The rarely seen and often misunderstood cinéma verité Beatles documentary “Let It Be,” mostly unseen since the 1980s, is now available on Disney+, courtesy of a remastered treatment from Peter Jackson.
At a brief 81 minutes, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s film is a rougher document than its companion piece, the sweeping, textured, 468-minute “Get Back” docuseries Jackson created out of the salvaged outtakes from Lindsay-Hogg’s 1969 shoot.
“Let It Be” is contextless, a fly-on-the-wall document of a band rehearsing and recording songs for their twelfth and final studio album “Let It Be;” allowing the creative sparks to fly and land where they may. It’s of historical interest because those songs, presented here in utero, would go on to become some of the most beloved tunes of the twentieth century, and are performed by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who, at that moment, were the most famous musicians on the planet.
At its release, the film was picked apart by critics like the Observer, who called it “a bore… clumsily edited, uninformative and naïve.” Presented without a storyline, shot on 16 mm and blown up to 35 mm for theatrical release, it was grainy and dark, both visually and in tone.
Released in May 1970, just a month after the band’s very public divorce, “Let It Be” became ground zero for Beatles conspiracists who analyzed the footage, looking for clues as to why the world’s most beloved band blew apart. Was Paul the bad guy? Did Yoko Ono cause a fissure between band members? The movie is singlehandedly responsible for much of the mythology surround the band’s breakup.
But the new film, restored from the original 16mm negative with sparkling remastered sound, reveals something else. There are moments of tension, notably between McCartney and Harrison, but in the new, cleaned up version, the gloom has lifted to reveal a literal band of brothers making art under extraordinary circumstances.
The sessions came just months after the recording of the “White Album,” and were meant to be a return to their roots in the wake of the death of their manager Brian Epstein, press scrutiny and internal tensions. Their relationships may have been frayed by external pressures, but a closer look at ”Let It Be,” free from the furor of the break-up that coloured the 1970 release, reveals the shared joy of creation.
There is a certain level of performance in “Let it Be,” like Paul making love to the camera as he sings an early version of the title track, but mostly what gives the film its punch is that it is an unvarnished look at four very public people at the height of their fame, unencumbered by the spin of publicist or the glare of the spotlight.
This week on the Richard Crouse Show, the Classic Rock Special! It’s August, and for many people the soundtrack to the late summer is classic rock, so I thought I’d take a trip through the vault and give some of my favorite interviews with classic rockers another spin.
We’ll meet Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen and bassist Tom Petersson who talk about the early days of the band and finding success in Japan. Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist and co-founding member of KISS stops by to talk about working with his former band, his new music and why he doesn’t approve of all of the KISS merchandise that features his image. Liberty DeVitto, author of the memoir Liberty: “Life, Billy and the Pursuit of Happiness” talks about the thirty years he spent playing drums for Billy Joel. We talk about how they met and get some inside scoop. For instance, did you know Only the Good Die Young was written as a reggae song? Finally, we meet John Lennon’s personal photographer Bob Gruen. The legendary photographer opens up about taking famous pictures of every rock ‘n roll star from David Bowie and Led Zeppelin to The Clash and The Sex Pistols.
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Link coming soon)
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Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
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Richard joins guest host Tamara Cherry and Jay Michaels of the NewsTalk 1010 afternoon show The Rush for Booze and Reviews! Today he talks about Rob Roy, the drink, not the movie, and reviews the Disney+ doc “The Beatles: Get Back,” the animated “Encanto” and Lady Gaga in “House of Gucci.”
Richard joins NewsTalk 1010’s “Moore in the Morning” host John Moore to talk about the reopening of the classic concert hall, Toronto’s Massey Hall, and Peter Jackson’s 468 minute documentary “The Beatles: Get Back.”
“The Beatles: Get Back,” Peter Jackson’s 468-minute documentary on the making of the Beatles’ final album “Let it Be,” now streaming on Disney+, asks music fans to rethink some commonly held beliefs about John, Paul, George and Ringo’s January 1969 recording sessions and the demise of the band.
The fifty-plus-year-old fly-on-the-wall footage, originally shot for Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 documentary “Let It Be,” has been salvaged, cleaned up and portrays a band that may be frayed at the edges, worn thin from years of constant pressure and the recent loss of their manager Brian Epstein, but still able to create timeless music. The film puts to rest notions that Yoko Ono broke up the Beatles, or that George’s frustrations with his role split them apart, or that ego drove a wedge in the group or that manager Allen Klein’s aggressive business practices were to blame.
The real culprit? Familiarity. Stress. Who knows?
What is made clear by “Get Back” is that there was no one thing that led to one of the most public band divorces in rock history.
The downer atmosphere of Lindsay-Hogg’s documentary is missing. With the restored, sparkling audio and picture comes a new, sunnier take on those recording sessions. The bond between the band members is clear, even if tensions arise from time to time.
There is a definite family vibe between them, made stronger when McCartney’s wife Linda and daughter Heather are on the scene, playfully interacting with the most famous musicians in the world. Linda and Yoko chat, roadie Mal Evans cavorts and Lennon introduces the band as “The Bottles” as they work their way through songs like “Get Back” (the writing of which takes up a substantial chunk of the film), “Let it Be” and “I’ve Got a Feeling.” At the end of the final take of “Let it Be” Lennon playfully says, “I think that was rather grand. I’d take one home with me.”
