Getting Back
The Beatles, 1969, still from ‘Get Back’
Some years ago, an article in Pravda reflected on the enduring popularity of The Beatles, outlining possible reasons for their implausible success. Was the melodic simplicity of the early songs the source of their widespread appeal? Was it because the Beatles were ‘performers of the people’ and, if so, why were they so much more successful than many other musicians who had similar qualities and talents? Was it, perhaps, due to the influence of their manager, Brian Epstein, or to the guidance of their musical producer, George Martin, who was often called ‘the fifth Beatle’? Were they more adventurous, focussed, and hardworking than most of their peers? All these explanations were feasible, according to the writer, but his unusual conclusion was that the Beatles never tried to please the public, preferring to follow their own tastes, and in doing so happened to create a unique and original musical world, ‘a magical and appealing space that was open to all’. Eventually the Beatles grew tired of the ‘fairy tale’, and the band began to disintegrate.
‘Get Back’, Peter Jackson’s new edit of the 1970 film documentary ‘Let It Be’, takes up their story when the four Beatles, in different ways, had become a little weary and disillusioned. The recording of their 1968 LP, ‘The Beatles’, also known as ‘The White Album’, had been unsettled by infighting, and the band realised that something had to change. After Brian Epstein’s death in August, 1967, and especially in the wake of John Lennon’s growing infatuation with Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney had gradually become the force that held the group together, and it appears to have been his proposal that they might be able to rekindle unity and creative energy by returning to their musical roots after some years of experimental studio recordings. His strategy, half-heartedly embraced by the others, included the idea that they would be filmed making a new record, and that this would be followed up by a live television performance.
With that in mind, the band spent January, 1969, in a Twickenham film studio trying to compose a new album. They employed a young film-maker, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, to make the documentary, and Glyn Johns, instead of George Martin, to record the music. Following an unhappy few weeks in Twickenham, the project was transferred to the Apple studios in Saville Row, and it was completed by a brief public performance on top of the building, the last time they ever played together live. Almost a year later, after the band had recorded and released another LP, ‘Abbey Road’, the Beatles formally broke up, and the film was eventually released as a complement to the ‘Let It Be’ album, their last release, which had been altered and inflated by another producer, Phil Spector. The record was received by critics and public without much enthusiasm, and in that light the documentary was quickly shelved and forgotten. Little has been heard about it since, although it has long been available on the internet, as are several hours of fragmented outtakes.
The film was disliked by the Beatles, who found it grim and depressing; Michael Lindsay-Hogg has recently and plausibly suggested that their responses were unduly coloured by its association with the group’s decline. Most viewers, however, have shared the band’s thoughts on the film, and in the half century that has passed since its first appearance there has been no obvious reason to reconsider that judgement. This makes it all the more surprising that the two surviving Beatles, as well as family representatives of John Lennon and George Harrison, approved a plan for a new edit of the original film and audio footage. None of them seem to be short of money, so it is probable that the main reason for such an expensive and time-consuming undertaking was a desire to re-frame a complex and unhappy period in the Beatles’ professional lives, and to present the public, still astonishingly interested in the the group and its music, with a more agreeable picture of some of the later episodes in its history.
The documentary is now much longer - in three parts, it runs for almost eight hours - but otherwise, the most dramatic difference between ‘Get Back’ and ‘Let It Be’ is technological; the former is sharp, with fresh colours, crisper definition, and a well-balanced tonal range; it looks brighter and lighter than the older film, and for that reason alone its mood is more buoyant and optimistic. It also includes a substantial amount of new footage that shows the Beatles enjoying themselves after they moved to the Apple studios, something which was not often obvious in ‘Let It Be’. Most of the other changes are minor shifts in emphasis; it now appears, for instance, that the group had little interest in the views of either Michael Lindsay-Hogg or Glyn Johns; they didn’t much care for the input of anyone outside the band. ‘Get Back’, far from being a radically modified narrative, is really just a polished and extended representation of familiar material, albeit much more enjoyable than its predecessor.
Negative responses to ‘Let It Be’ have tended to focus on a small number of issues, and it is interesting to see how they were handled in the new film. Paul McCartney was generally thought to be domineering, but in the broader and more expansive context of ‘Get Back’ it seems that his bossiness and determination may have been necessary and not entirely unwelcome. John Lennon was seen to be detached and indifferent, in part because of a drug habit, and Yoko Ono’s perpetual attendance by his side was often considered to be odd and passive-aggressive. In ‘Get Back’, however, Lennon perks up in the later stages of the project, even taking on his old role of leader just before the band heads up to the rooftop for the short performance, and many commentators on the film have suggested that Yoko Ono’s presence was actually unobtrusive and benign. That this may be an exaggeration, however, is vividly explained in a recent off-beat article in ‘The New York Times’ that drew a huge number of readers’ comments, entitled ‘The Sublime Spectacle of Yoko Ono Disrupting the Beatles’. Ringo, laid-back in ‘Let It Be’, once again appears good-natured, anxious, and a little bored. Harrison, irritated by McCartney and disturbed by personal problems (which are not mentioned), is almost as touchy and withdrawn as he was in the older film, but a hitherto unknown and candid conversation between Lennon and McCartney about how they have ignored his songwriting talents, captured by a concealed microphone, does much to explain the guitarist’s discomfort with the situation, and why he temporarily walked out on the band. It is one of few revelations in ‘Get Back’. Another, generated by the extra length and detail of the film, is the continuing strength of the Beatles’ mutual affection; ’Get Back’ is arguably as much about the depth of the group’s fellowship as its music.
Paul McCartney’s lavish two-volume book of lyrics was published a few weeks before the release of ‘Get Back’. Echoing the format of George Harrison’s I, Me, Mine, it presents his favourite songs in an autobiographical context; explained and illuminated with the help of the poet Paul Muldoon, they are liberally illustrated with photographs and other material. Like ‘Get Back’, The Lyrics sheds an unexpectedly flattering light on McCartney, and it does so with apparent honesty and openness. His extraordinary ability to come up with ideas for new compositions, evidenced in the film, is reflected in the long list of startlingly good songs that are included in The Lyrics, and the book, both beguiling and surprisingly modest, undoubtedly burnishes a musical reputation that had perhaps begun to dim. He also comes across as a likeable man. It has always been supposed, not without reason, that McCartney’s closeness to Harrison faded after the demise of the Beatles, but the bond between them may have remained strong. In a thought-provoking channeled ‘conversation’ with a psychic over a decade after his passing, George Harrison spoke warmly about his fellow Beatle. ‘I have so much love for him’, Harrison said. ‘He is a man amongst men and will protect what is dear to him. I was blessed to have his friendship’.
For further exploration:
‘Pravda’ article on the success of The Beatles: https://english.pravda.ru/society/114988-the_beatles/
The New York Times article on Yoko Ono in ‘Get Back’: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/08/arts/music/yoko-ono-beatles-get-back.html
A review of Paul McCartney’s ‘The Lyrics’: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/nov/20/the-lyrics-by-paul-mccartney-review-the-stories-behind-the-songs
‘Dear Friend’ (Paul McCartney’s song to John Lennon after the breakup of the Beatles) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQNMkB_T9k0
Cover image, Paul McCartney’s ‘The Lyrics’