As a white guy Of A Certain Age with a blog-like thing, I am legally obliged to express an opinion on Get Back. This is, of course, the eight-ish hour documentary Peter “Lord of the Special DVD Features” Jackson made out of the mountain of footage shot when the Beatles got together to record what eventually became Let It Be. The Beatles are the soundtrack of my earliest childhood memories (particularly Abbey Road and sides 1 and 2 of the White Album), so I’ve been listening to some of these tracks literally as long as I’ve been alive.
This is split into three parts: a bit shot on a soundstage in Twickenham where they think they’re rehearsing for a TV special, ending with George Harrison quitting the band; a bit shot in the Apple Records studio when they decide they’re actually just recording an album, adding Billy Preston on keyboards; and a bit again at Apple Records leading up to and including the legendary rooftop concert. I’ve never seen Let It Be in full, so I wasn’t that familiar with any of this, but I found the whole thing fascinating.
There’s no shortage of commentary on this— I particularly enjoyed two podcasts that were included in yesterday’s Links Dump (one and two, disclaimer that these are Not To All Tastes)— so I’ll keep this short and just mention a few things that particularly jumped out at me.
First, a lot has been made of the bit where you see Paul come up with the core of the song “Get Back” while aimlessly strumming, and also some of him plunking out “Let It Be” for the first time while John and Yoko are talking set design with the director of the would-be tv special. These are, as everybody says, cool glimpses into the creative process of actual geniuses.
But the thing that struck me more about this was how contrived the whole thing was. They had ginned up this TV special idea giving themselves an absurdly tight deadline to write and rehearse something like 14 songs, apparently entirely because they needed some kind of challenge. The only way to force themselves to focus on making new music was to create a wholly artificial deadline.
I’m not a musician, but as a person who regularly overschedules myself with writing projects and procrastinates until everything has to be done on a crazy short deadline, I feel some kinship with that. (I do share a birthday with Paul McCartney, so…)
Second, I gained a new respect for Ringo through watching this. I had never thought much of him before, as his singing voice is eminently mockable and his drumming isn’t flashy. Watching these songs come together, though, it was clear that he had one of the most difficult jobs imaginable: He had to sit at the drum kit and be ready for one of the others to have a brainstorm, whereupon he apparently had to just make up an appropriate drum part on the spot. There are a few bits where you see John or Paul coaching him on some small tweak, but mostly he just seems to come up with something and they go with it. That’s absolutely amazing.
He also seems like the most chill of the group, just on good terms with everybody, and happy to go along with whatever. McCartney is driven, Harrison is peevish, and Lennon is kind of checked out for long stretches, but Ringo’s always just there, ready to help. He’s the second most important person to making things work, narrowly trailing Billy Preston, whose arrival completely changes the energy in the studio.
Finally, I was impressed by what a difference moving to an actual performance made. Once they committed to the rooftop concert, Lennon focused a lot more than he had previously (possibly some drugs wore off, too…). And once they got up to the roof and started playing, it was absolutely electric. These guys were born showmen, and there really was something to the lunatic idea of putting together a short-notice live show to make them dial in.
(Also in the concert bit, I enjoyed watching the Apple staff blatantly stalling the cops as long as they possibly could, and the sheer Britishness of the whole thing. The way McCartney’s face lit up when he saw the cops was also pretty entertaining.)
So, on the whole, I liked it a lot. It’s a very cool peek into the world of three of the greatest pop songwriters in history; at least, as long as you’re okay with watching them play fragments of the same tunes over and over… Spaced out over several days of exercise biking, though, it remined fascinating to watch all the way through.
In addition to being obliged to express an opinion on the film, I am also obliged to include some buttons:
Clicking these, however, is entirely optional (though much appreciated); and if you’d like to share a take of your own, the comments will be open.