Let It Be

I doubt this will spoil anything, but feel free to discard this if it does.

The thing I love the most about Let It Be, which I was so privileged to watch was the transformation the beatles go through. Let me explain. The very first scenes of the movie, you have the an unshaven, stoned John barely even singing Don't Let Me Down, With Paul wailing away a harmony, missing words frequently(Fast-forward to Maxwell's Silver Hammer and you'll know what I mean). George is struggling with his solo and producing not much more than intermittent, out-of-tune whangs with his guitar, and Ringo (Whose disposition brings to mind Edgar Allen Poe) solomnly taps away at his drums. However, as the film progresses, the rhythm becomes tighter, the basslines more melodious, the solos crisper, and the drums more vibrant(I Me Mine and For you Blue are good examples). Unfortunately, that is thanks in part to Paul's Liverpool lilt ordering the other three, especially George around. George is the one I feel sorry for the most because he is fighting to meet Paul's demands (how hard can the middle-eight on I've got a feeling be!) and like an idiot here I am laughing uncontrollably at the awful noise George's guitar makes. Moving from Twickenham to Apple definitely helps them. I love the cover tunes they play just for fun, like You really got a hold on me, Shake rattle and Roll, and especially Besame Mucho(Okay Paul, fess up, you're not exactly Pavarotti(just kidding)). I can't help but bawl my eyes out when I hear Two of Us(after all the fussing they made over that solo ("Keep it simple and then complicate it where it needs complicating") and all that), Let it Be, and The Long and Winding road. The Long and winding road is especially teary because with just piano, organ, guitars and drums it is so simple and beautiful without all the screeching ladies and Disney movie like orchestrations added later. Ah, And of course the show on the roof. Simply jamming away and having fun, they have reached the culmination of their transformation for bad, uncertain playing to melodious, timeless music making. The worst part is that the band continued to nose-dive afterward. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to watch this long, but wonderfully musical movie.

Yes the film is poorly edited--the sound sometimes doesn't exactly sync...but hey its the Beatles. Finally playing themselves in a film designed to show off their musical roots and working toward an album stripped of the "hee, hee, hee" and "blowing bubbles through straws". I saw the film when it was released 37 years ago. I have a VHS copy. I watch it at least two times a year. I still to this day do not see a film about a group breaking up. Albeit--there were some tense moments...but what "family" doesn't have tense moments. I remember the scene between Harrison and McCartney over George's guitar playing for "I've Got A Feeling"/I remember the scene between Lennon and McCartney discussing George's reluctance to "going out on the road". Tense/Uptight--sure--but what shines the most is the music. The rooftop concert shows just how hot a band the Beatles actually were. I actually find the album to be a joy...they actually get a chance to rock out just like they did in the early days. And with a nod to Lennon, they actually had a bite to these new songs. To dismiss this film is a big mistake. If anything--it should be looked upon as a historical document. I am all in favor of the film coming out on DVD. It would be a blast to see the unused footage and more.

The Beatles were on the verge of permanent implosion from within when the landmark documentary "Let if Be" was filmed. The iconic band could hardly stand to be in the same room with one another at this point, let alone continue on as the greatest popular music group the world will ever know.

Still, having watched this fascinating chronicle again after several years, I was struck with this one prevailing notion.

That is clearly just how much dang fun these legendary Liverpudlians were having when they put all the business and inflated ego BS aside, cranked up the amps and launched full force into exactly what they ever really wanted to do from the beginning.

Rock our as--- right straight off.

As a life-long Beatles fan don't expect objectivity here - I first saw this in the early 70's and found it riveting … and got the same feeling tonight. This was an early ordinary rockumentary about 4 ordinary yet very talented blokes in their late 20's at the peak of their creative powers, in the process of readjustment to being mere hairy bickering mortals again after experiencing a few years of quasi-godhood. "Mr. Epstein" was long dead although Paul was trying to fill his shoes, and their Apple Empire was shrinking. The Beatles almost on their own created intelligent pop/rock music, which imho has not moved on since 1969 where they left it. There have been many excellent innovative and intelligent rock bands that have come and gone since, many borrowing and adapting from the Beatles back catalogue – however I don't count the many cash-in rip-off bands such as Oasis. Has anyone since not ripped them off at some point? I've lost count of the number of times over the decades I've heard a "new" piece of music and said to myself "I've heard that before somewhere – ah yes, such and such by the Beatles". Apart from the quantum leaps in sound technology since then nothing of any lasting musical value has been added – there has been no progression. Led Zeppelin filled stadia – but did they fill billions of hearts? Queen was popular – but did they rule the world? Pop and rock music may have always been ephemeral, but along with Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Lata Mangeshkar, Frank Sinatra and Jimi Hendrix the Beatles weren't. Never mind about their timeless music, they even managed to look timeless while everyone else around them in here looked dated by the early '70's. God works in mysterious ways.

