Being a near life-long Beatle fan, I loved Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary. Though it was not my intention when I started, I ended up binging the whole thing in one evening. I watched the Let It Be movie a million years ago and I have previously heard audio outtakes from these sessions. Just a few thoughts and observations below…
The best of Get Back is in the Beatles’ humor. One of my favorite moments is in the second episode after Peter Sellers drops by (around 34:15). Peter Sellers is assiduously not funny and escapes at the first opportunity. John tells an absurd story directly into the camera. I got the impression that the group might have smoked a joint shortly before this interlude. John is weird and funny, and seems to be trying to provoke others in a performance artist sort of way. Paul gets deep and philosophical while expressing concern about their future. Ringo tries not to fall asleep. John manages to make Paul laugh with a joke about masturbation despite the tension between them. All of this is awkward and funny and poignant.
The documentary accurately shows the creative process, at least as I understand it. Very rarely do great works of art just come into existence fully formed, and most artists have to work more than people realize to make something good. The Beatles were very good at this process in that they were willing to try many different things to see what worked. This takes patience and perseverance. The performance of music is somewhat like a magic trick–the “trick” being that it’s effortless. The trick is accomplished by hiding all of the repetitive practice entailed.
Watching the John/Paul/George dynamic was both painful and inspiring, sometimes intermittently, sometimes simultaneously. John and Paul are obviously very tight after their many years collaborating together. This is beautiful to see in action. But George rightly feels like an outsider to this relationship. Ringo is everybody’s buddy and we never see him escalate any confrontation at any point. Oh, Ringo. I doubt they would have played on the roof if Ringo hadn’t said he wanted to do it.
I think both Paul and George had good points in their famous argument. George wanted some space to noodle around while Paul wanted to nail the basics of the song before laying in George’s guitar. John and Ringo stayed out of the argument but it might have helped to have some sort of outside arbiter. But who could stand up to the Beatles at this point? Probably only George Martin. All that said, by the end of the doc, the band seems to genuinely enjoy each other’s company.
Speaking of George Martin, man, is he a cool cucumber or what? It seems he should have been credited. And they should have let him produce the album instead of Phil f*cking Spector.
Paul came off looking better than I would have thought given my previous knowledge. Yes, he was pushy and a domineering. But the rest of the band seemed somewhat apathetic in the beginning and needed prodding. They just seemed tired of trying to top themselves (and everyone else). Also, Paul’s little speech defending Yoko’s presence was enlightening.
I didn’t realize that John played some odd instruments on the album because they were trying to avoid overdubs. Thus, we get John playing slide guitar on “Yer Blues” and bass on “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road.” This was fun to watch. I also liked his joke about not being allowed to do guitar solos anymore because of *insert guitar thrashing here*. I miss John.