Slightly late to the party, but I’ve just finished watching Peter Jackson’s excellent ‘Get Back’ documentary which charts the week up the Beatles last live performance in 1969. In three parts and running in at over eight hours in total, it requires serious time investment but is well worth it. As a fly on the wall insight into the creative process and the intricate dynamics of the band it’s very interesting and revealing. With Paul McCartney coming across as the main creative driving force – particularly on song arrangements – it’s spellbinding how they seemingly pull songs out of the ether. I never knew ‘Get Back’ was originally a song about the Enoch Powell inspired anti-immigration stance of the late 60s, as if nothing has changed to this day. Get back to where you once belonged….

I’ve always felt a special connection to The Beatles as my mother is from Liverpool and came of age in the 1960s seeing them live at The Cavern, even seeing them perform previously in their first incarnation as The Quarrymen. As with most people, their songs bring up lots of memories and emotions for me and it’s amazing the volume of output that was made in such a relatively short career as a band. The documentary conveys some of the tedium in the creative process. Hours, days and weeks in the studio sketching songs, improvising lyrics and working out arrangements to come up with the polished goods we know and love that live on into musical eternity. At one point George Harrison quits the band as he felt like his creative contributions were oft overlooked as he was constantly squeezed out by the Lennon / McCartney partnership. He had a point. For me the few songs Harrison did write – ‘Something’, ‘Here Comes The Sun’ – are on another level. Lennon seems stoned most of the time – although he is very funny – and always brings Yoko along and she sits there mostly silent sitting in on the proceedings. I do like Yoko, but found her presence a bit annoying as she sat their stoney faced for the duration. Ringo comes across as lovely, affable and easy going. Macca is the boss, seemingly coming up with most of the ideas, particularly on the arrangements.

The Liverpool humor also comes across. They are all very funny. Lots of banter, skits, impersonations and witty quips to alleviate the palpable tension that exists in the band in the twilight of their career. The Scouse wit is legendary and reminds me of the times I spent in the city visiting relatives, like I was sitting in a room with my uncles taking the piss and being sarcastic. I remembered that The Beatles were the soundtrack to our drives up the M1 motorway to Liverpool.

Director Jackson was given access to hours of archival footage of the band as they rehearsed for a show and album. The footage was originally created for a documentary that was never released so Jackson described his film as a ‘documentary within a documentary’ and he spent four years creating it. The grand finale of the three episodes is the bands last performance on the rooftop of their Apple Corp building in London’s Mayfair which was cut short due to noise complaints. The footage of Londoners stopping, listening and being interviewed is great as a kind of bookend to the Swinging Sixties with London as epicenter. Just one year later The Beatles officially broke up so this piece serves as an important and valuable archival insight.