A real Pandora’s box: in addition to the Peter Jackson documentary to be released on Disney + at the end of the month, a few weeks ago “The Beatles: Get Back”, a book about the making of the album Let It Be, was released.
Since 1963 the Beatles used to record a Christmas album for their fan club in which, all four gathered in front of a microphone, sang, recited some sketches and wished their special admirers. By Christmas 1968, however, the recording of the disc was made separately, a tangible sign that the relationship between the Fab Four was starting to get complicated. A few months later, in May 1969, George, John, Paul and Ringo held the most famous of their fourteen hundred concerts, the Apple rooftop performance that effectively blocked all of London and represented the culmination of what was at the time known as “Progetto Get Back”, an attempt to return to the close-knit origins of the quartet.
“The Beatles: Get Back”
Get Back contains 240-page unpublished images, including shots by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney, and transcripts, by text editor John Harris, of many conversations between the band members during the three weeks and 120. hours of recording that gave life to the album and the film Let It Be, both released in 1970. What the book manages to do is to restore the strange balance between a situation of disintegration within the group – Starr and Harrison had already left the band for a few days, only to retrace their steps – and moments of great understanding, as producer George Martin points out when, at the end of the volume, he sincerely appreciates the Fab Four for how well they are working together.
Besides, the Beatles were born comedians. The throws between Lennon and McCartney are hilarious, as most of the exhibits about the band testify. Here, between puns and cynicism made in Liverpool, John also lets himself go to a few jokes about the love relationship with Paul, made up of hate and love, but also of that healthy jealousy that has emerged from time to time in the interviews released individually. after 1970. Also in Get Back a McCartney factotum emerges: a well of creativity that, after the death of manager Brian Epstein, was trying to personally make up for the management vacuum of the most famous band in the world and its multiservice brand Apple.
As with the last volume Anthology of 1996, Get Back is an essential book that the followers of the British quartet cannot ignore for the detailed account of the turbulent sessions at Twickenham Studios, of those decidedly serene at Apple Studios and of the famous concert on the roof of London. . A story that comes from the voices of the protagonists themselves and from intense shots, which guarantee a complete immersion in those incredibly compelling weeks.