As a diehard Beatles Kremlinologist, when I watched the last episode of "Get Back" for the first time in November of 2021, I was keenly aware that the documentary series ends almost immediately after the group’s legendary rooftop concert atop their Savile Row Apple Records office building on January 30th, 1969. But, having seen the "Let It Be" videotape, I knew that the day after the rooftop concert, the band performed complete versions of three more songs in the basement studio of the Apple building. These were the then-new piano and acoustic guitar based songs “Two of Us,” “The Long and Winding Road,” and “Let It Be.” (These songs were edited into the "Let It Be" film before the rooftop concert, so that the movie could end with – spoiler alert! – Lennon’s classic “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we've passed the audition” tag line.) Thanks to the movie’s 1970 release, Lennon’s early 1969 throwaway quip ended up being his otherwise unintended summation of the career of the rock group he founded.
...since its release in 1970, the movie version of "Let It Be" has had a rather notorious history. Its musical origins go back to the Beatles’ eponymous 1968 LP, universally known as “The “White Album,” which from its cover to most of its songs was a reaction to the psychedelia of 1967’s "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Magical Mystery Tour," albums where George Martin came to fore as the Beatles’ producer, arranger, and assembler of cutting-edge sounds. In 1968, Martin told an interviewer that the Beatles began to grate at his role in the complex productions during the "Pepper" and "Mystery Tour" era...
As one of many Beatles fans who have been calling for its release since the early 2000s, I’m happy to see the surviving Beatles “Get Back” to releasing Let It Be to the public.
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