Original subtitles

[Music] It's a strange question because I'm not

sure I can answer it but do you know what it is you like about the Beatles?

It does still sound different and it still sounds good.

Yeah I feel like a lot of people can

really grow and kind of feed off the energy that was given from their tracks as well.

I'll give that to some Liverpool folk singer.

Their music is ... it's timeless.

How do you think London's changed in say 50 years? – Unrecognisable, I think.

The shops, the culture, the money really. It's changed, but

London's London.

I feel like there was probably a little bit more freedom.

More fun and spontaneous.

I feel like the culture has grown a lot. Like people coming in, going out and bringing stuff in

that they've gotten from going out as well.

No matter how much places change,

and London has changed a lot, music doesn't just endure,

it somehow renews itself so that things that were created a long, long time ago

can still feel so vivid you can almost touch them.

And that's what this film's about.

[Music]

Something very historic happened there just over 50 years ago.

Beatles?

The Beatles! Their last live performance wasn't it?

This was up there? Yeah.

As the Beatles entered their last year

together as a group they spent a really intensive four-week period

being filmed and recorded, and working on new music. And all of that is being

brought back to life via remixed and unheard music, a new book - which I edited -

and a three-part documentary series with the appropriate title: Get Back.

[Music]

This story starts right at the beginning of 1969, out in

London's western suburbs, in Twickenham.

[Music]

So in this very very unlikely suburban setting

The Beatles have set themselves on somehow rediscovering their essence

and getting back to being a band. They've secured space at Twickenham Film Studios

and they're going to work up new songs for their first live performance since 1966.

But what that entails, nobody really knows.

I'm so sorry.

Oh yeah, this is great.

Hi Ringo. Hi George.

Hi Ringo, happy new year. Happy new year.

Hello? Hare Krishna? We're on the day shift now.

Here's what hits you straight away, right ... It is a properly cavernous space.

The cavernous club. Acoustically it's not very good here.

It's not, it's not as good as it could be elsewhere. Now what would make it?

A lower ceiling?

It is an odd environment to get back to your roots in, It really is.

So the main thing is, like, are we going to do it here or around ...?

Because once we say we're going to do it here definitely then you

know they're ... because they're going to build a control room, George.

Because they're starting a new project, with new songs, a lot of what happens here

is defined by this sense of 'well what have you got?'

... or should we do Hypocrite ... And write that bit?

Do you know the other bits? My bits I know.

Are you alright with heights? – Yeah, yeah.

Some of the best stills of them

at Twickenham film studios are taken from this vantage point.

Looking down on The Beatles as a sort of working unit down here.

[Music] So it's through this doorway,

a van with the Apple logo on it arrives with George's new recording machine.

It's like that ... [Music]

The sessions here are quite productive but they're not easy, there are quite a

few tensions swirling around and the key one really is that

George has never really been on board with the idea of returning to the live stage.

And on the second Friday of their time

at Twickenham he says, 'see you around the clubs'

And he temporarily leaves The Beatles.

[Music] What that means is, like all great stories,

this one reaches a moment of crisis

So The Beatles leave Twickenham Film Studios

and all the filming and recording

relocates here: to 3 Savile Row which, since the middle of 1968 has been

the HQ of Apple, The Beatles' company, right in the midst of what it's fair to say

is not the most rock and roll neighbourhood.

It's now the London home of Abercrombie and Fitch, who've agreed to let us in.

They've had the idea of putting a studio in the basement.

Morning. Morning everybody. Another bright day. Morning camera.

It's quite odd being down here because

I can't really get a clear sense of who and what went where because 50 years have passed.

And it's a stock room.

'Maybe just have one chorus on the first time, Two chorus on the ...'

It feels quite sort of cocoon-like, doesn't it?

You can see that down here would be a sort of escape from the world.

'Last night I said these words to my girl'.

The myth of this period is that

it was like a wholly miserable experience, which isn't true at all.

The mood really improves, music's pouring out of them.

[Music]

George is back on board, and the cameras capture hours of amazing footage.

And crucially, they're joined by Billy Preston, the keyboard player,

who not only contributes amazing parts to the songs, you can tell that he really cheers everyone up.

But also the creativity that happens down here ...

George Martin says, 'you're looking at each other, you're really getting on,

you're really happening.' That's the mood but there's one question mark

hanging over everything that happens, which is how the film is going to end.

Turns out the solution is about four storeys above us.

Have you done The Beatles thing before here, or is this the first time?

It's the first time.

Do you like The Beatles? – I love The Beatles - who doesn't?

Just as well.

Right to the point that they went out on the roof.

No one was still sure whether The Beatles were going to do it.

This is quite a moment, you see ...

Really? Are you kidding me?!

At one point there was a sort of pregnant silence and John Lennon said,

'let's do it' and off they went.

It's a privilege being here. Where's the best way out the way?

Because if you're a Beatles tourist, which I am, really, there's not many get a chance to come up here.

It's one of their great moments, you know,

it's as iconic as seeing them in their Sergeant Pepper uniforms.

I suppose on paper you'd have thought, 'well, you know, they haven't done a live performance since 1966' and all that

but they lock in pretty much from the get-go. Loads of cables went down into the

basement where Glyn Johns was recording. Three songs they played on the roof

would end up on the finished Let It Be album.

