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Get Back Documentary
Am I the only one who has seen all six hours plus of the Beatles’ Get Back documentary of the lads and their making of the Let It Be album like 100 times?
I can’t get enough of watching genius at work. Probably another reason I love watching Mona and Lisa so much! It’s like watching Beethoven compose symphonies.
Also, I remember seeing a video of the Beatles road manager Mal Evans discussing the origins of the Let It Be song. Mal said Paul told him Paul had a dream where Mal was saying to Paul “Let It Be”. I seem to also recall Mal saying the original lyric was “Mother Malcolm comes to me”, but Paul changed it to Paul’s mother’s name.
I’ve seen interviews with Paul saying he had a dream about his mother, but I’ve never heard more about Mal Evans’ version. Anybody else ever heard or seen anything about that?
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8 Replies
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Hi Frank
I remember in 2017 when I discovered MLT and saw their video where they said it was time to take a hiatus from live performing, at the end of their 2 years residency at the Cavern Club, and go into the studio and create new music, I saw parallels to the Beatles and later Brian Wilson going into the studio to focus on a new chapter of their careers to write inspired music that started with Rubber Soul. For me the Beatles and Mona and Lisa are like seeing a modern day Beethoven compose a symphony as you said.
I haven’t yet seen the Get Back documentary only because I am stuck on Netflix, and it doesn’t have that documentary yet. I have seen many hours of Beach Boys and Beatles clips in the studio that I enjoyed very much over the years. In my teens when I discovered the Beach Boys, I was fascinated by the creative rivalry between Brian Wilson and the Beatles and the whole Pet Sounds vs Sgt Peppers discussion, both albums were rated #2 and #1 respectively for decades in the Rolling Stones Greatest Album of all Time list. When I discovered album Orange, I saw parallels there too with Pet Sounds and Sgt Peppers. I wrote a lengthy post in the “Orange Dream” blog here in 2017 about this.
I saw Paul talk about Let It Be and how he went to the piano to start composing it after he awoke from a dream where he saw his mother. I never heard the story behind the original Mother Malcolm version, and would be interested to hear it too if anyone knows.
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Frank
I liked this clip with Rick Rubin where Paul talks about making music and Bach.
“Our favourite composer was Bach in the Beatles, because he was nearest to what we were doing. Just put a beat behind it.”
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Hi Jung,
Paul actually sings “brother Malcolm” in this Let It Be take.
https://youtu.be/THGB8hUHX_A?si=slusvxfrO4AvPUw9
I wish I could find the interview with Mal Evans when he talked about Paul explaining his dream.
So cool seeing genius at work. I’ve emailed the girls about making a Get Back type video of their process. I’m amazed how heavenly they harmonize. And I so enjoy their guitar skills…
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Hi Frank
Yeah I would love to see a behind the scenes mini documentary of MLT in the studio creating their music. If there were some video clips of Jump Ship or WHY?, that would be awesome. As MLT’s music get more complex like these songs, it would be a treat to see their craft in action, creative juices flowing, discussions going on between, Mona, Lisa and Papa Rudi as they piece their music together.
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The Mal Evans account comes from the 1975 “David Frost Salutes the Beatles” TV movie. Here’s what Mal says:
“Paul was meditating one day and I came to him in a vision, and I was just standing there saying, ‘Let it be, let it be.’ And that’s where the song came from. And it’s funny, because we were going home from a session one night, and it was three o’clock in the morning, raining, dark in London, and Paul was telling me this you know, saying like, ‘I’ve written this song,’ and he told me the instant. And he said, ‘The song was going to be “Brother Malcolm”, but I’d better change “Brother Malcolm” in case people get the wrong idea.'”
The earliest recorded run through of “Let it Be” (September 5, 1968, during the White Album sessions) has “Brother Malcolm.”
The song only really starts to take shape in the January Get Back sessions, but it’s interesting to note that Paul still sings “Brother Malcolm” off and on through January 31st, the final day of the sessions, and the day that produced Take 27A, which was the take used for both the single and album versions.
With no disrespect to Sir Paul, interviews from closer to the events in question sometimes differ from some of his more contemporary recollections. I can’t blame him; he’s one of the most interviewed people alive, and he has a tendency to revert to a couple of tried-and-true canned anecdotes when he’s asked the same questions over and over again.
The “Yesterday/Scrambled Eggs” story, the bit about John lowering his glasses and saying, “It’s only me,” in the middle of an argument, and Mother Mary telling him to “let it be” in a dream have probably featured in dozens or hundreds of interviews from the early 90s to the present.
I suspect he’s conflating an event or two, and “Mother Mary” makes a more compelling story than “Brother Malcolm,” but if that’s how he remembers it, who am I to argue?
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Thanks Dan for this excellent summary.
I am in no position to critique Paul’s or anyone else’s memory – and I totally agree it makes a much better story.
Have you seen the GettBack documentary?
It was amazing watching Paul work through Let It Be and The Long and Winding Road
And he was rocking last nigh in Adelaide Australia where our dear girls did study abroad – 55 years later!!!
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I absolutely loved the Get Back documentary, and I, too, have watched it several times. As someone born a couple of decades too late to experience the 60s, it was magical for me to see the Beatles being (mostly) themselves, in living color, so to speak.
And they were so young–during filming, John and Ringo were 28, Paul was 26, and George was just 25. Truly incredible.
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I think there are some huge hidden revelations in there that historians will take years to sort out. I read a book of semi-transcripts from the sessions years ago, but I didn’t recall the stunning “Yoko sat on an amp” speech. Wow. (Will we be “talking about this fifty years from now’? Yes!). The biggest, to me, is the hidden mic’ flower-pot (?) conversation between Lennon and McCartney, in which John calls Paul the Beatles’ arranger, and apparently solves the mystery around the “She Said She Said” argument.
And although the facts have been out there, it makes it all so much more understandable to see in context what a vague project it was, with a constantly moving target. A live television show of White Album songs; a live performance in an exotic setting; a new album recorded live; a whole new album with no overdubs (and only two new Lennon songs). All in a month. No, two weeks!
For the TV special, George strums a bit of “Every Little Thing” and says “Can we ‘ave that?” Wouldn’t that have been something?
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