“John, Paul and George looked like they had gone back in time, like they were kids ...

It’s incredible to think that just six and a half years after the Beatles’ first single, Love Me Do, had peaked at a modest 17 in the UK chart, the band that went on to shake the foundations of popular culture were trying to find the right words to say goodbye.

The Fab Four’s final year had kicked off in a flurry of activity, with the writing and recording of the Let it Be LP documented in real-time by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, throughout January 1969.

Beginning at Twickenham Studios before relocating to the Apple Corps studios at 3 Savile Row, the events of that frosty month would become the stuff of legend.

Although intended to be a quite innovative, fly-on-the-wall insight into the songwriting process of the world’s favourite band, which would culminate in a triumphant return to the stage, Lindsay-Hogg’s final edit of the film depicted the Beatles as a band fast running out of road. Their slow demise was seemingly inevitable, or so the footage that made up the spirit-crushing 1970 docu-movie, Let it Be, suggested.

But once the rushes and archive material were finally exhumed, examined and polished-up to produce Peter Jackson’s expansive, eight-hour labour of love, Get Back in 2021, it was clear the unbearable atmosphere of animosity had been heavily overstated.

The established perception of non-stop bickering through that timeframe was pretty wide of the mark. However, it wasn't all smiles and japes either. Yes, the signs of the band’s inevitable dissolution were absolutely there, but the tension was counter-balanced by an obvious mutual respect, which the original film omitted.

Source: musicradar.com/Andy Price

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