When let it be special edition and the three-part documentaries by Peter Jackson The Beatles: Come back finally declining towards the end of 2021, there has been much speculation as to what else there might be to share. Most fans know that there are still hours of unseen footage from the sessions, so that’s it. And although the legendary appearance on the Apple roof was presented in all its glory in the third part of come backnot all audio tracks from that cold winter’s day on Savile Row on January 30th – except “Dig A Pony”, “I’ve Got A Feeling” and “One After 909” which appeared on the original let it be – were part of the 2021s let it be Overhaul. Behold, Get Back: The Rooftop Performance, freshly mixed by Giles Martin and Sam Okell in stereo and Dolby Atmos, has come to finally trump the yellow dog boots. Add a special IMAX presentation for just one night of the same historical performance, and it’s like that come back Series delves deeper into one of the most misunderstood periods in the band’s history.
Paul McCartney often said the Beatles were a “good little band”. The bassist and his bandmates – John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – were not on good terms when they got together in January 1969 to begin work on a new album. To complicate matters further, they agreed to be filmed at work and talked about taking the whole thing on the road, so to speak. In fact, they had lengthy discussions with director Michael Lindsay-Hogg and other various collaborators about staging an epic concert in a variety of exotic locations under equally bizarre circumstances. You can see it unfold and then slowly lose steam come back. In the end nobody wanted to go through the hassle and expense of getting on a boat and going to Libya or wherever and play a show. Instead, they agreed to gather for a short, unannounced afternoon concert on the roof of their Apple recording studio and call it a day. They proved they were still a “good little band”.
for the beatles, The rooftop performance It wasn’t about pushing back on their past and playing a greatest hits set. The whole “Get Back” concept was really about the Beatles going back to their roots and forgoing the glamor of the area Sergeant Pepper and the isolation of The White Album, and when the “good little band” got together, they were on the verge of mania. They took some of the newer, more robust songs – “Dig A Pony” and “I’ve Got Feeling” – that were still in development and returned to “One After 909,” one of the first songs Lennon and McCartney wrote together Have written . They joined in and dallyed with an impromptu “God Save The Queen.” Then they tried “Don’t Let Me Down” (the B-side of the “Let It Be” single) a few times and blew through three versions of “Get Back” (none of which appeared on let it bealthough the third has found a home on one anthology Release). They didn’t follow a prepared setlist, so who knows what else they would have played if the police hadn’t shut the whole thing down.
Of course, no one knew at the time that this would be the Beatles’ last live performance. They hadn’t played in a real live setting since 1966, when they stopped touring. Judging by the performance, one might think this could have been a fresh start for the band. They got back together just a few months later abbey road and delivered one of their strongest records in the catalogue. At this point there was no reason to believe that the Beatles couldn’t have gone on, toured and asserted their reign as the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world. Unfortunately, things didn’t go so well between the four. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison all wrote songs that eventually ended up on their respective solo albums. The Beatles’ run as recording artists, much less as a “good little band” in performance, came to a messy and messy end. If any, The rooftop performance is a wistful reminder of how good it was musically just before it all fell apart.
~ Shawn Perry