Peter Viney's Blog

Directed by Peter Jackson

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SEE ALSO: GET BACK (PART ONE) linked

and
GET BACK (PART 3) LINKED

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Full review of the LET IT BE album in the Reviled series at Around and Around (linked)

I’ve been listening to the new Let It Be box set heavily the last couple of weeks.While I thought of it as my least favourite Beatles album, I was surprised how much had imprinted on me years ago.Charles Hawtrey & The Deaf Aids, … in which Doris gets her oats and so on.

If you found part one rather lengthy at 2 hours 30 minutes, be warned that Part two is over twenty minutes longer. Be further warned that it’s around seventeen minutes in before you hear any significant music. A lengthy sequence is dialogue with screen titles over a photo of an empty restaurant. I would never have included it.

George has walked out in a huff. This is the Part one / Part two divide. Nobody seemed terribly panicked and while this particular break happened on camera, we don’t know how often one or other of them had said, ‘Fuck this! I’m off …’ during the preceding seven years. It might just be another tiff between pals.

In retrospect, George walked out right after Paul and John suddenly became cheerful and animated singing Two of Us directly face to face:

You and I have memories
Longer than the road that stretches out ahead …

Two of Us (Lennon-McCartney)

George realised that as ever it was about the two of them. Lennon-McCartney. He was not in the central clique.

We’re in the sound stage at Twickenham. It’s January. This is basically an unheated aircraft hangar with a concrete floor. The participants are huddled in the middle in overcoats and only include two Beatles, Paul and Ringo. John is doing interviews one day, and too stoned to come in early the next. George is off and sulking. I wondered why Peter Jackson had decided to devote quite so much screen time to stressing that they’re cold, bored, depressed and have no idea what to do. The disconnect with Michael Lindsay-Hogg is trumpeted by his references to ‘a couple of your colleagues.’ I don’t think that’s how you refer to members of a rock group, ‘Good afternoon, I’m Keith Richards, and this is my colleague Michael Jagger.’

Paul gives a reasoned defence of John, explaining that John would rather be with Yoko than a Beatle. He is not being critical. When the question of where to do the live show comes up (as a dog returneth to its vomit), Paul makes a brilliant suggestion, that the songs be interspersed with real news items, with the final one being an announcement that The Beatles have broken up. It works for me. With John & Yoko absent Paul also feels free to joke when Linda interrupts with an idea, ‘You stay out of this, Yoko!’ which says more about their thoughts than the careful defence earlier.

John finally turns up. Ringo suggests a title, ‘a blast from the past’ and he kept that one as the title of his compilation album years later.

Day 9, the next, has just Paul and Ringo, and we hear music, the unreleased Bonding Song, and Martha My Dear, from The White Album. It gets interesting as Ringo and Paul start pounding the piano together as a duet. Again we get glimpses of other songs from other times … The Back Seat of My Car, Woman. We just have the two musicians. When John does turn up he says he’s been watching TV all night, and admits No, I’m mistreating my body. The others must have known about the heroin. One thing struck me … watching TV all night. How? In 1969 it used to shut down around 11.30 p.m.. I think the first overnight TV broadcast was the Moon Landing, and that was six months in the future in July 1969. The first Philips VCR, three years later in 1972 cost £600, the same price as an Austin Mini (about £8,000 today). There were open reel VCR’s from Philips and Sony in 1969, and they were horrendously expensive. Then they were extremely rich. No one is surprised at the idea of watching TV all night. Mind you, in John’s case he might not have noticed that it was a blank screen.

The sets for The Magic Christian (LINK TO MY REVIEW OF THE FILM) are rolled into the studio, and Peter Sellers, Ringo’s co-star in the film, turns up for a brief chat. No one mentions his piss-take mock-Laurence Olivier version of A Hard Day’s Night.

Michael Lindsay-Hogg says ‘Shall we knock off early today?’ Paul says, ‘Probably. Yeah.’ This is not riveting stuff.

The sequences have Blue , Mean Mr Mustard and The Madman Song.

Day 14 is cancelled, and they set off to see George at his house. No cameras present.

At last the decision is made to abandon the draughty Twickenham hangar and go to Apple Studios in Savile Row to try their new studio. On the last day at Twickenham, we get a spirited Oh, Darling! from Paul.

They are to be reunited with George in London, but their much vaunted studio turns out to be a load of crap. They had relied on Greek con-man Magic Alex (Yannis Mardas) to set it up (among his ideas was music wallpaper instead of speakers). He said he would build them a 72 track recorder. He also claimed he would remove the sound baffles from around Ringo’s drum kit in the studio and replace them with an invisible sonic force field … The Emperor’s New Clothes. George had eventually been suspicious of Alex’s habit of wearing a white dust coat and carrying a clipboard to look scientific. According to Wiki, he cost them £300,000 in 1969 money, or £5 million today.

