"Let It Be"

There's more to yesterday's post than I knew at the time; indeed, as I've now discovered, there was a Sinister Angle!

It wasn't just my photos. Keith, without telling me, had downloaded - it's there for free - the entire full length of The Beatles documentary  "Let It Be", and that's what was taking up so many gigabytes and that's why he knew he could fix my problem pronto.  Downloaded onto a dvd, and suddenly my computer is working again.

Anyway, we watched it last night and I have to tell you it isn't what we took it for all those years ago.  Back then, we all saw it as The Beatles disintegrating before our eyes, and everyone still says this like it's a fact.  Not so.  If there's any film in need of a critical reassessment, it's this one.

What you now see, rewatching it after all these years, is the story of talent, genius and totally cool dudes having fun at work. And that sheer unadulterated talent!  Did you know they are all able to play each other's instruments? And play them amazingly well too.  And they're forever leaping across to take up another instrument without even missing a beat. 

But most of all, "Let It Be" is the story of a friendship.  You can see it very clearly. These are guys who knew each other in childhood, who went to high school together, who became a band of brothers very early in life.  And also very clear is Hamburg; that year of "hard days nights" playing 17 hour gigs, 7 days a week, so far away from home.

It's that legacy that is so apparent in this film and what makes it so awesome to watch. These guys are so in tune that the instant someone starts something, the others all pick up on it and run with it.  It's just extraordinary, that synergy; four guys working in such close harmony with each other, they practically are a single unit.

I posted previously about "Sympathy for the Devil", the documentary about The Rolling Stones turning a lightweight kinda ditzy song into something dark, sinister, powerful and wonderful.  "Let It Be" - which could very well be The Beatles answer to that Stones documentary - is how The Beatles go through the same process.  However, whereas The Rolling Stones creative process is all sorta heavy, portentous, pretentious and loud, with lots of drifting in and out of famous musicians and lots of in fighting and trial and error, in "Let It Be" The Beatles creative process seems all so light and sweet and joyous, and so childlike and laughter-filled that it shouldn't be as powerful as it is.

But it is.  Even, dare I say it, you can see how it goes beyond simple creativity and into some sort of magical realm.

Like, there's this bit where Ringo is playing the group his new song "Octopus's Garden" and they all look bored because it isn't good, and then George, of all people, goes over to the piano and says "Why don't you do it like this?" and gives it back to him only with these odd downward chords, and Ringo does it like that and suddenly it's magical, and the laughter restarts and everyone picks up their instruments and runs with it.

And I'll tell you something else about George that I did not know, but which I noticed for the first time in this film ... you know during that roof concert when the police turn up and Paul sees them and looks stricken ... look at that part again and you can see George go over to his amp and turn it up and then he starts them off on another song. Yes, hard to believe but he's actually the leader here. Oooh, who knew that George was SUCH a rebel. I even now think that "Let It Be" shows us that there's a NEW GEORGE coming into play but which we never got to see develop fully because the band disintergrated.

And I'm now finally willing to concede that, yes, it was Yoko Ono.  Before I was always going "No, that's wrong.  The Beatles broke up because Paul was trying to take it over and John's ego couldn't allow it.  Yoko just got the blame."  But no more.

Yes, it was Yoko. She's in there throughout the doco, looming in and out of the shadows.  Keith kept going "Ooooh, look! It's the girl from "The Grudge" and I'm going "No. No. It's that Lady McBeth character in "Throne of Blood" when she's about to stab that spider."  In that Band of Brothers, she's like this ... this ... this sinister spider sitting next to John, completely without expression, moving whenever he moves, trying to act like they're two-people-in-one not realising that John is already inextricably morphed into his Gang of Four and she has no place in there among them.  Really, she comes across as so heavy, portentous, pretentious and loud-in-that-hostile-silence, she's like she was more suited to be a Stones wife.

And there's something in there that I'd never realised before.  You know Paul's song ... 



... "Get Back" is actually about Yoko Ono.  Yes, it's all disguised, but you can see Paul's antipathy for Yoko's sinister presence growing stronger and stronger and you can actually trace how it comes together in this song.

So what do I think of "Let It Be" after not seeing it for 30 years? Truly fabulous! And since I read someplace that this documentary is currently tied up in all sorts of legal proceedings and can't be shown anymore - which could be the reason someone very kindly has put it into cyberspace as a "help yourself" - and which I can't see been allowed to happen for long - I strongly suggest you get in there fast, locate it and download yourself a copy PRONTO.