
So last night, I finished watching “The Beatles – Get Back” documentary on Disney Plus. It’s a 3 part documentary directed and produced by Peter Jackson. Yes, that Peter Jackson the same guy who directed the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the “King Kong” remake. Well Peter Jackson has been working on this documentary for a long time and he finally finished it and it’s now out on Disney Plus exclusively.
As a big Beatles nerd myself, I’ve been looking forward to it and now I’ve just seen it. Watched Parts 1 and 2 over the weekend, just finished Part III last night.
What are my thoughts on this Beatles doc? I freakin’ loved it! It was very good and I was impressed with Peter’s directing style. It’s quite different than his movie making and honestly, I think Peter is way better at making music documentaries and I hope he does a few more of them on different bands.
Anyhow, “Get Back” really focuses on the making of the “Let It Be” album and its famous rooftop concert that the Beatles did. During the making of this album, the Beatles wanted to document all of it for a future TV special. The original goal of the Beatles for this project was that they wanted to write and rehearse 14 songs for an album and perform the 14 songs live and for a TV special. Later on, though, plans sort of changed when George Harrison briefly quit the band. They were unsure where to play those 14 songs so they suggested the rooftop of their own building at Apple studios.
So the Beatles went up there on the Apple rooftop and played for a little bit. The original plan was to play the 14 songs on the rooftop but they were only able to play a few of them on the roof ’cause the city people bitched to the cops about the noise so they had to stop the show. Since Paul McCartney was committed to playing the 14 songs, they finished the rest of them in the studio.
Why did the Beatles choose to play on the rooftop of Apple? There was no reason actually, they just simply wanted to. They just went up there and did it. Even the people in the city streets loved the Beatles playing up there, not everyone liked it ’cause like always there will always be complainers and whiners so they got the cops to get them to stop the show. Even though the Beatles got in trouble with the cops, it didn’t seem to bother them at all ’cause after all that the Beatles were all smiles and laughing so obviously they were very proud they did that.
Anyway, even though it seems like it may be fun to play in a band… it’s not as fun as you might think it is. Being in a band can be overwhelming and tough. It takes a lot to keep a band together and to try and get all members to get along which is what Paul McCartney tried to do. The Beatles didn’t always get along. As you watch this documentary, you will see some pretty heated arguments with members of the band.
After watching this doc, it made me get new profound respect for Paul McCartney ’cause he was never my favorite Beatle. George Harrison was always my favorite but now my respect for Sir Paul grew pretty massively. Paul is my favorite Beatle now. Paul is a real musician. He definitely knows what he is doing musically, he knows what all the notes and chords sound like. Paul plays every instrument too. He’s mostly known for playing his small Hofner bass guitar but he also plays electric guitar, bass, piano and drums. Plus, Paul has a killer singing voice too.
After watching this Beatles doc, makes me want to get more of Paul McCartney solo albums and the albums he did with Wings. I’m gonna start getting some of that stuff soon.
Anyway, it was an interesting doc and definitely the best rock documentary I’ve seen in a long while.
I’m listening to the Beatles “Let It Be” album as I type this and I’m trying to figure out why the album only has 13 songs when the goal was 14. That’s because one song was dropped from the album release, “Don’t Let Me Down”. It’s a shame ’cause it’s an incredible song and the best song out of the 14. It turned out that Phil Spector dropped the song from the album release. If you want to get the “Let it Be” album with the song “Don’t Let Me Down” on it, you would get the alternative version, The Beatles “Let It Be… Naked” ’cause the song is on there.
It’s interesting to see the Beatles rehearse ’cause all they do is clown around and laugh most of the time. The movie did have some comedic moments, though.
My only negative is that Yoko can be quite annoying with her awful singing ’cause she sometimes joins in with her annoying chanting or whatever she does.
Other than that, this was a really good doc. Yeah, I’m a Beatles nerd myself. I have most of their albums and trying to get them all with only 5 more to go.
Kev