The original Let It Be project was a slow, often tedious month-long project in the depths of London winter–January, 1969. Up to this point, about 3 weeks in, traction has been snail-like with numerous obstacles (the inhospitable Twickenham ‘barn’ locale, setbacks (George leaving the group in Part 1), and waiting around (the Apple studio was not fully ready for recording and the group still had not settled on a performing venue until days beforehand).
As things are picked up in Part 3, with 3 days to go for the ‘show’, they are still waiting around as Ringo and George work on the former’s “Octopus’s Garden” which, like several of the rehearsed songs (“Oh Darling”, too), ended up on the superiorly recorded album Abbey Road, under the more conservatively, reined-in, moderating auspices of their producer George Martin, in this project much marginalized and later controversially overproduced by American Phil Spector.
Linda, Paul’s new love interest, and her daughter drop in and the young girl mixes freely with the goings-on, bringing out more playful aspects of everyone in the studio. ” A wide range of non-album songs continue to be sampled including “Kansas City”, “Blue Suede Shoes, even Beatles’ oldies like “Strawberry Fields Forever”.
George confesses he has spent 6 months already developing “Something” and the band, more conscious of receding time, rehearses “I’ve Got a Feeling ” without Paul. An early hand-held synthesizer is briefly tried out, one that came back later, refined, on Paul’s successful Band on the Run LP. There is also an early version of Abbey Road‘s “I Want You” (they, incidentally, enjoy and get into playing wilder numbers throughout this movie) as they continue to fool around (e.g., John and Paul’s clenched, closed teeth version of “Two of Us”).
They talk about improving the studio sound with Martin and also their tuning, which has been rough throughout the film so far. (BTW some of that slightly skewered effect has to do with Preston’s electric keyboard, that never fully meshes seamlessly with the concert guitaring also.)
Things are moving forward in recording, but the viewer starts to realize that the amount of fooling around and goofing off when they rehearse was part of the Beatles’ usual modus operandi. They were easily distracted, getting other famous songs ‘out of their systems’ before settling down to record. (A fact I can confirm from another evidence source, the Unsurpassed Masters CD bootleg series with its numerous stops and starts and other distractions.) In other words, Beatles rehearsing often went this way and was this labored and distracted during their recordings. *The only time we hear the band go all the way through songs is on the finished LPs and in live performances. If the viewer is a musician, there’s definitely a familiarity with the effects of cold weather on the hands of players and instruments confirmed by John trying to keep his hands warm outside on the roof. Ironically, the concert sound remains relatively tuned and clear. The set is very limited; we hear none of the piano songs and any of George’s material for the album, unfortunately. (Important to note, too, is that the group had no monitors so could not hear each other as they played. And that the recording set-up didn’t know what the actual concert would sound like until they started playing.) Visually speaking, Lindsay-Hogg’s split-screen effects during the short show keep things interesting until it’s over.
Finally, we do hear complete versions of some of the album’s songs including “Get Back” (twice), “Don’t Let Me Down” (twice), “I’ve Got a Feeling (2x as well), “The One after 909”, and “I Dig a Pony”. To their credit, the band pushes the envelope with deliberately mangled words, screaming, and in-between-numbers comments by John. No one watching on site seems to mind the less-than-perfect run-throughs given the remarks of most spectators. Later the band retreats to the bowels of the recording room to listen to the satisfactory playback results in a brief celebration party atmosphere.
Jackson’s ‘macrocosm’ Get Back film has been very comprehensive on the making of Let It Be over a long dreary calendar month; he seems to leave nothing out and the steady flow of jump cuts to more interesting or fun moments keep the viewer watching and along for the ride. It, of course, could have been a shorter film–maybe 3 hrs. in 2 nights? And I believe the final effects from that choice would have produced a better film overall. Instead, in his service to footage-hungry fans, Jackson serves up too many editable tidbits that peter out or lead nowhere to quick dead-ends.
Let It Be, Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original dreary film was definitely more edited and focused and, therefore, was suited for a movie crowd with the concert footage at the fore in its ending. Jackson’s film projects the same long dreariness and waiting around for things to happen. But he also highlights many brighter moments reflected in the lighting, the constant joking around and sidetracks, and the Beatles’ more developed character portrayals. For that, he deserves a lot of credit and has ultimately rendered a truer, more realistic picture of what happened in that month-long ordeal and process.
And it is that more positive approach/response Jackson leaves the viewers with in the end credits with amusing outtakes of songs from the film. Perhaps in the greater scheme of things, it is the humor and fun of making Let It Be that matters and mattered most and the fact that so many others got to enjoy it including The Beatles’ last live performance. His film is a respectful retrospective ode to the group and their love of music and performance. Long will they be remembered and immortalized that way.