"The White Album" was a bit of a transitional project split between big productions worthy of '67 such as "Martha My Dear", "Dear Prudence", "Piggies", and "Good Night" and completely stripped roots returns like "Why Don't We Do It in the Road", "Helter Skelter", and "Your Blues". The Beatles resolved to get back to basics even more emphatically with Get Back, but the project's multimedia nature meant they were actually treading into new waters. They would create their follow up to "The White Album" in an unfamiliar location--Twickenham Film Studios--instead of Abbey Road Recording Studios. They would make their record under the constant eye of director Michael Lindsay-Hogg's film crew, and the results of that work and a planned return to the stage for the first time in nearly three years would appear in an accompanying documentary movie.
It was a seemingly brilliant idea, as pretty much everything The Beatles' imagined was, but like their previous film and only across-the-board critical flop, Magical Mystery Tour, Get Back was doomed. While the concept was apparently simple, there didn't seem to be a real plan for executing it in place. The Beatles couldn't decide where to stage their concert, but seemed married to the idea of doing something high-concept at a Libyan amphitheater or perhaps on the moon. Commandeering an entire luxury cruise ship was apparently involved. They had a hard time acclimating to Twickenham and the normal-person hours required to make the film when they were used to recording deep into the night in a known and proper recording studio.
Most troubling of all were the personality conflicts that began to trickle into the band around the time Paul started taking over leadership during the production of Pepper's and were allowed to fester following the death of manager Brian Epstein. George quit the band for ten days, apparently because he was tiring of Paul's bossiness. John wasn't sure if he even wanted George back.
These tensions are what most people know about the Get Back sessions, but when Lindsay-Hogg's film--retitled Let It Be--was finally released in 1970, there actually wasn't too much conflict on the screen. A mild-mannered passive aggressive exchange between George and Paul regarding what George should play on "Two of Us" aside, Let It Be is not nearly the bad-vibe fest everyone thinks it is. Yet the general consensus is that Peter Jackson's upcoming extended re-edit of Lindsay-Hogg's footage that will stream on Disney+ next month will be a sort of candy-coated remake of a movie that was pretty upbeat in the first place.
However, those bad vibes were there in the sessions, and we get the uncoated version in a surprising new book called The Beatles: Get Back. What may seem like a souvenir tie-in for Jackson's film series may actually turn out to be the definitive story if that series turns out to be what everyone currently assumes it will be. A transcript of enlightening selections from the 120 hours of sound recordings captured during the sessions, The Beatles: Get Back gives a candid account of George's testy yet characteristically curt departure and the confusion shrouding the project and the crazy and rather illogical ideas that derailed a proper return to the stage. There's also a whole lot more profanity than we'll likely hear on squeaky clean Disney+.
Yet, there are surprises of other sorts in The Beatles: Get Back. The presence of John's new love, Yoko, is often cited as a major source of tension during this period, yet Paul makes it very clear that he accepts her presence and even agrees with her as she makes constructive contributions to their brainstorming sessions. We get insights into the band's songwriting processes as they bounce ideas playfully around the room. We find out all the songs they considered performing during the not-as-impromptu-as-it-seems rooftop concert that the band agreed to do after a more highfalutin show became unreasonable. George talks openly about doing a solo album, and both John and Yoko support him. Paul encourages Ringo to write another song after the success of "Don't Pass Me By", which George declares is the favorite "White Album" track of no less contemporary taste-makers than The Band. John tries to steer the big concert into a means to raise money for the famine-struck people of Biafra.
So there is tension and conflict in these transcripts, but there is also a lot of love. That balance is what might make the book The Beatles: Get Back the ultimate document of the Get Back sessions if Peter Jackson's film leans more toward sweet harmony. That this book was authorized by Paul and Ringo means Jackson's Paul-and-Ringo-approved film could actually be more balanced than a lot of people are expecting. We shall see.
Now, about the music...
