Special thanks to ThisDayinMusic.com.
Following the sessions for the “White Album,” which produced legendary music but also found tensions rising to an all-time high, The Beatles planned to get back to their roots on their next recording. As it turned out, the not always smooth experience would be filmed for a documentary titled Let it Be, which made its world premiere on this day in 1970.
For the new album, Paul McCartney’s idea was to leave behind all of the Sgt. Pepper-style studio tricks and make music that was stripped-down and relatively straightforward to play live. The plan was that the new album would be recorded as a live performance, and not in the studio. At this point, the band hadn’t toured in two and a half years and McCartney liked the idea of going back on the road. John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were less keen on that notion, so the plan became for The Beatles to play a single concert – perhaps in London, or on an ocean liner or in a Roman amphitheater in Africa. Rehearsals began on January 2, 1969 with no concrete plans in place.
But, before those sessions started, Dennis O’Dell, the head of Apple Films, suggested that the rehearsals be filmed for a television documentary that could serve as a companion piece to the live concert/album. To make filming easier, The Beatles set up camp at London’s Twickenham Film Studios under the watchful eye of two cameras and director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (who had previously worked with the band on promotional films for “Paperback Writer,” “Revolution” and other songs).
From the start, it was clear that the conditions were not right for the band. The recording studio had been their sanctuary – perhaps the one place outside of their homes where they didn’t have a camera in their face. Now they were trying to make music in a film studio (that was anything but cozy), on a schedule (that wasn’t theirs) with cameras catching every moment. Add in the tensions that already existed in the band and it’s no wonder Lennon called the experience “hell… the most miserable sessions on earth.”
But it was Harrison who seemed to have the worst time. There’s a famous part in the finished film that features the George and Paul arguing over a part on “I’ve Got a Feeling.” “I’ll play whatever you want me to play, or I won’t play at all if you don’t want to me to play,” an exasperated Harrison says. “Whatever it is that will please you, I’ll do it.” Before long, he decided it would please him most to leave the band, which he did on January 10.
Harrison reversed his decision five days later, on one condition – the sessions had to be moved from the film studio to Apple’s new recording studio. It also was decided that The Beatles wouldn’t do a big concert broadcast/album and that the footage being shot would be edited into a theatrical release. Filming began again on January 21 and continued through the rest of the month. These sessions were much happier, partially because of the move to Apple and partially because George brought Billy Preston to play keyboards with the boys. “Straight away there was 100% improvement in the vibe in the room,” Harrison would later say. “Having this fifth person was just enough to cut the ice that we’d created among ourselves.”
As a culminating event for the film and the sessions, the band decided to give an unannounced rooftop concert during the day on January 30. The Fab Four, plus Preston, performed “Get Back,” “I’ve Got a Feeling,” “Don’t Let Me Down” and other songs before being shut down by the police after 42 minutes. The impromptu show ended with Lennon’s famous, sly remark, “I’d like to say ‘thank you’ on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition!”
The next day, the boys returned to Apple for one more day of filming and shot full performances of “Two of Us,” “The Long and Winding Road” and “Let it Be” (although those performances are shown before the rooftop concert in the final version of the film). The movie, which was to be titled, Get Back, was in the can.
Lindsay-Hogg had assembled a two-and-a-half-hour rough cut of the footage, which was screened by The Beatles in mid-July of ’69 (during the time the band were making what would be their final recording, Abbey Road, although it was released before the Let it Be album). The director remembered the guys not being completely thrilled with the movie, mostly because of how tensions within the band were on full display. “They wanted to make it a ‘nicer’ movie,” Lindsay-Hogg remembered. “They didn’t want to have a lot of the dirty laundry, so a lot of it was cut down.”
For the final version, Lindsay-Hogg glossed over Harrison leaving the band and removed other negative scenes, although he retained the argument between Paul and George and other instances where it’s clear that The Beatles are not having the best of times. But it wasn’t all bad news for Beatles fans. Seeing songs come together and watching the band’s final public performance on a London rooftop would be thrilling footage for many. In early 1970, the film’s title was changed to Let it Be, to dovetail with the band’s album of the same name.
After Let it Be (the album) hit stores on May 8, Let it Be (the film) made its world premiere in New York City on this day in 1970. By that time, the band had broken up and none of The Beatles attended the premiere. Reports on what the members thought of the finished film were mixed. Lindsay-Hogg recalled in 2003 that both McCartney and Lennon liked it, but that it was difficult for Harrison to watch, because “it represented a time in his life when he was unhappy.” Of course, Lennon is on record as having said “the camera work was set up to show Paul and not to show anybody else” and “the people that cut it, cut it as ‘Paul is God’ and we’re just lyin’ around.”
The response from fans, critics and the public was mixed. Some found the documentary fascinating, others found it a drag and others were upset by seeing their favorite band start to break up. Over the years, Let it Be has earned respect as an important document of the “end” of The Beatles. Of course, it’s gained plenty of praise for its musical performances, too.
In addition, the film’s legacy has been enhanced by its unavailability for many years. Outside of a VHS and laserdisc release in the early ’80s, the film has only been readily available via substandard bootleg copies for decades (although you can see clips from the movie in The Beatles Anthology). Let it Be has been rumored to be released on DVD more than a few times, including in 2003, to coincide with the debut of Let it Be… Naked, but it has yet to come out. The late Neil Aspinall, who headed Apple Corps, shed some light on what happened, in 2007: “The film was so controversial when it first came out. When we got halfway through restoring it, we looked at the outtakes and realized: this stuff is still controversial. It raised a lot of old issues.”
When The Beatles went before the cameras in 1969, they wanted to create something raw. Who knew that the results would be so raw, it would be hard for them to have people see it, even more than 40 years later.
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