John Dunbar: He was quite cunning in the way he pitched his thing. He knew enough to know how to wind people up and to what extent. He was a fucking TV repairman: Yannis Mardas, none of this ‘Magic Alex’ shit!

At Apple Studio, they discovered sixteen speakers randomly on walls, and what he claimed was a console were bits of wood and an oscilloscope. Nothing worked. They had to ask EMI for equipment … two four track recorders cobbled together, then George has his own 8-track brought in. They’re not so much breaking up as screwing up.

Glyn Johns: I turned up at Savile Row dreading what I was going to find there. Particularly as it as going to be down to me to make it work. My fears were not unfounded. It was apparent that Alex knew little or nothing about the recording process. The console looked like something out a 1930s Buck Rogers science fiction movie. Above it on the wall were eight loudspeakers that were about the size and thickness of a large ham and cheese sandwich. I had previously hinted to George (Harrison) that I had little or no faith in Alex and was put very sharply in my place. So when I all but burst into laughter at what I was confronted with as I walked into the control room, he accused me of being biased, having made my mind up before even trying it out. In any event it soon became obvious to all concerned, and much to George’s chagrin, that they had all been ripped off.

Glyn Johns, Sound Man, 2014

I had assumed that John was the gullible one when it came to Magic Alex. It seems it was George, and later in 1992 he was to devote money to promoting the Natural Law Party so that they could contest 310 seats in the election with a policy of establishing world peace through yogic flying, or levitation. They received 0.19% of the vote in those seats. This doesn’t come into the film at all, but it strikes me that John, Paul and Ringo’s persuasion to get George to come back included trying the new studio.

This first forty odd minutes has not been enlightening or enjoyable. We decide to pause there.

Savile Row

It resumed at the new unfinished disaster of a studio. The first filmed day (the second day) is time wasting as Glyn Johns as engineer and others try to sort out the hastlily imported replacement equipment … mainly Fender stage equipment, not studio gear. There are multiple feedback issues, which comes of trying to place spakers facing each other. Hang on, I knew that. It’s hard to see why it’s puzzling to the studio guys.

Glyn Johns is now a major participant with lots of cutaways to him at the controls. John refers to him continually as ‘Glynis.’ Changing all male names to female equivalents was a Polari (London gay slang) habit that John must have acquired from mixing with the London media elite and Brian Epstein. I enjoyed Glyn Johns having the temerity to tell John Lennon to reduce the bass tone control on his guitar, John does for a second, then explains that is the tone he wants to use and why. Glyn Johns, easily the most elegant and fashionable guy in the studio, was young for his job. He’d worked with the Rolling Stones. He was just off to work with Steve Miller. John keeps a jokey tone but I suspect he meant it:

John Lennon (To Glyn Johns): Don’t interrupt stars when they’re busy recording, for fuck’s sake.

A footnote there … to secure the film, Disney had to waive their normal ban on profanity and obscenity in speech!

The Beatles fart about and fiddle around with fragments. It’s going nowhere. John is the most lively. John continues to think introducing The Rolling Stones (he had just been on Rock and Roll Circus) is hilarious. This is a man who does not tire of his own jokes, nor his own gurning at camera. He does a couple of lines of a dozen songs from You Are My Sunshine to Max Bygraves’ children’s novelty hit Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea. (The Four Lads had the US hit version in 1954 … John will be referencing Max Bygraves). It’s held that Paul was the most accomplished and versatile musician in The Beatles, but it’s notable that John can strum along to any fragment of song that comes into his mind without ever thinking about what the chords are.

Yoko leafs through the Beatles songbooks a foot from John’s shoulder. Nothing of any value at all is attempted.

The number of cigarettes being consumed is astonishing. I can’t see how we are not looking through a nicotine yellow fog. They complain the ventilation is inadequate too. Peter Jackson used the editing processes he used on World War One authentic footage to clean up the remastered version, maybe he managed to waft the smoke away digitally. It all looks so bright and clean.

The next day … They continue to discuss the issue of doing the songs live … they need piano, and if it’s John it loses his rhythm guitar (he was a great rhythm player), and if it’s Paul, far the better pianist, then we have John who is not that good a bassist, on bass guitar … and we lose the rhythm guitar.

