The Beatles: Get Back

Paul is a snake and other observations and revelations from parts one and two of Peter Jackson's masterpiece.

In “Get Back,” the new documentary about the Beatles, there are a few instant takeaways.

The band is super resentful of Paul McCartney and it is easy to see why. The entire Let It Be project was a Paul propaganda effort, and the other three Beatles could tell.

Paul laundered his messaging in impromptu chit-chats with the other band members and various semi-competent staffers and roadies.

Paul knew everything he said was being recorded and so he engaged in a campaign to show how overly reasonable he was when it came to George’s sensitivities, Yoko’s appearance on the scene, etc.

He knew that by telling everyone how fond he was of John and Yoko’s companionship he would seem fair-minded to viewers. Also, there is no doubt that his positive commentary would make its way to John through any number of hangers-on, some of whom were obviously leaking to the press, at the time.

In one scene, which is like finding the Holy Grail to Beatles fanatics, John and Paul are secretly recorded having a confab about appeasing George in order to get him to return to the band.

Lennon essentially tells McCartney that he’s an overbearing asshole and Paul graciously absorbs every blow and endeavors to improve.

There is no way Paul did not know that conversation was being recorded. No way.

At that point in the life of the Beatles, the band was fracturing. John had Yoko, Paul had Linda and all four guys were working on other projects.

Paul saw the value in maintaining the band and he was no doubt influenced by Linda who declared she was a fan in part one. The three others had obviously fallen out of love with Beatle life and bristled at Paul’s condescending manner of leading the bedraggled troupe.

It is interesting and revealing that soon after the filming, Paul secretly began preparing for his own departure. It could be said that the Let It Be documentary was a marketing effort to launch Paul’s solo career. The guy who assured the crew members that the ship was sturdy was ironically the first one in a lifeboat just months later.

If you were to believe McCartney’s earnest portrayal of himself(which I don’t) it provides a permission structure to embrace former Beatle Paul, as it wasn’t his fault the band broke up, and besides, he seems like a hell of a guy so might as well be his first solo album.

I should have said at the top that I’ve only seen two of three episodes so far.

Some other observations:

• The Beatles Inc., was a real shoestring and badly run operation. For the biggest band in the world, they lacked the appropriate equipment and infrastructure. Yes, there were gofers here and there to get them little things but there was incompetence abound when it came to, say, building a studio at the Apple building without every recording sounding atrocious.

• Peter Sellers has zero personality. His appearance was the most uncomfortable in the series.

• George Martin - and this hurts me to say - comes across like an arrogant prick. Every scene he’s in he’s got a Big Swinging D thing going.

• Ringo is by no means the intellectual lightweight of the quartet. Indeed, he’s the only one of the four who appears able to see the entire battlefield. There is a wisdom there that so far has spared him from emotional turmoil.

A few friends who are Beatles fans have told me they were reluctant to see the series because they’d rather see a behind-the-scenes documentary during the recording of Revolver, or Help. I understand totally but this is not just a sad breakup movie(Like Let It Be was), this showcases two other aspects of the band.

One is that the guys loved each other. That comes through and there are many scenes in which they are having a damned good time, much as they did in the early days. For those of us who spent all our money on Beatles bootlegs decades ago, we recognize their playful frivolity and rather brilliant humor.

The other thing that is evident by the end of part two, is that the Beatles were the greatest rock band ever, the greatest pop band ever, and perhaps even the greatest songwriters ever. Ever.