Getting Back to the Beatles
A Beatles’ Fan Reviews Peter Jackson’s Get Back Documentary
by Joey Green
Posted on: December 20, 2021
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• Michael Lindsay-Hogg bugged a flowerpot to eavesdrop on one of Paul and John’s private conversations. To me, the clandestine recording reveals how inarticulate John and Paul were at expressing their honest feelings toward George’s rising interest as a songwriter. Of course, I can’t discern all their shorthand, nor can we see their facial expressions during their exchange . . . so they may have very well communicated clearly to each other.
• Before Billy Preston arrives, George reminds the other Beatles that when they played in Hamburg in 1962, Billy suggested they add “A Taste of Honey” to their repertoire. When Billy enters the room, George plays “A Taste of Honey” on his guitar, bringing a smile to Preston’s face.
• In Let It Be, Paul reminisces about the Beatles’ 1968 trip to India to take a Transcendental Meditation Course with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In Get Back, Jackson provides the full reminiscence, accompanied by the Beatles home movies from India.
• When Michael Lindsay-Hogg and Glyn Johns propose the idea of playing on the roof to a frustrated and seemingly defeated Paul McCartney, I love how Paul’s face lights up.
• Heather Eastman frolics around the Apple studio and imitates Yoko’s squawking, during a jam session.
• Even though I have an extended bootleg version of “Something,” in which John advises George on songwriting (“Just say whatever comes into your head each time — ‘attracts me like a cauliflower’ — until you get the word, you know?”), I love seeing the actual film footage of the interchange.
• John tells George and Ringo that, until Paul returns to the room, he doesn’t want to reveal his opinion about meeting prospective Beatles manager Allen Klein, but then, against his own better judgment, John proceeds to gush with overzealous enthusiasm about Klein. “He knows everything about everything,” says John. “Very interesting guy . . . He even knows what we’re like. The way he described each one of us, you know, and what we’ve done and what we’re gonna do and that.” Glyn Johns gently attempts to warn John against Klein, which John, easily duped by charlatans like Magic Alex, brushes aside. I was surprised to see John attempt to sway George and Ringo behind Paul’s back. “John, of course, Allen Klein knows everything about what you’ve done,” I screamed at the screen, “you’re world famous, you idiot.”
• Magic Alex is revealed as a con artist. John met Greek electronics engineer Alexis Mardas in 1965 at the Indica Gallery, during an exhibit of Alex’s Kinetic Light Sculptures. John dubbed him “Magic Alex” and made him head of Apple Electronics. Alex claimed he could build the Beatles a 72-track tape deck for Let It Be, which turned out to be a sixteen-track recorder with sixteen tiny speakers. George Martin calls Magic Alex’s system a disaster and works over the weekend to install legitimate recording equipment. In Get Back, we also see Alex’s ridiculous prototype for a reversible rhythm and bass guitar.
• Music publisher Dick James — who finagled a controlling interest over the rights to Lennon/McCartney compositions — shows up on the set to pull the wool over the Beatles’ eyes, illustrating that Paul and John, lacking guidance from Brian Epstein, are in way over their heads.
• When George tells John that he’s considering recording a solo album of the backlog of new songs he’s written and suggests that the other Beatles do so as well, I was taken aback that John encouraged George to do so (rather than more fully embracing George’s burgeoning songwriting skills by allowing more of his songs on Beatles’ albums). John clearly wants to retain dominance with Paul over the songwriting on Beatles recordings. In the wake of their secretly recorded conversation, John and Paul definitely work harder to accommodate and encourage George’s songwriting talents as witnessed by them helping him with “Old Brown Shoe” and “Something.” But they weren’t about to let George have more than two or three songs on each album…. even though “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something” are two of the more spectacular songs on Abbey Road. (For the White Album, the Beatles recorded more than 100 takes of George’s song “Not Guilty” but ultimately rejected the song from appearing on the album — in favor of even lamer tracks like “Wild Honey Pie,” “Good Night,” and “Revolution 9.” George ultimately released “Not Guilty” on his eponymous 1979 album. The song also appears on the Beatles Anthology 3, released in 1996.)
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