Fortuitously, enter Billy Preston who happens to drop in … well, believe that it’s chance if you like. He was about to record an album produced by George. Was that decided in the future? Karen pointed out that Billy Preston was so thrilled to be there. I said, ‘Maybe Billy being thrilled is better than paying a session pianist like Nicky Hopkins (who had been mentioned) by the hour.’

This was odd because about fifteen minutes or so later in the film when Billy Preston was away rehearsing for the Lulu TV show, George Harrison says after they praise Billy Preston,

George Harrison: If we were having Nicky Hopkins play, we’d have to pay session musician’s rates.”

That is somewhat mean of them, though I guess it did greatly boost Billy’s career.

Billy really adds depth to the sound and rhythm. And to the cigarette smoke haze. He is really good. They say they met in Hamburg in 1960 … actually it was 1962 when Billy Preston was playing organ to Little Richard’s piano. He played with Sam Cooke and Sly Stone, after Get Back he played with George Harrison solo, The Rolling Stones on record and tour, Eric Clapton, and was briefly a member of The Band. His virtue is keeping quiet, doing what’s asked and never venturing an opinion. Who would in that company? He is also a positive mood catalyst.

Glyn Johns: Apart from his genius as a musician, he was great to have around, and definitely contributed to the ever- improving mood of the sessions.

Glyn Johns, Sound Man, 2014

Eddie Cochran’s Twenty Flight Rock is tantalising … Paul, Ringo and Billy Preston.

Then Paul on drums, Billy on piano, John on guitar feedback and Yoko wailing is mind numbingly awful. I thought Paul was enjoying it, thumping the drums, but it’s not serious stuff. While I agree that Yoko has had an unfair bad press over the years, this sort of thing explains why. Also Craig Brown’s recent Beatles book portrays her as virtually a stalker.

At one point, someone brings a mock-up of a guitar Magic Alex has designed. It’s just a bit of wood for a body and a yellow revolving pole with black lines drawn on. This is Alex’s idea for a guitar / bass guitar in one instrument. Six string guitar, one side. Four string bass the other. Spin the neck round. They are surprisingly sanguine about it, failing to note three immediate basic flaws … you will need a wide slot for the two bridges to revolve, and you will have to accommodate ten tuning heads at the top of the neck. OK, Indian instruments have lots of tuning heads, but the four for thick bass guitar strings have to be meaty. Any guitarist would laugh without even considering that one side would require a six pole pick up and the other a four pole pick up on the body. The issue of switching from bass to guitar within a song should have appealed to McCartney. It was something of interest at the time, though the solution was the twin neck. A couple of years later, the band Family used twin neck guitars – double necks, huge bodies. Charlie Whitney used a 6 string guitar / 12 string guitar combination. John Wetton used 6 string guitar / bass guitar. See Spanish Tide from The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1971. John Wetton used it briefly on solo shows thirty years later, but said the weight of the double guitar caused horrendous neck ache.

I’d always thought Dig A Pony and I Got A Feeling as weak tracks, but the more they play around with them the more they grow. This has been true of the entire Let It Be box set with its original Glyn Johns mixes, and its new Giles Martin mixes. Back in the day, it felt such a weak album for The Beatles. In 2021, listening repeatedly, you realize that even weaker Beatles songs tower over most everything now.

George has major contributions to the discussions shaping the song Get Back. The skill of Jackson’s editing is shown by the conversation cutting between the speakers. It looks and feels like a single discussion, but it’s not … in some shots George is standing with a Telecaster solid body guitar, then in other cutaways he’s sitting with red hollow body guitar … a Gibson 335? Or a Gretsch? The film switches between them. The difference Billy Preston makes to it shows he deserved the credit on the 45 release … The Beatles with Billy Preston. While they’re working it out with Billy we get half a line of Reach Out I’ll Be There … there are so many of these tiny references. They reminded me of Judy Collins in concert. She’s a great raconteur and every time she mentions a singer or song, she sings a line of it.

I am sure the drum manufacturer (Ludwig?) is now preparing a Ringo Starr replica kit with an exact copy of the standard catering tea towel (white with red stripe) that Ringo uses to deaden his snare.

I notice on one day as they exit saying goodbyes, it’s Paul who leans in to say ‘Goodnight’ to the camera operator too.

Paul complains I think I’m getting Hong Kong flu reminding us of an earlier and milder epidemic.

On we move. I mentioned Paul’s Hofner violin bass in Part One. I’ve seen a few played on stage in recent years and they always sound soft. You can’t get a crunchy tone like a Precision Bass or Jazz Bass. I’ve always suspected Paul’s is highly modified. Glyn Johns intervenes:

Glyn Johns: What’s the possibility of you trying a different bass?

