The Surging News reporter Qian Lianshui
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At the beginning of 1969, The Beatles were struggling with a live tv show. They had less than three weeks to write a new album and had to rehearse to the point where they could be broadcast live on television. What also bothered them was the venue of the show. Ruins of an ancient amphitheater in Libya? Or more, invite hundreds of fans to board the ship with them for a final rehearsal on a two-week ocean voyage. They fantasize about the sunrise moment on the Mediterranean. "God's trick", John Lennon, who had been quiet a few days ago, was very interested in the idea, and Paul McCartney also voted for this adventure. George Harrison was not impressed by the idea, he did not want to be forcibly tied to a group of strangers to cross the sea in a boat, and "so expensive, simply irrational"
Other candidate locations include the Royal Albert Hall, Tate Gallery, The Airport, The Orphanage, and the Parliament House. In the end, they compromised with each other and reached a consensus: abandon live television and make the creation, recording and live production of this new album into a movie. At the same time, move the studio to their Apple basement. On Thursday, Jan. 30, the Beatles plus American keyboardist/singer Billy Preston performed a show on the top floor of Apple's building. No one guessed it was the Beatles' Swan Song.
The eighty-minute "Let It Be" documentary of the same name filmed the band's disintegration. The film was released in May 1970. A month before its release, McCartney announced the band's dissolution, branding the film with a forever farewell. Let It Be is the Beatles' 12th album and the last studio album before the break. At that time, the documentary left 50 hours of footage and more than 100 hours of audio that were not cut into the film. On the 50th anniversary of the album's release, The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson was commissioned by Apple to take over the material. His task was to cut out another film from it called Get Back. The six-hour "Return" will be broadcast at Disney+ on November 25, 26 and 27.
The trailer shows that this will be a Beatles movie where the joys of being together are greater than the discrete sadness, and there are more subtle and complex human emotions than "Let Him Go". The four Beatles got together for the last time to plan an unfulfilled concert and an unexpected concert. In hindsight, 1968-69 was indeed the Beatles' last days. They disagreed over more and more things: the venue of the show; Harrison's growing confidence and the displeasure that came with it; Yoko Ono's involvement in the band's core affairs, and so on. But it cannot be denied that they are still at the peak of their creative power, able to produce good music under pressure, and still have a lot of early happy times together.
Along with the film, a six-disc CD and a large-scale hardcover book distilled from a vast amount of material are extracted from their conversations. Intimate and fun, we can count on videos and transcripts to have at least these qualities. Brain-opening, discussing creations and situations, with a keen premonition of a breakup, of course, because they are Beatles.
There's a passage where George Harrison brings an unfinished love song. He wrote for months and kept stuck in the second line of this song ("Something"):
Harrison: "I've been wondering what exactly attracted me. ”
Lennon: "What's the first thing that pops up every time?" Just write this. 'Attract me like a broccoli...' and go and capture it like that until you find that exact word. ”
Harrison: "But I've been thinking about it for six months. ”
Lennon: "You haven't tried 15 people to think with you." ”
Lennon began humming: "There is a rhythm in her body, changing 'attract' to 'grab'. Catch me like a southern country pub. ”
Their conversations were crammed with the creative process, the breadth of the music, their history in Liverpool and Hamburg, what they ate for lunch (one of Harrison's favorites was "big and fresh whole mushrooms"), those endless hangovers. They talked about the night before, from science fiction to political news. They mention other musicians by name hundreds of times: Fleetwood Mac, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin...
Discussion continues. "Grab me like a monkey grabs a tree."
They sang together: "There is a magic in the rhythm of her body / I have no other choice but to think of her".
Harrison sings, "Attract me like a pomegranate." ”
They sang together: "Attract me, like granite attract moths." ”
Harrison: "Pomegranate. ”
Lennon: "Cauliflower. ”
They spread the separate foregrounds on the table. Often after George Harrison left the room, the remaining three began discussing the prospect of the band disbanding. John Lennon really considered asking Eric Clapton to take Harrison's place.
Yoko Ono, who is increasingly entering the core of the band, is also a topic they can't get around. A microphone hidden at the table secretly recorded a lunch conversation between Lennon, McCartney, and Yoko Ono.
Lennon: "I'm not going to lie. I will sacrifice you for her. She would follow me anywhere. ”
McCartney: "Where's George?" ”
Lennon: "The ghost knows where he is." ”
Yoko Ono: "You can easily call George back, you know that. ”
Lennon: "No, it's not that easy, it's a purulent wound." Yesterday we made the wound deeper and didn't give him any bandages. ”
McCartney: "I just thought he was going to come back. ”
Lennon: "Really?" ”
McCartney: "If he really doesn't come back, that's our new problem." ”
Lennon: "If we really need him — I'm not really sure if we need him, but if we need him for contract reasons, I can still get along with him because the contract binds us together." ”
In the summer of 1967, when the Beatles' reliant agent, Brian Epstein, died suddenly, it was Paul McCartney who actually took over the role. This batch of material shows that he is a fairly tolerant "boss" and does not show too strong an attitude towards the affairs of the band. McCartney had made an effort, careful to get the ship to sail for a while longer.
They seriously discussed Yoko Ono's position in the band. McCartney tried not to cross the line: "Lennon is a man who devotes himself to everything, and perhaps So does Yoko. You can't stop him from taking Yoko with him at every meeting and telling him to act rationally. It was his decision, after all. None of us has the right to interfere. By this time he already knew the reason why Yoko Ono would be "breaking up" the Beatles. Fifty years later, people will think that the Beatles disbanded because of Yoko Ono. Why? Because John Lennon always brought this one to any band affairs. ”
Sometimes McCartney also exudes an arbitrary and arrogant side. "In my opinion there are only two paths. The last time I had a meeting, I was a big fan of this. We either get it done or we don't do it. I need a decision, because I'm really not interested in wasting time here, and each of you is making your own little calculations and already has the answer in mind. I want to do it. If you want to, that's fine. But you don't look too determined, as if you were in school. How long have we all been graduating..."
The Beatles separation is imminent. They didn't make it to the Ancient Amphitheater, the Royal Albert Hall or the Tate. But they put on a show on the roof of Apple. They made frequent eye contact and looked happy, like a group of old friends whose relationships had not been broken, enjoying the music, each other and the moment, and alarming the police downstairs. The two officers go upstairs to try to halt the show, leaving the beatles' romantic rebellion in the documentary.
Half a century later, what we will see again is frozen in a song they performed twice that day. Specifically, it's this quote from Lennonga in McCartney's I've Got a Feeling: "Everybody has a bad year, everybody has a good year." ”
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai
Proofreader: Yan Zhang