Get Back (2021) – a review by Brian M Downing

Director: Peter Jackson

10/10

The Beatles continue to fascinate us. Fifty years after the band’s breakup their music is everywhere, books about them come out regularly, and their birthdays make the news. Director Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) has gone through a trove of tapes made during the 1969 Let It Be recording sessions and issued an almost eight-hour documentary.

The film looks at how the Beatles cut an album, though Let It Be differed from previous works as George Martin had little to do with it. When Lennon developed the idea for the album, he told Martin he didn’t want any of the production polish (“shit,” as Lennon ungraciously put it) that he’d put into their collaborations since1962. Martin was out (sort of). The Beatles would make the album their way. Glyn Johns was the producer but he stuck to technical aspects from the booth.

Without oversight from Martin or Brian Epstein (who died in 1967) the first week is unproductive. There’s little new material, only undisciplined, meandering jams of venerable Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard tracks. It’s great fun, almost like seeing them play the Cavern Club in Liverpool or Hamburg’s Star-Club. There are also snippets of songs the group would later put down on Abbey Road (Carry That Weight, Octopus’s Garden) and solo albums (Jealous Guy, Teddy Boy, All Things Must Pass) but also some material that never saw the light of day.

Family members come by. It’s well known that Yoko Ono was omnipresent but Linda Eastman was there quite a bit too and Maureen Cox and Pattie Boyd dropped in. Work on original material comes up for a while, then it’s back to the fun. Days pass, work suffers. Paul is in charge, Lennon is unexpectedly deferent, Ringo silently thinks through his contributions, but George is irked and quits. Fortunately, he returns in a few days.

Keyboardist Billy Preston, who knew the guys from the Hamburg days, stops by for a visit and begins to play with them. The group loves him and after one jam, Lennon announces, “You’re in the group!” Sessions become less frivolous. Lyrics are written and reworded. Songs are walked through and improved.

The plan all along was to cap off the sessions with a live performance, the band’s first since August 1966, which would be the new album. One site under consideration was the ruins of a Roman amphitheater in Libya but that proved impractical and a less exotic venue was agreed upon – the recording studio’s roof. As the concert nears there’s still no sign of more than two or three songs ready for recording. The concert nonetheless is remarkably well done, despite cold weather, challenging acoustics, and the frowning presence of Bobbies sent to end the disruption to a London workday.

The sessions show conflict but not nearly as prominently as in the earlier documentary, Let It Be (1970). Cross words are exchanged, tensions rise now and then, but overall there’s camaraderie, deference, and wonderful collaborative music, facilitated by McCartney’s softer approach and George Martin’s occasional presence.

The earlier documentary came out right after the Beatles disbanded and focused on an explanation: the conflict during the Let It Be sessions caused resentments and antagonisms and everyone wanted to go their separate ways. Jackson’s documentary refutes this, as does the well-known harmony of the later recording sessions that became Abbey Road (produced by George Martin).

Get Back is an amazing, well-crafted documentary. It shows the process of four beloved individuals creating music, putting down tracks, and having great fun along the way. Watching it is great fun as well.