The Thanksgiving holiday weekend of 2021 won’t be remembered for pumpkin pie, turkey, holiday traffic or football games. It will be remembered for the debut of the three-part Get Back series on The Beatles directed by Peter Jackson, available to stream on Disney+.
Few entertainment collaborations have come together that included such powerhouse forces as The Beatles, Disney, and the director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. That’s a lot of egos and a lot of lawyers, yet the final results have put fans of The Beatles in a rapturous state and, other than a handful of grumpy critics, the series has been rightfully embraced by the critical community.
This has truly been a cultural watershed and a welcome reprieve from the collective exhaustion related to Covid and right-wing rhetoric and violence. It’s a balm of brotherhood and remembrance of The Beatles ability to still make great music, even if it wasn’t their best period, and to delight us with their infectious charm.
As with the film, the publication date of Get Back, the book, has been changed more than once. The book is a beautiful companion to both the movie and to a lesser degree, to the audio reissues. Published by Callaway, the book has some similar characteristics to the original Get Back book that came with the Let It Be album, released in the UK and Canada in 1970.
Like that book, also entitled Get Back, it features the photography of Linda McCartney and Ethan Russell and is somewhat of a follow-up to the iconic design by Kosh of the original Get Back. There are also three photographs by Terence Spencer in the new book, which did not appear in the original Get Back book.
The images are laid out in such a way that the photos with rounded corners were taken from film frames and the rest are from the photographers. It also features pages and pages of seemingly random dialog, directly from the film. Unlike the older book, it is an oversized, hardcover book. The book also features a more thoughtful and organized chronological layout, broken down into three acts: on the set at Twickenham, at the basement studio of Apple Records, and on the rooftop of Apple for the famous final concert, which reflect the three parts of the Peter Jackson film.
There is also a very personal foreword by Peter Jackson, and an introduction by novelist Hanif Kureishi, and the transcripts were edited by John Harris, who also wrote an afterword, entitled “What Happened Next.” Kureishi has written a moving and affectionate portrait of growing up in England in the ’60s and recalls the enormity of The Beatles’ influence on the world as well as on Kureishi himself and his Indian family living in England.
He pulls many threads together in grappling with the enormous cultural shadow The Beatles cast over the world in the 1960s and beyond, citing Gide, Jung, Darwin, Sontag and even Patricia Highsmith. Also included is a dramatis personae (which for some reason excludes Maureen Starkey, who is in the book and film as well as Mike McCartney, Pattie Harrison, Peter Brown, Alan Parsons, Chris Thomas, and Robert Fraser, who are all in the film).
As in the film, it’s great seeing so many of the people who were part of The Beatles story, not just as part of Get Back/Let It Be, but those who were with the group for years, such as the lovable Mal Evans, mysterious and loyal Neil Aspinall, patrician producer George Martin, the ever-engaging Derek Taylor, slick Dick James, head of Apple films Denis O’Dell, namechecked in “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” and, although excluded from the book, Peter Brown, who started out with Brian Epstein at the NEMS record store in Liverpool.
For those who have seen the Peter Jackson film, they may wonder why an entire additional section of the book could have been included. While many who are in the film dressed in the late-60s Modish British fashions of the day, no one in the film quite exuded such sartorial splendor as Glyn Johns. While there are plenty of photos of Johns in this book, he really deserves a section all to himself. Who knew the esteemed producer was such a fashion maven?
This book is also a nice companion to the Anthology from 1995 and the only other authorized book from The Beatles. Get Back is now part of the canon of books on The Beatles the serious fan of the group must have.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B
