The Beatles, Get Back and London: on the trail of a timeless story

It's a weird question because I'm not sure I can answer it, but do you know what you like about the Beatles? It still sounds different and it still sounds good. Yes, I feel like a lot of people can really grow up and be kind. To feed on the energy that his walks gave me, I will also give it to some Liverpool. His music is

timeless

. How do you think London has changed in, say, 50 years? I am recognizable, I think the shops, the culture, the money. It really has changed, but it is the London of London. I feel like there was probably, yeah, a little more freedom, more fun, yeah and spontaneous.

I feel like the coach has grown a lot more like people come in, come out and bring the things that they got from going. Also no matter how much places change and London has changed a lot, the music not only endures, it somehow renews itself so that things that were created a long, long time ago can still feel so vivid that you can almost touch them and that's what This movie is about something very historic that happened just over 50 years ago, the performance wasn't as the Beatles finished their last year together as a group, they spent a really intensive four-week period filming, recording and working on new music and all. that's what it's all about coming

back

to life through remixed and unheard music, a new book I edited, and an appropriately titled three-part documentary series.

Come

back

, this

story

begins right at the beginning of 1969, in the western suburbs of London, so in this same very unlikely suburban environment the

beatles

have set out to somehow rediscover their essence and become a band again, they have secured a space at twickenham film studios and they are going to work on new songs for their first live performance since 1966 but what does that imply no one really knows I'm so sorry oh yeah this is great hi ringo hi hello happy new year happy new year new year hello krishna well this is what hits you right away, it's a suitably cavernous space cavernous club the cavernous club acoustically it's not very good here, it's not as good as it could be in other places.

You already know what would make the ceiling lower. It's a strange environment to return to your roots. It really is, so all the main things, like, are we going to do it? here or around because once we say we're definitely going to do it here, then you know they're in the control room because they're going to build a control room because they're starting a new project with a lot of new songs. What happens is defined by this sense of what you have or should do, uh, we should take some of the best photographs of them at Twickenham film studios, which I take from this point of view, is to look at the Beatles as a kind of unit of work down here.

Then it is through this door that a van with the Apple logo arrives with George's new recording machine. It's like the sessions here are quite productive but they are not easy. There are quite a few tensions going around and the key really is George. He's never really been on board with the idea of ​​returning to the live stage and on the second Friday of his time at Twickenham he says see you in the clubs and temporarily leaves the Beatles, what that means is that, like all great stories , this reaches a moment of crisis so the

beatles

abandon the twickenham film studios and all filming and recording moves here is a row of three savile that since mid-1968 has been the headquarters of apple the beatles company just in the middle of what it's fair to say is not the most rock and roll neighborhood now it's the London home of abercrombie and fitch who agreed to let us in oh yeah they had the idea to put the studio in the basement tomorrow tomorrow everyone another bright day camera morning is quite strange down here because I can't really get a clear idea of ​​who and what, when, where, because it's been 50 years and it's a stock and it's a choir stock one, the first time it feels like a kind of cocoon, right?

I can see that down here it would be some kind of escape from the world last night I said these words to my girl the myth of this period is that it was like a completely miserable experience which is not true at all the mood really improves the music in spades Of them, George is back on board and the cameras capture hours of incredible footage and, most importantly, they are joined by Billy Preston, the keyboard player, who not only contributes incredible parts to the song, you can tell that he really animates everyone, also the creativity that happens down there george martin says they are looking at each other they are getting along very well it is really happening you know that is the mood but there is a question about everything that happens, what is how it will end the movie the solution is about four floors above us, have you done the people thing before him?

This is the first time to the point that they went up to the roof. No one was yet sure if the Beatles were going to do it. This is a great moment. You see, you're really kidding, at one point there was a kind of pregnant silence and John Lennon said, let's do it and if they went, it's a privilege to be here, what's the best way out because if you're a Beatles tourist, which I am? Really true, there are not many who have the opportunity to come, it is one of their great moments, you know, it is as iconic as seeing them in their Sergeant Pepe uniforms, I guess on paper you thought well, you know they have not done a presentation in I've been living since 1966 and all that, but they crash pretty much from the start, a bunch of wires went down to the basement where glynn johns was recorded, three songs they played on the roof would end up at the end, let it be an album and they play great, that's the other one.

