Conversations, though, are few and far between. John and Paul have a yack about their time in Wales with the Maharishi, about how they weren't really being themselves and should have been more vocal in their assumption that "It's a bit like school, really". Maybe they didn't want to upset Mia Farrow, I mean come on, she gave birth to the child of Satan, man. I wouldn't want to be giving her a damn glimmer of an idea that I might be some kind of disruptive son of a bitch.
Later, John and Paul have another natter, this time with regards the nature of the whole undertaking, and the presence of the cameras and what not. Whilst they don't want to be making another Help! or Hard Days Night, McCartney suggests, this here is something different.
Aside from these short discussions, all you're left with is a couple soundbites and a bit of post-take wackiness and one-liners from Lennon.
The first half-hour unfortunately gives way to a fairly patience-testing middle third, filled with unwieldy jams and extended mock-ups of various rock n' roll numbers. By this point Billy Preston has arrived for to tinkle on the organ, and if you didn't know better, you'd assume this was a band beside themselves with glee. In fact, the melancholy of the first act doesn't really have much of an influence on the rest of the proceedings whatsoever, from these work-in-progress noodlings, right up to that climatic concert on the roof of Apple studios.
All this musical tomfoolery ("fucking around" is, I believe, the preferred musicology term) is worth sitting through, though, for that spellbinding moment when a terribly earnest McCartney hits the first keys of Let It Be and you realise that shit, all that crap just came together before our very eyes, ears, other orifices, for to culminate in this spellbinding slab of pop-smithery.
And that's that, as far as in-the-studio malarkey goes, with a handy fade-to-black signalling the beginning of the brief rooftop set, when Get Back, I Got A Feeling, Don't Let Me Down and a couple other numbers are played for to entertain the citizens of Liverpool who stop in the middle of the street or scale adjacent buildings for to catch a glimpse of these hairy motherfuckers. Maybe some of them were complaining about they stole the idea from U2, but this is never elaborated upon.
Article comments
1 - Chris Kent
Nice work on an interesting film Duke. I saw Let It Be during a midnight showing many years ago and have not seen it since. I can recall the audience hissing when the Bobbies make an appearance on the rooftop during The Beatles' final show. It's a sad documentary, detailing the end of one of the greatest bands in history, and most certainly an era. I thought the film had never been released on DVD or video for a number of reasons, but I have the album and listen to it regularly.
As for rock documentaries, the best detail bands from the 1960s for some reason, and I love the varying versions of Woodstock and Monterey Pop. The greatest rock documentary of all time in my opinion is X - The Unheard Music, a brilliant film detailing the LA punk/rock/rockabilly band and their attempts to break into the mainstream after their third album Under the Big Black Sun. There were great interviews, concert footage from the Whiskey A Go Go and battles with the corporate record companies who felt Point Blank was a better bet for heavy promotion. I saw Point Blank in concert, and X a few years later and can say in all confidence the record companies were complete idiots.....
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Chris, that sounds like a flick i'd like to be seeing. A lot of the classic rock-docs are bieng exhumed for DVD, so hopefully the X flick will make an appearance.
As to the availability of Let It Be, i believe it was released on video in the mid-90's for a time, although i've never saw it in a store. There have been yackings about a special edition DVD, but as the Amazon link above testifies, nothing is confirmed. Which is odd, all being told. The Beatles have certainly never been adverse to a bout of re-releasing, and yet only three of their films are available on DVD, not counting the Anthology. Hopefully Help!, magical mystery tour and this right here will be granted a release shortly.