftop was an absolute metamorphosis. They seemed to shed all the mucky stuff and assume star personas, instantly! Crazy. The concert lasted 40 odd minutes until they were shut down by the coppers because of noise complaints. Some of those recordings appear on their final album Let it Be.
I've never been a Beatles afficionado and am unlikely to become one now, but I have to say that this really sheds a different light on preconceptions. Not for the faint of heart - not a lot happens a lot of the time - one is a fly on the wall. But it is really cool to see George Martin and the management team, producer Glynn Johns and an incredibly youthful Alan Parsons. Peter Sellers even makes an awkward and brief appearance.
I guess anyone who is a serious Beatles fan would not want to miss this. Perhaps it has been sanitised - who can say? There certainly didn't appear to be as much acrimony as has been suggested there was at the time, although it was apparent that the band was in the process of breaking up - it was inevitable, they all had different ideas and there were power struggles. They bickered, for sure, and all smoked themselves into a stupor but they never descended into brawling or anything like that. To be put under such pressure and then to be filmed into the bargain might conceivably be way too much to bear by anyone - all things considered, I think they coped admirably well, albeit with the aid of substances (some of them). And although George walked out, temporarily, none of them outright lost it with Yoko, for example, (at least not on the final film) who was, of course, ever present. They didn't like it but they had inherent good manners. An irresistible time capsule, for sure.
A VERY long documentary film - something like eight and half hours. I watched it over some days. Extraordinary - I do not know how they put up with being filmed liked that. Really in your face. And the surprise to me is that none of them totally lost the plot, although there were moments, and obviously not every single thing is on tape. This covers the 21 days leading up to the infamous rooftop concert and is a somewhat voyeuristic (admittedly) and fascinating look into a different world. These guys were between 25 and 28 when this was made - already super famous and wealthy, but in an odd kind of way, it's also just like watching any group of people that age, and aside from the clothes and hairdos, nothing much has changed in the world! Super interesting to watch Paul McCartney coming up with "Get Back", from out of nowhere. And it was all a bit muddly and disorganised in studio - the way they rehearsed and wrote, so the culmination of it all - the performance on the rooftop was an absolute metamorphosis. They seemed to shed all the mucky stuff and assume star personas, instantly! Crazy. The concert lasted 40 odd minutes until they were shut down by the coppers because of noise complaints. Some of those recordings appear on their final album Let it Be.
I've never been a Beatles afficionado and am unlikely to become one now, but I have to say that this really sheds a different light on preconceptions. Not for the faint of heart - not a lot happens a lot of the time - one is a fly on the wall. But it is really cool to see George Martin and the management team, producer Glynn Johns and an incredibly youthful Alan Parsons. Peter Sellers even makes an awkward and brief appearance.
I guess anyone who is a serious Beatles fan would not want to miss this. Perhaps it has been sanitised - who can say? There certainly didn't appear to be as much acrimony as has been suggested there was at the time, although it was apparent that the band was in the process of breaking up - it was inevitable, they all had different ideas and there were power struggles. They bickered, for sure, and all smoked themselves into a stupor but they never descended into brawling or anything like that. To be put under such pressure and then to be filmed into the bargain might conceivably be way too much to bear by anyone - all things considered, I think they coped admirably well, albeit with the aid of substances (some of them). And although George walked out, temporarily, none of them outright lost it with Yoko, for example, (at least not on the final film) who was, of course, ever present. They didn't like it but they had inherent good manners. An irresistible time capsule, for sure.
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson