At this point the Beatles rooftop concert is the stuff of legend. Naturally my first exposure to that day was the Simpsons mimicry during the Barbershop Quartet episode ('Its been done.') It turns out the lead-up to the famous show was almost as fascinating as the concert itself. A new documentary from Peter Jackson (best known for Lord of the Rings) on Disney+ focuses on exactly that, showing the weeks immediately preceding the trip to the roof as well as the iconic performance itself. While the recordings have been available for decades now, no one had yet effectively spliced the audio and video footage and cut it down in a way that made it approachable. That's what PJ did here and it was a master class in editing.
I have to rehash a little of the show in describing it and hopefully don't spoil the goods. By 1969 it had been years since the band's last live show. This was the case for a few reasons. There was the 'more popular than Jesus' quote from John Lennon that turned a lot of people against them for the first time. Then there was the death of their manager Brian Epstein, a position they never replaced. In was in this time of making all their own decisions that their music changed, and matured, considerably from their pop-y roots. They put out the psychedelic Sgt. Pepper and didn't look back. There was a side-effect of all this freedom however. They never knew where they were going or what they were going to do next.
One idea developed in an attempt to break out of what they felt was staleness. They'd utilize a television studio and produce a live album, meanwhile they'd film everything to make either a new TV show or movie. In other words this was a planned documentary. What it meant for them was a short timeframe, only a few weeks, to come together and pump out a bunch of songs (supposedly 14!). Nothing went as planned, though the results were fruitful. I'll stop now and just go through some of the stuff that stuck with me.
First, you really see the inner dynamics of the band by this stage and it's not surprising they didn't stay together much longer. At least for the first week or so, John Lennon appeared aggressively disinterested in the whole endeavor. He was late and confessed to not having written anything, for example. This from the man who started and had always led the band. Lennon here had become the long-haired hippie we all know him to be and have strong opinions about, with Yoko Ono literally at his side at all times. But contrary to the usually accepted narrative I wouldn't pin the breakup on her, as rising tensions between the band members themselves were apparent. Paul McCartney attempted to fill Lennon's shoes, presumably more than ever, and assume the bands leadership. He dictated things quite a bit, and that appeared to be fine with Lennon and Ringo Starr. It didn't, however, go over so well with George Harrison. In McCartney's defense he was relentlessly creative during these sessions, even able to pull a song out of nowhere in one of the documentary's top highlights. But Harrison was more ambitious than ever and didn't appreciate how he was being used. This seems to me a foremost part of what led to the end.
Second there's 'how the sausage is made,' referring in this case, of course, to music. There were a ton of remarkable moments of genius. And yet so much of the time it was a total grind turning an idea into a full song. Most of those ideas were small fragments that needed fleshing out. They constantly churned through lyrics and tinkered with this and that, with nothing resembling a clean and linear progression. That shouldn't be expected I guess, but this struck me because I'd never witnessed it before. Then there's a ton of what appears to be fooling around and wasting time by playing old songs, either of their own creation or from others. I do recognize this must've been part of their creative process as well, a lot of music is borrowing from others, but it often looked to be more play than work. The craziest part is that even once a song is fully developed, it's extremely difficult to get it recorded as perfectly as possible. In an age where computers weren't involved at all and everything was done purely with instrument and voice, I'm impressed by the music made and that anything was completed at all.
Third and finally, there was the ever-evolving discussion on what they were actually doing and what they wanted to accomplish during their rapidly closing time of filming. They all felt they needed to end on something big, but what that meant struggled to take form. Were they going to do a concert on a cruise ship full of fans? Would they pack an ancient amphitheater in Africa? Simply go to a local park in London? None of these ideas panned out, mostly I think because they had no time. So up to the roof they went, a late-breaking idea that most of the band became excited about. Paul was the one most pushing to do this and felt they needed a last hurrah and a jolt of adrenaline to get the songs done. That's right, the 'concert' itself likely isn't what you think. The band wanted to use this time to get final versions of some of their new songs recorded, not go and play a set list. As a result they did several takes of certain songs, all of which were being recorded down below, and continued until they were shut down for being a disturbance. It's also interesting that after all this, 'Get Back' didn't end up being an album anyway and the documentary was scrapped. Luckily for us, quite a bit of what they wrote and recorded here did eventually come out on their next two (and final) albums, Abbey Road and Let It Be. And we can finally see the best parts of what the cameras captured.
All in all it's about eight hours long and in three parts. If you're intrigued by the drama and all the minutiae in creating a bunch of super famous songs, watch it all. If you only want to see what was going on during the concert itself, you can safely skip to part three. The best part of the finale was the simultaneous shots of the band playing with a growing crowd and the police officers attempting to shut them down. People working for the band were obviously giving the cops the run-around and buying time, to hilarious effect, while the guys up on the roof and many people around them were having the time of their lives.
What I'm trying to say is you should probably check it out. Somehow after hearing Get Back, the song, like twenty times, I think I love it even more.
Comments