It’s fascinating to see them take the germ of an idea and massage it into fruition. It shows the camaraderie, the experimentation, tension, tedium and talent it takes to mold a thought into a song.
Along the way there are charged moments. John and Paul earnestly discuss George’s (temporary) retirement from the band. There’s a candid conversation between Paul and the studio techs about John and Yoko’s relationship, off-the-cuff performances of old rockers from the band’s Hamburg days like “Rock ‘n Roll Music,” and, of course, the climatic rooftop concert on London’s Savile Row.
Mostly though, it’s an intimate window into the professional and personal world of the Beatles. At upwards of 8 hours (spread over three episodes) it’s a hang out film for fans. There is no real narrative momentum, save for disagreements with Lindsay-Hogg regarding what form a live performance of the new songs will take, just a remarkable, exhaustive document that sheds new light on Beatles folklore.
Richard writes about two rock ‘n roll rides that defined the anti-establishment era of the 1960s, John Lennon’s 1965 psychedelic Rolls-Royce Phantom V Touring limo and Janis Joplin’s loud-and-proud 1964 Porsche 356 C Cabriolet.
On April 11 we have an encore presentation of “Pop Life” with an in-depth interview with John Lennon’s personal photographer Bob Gruen. The legendary photographer opens up about taking famous pictures of every rock ‘n roll star from David Bowie and Led Zeppelin to The Clash and The Sex Pistols. Then the “Pop Life” panel, Canada’s most renowned celebrity photographer George Pimentel, photojournalist Richard Lautens and artistic content creator and photographer Elie Jonathan Kimbembe, discuss how to get the perfect shot.
Watch this episode HERE or catch up on any shows you may have missed HERE!
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
The third episode of season five of “Pop Life,” featuring an in-depth interview with John Lennon’s personal photographer Bob Gruen, airs Saturday October 5, 2019 (8:30 pm on CTV NewsChannel, midnight on CTV). The legendary photographer opens up about taking famous pictures of every rock ‘n roll star from David Bowie and Led Zeppelin to The Clash and The Sex Pistols.
On the famous photo of John Lennon flashing a peace sign at the Statue of Liberty: “This photo of John at the Statue of Liberty I think is one of my most important. We actually started talking about it in October, because the US government was trying to throw John out of the country. I think that his crime was that he talked about peace and the time of war and President Nixon was very afraid that he was going to galvanize support for peace in a time of war. I thought that Statue of Liberty was a symbol of welcome to America, and if John was out there by the statue it would be a statement that we should be welcoming this great artist to America and not trying to throw them out.
“Oddly enough it didn’t really get published a lot at the time. I think a lot of people were didn’t really want to get involved in the politics of the case but after he passed away it became one of my most popular pictures because, I think, people see John Lennon as a symbol of personal freedom similar to the Statue of Liberty.”
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s all-new talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
Pete Townshend, guitar god of The Who, says he learned to play guitar and started a band for two reasons:
A: His nose. B. To meet girls.
About his nose he said, “It was huge. It was the reason I played guitar.” He also noted that bands (even band-members with large noses) “always got the best girls.”
“It is definitely one of the things that inspires lads to play music,” agrees Sing Street star Ferdia Walsh-Peelo.
Ask most male musicians why they joined a band and 99 out of 100 will tell you it was for one very simple reason, to meet women. Art, money and fame are often far distant second place to the lure of the opposite sex. Such is the case with Conor (Walsh-Peelo) a fifteen-year-old school by with a crush on Raphina (Lucy Boynton) in Sing Street, the new musical romance from Once director John Carney that plays like a spiritual cousin to The Commitments.
“I think that is the thing that gets Conor started and gets people started pop music,” he says. “Then you form the band and you find refuge in the music. It becomes more than just getting the girl. It’s actually a way of coping when things are crap.
“I didn’t have a great time in school and I went through all these similar kind of phases [as Conor]. I remember seeing [the John Lennon biopic] Nowhere Boy and me and this other guy at school bought leather jackets, gelled our hair back and went into school. Bringing combs with us and doing our hair like in Grease. Looking like complete twats running around town just doing mad stuff. It’s all part of the process. Finding yourself and finding your voice.”
Born and reared just thirty minutes outside Dublin in in County Wicklow, in the film the young actor is the perfect picture of an 80s rock star, despite knowing next to nothing about the decade or the music when he signed on to play Conor.
“It was a huge learning curve,” he says. “I hadn’t reached that point where I was diving into 80s music. I suppose I was up to the late Sixties. When I went into Sing Street I was playing bands and we were still in that place. I was listening to loads of country, music from Tennessee, skiffle music, bluegrass. I had been experimenting with loads of different kinds of music and I got into the 80s stuff when we shot the movie.
“It took me a while but then I got into it after watching a million ridiculous 80s videos. I just got it,” he says. “They just weren’t taking themselves seriously at all. It was just that kind of era. It was all just mad, wasn’t it? There was loads of horrendous stuff around at that time but there were a few gems. Hall and Oates are absolute gems of the pop stuff.”
The musician-turned-actor also singles out The Cure and The Talking Heads as great stuff,” but says his heart lies in folk music.
“Folk music is always where it’s been at for me. I played skiffle music with bands for the craic (fun) of it but when I came back, in my room I’d be listening to Joni Mitchell.”
