The Beatles
Get Back

At Twickenham Studios, it's cold and not very comfortable. A vast, hostile warehouse, a place certainly unfit for recording sessions. Among various equipment, colored lights, carpets, and cameras, in January of '69, the Beatles were grappling with a new project that was supposed to follow the "The Beatles" album which had been released just a few months prior. The atmosphere is chilly for other reasons too, Lennon now considers the recording of a new album as some kind of desk job, Harrison is increasingly distracted, and Ringo follows suit without much enthusiasm.

"Get Back" is more of Paul's idea, a return to a raw and rugged sound like in the early days to uplift the band and bring back the lost enthusiasm. The idea is shared by John and George Martin; no one feels like spending hours and hours in the studio to make a record after the intense '67-'68 biennium. The problem is that the idea of making a documentary film about a live studio performance isn't well received, and what was supposed to be the document of a tight-knit band will become the testimony of the beginning of the end. The material being rehearsed draws on some recoveries from the latter period of '68. John has his "Across The Universe" and Paul revisits a domestic song titled "Two Of Us", the performance of which sees an unprecedented Harrison on guitar simulating the bass while Paul handles the acoustic guitar. Under pressure, McCartney's despotic personality emerges, and he, caught up in enthusiasm, frequently clashes with Harrison, while Lennon, when present, withdraws into a parallel world with his Yoko. Ono's presence is the foreign body that catalyzes only tension, and McCartney doesn't know which way to turn, trying in every way to spur the others. Paradoxically, the attempt to produce a raw record amidst a thousand difficulties succeeds, "I've Got A Feeling" is coarse sandpaper, "The One After 909" is a retrieval from the earliest period, and "Don't Let Me Down" is John's substantial contribution to the project. Harrison adds his gritty "I Me Mine" and the beautiful "For You Blue" with a slide guitar played by John. Recordings continue in January '69 in the basement of Apple, a place more conducive to recording, and the ballads "Let It Be" and "The Long And Winding Road" are added, sublime compositions from a McCartney now on the verge of throwing in the towel and the collaboration with old friend Billy Preston for "Get Back". In an attempt to spark things up, a live recording is decided upon, meant to appropriately close the documentary, a thousand ideas pour in but no one has the will to organize an event so on a cold January morning, they opt for the rooftop of Apple, the group manages to play just a few songs before someone feeling disturbed by the noise calls the police, putting an end to the group's last concert.

With a considerable amount of footage and many hours of recordings, it's just a matter of piecing everything together, George Martin has stepped aside and everything is given to Glyn Johns to get something out of it. The four are now totally uninterested in "Get Back" and thus everything ends up in the attic until the tapes reach the skeletal hands of Phil Spector who will distort its essence, provoking Paul's ire in the early months of '70. Squabbles concerning the release dates of the first solo works and the simultaneous publication of the repudiated, by McCartney, "Let It Be" will lead to the final dissolution. But the idea of returning to the origins, a direct and less sophisticated sound, had already contaminated the artistic personalities of Paul and John, who would adopt the new philosophy to create "McCartney" and "John Lennon Plastic Ono Band," with "Abbey Road" in between, but that is another story.