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The Beatles actually wanted to reconcile themselves when they brought a film team into the studio in 1969. But the cameras captured how the band finally broke up. 50 years later, “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson dusted off the material for the “Get Back” project and created a three-part documentary from it.
“In 50 years, you’ll look at this and see how weird it is,” Paul McCartney tells John Lennon and Ringo Starr. “The Beatles broke up because Yoko was sitting on an amplifier.” Guitarist George Harrison has just left the band – after a long struggle, but for a trivial reason (Yoko Ono’s omnipresence). And the remaining three practice gallows humor. Meanwhile, a film crew records everything they do and say.
Director Jackson was allowed to view 60 hours of footage
The scene from January 1969 has not yet been seen by anyone. It is part of a mammoth work, as one could only trust Peter Jackson: The man who already captured the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy was allowed to go through 60 hours of archive material from the legendary failed “Get back” film project of the Beatles rummaging through. Watch as the best band in pop history falls apart. And in doing so, manage the balancing act of showing the looming catastrophe, but also the camaraderie of the quartet, which culminates in the legendary last appearance on the roof of the “Apple” house on London’s Saville Row. A festival for Beatles fans. The documentary series, three parts of two hours each, starts on November 25th on the Disney plus streaming service.
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As a harbinger of this, the last album of the Fab Four, “Let it be”, has now been released again. In a deluxe version with 57 songs from the turbulent “Get back” recording sessions. Actually too late for the 50-year-old – but why not? After all, the LP in 1970 came around the corner one year late. It was actually supposed to appear in 1969 under the name “Get back”, coupled with the documentary made by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. It was recorded live in the studio – Paul McCartney in particular hoped that this would bring back a return to old rock’n’roll values. Maybe the increasing alienation within the band could be stopped by such team building? Together with his colleagues, he wanted to write new songs through January 1969, rehearse them and record them, as they had done in the early days of their careers. A furious concert should crown the new start.
The record “Let it be” was released late when the Beatles no longer existed
The escape turned out to be an illusion, the presence of the film team accelerated the centrifugal forces. The band fell out over business and music – even if Harrison finally let himself be persuaded to return after his departure. The project frayed aimlessly, audio and film tapes landed on the long bench, the Beatles at least pulled themselves together and pulled themselves together for their last great deed “Abbey Road”, which appeared before “Let it be”.
Because that’s what the LP was called when it finally saw the light of day – in a cobbled together version and pimped up by Phil Spector with orchestral sound tricks. The Beatles didn’t exist anymore. Despite its fragmentary charm, the album remained the comparatively unpopular follow-up to an otherwise increasingly ambitious oeuvre.
Now “Let it be” has come out as an anniversary box
The anniversary box also smacks of a missed opportunity. The Beatles played over 300 different songs in January 1969 – but most of the 57 pieces in the box are remixes, alternative and trial versions of the well-known songs from “Let it be”, “Abbey Road” and early solo albums. Particularly bitter: Probably in order not to anticipate anything spectacular from Jackson’s film, the roof concert is not to be found in its entirety, but only a song of it.
The last appearance: On January 30, 1969, the Beatles played on the roof of the “Apple” house.
© Foto: Apple Corps Ltd.
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With a hundred-page hardcover book, however, the box is beautifully presented. The LP is also included as it should have looked – 14 songs in a different mix, including the “I’m ready” that was dropped later. On the cover – the Beatles as on their debut LP, looking down from the stairwell of the record company EMI, only aged six years. It feels like a lifetime.
So far, the remaining Beatles have done everything to prevent the recordings from being published
At least the tension remains as to how director Jackson solves his task. Probably enough time has passed for the remaining Beatles to allow a more honest portrait of the last days of the band. In 1970 it was different: When the film “Let it be” came out, it was shortened so much that little was left of the quarrels. After the video was released in the early 1980s, McCartney, Harrison and Starr prevented further editions. And in 2008 Apple Corps announced in a press release: “Neither Paul nor Ringo would feel particularly comfortable making a film about the Beatles in which everyone gets on each other’s nerves.”
Peter Jackson, the director of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, completed the “Get back” project.
© Apple Corps Ltd.
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The preview of “Get back” that is currently circulating online shows that they actually had fun in 1969. There are a lot of laughing Beatles to see there. And touching statements from the four friends who don’t want to give up their community without a fight. “All we have is us,” explains Lennon. 50 years later, we know better – and he probably did too then.
- The documentary “Get back” by Peter Jackson will air on November 25th, 26th and 27th on Disney plus.
- The album “Let it be” has been re-released in various versions, including a 6CD and 5LP box.
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