It was a real treasure trove for him, says director Peter Jackson, when he viewed the many hours of unique footage. The Beatles in January 1969, just before their demise. In the studio, during rehearsals and recordings. The creation of the last two albums “Abbey Road” and “Let It Be” is documented up close.
And the last appearance of the Fab Four, the legendary “Rooftop Concert”, shines once more digitally revised in 4K resolution. The 16mm film scenes don’t look like they’re nearly 53 years old thanks to the work of editor Jabez Olssen.
In a sneak peek video posted by Peter Jackson in December 2020, the late Beatles, instead of being at odds, can be seen happily goofing around the studio. It seems like a nice family reunion with children and wives. Yoko Ono and John Lennon hug and kiss each other, Ringo Starr plays the clown, Paul McCartney jumps around, even George Harrison can’t help but smile. In between there is also serious rehearsal.
In the video, Peter Jackson says he hopes these little snippets will bring a smile to viewers’ faces – and yes, they do.
Actually it was all over
With this exuberant mood, the question arises: what did Peter Jackson find there? Or better: What was filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hoggs filming back in those January days of 1969?
The background explains a lot: The Beatles were definitely at odds. For various reasons. Lennon’s liaison with Yoko Ono annoyed the rest of the band. She stuck to John, sat with him in the studio, never took her eyes off him.
Inseparable: John and Yoko
George was frustrated anyway and really didn’t want to have anything to do with the others anymore. Manager Allen Klein was controversial in the band, the tough businessman († 2009) was known for exploiting his clients. Paul had opposed hiring the man, but the others had defied him. The fans in particular say that this also led to the end of the Beatles.
The “White Album” (1968) was created under a bad star, all four were rarely together in the studio recordings. The production of the album “Let It Be”, which was only released following the end of the Beatles, took place in a similar way.
Just one more time…
One thing, however, didn’t give up: Paul tried to get the band together once more for one last album together. The goal was to make music that was down to earth once more, music that might be played live – because the Beatles hadn’t done that in years. Firstly, their music had become much too complex and secondly, the four were fed up with the screaming crowds at their concerts.
Meeting at the Apple studio on London’s Savile Row
Paul managed to persuade everyone, and he brought longtime producer George Martin back on board. Finally, another old acquaintance of the band was hired. The filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hoggs accompanied the studio sessions with the camera, actually for a television documentary, which was then released under the title “Let It Be” and was controversial from then on.
And so the Fab Four met up once more for a few days in the studio to jam together once more following all these months of arguing and finally even to give a last live concert – which went down in music history as the “Rooftop Concert”. . What Lindsay-Hoggs filmed over the roofs of London is world-famous – but most of the behind-the-scenes pictures have never been shown before. Until now.
The “Rooftop Concert” was ended by the police following almost 45 minutes
From the 56 hours of film and 140 hours of audio material, Peter Jackson has created a six-hour documentary that presents the Beatles up close and personal like never before. It shows how four musicians still manage to record iconic songs like “Get Back” under great pressure and stress. The cameras are very close when the tension dissolves into nonsense, when one looks annoyed and another curses there.
Disney doesn’t swear
However, Disney doesn’t take a joke when it comes to swearing, and so Peter Jackson had some discussions with the decision-makers there when putting the scenes together. Because at Disney everything should always be completely “adult-free”, so there should be no cursing or smoking. But that’s exactly what happens with the Beatles all the time, just like with millions of other bands who sit in the rehearsal room or in the studio, who have emotional discussions there, who sometimes get upset or even leave the room in anger.
“The Beatles are Liverpool boys and they swear as it suits them,” Peter Jackson told the British radio magazine Radio Times. After all, his team was able to convince Disney not to cut anything out. “As far as I know, such a language is the first time in a Disney product. Now they can feel modern with it.”
Paul McCartney: “Absurde Situation”
The two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, gave the director their go. Ringo praised Peter Jackson’s work in the online magazine “Udiscover” by saying that Jackson was “a hero”. And Paul said in an interview with the newspaper “Welt am Sonntag” that it was great fun to see how he and his bandmates treated each other back then.
That was nice to see – all the more so since there had been a lot of talk regarding it in later years, John and he had only argued. “I’ve always thought that’s just not true.” If you watch this film now, it becomes clear: “These are four friends playing in a totally crazy place in London and giggling at the absurdity of the situation. That was the Beatles, that was us.”
The documentary runs in three parts on Disney+. They can be streamed from November 25th, 26th and 27th, 2021 respectively.