The big news in the music world this week is the long-awaited release of Peter Jackson's documentary on the Beatles, Get Back. In case you didn't know, the original movie and album, Let It Be, was seen for the past 50 years as documenting the Beatles' miserable breakup story. That movie was grainy, with muddy audio -- such a bummer that they refused to re-issue it since the 1980s.
Given the rare opportunity to dive into the unseen footage, Peter Jackson discovered that a lot of the sessions were far more pleasant than expected. The Beatles themselves had absorbed the storyline of the original movie, and remembered it as a miserable time themselves. In 2020, Paul and Ringo were surprised and delighted to see so many smiles in the footage too.
Anyways, this is the book to go along with Mr. Jsckson's new documentary, to be released this Thanksgiving. It's mostly a day-to-day transcription of select conversations. It's fascinating and funny, just like those fellas.
The book, and presumably the docu-series, is broken into three parts:
- Act I: Twickenham Studio, the cold, impersonal movie set
- Act II: Apple basement, where they rehearsed and recorded album tracks
- Act III: The Rooftop Concert