The Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ Documentary will include the entire 42-minute rooftop performance
The forthcoming Peter Jackson-directed ‘The Beatles: Get Back’ documentary (slated for a September 2020 release via Disney) will offer a revelatory look at the band.
At the beginning of 2019, Apple Corps Ltd and WingNut Films Ltd announced a new Beatles documentary, which would be based on around 55 hours of previously unreleased studio footage from the band’s 1969 “Get Back” and Let It Be sessions. Over the following months, Beatles fans have eagerly speculated about the film, which is being helmed by the Academy Award-winning director Sir Peter Jackson.
The Beatles: Get Back was made with the full co-operation of the band. Both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have sung the film’s praises, while John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono Lennon, and George Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, have also offered their full support of the project.
“It’s like a time machine transports us back to 1969, and we get to sit in the studio watching these four friends make great music together,” Peter Jackson has said. The footage used in Get Back was originally shot for Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 documentary, Let It Be, which captured intimate moments in the studio while the band rehearsed and recorded the songs for what would be their final album. The footage, now revisited by Jackson in a new light, is the only material of note that documents The Beatles at work in the studio.
It will feature the famous rooftop performance in its entirety
On 30 January 1969, The Beatles played a surprise performance on the roof of their Savile Row studio. Though footage of the live set has been well documented over the years, it has never been shown in its entirety. Jackson’s film will include the entire 42-minute performance.
In addition to the 55 hours’ worth of film, Jackson is also working with 140 hours’ worth of audio recordings. Several of the songs culled during the sessions were included in the 1996 Anthology 3 compilation, which featured outtakes and demos from “The White Album”, Abbey Road and Let It Be. However, there is plenty of music that hasn’t been officially released.
It will also offer a chance to observe the band members’ development as solo artists. Many of the tracks that didn’t make it onto Let It Be were later developed and included on their solo albums, including the Paul McCartney-penned ‘Teddy Boy’, which appeared on his 1970 debut solo album, McCartney, and George Harrison’s ‘Hear Me Lord’ and ‘Isn’t It A Pity’, which were later released on his 1970 album, All Things Must Pass. John Lennon, meanwhile, can be heard working on ‘Gimme Some Truth’ and ‘Oh My Love’, which both appeared on 1971’s Imagine.
While Lindsay-Hogg’s feature film offered an in-depth look at The Beatles’ sessions, it also revealed some of tense moments in the studio. In many ways, it documents a band on the verge of a break-up. Get Back, in contrast, looks at the footage as a whole, and paints a very different picture of the band’s time together. In a recent interview on The Howard Stern Show, Paul McCartney said, “We’re obviously having fun together. You can see we respect each other and we’re making music together, and it’s a joy to see it unfold.”
Meanwhile, Ringo recalled, “There was hours and hours of us just laughing and playing music… There was a lot of joy, and I think Peter will show that. I think this version will be a lot more peace and loving, like we really were.”
“The reality is very different to the myth,” Jackson himself revealed. “After reviewing all the footage and audio that Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot 18 months before they broke up, it’s simply an amazing historical treasure-trove. Sure, there’s moments of drama – but none of the discord this project has long been associated with.”