Let It Be (1970 film)
- The Beatles
- Billy Preston
- Mal Evans
- Michael Lindsay - Hogg
- George Martin
Let It Be is a documentary about the Beatles, who was directed by Michael Lindsay - Hogg in 1969 and was published in 1970. It shows the Beatles during rehearsals and studio work for a new album. The film received an Academy Award in 1971 for Best Film Music ( Original Song Score).
The title track was recorded by the Beatles during the recording sessions for the film on January 31, 1969. The song Let It Be was released on the same album. An alternate version of the song was released as a single.
Formation
After a decade of disputes between the musicians recording of the album The Beatles, the group was at the beginning of the year 1969 in a difficult phase. For Paul McCartney, who had become the driving force of the Beatles more and more after the death of manager Brian Epstein, a return to the artistic roots seemed to be a way out of the crisis. After the Beatles had worked only in the studio since 1966, McCartney wanted to make music with the Beatles "live". John Lennon showed little enthusiasm and George Harrison categorically refused to go back on tour, but was willing to participate in a film. From McCartney's idea to return to the origin of the Beatles, the title Get Back deduced that the film was initially.
On January 2, 1969, the Beatles movie went for the first time in London's Twickenham Studios to rehearse new songs for the concert in a live television show. These samples were also filmed. The disputes within the group, however, continued and on January 10, 1969, there was a scandal when George Harrison annoyed left the shooting, on the grounds of being constantly criticized by McCartney. After several days, Harrison returned, but the idea of performing live in front of a television audience, was dropped. To use the already filmed material anyway, it was decided instead to make a documentary that would show the Beatles at work on her new album.
On January 16, 1969 were the last recordings held in Twickenham. The Beatles felt the atmosphere of the film set as cold and artistically uninspiring and decided to work instead at their new studio in Savile Row resume 3. On January 22, 1969, the studio was poorly equipped with borrowed by the EMI studio equipment and the Beatles continued their rehearsals and recordings. They were supported from now by keyboardist Billy Preston, who put not only musically important accents, but whose presence also has a positive effect on the mood in the studio.
On January 26, 1969, decided to give a concert on the roof of the headquarters of Apple Corps. This was a compromise solution, because on the one hand, it was possible, but to realize the original concept of a live performance yet, on the other hand, the public was excluded from a direct encounter with the group. Four days later, all the necessary preparations were completed and the Beatles - again supported by Billy Preston - went to the roof and played during the approximately 40 -minute Rooftop Concerts some of the titles that they had worked out in advance. In the film, is about to see half of the show, as some songs were played several times and was selected in each case only one version, the - at that time - the title track Get Back occurs twice, and opening and closing of the concert. In between the title Do not Let Me Down, I've Got A Feeling, The One After 909 Dig A Pony and were played. In the film the reactions surprised passers-by and finally the completion of the concert by the London police are shown during a performance.
Although the film ends with the roof concert of 30 January, but the last scenes of the movie were filmed on 31 January 1969. In this final recording session titles were recorded, which were not suitable for the concert on the roof, as the piano pieces The Long And Winding Road and Let It Be, as well as the acoustic guitar piece Two of Us.
The Beatles were obviously glad when the work on this project were over. They left it to the producer Glyn Johns, to look after the completion of the album to the film, which eventually after many quarrels on 8 May 1970 as Let It Be was released.
The film was - as the album - only after the separation of the Beatles in the cinemas. In the U.S., the premiere was on May 13, 1970, a week later, on May 20, the premiere was in the British film theaters of London and Liverpool.
Reviews
" Wistful farewell to the leading beat band of the '60s, whose members perform in front of the camera mainly as a listless lone wolf. "
The film video
Shortly after the release as a VHS cassette in 1984 ( Warner Home Video), the film was again taken out of circulation. Supposedly George Harrison wanted to stop the spread of his clash with Paul McCartney. The DVD release was in 2002 by Neil Aspinall driven but in 2008 it was announced that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have objected to the publication. The record company Apple announced on 31 July 2008: "Neither Paul nor Ringo would especially be comfortable to issue a film about the Beatles, in which all go against each other's nerves. "