There's a lovely

story

about someone who was up here and at one point he saw John looking at Paul and Paul looking at John as if to say yeah, we're okay, this is going to work, we're okay, but somehow he says There's something really deeper. about how close they were, usually there are very few people on the roof, but the surprising thing about that lunch time is that they all start to fill up with people you know because they know what's going on, people who open the office windows and they look outside running. and down these fire escapes it's nice, hasn't it the kind of surrounding cityscape hasn't changed that much?

You don't have to imagine or project too much to fixate on some of what he must have felt like. So, because it looks very similar, I have a feeling, a feeling deep down of something very historical that happened a little over 50 years ago, yes, does it have to do with tailoring? Is this a parody? no, it's not a spoon, this is really fabulous, definitely, fantastic, that sounds. Unbelievable and even though this is the area before the mobile phone voice obviously starts to spread because you see it in the original video, then the taxi starts to stop and a crowd starts to form, a really sizable crowd, not all of them.

They are very happy, this is where people who don't like the fact that the Beatles play on the roof, this is where they stand out a lot of local businessmen try to get them to stop, no, really, yeah, that sounds a lot like That's a little uh. He can't possibly come and the taxi driver in the original movie let me ask him what he thinks about it. He says great, I'm all for it, yeah, that's it, why not? Yeah, live and let live, and while everyone is having fun so it's amazing, well, no one doesn't dislike the Beatles, tell me why you say that everyone at some point has a memory of one of their songs, so I think since That point of view is part of our collective culture, yes.

I'm a big hip-hop fan, yeah one of the many things is that I found out that a lot of people also do a lot of beetle samples, this is what my daughter did, the song writing was done in the basement at least partially. Yeah, there's a part of the movie where George appears and he has something going on next and he's trying to finish it. What could Paul be? Something about the way he's dying. He thinks about what attracted me. Just say whatever he gets dead every time. He attracts me like a cauliflower even. You understand that the word attracts me like a grenade.

At this point a quite surprising amount of music was being worked on, not just songs that would appear on Let It Be, but material that would appear on Abbey Road. Thank you very much, the taxi driver's son is in a band. Well you're going to film me walking on the zebra, I guess you have to, it's shit trying to recreate it, no it is, but I also enjoy crossing this, it's not just about the movie, I actually like doing this, I have to film. please film it this is all set up for an exhibition you have to have a moment of silence when you walk in here I would like to believe that some kind of supernatural magic still revolves around the vast majority of the recording to leave The album ends at the same time as the filming and then, right at the beginning of 1970, the Beatles' last recording session occurs.

John Lennon in Denmark and George Paul and Ringo get together in studio two to record George's song from scratch, I mean, and George, uh, leans in. he says it into the microphone and says that everyone will have read that uh, dave d is no longer with us, but mickey and titch, and I just tried to continue the good work that has always been in the number two position and that, somehow Anyway, it's the end of the beatles' recording career but there's a slightly awkward encoder now something quite drastic is about to happen phil spector mr wall of sound has been hired to improve the lyrics b recordings 18 violins four violas four cellos a harp three trumpets three trombones a ringo drum set two guitarists and fourteen vocalists the kind of melancholic symbolism of what is happening here because the goal of let it be stroke get back was to return the Beatles to being an unadorned four-piece band just at the end of the entire process. at the 11th hour 50 musicians come and that vision does nothing good, but as we have seen 50 years later, that vision has endured, so you are a Beatles tourist, yes, and that is not a coincidence, why do you Do you like the Beatles?

I think it's just I like the style of music, if you know what I mean, it's nicer than modern music and it's like I don't know, it makes you feel a certain way and I really like it. Wow, so the reason we are. making this movie, the beatles last album, let it be, yeah, like taking on a new kind of incarnation, peter jackson, who directed the lord of the rings, you know? We have three new two-hour movies, six hours of the Beatles. They were all gloriously restored. It's a great coffee table book with all their conversations that I added.

Oh, and a new box too. So we are actually making a promotional film. Oh, fantastic. Now you and I are going to be photographed on Sunday driving without arriving? Yes. That was good. I thought it was wonderful. It's good.