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Let It Be — The Beatles Documentary You’ve Waited Decades To See
Before Peter Jackson’s Get Back miniseries arrives on November 25, I wanted to look back at The Beatles’ first attempt to release this footage over 50 years ago.
Back in 1969, The Beatles began recording what would become their final album Let It Be. A film crew accompanied the sessions for what was first planned as a TV special, but became a theatrical film also titled Let It Be.
Since its release in 1970, the film has mostly remained unavailable outside of VHS copies, but it will be re-released following the new Get Back series.
I first watched Let It Be about 15 years ago, and recently I sat down to watch it again.
Starting with a long opening credits scene, members of the crew set up the sound stage at Twickenham Film Studios, where the first twenty minutes of the film is set. Most of the film is made up of jam sessions as the camera cuts between various songs the band had brought in for the project.
After playing a bit of Don’t Let Me Down, The Beatles move onto Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, one of several songs heard here which would go on to appear on their Abbey Road album. Another of these is Octopus’s Garden, and it’s particularly interesting watching Ringo Starr at a piano with George Harrison working out the structure to the…
