The Beatles: Get Back – Blu-ray Collector’s Set [Region

If you’re a Beatles fan then is a must have. You are a fly on the wall at the time when the end of the group was in sight and for me personally I learnt that George Harrison walked out of the group and it took considerable persuasion by the other three to get him to return. A facinating and compelling watch.

Its good to see them goofing off and there are some nice highlights such as Paul coming up with get back from nothing. There is a suggestion that Peter Jackson left out footage that shows the full extent of yoko’s interference in meetings and the like. We’ll never know unless they release all 50+ hrs of footage

For the lay person, a fascinating documentary about the Beatles and London in 1969, but for a Beatles fan an important window into one of their most misunderstood periods. A great documentary on all levels and a technological marvel…. but could have done with more extras and perhaps a look under the hood as to how this amazing slice of Beatles history was recovered.

Pictures quality is very heavily processed.
So often looks blurred/out of focus.
Soundwise it’s solid.
Disney keep the best for streaming as per usual.
Recommend for fans only really.

What happens when you review something from watching it on the telly and before it’s actually available? You make yourself look silly.

I can’t believe there are people whinging about this. We were all hoping the ‘Let It Be’ film would eventually be released on DVD but Apple surprised us all by turning it into something more than sumptuous. Nearly eight hours of rich footage to fulfil us and some are still not satisfied. Anyway, we can forget all those misery guts and concentrate on what’s here for our delectation. (And for those clamouring for ‘Let It Be’ to be released, I’m sure those 90 minutes are all included here.)

Coming in a slip case, that is a tad difficult to remove, the book style trio of CDs is presented in three parts with obvious breaks (Twickenham, Apple Studios and Rooftop) and shows how much more they were at home at Saville Row than the cold, empty vastness of a film studio. It’s also apparent that Ringo does seem a bit bored at times, not having as much screen time and far less dialogue than the others. However, what it does show is how he, and the other three, and you’ll notice this very early in proceedings, concentrate on following the one whose song it is by seemingly staring at him whilst trying to follow what he’s doing. I guess that’s how it worked for them.

Yes there may be lots of sitting around and talking but when Paul starts strumming his bass and George joins in, despite appearing to meander aimlessly, it eventually turns into a nascent ‘Get Back’. The inception of a classic before our very eyes. And there’s the thing about the songs. Mr Harrison turns up one morning having written ‘I Me Mine’ around a television show about dancing he saw the night before. Not an instrument associated with him, he also performs admirably on piano on ‘Old Brown Shoe’. Even Ringo tinkles the ivories on “the octopus one” when demonstrating it to George, who chucks in his own ideas seconds after hearing it. What you need to bear in mind is that most of what’s here is the group rehearsing and there are no full songs before the ‘rooftop show’. Though it was available on the Beatles’ own website, it’s a pity the director didn’t include the ‘rooftop’ segment without the cutaways to the public in the street.

As for the songs mentioned in the credits, it references a lot of Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starr compositions, of which some, viz. ‘Too Bad About Sorrows’, ‘I Fancy My Chances’, ‘Thinking Of Linking’, ‘Just Fun’ and ‘I Lost My Little Girl’, for example, will be familiar to die-hard fans, but none of us will know about the remaining ones such as ‘Song Of Love’, ‘Cupcake Baby’, ‘My Imagination’, ‘You Wear Your Women Out’ and many others. Okay, these very brief snippets of music (and some barely there ‘made-up-on-the-spot’ vocals) have probably been given titles as they could hardly have all been called ‘Improvisation’, but then again, maybe they really did exist, such is the minefield that is music copyright. Mind you, ‘Freakout Jam (featuring Yoko Ono)’ should have been taken further and eventually issued.

Having watched this, you’ll ask yourself whether these sessions really were as bad as we were first led to believe. Okay, George left for a few days but what we see here isn’t the oft peddled disintegration of the group. It couldn’t have been that bad, as they did go on to record ‘Abbey Road’ later in the year, though many of the songs on that were premiered here. Then again, maybe all the nasty stuff was left out so as not to sully their image.

Whilst the packaging is a bit disappointing, as it would have been nice to have something included to read, after years of ‘will it’ ‘won’t it’ speculation, I, for one, am pleased we can now have this. Okay, this won’t really appeal to the casual buyer, but we all know the legion of die-hard fans will. And that means you! Oh, and you get four postcard size photos of the Fabs.