Get Back To Where You Once Belonged
I finally sat down with Get Back, that mambo Beatles documentary everybody’s been yabba-dabba-doing about. Glad I did. The almost eight hours we spend in the studio with the lads fly right by. It’s the best documentation of the creative process I’ve ever seen. Really shows the laughter, frustration, insults and endless do-overs that go into any creative collaboration. Then somehow, with determination and gunning to get it right, you nail it.
We ain’t John, Paul, George and Ringo over here, but watching them get stuck and do goofball voices reminded me of the stuff we go through all the time in developing concepts for clients. We’ll do a little shake, rattle and roll routine to get out of a slump. We’ll play “Hail to the Chief” and salute left-handed. We’ve been known to ring-a-ding-ding an official boxing bell, blow on a Duck Dynasty duck caller and play Rowdy Roddy Piper’s bagpipe entry music. Sometimes we toss around Wiffle balls or pink Spaldeens. Eventually something clicks and we’re on our way to San Jose.
Watch the clip here of Paul pulling what became the tune “Get Back” out of thin air: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kOQ5sgzhRA
Apparently when the Disney suits looked at some of the early film takes, they wanted to erase the swearing and smoking. What the Christ? The thing would’ve been twenty minutes long by the time they were done with it. Luckily Paul and Ringo put the kibosh on that idea, saying they wanted to show things as they really were. I tell ya, there are creative squelchers everywhere.
As great as the studio footage is, the best part is the last installment, which shows the concert the Beatles (plus the great American keyboardist Billy Preston) performed on the rooftop of their Apple headquarters on January 30,1969. The concert was unannounced and held right smack in the middle of London’s business and fashion district during workers’ lunch break. No permission from law enforcement, no permits from the city. They were the Beatles, baby. They just climbed up on the roof and started playing. People on the street loved it but the British bobbies said they were disturbing the peace. They even sent in the paddy wagon. The Beatles never turned it down. You could hear the music all the way down to the police station.
That show was an iconic moment. It was the Beatles’ last public appearance, but they never sounded so good. We’ll never see the likes of ‘em again. Watch the movie. Keep your dukes up.