Our author saw the first part of the new Beatles documentary “Let it be” – and is reconciled. The original 1970 film featured a falling out band. Now you can see that the old magic of the best band in the world has never really gone away.
From Frank Schmiechen
The Beatles are not my favorite group. They are much more. John, Paul, George and Ringo are in my bloodstream and are part of my DNA. For me they are as natural a part of my life as the sun or the rain. I cannot imagine my life or my own music without their music, their personalities.
When I was 14, I dared to go to the Dammtorkino in Hamburg on my own. The Beatles film “Let it be” was shown there. I was expecting light-hearted “A Hard Day’s Night” or “Help!” Style fun. Instead, there was a somber portrait of a band that was breaking down into its individual parts. I was close to tears when George Harrison said to Paul McCartney, “I play whatever you want. If it makes you happy, I don’t play at all.”
End of the Beatles: Should these be my four friends?
I stood shaken in the rain on Dammtorstrasse. Should that be my four friends? A mute John, an over-ambitious Paul, lousy George and Ringo, who didn’t seem to care at all?
The idea of the film was to accompany the most famous band in the world during rehearsals for a new album, a TV show and an appearance. Up close. Without studio tricks. Everything live. Just like in the early days of the band. 56 hours of material were produced. Film images and music. The then director Michael Lindsay-Hogg turned it into a film that showed the end of the band and the end of the 1960s. The huge rest of the recordings disappeared onto the shelves.
Director Peter Jackson brings the magic back
Now director Peter Jackson has cut a three-part series from the previously unused archive material. The first part runs on Disney. In my dreams I always imagined that I would be there when the Beatles practice, write songs, crack their jokes, just be the Beatles. This is exactly what I was able to experience now.
“Hey guys, I wrote a short song last night. Do you want to hear it?” George plays “I Me Mine”. Still unfinished. Paul is practicing a song on the piano in the background, looking for words. Roadie Mal Evans writes down word for word what Paul sings about his mother Mary, who died young. “When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me …”.
John is very quiet in this first part. His best scene: Because of a lack of material, old songs are dug out. Also a rock’n’roll knockout that he wrote when he was 15. The band joins. That works. “One After 909” works immediately. Ringo is the most helpful drummer you can imagine. Not a word, not a blow too many. He listens very carefully when the guys play their new songs.
My 14-year-old me always suspected it
The Beatles had to be the best band in the world. A superhuman pressure weighed on them. Producer Glyn Johns makes it clear to the guys what the band owes the world: the best songs, the best show, the best Beatles. This burden causes arguments, tense nerves, for an over-motivated Paul McCartney. George Harrison leaves the band briefly. Then on again.
But my 14-year-old self suspected it, despite all the disappointment about the depressing atmosphere of the original film – and now everyone can finally convince themselves: When the old friends play together and slowly find their sound, their songs, everything is back immediately. The looks, the positive friendship, the fun. Then they are just this small, big band from Liverpool, who even in their weakest moments play in their own transcendental league that nobody but them has ever reached.
Source From: Stern
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