Paul doesn’t argue. He just picks up a Rickenbacker bass. They continue to discuss playing live, and John says I can’t play bass and sing. It is like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. While there are many singing bassists (Paul McCartney, Jack Bruce, Sting, John Wetton, Greg Lake, Roger Waters, Mark King, Nick Lowe, Suzi Quatro for starters) playing bass is not as natural accompanying singing as guitar or piano.

The constant requests for more toast, more pots of tea, orange marmalade are endearingly normal. I noted the striped tea mugs. I had two with the same design, bought on my first day at university, in Woolworths in Hull, along with two dinner plates. I was the eternal optimist and assumed I would meet someone to share them with. I don’t know whether Woolworths had ripped off an expensive designer mug (that was two years before the film though), but I’d like to think The Beatles used Woolies china. Having read the book on the Apple debacle, I fear there is another possibility. A junior employee was given a tenner and told, ‘Nip over to Selfridges and buy some tea mugs,’ and the enterprising young person nipped over to Woolworths instead and pocketed the difference.

Abbey Road material is being aired … apart from She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, which runs throughout, we get Polythene Pam and Her Majesty. Other songs get a brief airing only to disappear … Fancy My Chances With You and Bye Bye.

John and Paul try Two of Us in Advanced RP posh voices. George doesn’t find it funny. It’s always clear that John and Paul amuse each other. George was called the quiet one. Also the more serious one.

Glyn Johns’ autobiography is enlightening on what happened to his mix of the eventual album. Paul, George and Ringo approved it, plus his request for a producer credit rather than ‘engineer.’ John opposed it suspicious that he hadn’t asked for a royalty. (John was the one most aggressive / patronising to Glyn Johns in the film). That resulted in John handing the tapes to Phil Spector for th notorious Let It Be remix:

Glyn Johns John gave the tapes to Phil Spector who puked all over them, turning the album into the most syrupy load of bullshit I’ve ever heard. My master tape, perhaps quite rightly, ended up on a shelf in the tape store at EMI. At least my version of the single Get Back / Don’t Let Me Down had been released in April 1969.

Glyn Johns, Sound Man, 2014

Well, at least that tape came off the shelf, and we finally have Glyn John’s version of the album in the new Let It Be box set.

George is still defensive about the studio. Late in the film he says …

George Harrison: I think this is the nicest place I’ve been in for a long time, this studio.

… to desultory yeahs from Paul and John.

Then there’s a few minutes discussion on whether to make it into a movie which is arcane, and shows why Peter Jackson really needs a two and half hour maximum cut of the thing.

Paul: If it’s going to be a movie, we should have done it on 35 mm which is the best quality. We did it on 16 mm because it’s a TV thing.
George: I think we should blow it up to 35 mm and if they don’t take it, they’re fucking fools.
Paul: 16mm blown up to 35 mm is a mess.
George: No it’s not …

Finally Michael Lindsay-Hogg intervenes to say that it will blow up alright. Really, this sort of behind the scenes discussion is not of general interest, or terribly illuminating. All I got from it was that Paul probably knew more about film than George did.

They discuss what happens after this, and Paul says he guesses John and Yoko will end up in a black bag at the Royal Albert Hall.

There’s a large chunk of Paul’s early song, I Lost My Little Girl, then they clamber up to the rooftop to check it out. It looks very hairy up there. No barriers, no easy access. Behind this is a good acoustic version of Mean Mr Mustard. A lot of the songs from the extraordinary number of hours of audio only are used like this … played over a completely different scene.

Part two ends with Paul trying to do Let It Be.

Paul: Come on, back to the drudgery …

The others are unenthusiastic, John can’t stop taking the piss, Bloody Mary comes to me … etc. I rally feel for Paul here. John’s lying on the floor plucking the Fender 6 string bass vaguely. George has found a psychedelically decorated Stratocaster. There were bits in Part one where you feel John and Paul ganging up on George. Here it’s John and George displaying exaggerated lack of interest in Paul’s song. George Martin is shown lying on the floor reading the newspaper (though this could have been edited in from anywhere).

Paul: Come on boys, enthuse a little.

You had the feeling John didn’t like the song and was sabotaging it … which he ultimately did when he handed the tapes to Phil Spector. It’s Paul who wants to knock off for the day, ‘Office hours.’ As I say, I can imagine him thinking, ‘If I had session guys … say John Paul Jones on bass, and Jimmy Page or Eric Clapton on guitar, this would all be so much easier.’

It’s rather a sour note to end Part two.