And they play great, that's the other thing. There's a lovely story about

someone who was up here and at one point he sort of glimpsed John looking at Paul

and Paul looking at John as if to say, 'yeah, we're OK, this is gonna work, we're all right'.

But somehow it says something deeper, really, about how sort of bonded they were.

[Music]

So ordinarily there's very few people on the roof but the amazing thing about that lunch time

Everywhere starts filling up with people because they know what's going on.

People opening office windows, peering out running up and down these fire escapes.

It's nice, isn't it? That the surrounding cityscape hasn't changed that much.

You don't have to imagine or project too much To sort of lock in to what it must have felt like then

because it looks really similar.

'I've got a feeling, a feeling deep inside.'

You can't beat them. They're all out on their own,

a style of their own and in my opinion, I think they're a lovely crowd.

Something very historic there happened just over 50 years ago.

Is it to do with tailoring?

Is this a spoof? [MUSIC] Oh please believe me ...

No it's not a spoof, this is real.

Fabulous, definitely. Fantastic.

Yeah that does sound amazing.

And despite the fact this is the era before the mobile phone,

word obviously starts to spread. Because you see in the original footage, cabs start to pull up,

and a really sizeable crowd starts to form not all of whom are very pleased.

This type of music is alright in its place, it's quite enjoyable.

But it's a bit of an imposition to absolutely disregard people's business ...

This is where the people who don't like

the fact that The Beatles played on the roof, this is where they stand.

Well a lot of local business people try to get them to stop.

Oh really? That sounds very much like Savile Row.

Still like that is it a bit? – Couldn't possibly comment.

And the taxi driver in the original film When they ask him what he thinks of it he says:

Oh great, I'm all in favour of it.

Yeah that's it, why not? Live and let live.

As long as everyone enjoys themselves, innit?

Well nobody dislikes The Beatles.

Tell me why you say that. – Everybody at some point has a memory to one of their songs,

so I think from that point of view they're part of our collective culture.

Yeah, I'm a huge hip-hop fan. One of the many things is that I found

is that a lot of people do a lot of Beatles samples as well.

This is what my daughter's done ... And your daughter is 24, you said?

So all the youngsters are still into them.

What's your favourite Beatles song? Something.

The writing of the song was done in the basement, at least partially.

There's a bit in the film where George turns up and he's got half the words and he's trying to finish it.

'What could it be Paul? Something in the way she moves.

I can't think of what attracted me at all. Just say whatever comes into your head each time.'

'Attracts me like a cauliflower' until you get the word.

'Attracts me like a pomegranate.'

A pretty amazing amount of music was being worked on by this point.

Not just songs that would appear on Let It Be,

but material that would come out on Abbey Road.

We are now on our way to where a lot of Beatles' stories ultimately end.

Do you wan't my son's CD?

Alright you're on.Thank you very much. Taxi driver son's in a band.

Well are you gonna film me walking across the zebra, I suppose you have to.

It's pretty crap trying to recreate it. – No, it is.

But also I enjoy crossing the zebra crossing, it's not just about the film.

I actually like doing this. – So I have to film it then?

Please film it.

This is all set up for an exhibition.

You sort of have to have a moment of silence when you step in here.

I would like to believe that some sort of supernatural magic is still swirling around it.

[Music]

The legendary staircase. You've got to listen to the playback. The vast majority of the recording for the

Let It Be album finishes at the same time as the filming.

And then right at the start of 1970, the last Beatles recording session happens.

John Lennon's in Denmark and George, Paul and Ringo gather into studio two to record from scratch

George's song I Me Mine.

And George leans into the microphone and says:

'You all will have read that, uh, Dave D is no longer with us.

But Mickey and Titch and I would like to carry on the good work that's always

gone down in number two.'

And that, somewhat poignantly, is the end of The Beatles' recording career.

But there's one slightly awkward coda.

Now something quite drastic's about to happen.

Phil Spector, Mr wall of sound, has been

brought in to sort of fettle up the Let It Be recordings.

18 violins, four violas, four cellos,

a harp, three trumpets, three trombones,

one set of drums, Ringo, two guitarists and fourteen vocalists.

There is a sort of melancholic symbolism to what happens here.

Because the whole point of Let It Be/Get Back

was to return The Beatles to being a four-piece band with no embellishment.

And right at the end of the whole process at the 11th hour, along come 50 musicians,

and that vision sort of dwindles away.

But as we've seen, 50 years on, that vision has endured.

[Music]

So you're Beatles tourists? – Yeah ...

Jude. – You're called Jude? And that's no coincidence?

No, no coincidence.

Why do you like The Beatles? – I think ... I kind of like the style of

music, if you know what I mean. It's, like, nicer than like modern music

I don't know, it makes you feel a certain way and I really like it.

Wow.

So the reason we're making this film:

The Beatles final album Let It Be has sort of taken on a new incarnation.

Peter Jackson who directed Lord of the Rings, do you know about it?

We've seen the trailer!

So there's three new two-hour films, six hours of The Beatles, all gloriously restored.

It's a big coffee table book of all their conversations which I edited.

And a new box set as well. So we're making a promotional film really.

Oh, fantastic.

So are you now gonna photograph yourselves doing the do?

Yes, but we need to cross over.

[Music]

You got a favourite song from Let It Be?

Oh, gosh. – Let It Be.

Sharp answer.