Tuesday, November 30, 2021

"The Beatles: Get Back" - Review

Back in July, I expressed regret that Peter Jackson's docu-series The Beatles: Get Back would be streaming on Disney +, meaning  I would have to pay to subscribe to Disney + in order to see it.  Well, I did just that - and I got a special introductory offer from Disney that the company no doubt conceived to lure potential long-term subscribers who wanted to see The Beatles: Get Back.  Two dollars for the first month.  And I saw all three episodes over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

So what did I think of it? I liked it a lot. 

That's hardly a professional review, so let me elaborate.  The Get Back docu-series, using unreleased footage from the original Let It Be documentary directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, shows a band still very much together and eager to overcome the bad vibes that took over the making of the White Album, as they set out in January 1969 to rehearse new songs for a planned live performance on television - either with or without a live audience, and either in London or in some exotic locale like an ancient Roman amphitheater in Libya that was under consideration.  (Such a show would have taken place before Qaddafi took over the country later that year.)  This time the vibes were much more positive, and the Beatles are shown working diligently on new material at Twickenham Film Studios and sorting out which songs to play and which to leave for later.  We are surprisingly treated to material that most of us didn't even know existed - songs that were partially or completely written but never properly recorded - like "Commonwealth," a Lennon-McCartney satire on the effort by the British government to get immigrants from former British colonies to go back home.  In between, they get along like they did in the moptop years, and Peter Sellers (at Twickenham to attend a casting session for The Magic Christian, which also featured Ringo Starr) stops by to join in on the levity.
George Harrison's sudden walkout on January 10 is far less dramatic than originally thought.  Despite Beatles docudramas showing George getting pissed off and slamming his guitar case shut before storming out, George announced his departure quietly, with no hysterics, and walked out just as nonchalantly.  His discussions with Paul McCartney in the previous days over arrangements show that he was frustrated and felt underappreciated, and an audio recording of Paul and John Lennon discussing George's departure show that they clearly loved the guy and wanted to give him the space he needed to keep him from leaving the band.  George, who had misgivings over a live show on TV, returned after the Beatles decided to instead record an album of live studio performances complemented by an outdoor gig in London, the specifics of which were to be determined.
The Apple Studios segments of The Beatles: Get Back put those sessions in much different context than the Let It Be movie, just as its Twickenham scenes do.  The Beatles and Billy Preston (who joined them for the Apple sessions) run through songs, tell jokes, experiment with arrangements and riffs, and ultimately perform the takes that made it on the 1970 Let It Be album
.  (There's also a more complete take of the traditional Liverpool song "Maggie Mae" shown here than the one heard on the Let It Be album, though neither take made the 1970 Let It Be movie.)  Producer George Martin is seen being very much involved in the project, and co-producer engineer Glyn Johns (fresh from having co-produced Family's second album) brims with the eagerness and professionalism that made him the greatest British record producer not named George Martin.  As the series progresses, Lindsay-Hogg gets the band to agree to a concert on the roof of their own Apple building at 3 Savile Row - the January 30 rooftop gig is shown with more depth than in the original movie, where Lindsay-Hogg had to deal with time constraints.  Here, Peter Jackson lets loose, showing familiar scenes from different camera angles, extra performances (the Beatles performed a few songs on the roof more than once) and, interestingly, what happened after the rooftop gig ended.  They're pleased with how it turned out, and they're eager to see the project through with a studio performance of the lighter, more ballad-oriented numbers, which occurred the day after.     
If I have any complaints about The Beatles: Get Back, it's that there are few scenes apart from the rooftop gig in which a full take of a song is presented, and the Apple studio performance session from January 31 is shown in bits and pieces alongside the closing credits of the third episode.  But Jackson's docu-series makes clear three key facts.  First, the Beatles had gotten back to where they once belonged, but fateful business decisions involving pop impresario Allen Klein (with whom John met during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions) took them away from that place. (Yoko Ono and Linda Eastman both attended the Get Back/Let It Be sessions regularly, but their presence was welcomed, with neither one interfering with the Beatles' work.)  Second, the sessions were not "the most miserable sessions on earth," as John remembered them; the memory of the misery stemmed more from the finished product that Phil Spector wrought after two failed attempts at a Get Back album from Glyn Johns than the actual recording sessions.  Third, Michael Lindsay-Hogg proved himself to be a masterful conductor, getting the Beatles to see their project through and orchestrating one of the most compelling and most ambitious projects for a group striving to make a straightforward, live, honest record after having pioneered some of the most complicated and sophisticated recording techniques . . . and getting the Beatles to appreciate the joy of playing music again. Especially when they played up on the roof.
But it also begs this question, which I've asked before: After shooting over sixty hours of footage, the 1970 Let It Be movie was the best Lindsay-Hogg could come up with?  
So yes, I enjoyed The Beatles: Get Back, despite a few quibbles, and I'm glad to know that Glyn Johns is not insane.  He's always remembered these sessions as being productive and cordial, and for many years he was in a minority of one.  Jackson has vindicated him and thankfully refreshed Paul's and Ringo's memories - and made new memories for the rest of us.
*
Oh yeah, the Let It Be LP has been reissued in a "Super Deluxe" package, with a book of Ethan Russell's photographs (just like the original album's 1970 British release), rehearsals, Glyn Johns' original May 1969 
Get Back album, and an EP of Johns' remixes of "Across The Universe" and "I Me Mine" intended for his revised January 1970 Get Back album supported by remixes of the original "Get Back" and "Let It Be" singles.  Too expensive for me, and not really worth it for me either; I have a bootleg of Johns' May 1969 Get Back album, and it reinforces my opinion that Spector's album was the more presentable one, though that doesn't let Spector off the hook for his inconsistencies and unnecessary orchestral overdubs.  And, to be honest, one thing Jackson's docu-series cannot revise or change is the quality of some of the songs, songs such as "Dig a Pony" and "For You Blue." Though, I would like to hear Johns' remixes of "Across The Universe" and "I Me Mine" out of curiosity.  (Spector did a good job with both of them, but as they were not recordings from the actual Get Back/Let It Be sessions - they were only included on Let It Be because the Beatles were shown in the original movie rehearsing them at Twickenham - they should have been put out as a non-album single.)  And to be fair, Johns' album probably sounds better professionally remixed.  It's nice to know that anything here that we'd like to hear out of curiosity will likely be up on YouTube in a few months.  
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a Disney + subscription to cancel. 😉

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