John, Paul, George and Ringo got together first in Twickenham Studios then in the Apple basement in January 1969 to rehearse some new songs with the assistance of almost-5th Beatle Billy Preston (and occasionally actual-5th Beatle George Martin) and with the hope of playing live again sometime soon. Yoko (definitely not 5th Beatle) would have probably been on stage with them. As it turned out on they only made it to the Apple roof on 30th January, disturbing the peace of the police on the streets of London below. The Rolling Stone review of the film from 9th July 1970 that I remember so well was typically over-reverential but had some telling points – the first being how deliberately grainy the photography was which still can take some getting used to and that there was over 800 hours of footage from 4 cameras to edit down to the brief 80 minutes we got. How on Earth can it ever be properly remastered and will more ever be officially available in our lifetimes? Maybe we should also bear in mind that the film was to be called Get Back as a return to simplicity for the band, and that McCartney originally penned racist lyrics for this sublime song which thankfully weren't incorporated into any of the final versions. There's a lot of classic pop music in here – from their own then new stuff to rock'n'roll standards from the '50's, which the Beatles were in an ideal and unchallengeable position to translate for listeners both of the Old World of pop and the New World of rock that they left behind them.

Highlights: A splendid cod version of Bessame Mucho from McCartney; a loving version of You Really Got A Hold On Me from Lennon; the videos for Two Of Us, Let It Be, Long And Winding Road; and Get Back, Don't Let Me Down up on the freezing roof; so many others. Overall: to a fan, a beautiful and sad account of a unique group of individuals struggling and failing against disintegration; this should also be essential viewing to fans of intelligent pop/rock music who might have sometimes wondered where U2, Bon Jovi, Kings Of Leon et al came from – so far though, this was the artistic pinnacle.

Another watched in-flight movie on my IPod, "Let it Be" for my money now stands as an honest and convincing testimony to the talent and stature of The Beatles, even as one can sense the ties that bind loosening them individually in front of you.

Of course there's a sadness and elegiac sensation for fans in watching this "posthumous" film and it's also fair to say the music isn't always top-drawer Beatles - only McCartney brings his best work to the party, although John and especially George would recover their chops in time for "Abbey Road". Sure, too the playing's a bit sloppy at times but there's never a moment when there isn't fascination at something going on on-screen. And for-by much is made of Paul and George's spat (with John acting as unlikely peace-maker) and the at times tired and dishevelled appearance of the guys themselves, there are many other revealing and rewarding vignettes, even before director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, corrals the band for three assured in-studio video performances (all, significantly, of Macca tracks) and then the great idea (since aped by the Stones and U2) of playing their new stuff live on Apple's roof, on a biting cold Jamuary day. It was also inspired of Lindsay-Hogg to intersperse the general public's comments before the group brings the "audition" to a close.

The photography is great, the four stepping into life from their iconic White Album photos and I enjoyed the honest but fair editing applied to what was by all accounts a massively over-recorded exercise. Favourite moments for me include Paul and Ringo's boogie-woogie piano run-through, George assisting Ringo with the writing of "Octopus's Garden" and of course that final run-through of "Get Back" on the roof, with Paul surprisingly getting in some improvised anti-Establishment digs before the police pulled the plug.

Of all the concerts that ever have been or ever will be, that 20 minute Apple gig is the one I wish I could have been at. And surely even if slightly Pyrrhically, the great music they produce over the last thirty minutes or so of the film justifies the raison-d'etre of the film, working up the songs from in-progress to issuable level.