LET IT BE Re-Release Review & Commentary | #220

When my friends and I went to Let it Be showings at our college student union and midnight showings in the 70’s, we were overjoyed when they used a pristine copy of the film (about 50% of the time). We never viewed Let It Be as a depressing breakup movie. We enjoyed the fast version of Two of Us, John and Yoko waltzing to I Me Mine. And Besame Mucho. Along with Octopuses Garden and the three songs before the rooftop, along with the rooftop. Outstanding positivity.

Hey Matt, I’m with you on the physical media thing, especially with the video releases. To me it’s better to have it on the shelf, ready to play when the mood strikes. Also, your video about All Things Must Pass not being rejected is what we need more of, instead of the “lazy journalism” we get far to often, which is how false narratives get born.

One of my big takeaways from Peter Jackson’s ‘Get Back’ is that it gives context to John’s seemingly callous comment that they “get Eric Clapton” if George doesn’t return. As it turns out, George was the one during the sessions suggesting that he wasn’t up to the kind of lead playing they needed and he actually says, “You need Eric Clapton,” to which John replys, “No, we need George Harrison.” So in the proper context, when John mentions bringing in Clapton, he’s being ironic and sarcastic (something he seemed to specialize in more than selfishly disregarding his mates). Matt, I’m not sure I heard you discuss this, but I might have just missed it. Thanks for all of your hard work and passion!

Watching Let it Be is like one big jam fest with no context. Surprisingly we don’t hear them rehearsing Get Back once. And we only get a couple of bars of them rehearsing Let it Be Get Back provides all the context into the decisions made for the project.

Watching it for the first time it is not as bleak as expected. It is quite joyous from my point of view.

This is great news! it was practically criminal to let the film languish for so long.

It's weird.....watching Let it Be, you can see how The Beatles had about a year left before a breakup. The Peter Jackson film (even though, unlike LIB, it addresses George's exit) makes it look like the Fabs were in great shape and ready to take on the 1970s. Some of my fave scenes in LIB: the Paul-Ringo piano duet, John's rough-but-great run-through of Across the Universe, John and Paul sharing a mic....like Quarrymen....on a rousing version of Two of Us, George helping Ringo write Octopus' Garden, the jam with Billy Preston and of course the entire rooftop concert. Great video once again!

Yes. I agree with you 100%. You can hear Paul on outtakes from 1963 barking out orders for the recordings. It was just another day in the recording studio for the Beatles.

John said Spector had his work cut out trying to make the recordings releasable…but MLH had it much worse! You gotta give the man credit for recording everything possible over this period as to fashion something to satisfy Apple 🍏 and what ever format they wanted at any given time….basically he gave himself options which in turn gave PJ the material to fashion the modern narrative. He was doing everything in real-time instead of hindsight and that’s a hard gig…..so I say cheers to MLH for capturing 30 days of Beatle time in which we can now enjoy and dissect to our hears content !

I agree with you Matt that Michael Lindsay-Hogg did a great job with the rooftop cocert. As a retired film teacher, I can tell you that my sympathies lie with MLH. He had an impossible task, i.e. pleasing four people who were rarely on the same page (Harrison was actually hostile to the film project). Any film that has essentially four "producers" is going to be a gigantic compromise, a chore, and ultimately unsatisfactory to several of the involved parties. Great documentary films are the fruit of a single, focused vision, not the result of comittees and compromise. Get Back is a successful film because of not only the new technology, but because the surviving Beatles (and their estates) trusted Peter Jackson in ways they never trusted Lindsay-Hogg back in the day. And Jackson had the huge advantage of not having to slog through every day of filming dragging along (in many cases) unhappy campers. You said that you would not have wanted Lindsay-Hogg`s job....neither would I.

I love how these videos are perfectly pitched: authoritative but never condescending; detailed but not a traipse through the weeds; subjective but not opinionated and just when you think that you know everything there is to know, there’s a always a fact or two that you’ve never heard before. Certainly one of the best podcasts, regardless of subject, on YouTube at the moment.

A very good review and I really hope we get a DVD of the new version of Let It Be.

I still vote for you to do more videos using the audio that was not in the film. Those were very informative and inspiring.

A few scattered thoughts: 1. I agree about the lack of transitions in the LiB film. Every time I saw it, I never understood what the goal was until I went and looked it up. No doubt everyone in 1970 was beyond confused on what exactly the story of the film was. 2. I was surprised to see that some little bits were different in this new film. The end of the Octopuses Garden jam is different. I'm pretty sure the Don't Let Me Down rehearsal at the front starts in a different place than it did originally. 3. I like how in Anthology, George sorta dismissed the famous argument as just him saying "make up your mind" to Paul. He never said it was the event that led to him leaving. He never got super offended at it. He didn't buy into the hype of the moment. Its interesting to go back and find out we entirely misinterpreted what the Beatles themselves said

Prior to Get Back, you had a video which the audio showed Ono inserting herself into the Beatles business. As much as I loved Get Back, the fact that this was left out has always made me suspect of the narrative. For example, were they all getting along so well much of the time or did Jackson leave out important part of the 130 hours of audio tape out? That may have gave a very different story--especially since Ono was a producer. I think for the historical record, the a transcript of the 54 hours of film and 150 hours of audio should be released.

💯 Top shelf show, and I especially appreciate you dispelling the things that have been written about repeatedly that simply aren’t true, a la the song “All Things Must Pass.” One of the most striking things about Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” film was how young and shy George was about introducing his songs. We know very well he wasn’t going to use the word“pomegranate!” 😅

It is not my favorite movie but I do think Hogg did the best he could. I really like the Jackson version better because it blew away some myths that Beatles “historians “ continued to write. Good video Matt.

It's such a pleasure to follow your channel. You never disappoint. As someone who fell in love with the Fab Four upon listening to Meet the Beatles, I value your very reasonable and highly informed perspective. On top of that, you're such a likeable person. I haven't viewed every single video you've given us, but I look forward to catching up. Thanks for such high- quality content.

I subscribed when you showed how parts of Something were done. What they said to each other, what Ringo said. You showed parts that were not in Get Back, it was awesome really! So thank you.

Another interesting video! It’s definitely important to remember that Michael Lindsay-Hogg was brought in to direct a television special. A TV special event focused on the payoff of a spectacular live performance. Hogg’s work on Ready Steady Go, previous Beatles videos, and the Stones RnR Circus was excellent… ultimately the Beatles pulled a colossal “bait and switch” on this guy! The television special becomes a full-length film feature that has to be blown up from 16mm… and the “grand payoff” is this band just moseying up to the roof to basically run through five songs to an unknowing and spontaneous audience. He had to be thinking, “This is the end of a month of filming? No event? No venue? No tension? No build-up?” Overall, in the end, I think he delivered a respectable piece of work… considering he had many cooks telling him what ingredients should and should not be in there.