I finally got to watch Let It Be. I had a hard time finding a copy of the film. AFAIK, it hasn’t been available for purchase/rental for a while. I can’t find it on amazon or netflix now, for instance.
After reading reviews, I expected to see footage of a band disintegrating. There was some of that, but lots of fun footage too:
[ul]
[li]George and Ringo working together on “Octopus’s Garden” is incredible. George looks so sweet and nice - and musically right - helping Ringo. George helps Ringo with it a bit, and they try it from the top. George Martin comes over to watch. George grins at GM and the two them of enjoy the song.[/li]
[li]An early take of “Two of Us” has John and Paul singing close together both with their guitars, grinning dancing and singing together. Fantastic and joyful.[/li]
[li]George showing “I Me Mine” to the group for the first time cut to John and Yoko dancing to George, Paul, Ringo playing “I Me Mine”.[/li]
[li]“Dig It” is groovy and rocking and fun with a smiling John.[/li][/ul]
It’s worth seeking out for the rooftop concert alone. It’s the best Beatles live concert footage I’ve ever seen.
Paul seems to be a bit of a prick, especially when he tries to tell John how to play the guitar. George seems particularly nice and sweet.
A question: After watching the rooftop concert, I wondered what the people on the street heard. I didn’t see any sort of PA equipment. It looked to me like the only speakers were in the guitar amps. If only the guitars were amplified, the crowd on the streets could have only heard muffled guitars and echo-ing Ringo drums?
I would like to think that someone got to hear that show live, but after watching the video it seems only the band and the tape decks did.
[QUOTE=jamcracker]
After reading reviews, I expected to see footage of a band disintegrating. There was some of that, but lots of fun footage too:
[li]George showing “I Me Mine” to the group for the first time[/li][/QUOTE]
I don’t know if you caught it, but in that scene, he prefaces it by saying “I don’t give a fuck if you don’t want it, I’ll use it in me musical.” It’s not in the movie, but you should hear the part where Paul writes the chorus! It’s really cool how he comes up with it, as an antidote to George’s flamenco guitar link. Odd how he didn’t get a composing credit on it.
Actually, that was George whom he was trying to get to play a string-bending phrase in “I’ve Got A Feeling”. George wasn’t getting it, but it didn’t stop him from taking umbrage. Some people have misinterpreted this scene as the reason why George quit the group shortly thereafter, (during filming) but the unedited film shows that this was not the reason, it was another argument he had with John on another day.
All they had were their amps and a vocal PA system. But they were heard all over the area. Only the people in surrounding buildings with upper floors were able to see what was going on. But the sound attracted scores of people, who gathered in Savile Row. It was loud enough that eventually someone called the police, who came and admonished The Beatles to stop playing (first by pulling a power plug). This provided a perfect close to the movie: they’d gone from lovable moptops who needed police protection to long-haired, inconsiderate louts getting busted by the man for disturbing the peace.
The disintegration isn’t evident in any big fights or drama, but there’s a strong air of apathy and frustration over the sessions, and it’s quite clear that the Beatles couldn’t really communicate with each other by this point. Paul has to gingerly guide the others while arranging his songs, lest they attack him for being too dictatorial; George is so habitually ignored he doesn’t really bother to put his own songs forward; and John has very little to offer, being infatuated with Yoko (and almost constantly stoned on heroin). Most of the good moments come when they drop the pretense of rehearsing the new material and just fuck around. There are some happy moments, but watching Let It Be leaves me with kind of a sour feeling on the whole. They obviously had to work hard at maintaining the camaraderie they used to take for granted, and it must’ve been wearying.
Poor maligned Paul. Were it not for his energy and ambition, the Beatles might’ve broken up after Revolver. Certainly I don’t think he finesses people well—he thinks he does, but he comes off, as you note, like a bit of a prick. But there would’ve been no Let It Be without Paul, so you take the rough with the smooth.
As you can tell when they cut away to the street, the sound at ground level was very swampy and indistinct, but folks did hear it.
Well, uh, see, uh, a CD containing the film fell out of a low-flying plane and happened to land in my yard. If you’re not so lucky, I see some “imports” on eBay.
I love learning how songs come together. I’ll have to read about that in The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. I wonder if the the bit you mention shows up on the second bonus disc included in some of the auctions I linked above.
Absolutely true. I certainly didn’t mean to malign Paul. I could have phrased it better: I (stupidly) wanted to see an idealized, perfect Paul, so any suggestion of prickness surprised me. I could never malign Paul - after all I wouldn’t be a Beatles fan at all if he hadn’t released “Hope of Deliverance” when I was in high school. I went to the library looking for other McCartney albums and was like “Oh, huh, maybe I should check out some of these Beatles records.”
You won’t find that information in Lewisohn. He only discusses the studio recordings, and does not delve into the “Get Back” sessions, which were rehearsals for the first two weeks at Twickenham. And, sorry to report, it’s also not on the LIBN bonus disc. But collectors have had the audio of this stuff for years and years!