The “Get Back” Album

Though the Beatles were mentally worn out after the fractured White Album sessions, Paul pushed the idea of immediately making a back-to-basics LP, being filmed along the way and showing development of songs from conception to live performance. Kind of a predecessor to reality TV, if you will. Sites considered for a live gig included an ocean liner in the Atlantic and even the Colosseum in Rome. The others weren’t overly enthused about the concept, which had the working title “Get Back.” They had the mindset, “If we must, we must. Let’s get on with it.” Sessions began on this date and lasted all of January 1969. Hours of film and tape were made at the Twickenham movie studio - usually mindless jamming, snippets of older songs, and even more bickering than the White Album. Things deteriorated to where George Harrison walked out for almost a week. He returned on the condition that rehearsals be moved to the basement of Apple Records. Billy Preston was brought in as a calming force, which mostly succeeded. They all knew Billy from Little Richard’s band when they crossed paths back in the Hamburg days. The culmination was performing some new songs January 30th on the Apple rooftop, which brought central London to a screeching halt until police stopped the show.

Glyn Johns was given the unenviable task of making sense of it all for an album. He assembled a running order twice, before and after “Abbey Road.” Although a cover photo was taken, etc., the band rejected both finished products, so in March 1970 Phil Spector was brought in. When you have to call Phil Spector to clean up the mess, you have a complete mess. He fixed it, but did it his way without knowledge or consent of McCartney or George Martin. Phil’s remixes and additions to “Let It Be” and “The Long And Winding Road” really struck a raw nerve with Paul. Add the discord about McCartney’s solo LP, finances and who was to run their business affairs, and that was the last straw. The album wasn’t released until May 1970, but the world’s greatest rock band disintegrated before our eyes a month earlier.