The Beatles: Get Back

As a Beatles fan I had to watch The Beatles: Get Back, the documentary mini-series currently on Disney+. For those of you wondering exactly what The Beatles: Get Back is, it will take some explaining. It was in January 1969 that The Beatles gathered at  Twickenham Film Studios for a planned television documentary that would include a live performance. The Beatles rehearsed at Twickenham Film Studios for several days before moving to Apple Studios to record. It was on January 30 1969 that The Beatles performed their famous concert atop the rooftop of Apple Studios.  Ultimately, sixty hours of film footage was shot, as well as over 150 hours of audio recorded for the project then titled Get Back and later renamed Let It Be.

Only about 80 minutes worth of footage would find its way into the 1970 documentary Let It Be. With the cooperation of the surviving Beatles (Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr) and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison, as well as producer George Martin's son Giles Martin, director Peter Jackson then set about putting together The Beatles: Get Back using much of the footage that did not find its way into the documentary Let It Be.

The resulting documentary series is fascinating in that it puts to rest some myths surrounding the Get Back sessions. For years Beatles fans and others have believed that by the time of the Get Back sessions, The Beatles were at each others' throats and not all getting along well. The Beatles: Get Back paints a very different picture. While The Beatles do have their disagreements (indeed, George Harrison even quits the band for several days), The Beatles: Get Back shows that The Beatles were still four friends with great affection for each other. The documentary series also puts to rest the idea that Yoko Ono broke up The Beatles. In The Beatles: Get Back, Yoko Ono's presence at Twickenham Film Studios and Apple Studios is totally unobtrusive. She passes the time reading the newspaper, knitting, and doing crossword puzzles, or talking with the other Beatle wives. What is more, the other Beatles seem to genuinely like Yoko. In many ways her presence in the studio is much like Linda McCartney's. Both wives seemed content to stay out of The Beatles' way and let them do their thing.

Beyond dispelling various myths about The Beatles, The Beatles: Get Back gives fans a chance to see some of the band's classic songs in their earliest stages. These are not only the songs that would wind up on the album Let It Be, but even songs that would wind up on Abbey Road (or in the case of "Old Brown Shoe," the B-side of a single) or on The Beatles' later solo projects. Among the songs we get to see evolve in the documentary series are "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," "Golden Slumbers," "Carry That Weight," "Mean Mr. Mustard," "Octopus's Garden," and yet others. We also get to see The Beatles perform a wide variety of classic songs, from "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?" to "Milk Cow Blues" to "Shake, Rattle and Roll." The soundtrack to The Beatles: Get Back makes it worth watching. Let's face it, where else is one going to get to see The Beatles perform "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody?"

If there is one drawback to The Beatles: Get Back, it could be the utter length of the series. Each of the three episodes clocks in at well over two hours, with Episode 2 clocking in at nearly three hours in length. While this would hardly be a hurdle for die-hard Beatles fans (it wasn't for me), I am worried some more casual fans might bail on the series before finishing it. My advice to more casual fans who might find the length of The Beatles: Get Back intimidating is to so simply watch it in smaller chunks. The documentary goes day by day, so it is easy to stop watching an episode and then take it back up at a later time.

The Beatles: Get Back is an incredible achievement on Peter Jackson's part and it shows the last days of The Beatles in an entirely new light. For anyone who is a Beatles fan, anyone who is interested in the music of the Sixties, or anyone who is interested in Anglophonic pop culture, The Beatles: Get Back comes highly recommended.