11 Facts Even Hardcore Beatles Fans Learned from The Beatles: Get Back
Photo Courtesy of Disney+
Hardcore fans of The Beatles like to think they know everything about the band. Most have bootlegs of recording sessions, live shows, and bookshelves full of books documenting—sometimes to the hour—what any of them were doing personally and creatively during the group’s 10-year run.
Yet even those fans are hailing Peter’s Jackson’s new Disney+ exclusive docuseries, The Beatles: Get Back, which curates and culls down 50+ hours of footage from the Get Back sessions that reveals, from a fly on the wall perspective, when the creative magic was coming to a close in early 1969.
Even with anecdotal stories or their voices captured in the recording sessions bootlegs, the docuseries is the most contextual and revealing artifact to exist that expresses, in their own words and deeds, what was going wrong amongst the Fab Four. And because of that, the new knowledge gleaned for fans and music historians is nothing less than legendary.
Across the eight hours of footage, we observed and discovered some real mind-blowers that continue to refine our ideas about each of the men’s personalities, creative process and songwriting. Here are 11 of note:
1. “Carry That Weight” (which would eventually land on Abbey Road) started out as a comedic song.
Paul and the guys initially noodled the song out like a comedic ditty, with none of the epic sweep and scale it would become known for as part of a beloved medley.
2. Paul McCartney was a clothes horse with effortless style.
In those early days at Twickenham Film Studios, just about everyone but McCartney stumbled in like an unmade bed. But even with the hippy beard, Paul strode in every day with an array of amazingly tailored coats, jackets, and eventually vests. 10 out of 10 for effort.
3. “Get Back” was originally conceived as an anthem against White Nationalism.
With immigration conflict a hot bed of contention at the time in the U.K., the band wrote the song as protest against the racism of the day, including lyrics about Pakistanis and Puerto Ricans being told to “get back to where they once belonged.”
4. The band was living their best Paddington life.
All four men were giving off the purest Paddington vibes living off toast and marmalade for the majority of the sessions, and especially when they moved to the Apple office. Sure there were likely drugs being taken too, but the marmalade is mighty!