{"id":21057,"date":"2024-05-22T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=21057"},"modified":"2024-05-21T17:38:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T16:38:07","slug":"there-will-be-an-answer-let-it-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2024\/05\/22\/there-will-be-an-answer-let-it-be\/","title":{"rendered":"there will be an answer: LET IT BE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

there will be an answer: LET IT BE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a plea from The Beatles?  asks Norman Warwick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To celebrate May\u00b4s exclusive, restored release of the documentary LET IT BE on Disney+, Paste On Line spoke with the legendary director about the film and its unearthing after more than 40 years of dormancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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54 years ago on May 13th, 1970, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg\u2019s (shown left with roof top Beatles) <\/em><\/strong>feature documentary\u00a0Let It Be<\/em>\u00a0had its world premiere in New York City. Despite being one of the most covered bands in history,\u00a0Let It Be<\/em>\u00a0was the first film to document and reveal the Beatles\u2019 behind-the-scenes process of writing and recording their songs. The compositions, captured over one month in early 1969, would end up on\u00a0Abbey Road<\/em>\u00a0and what would be their last studio album,\u00a0Let It Be<\/em>. At any other time in the band\u2019s meteoric run,\u00a0Let It Be<\/em>\u00a0would have been cause for pure celebration\u2014except the release came less than a month after on-going band-mate friction resulted in Paul McCartney announcing his formal separation from the band and the Beatles\u2019 dissolution. So,\u00a0Let It Be<\/em>\u00a0landed more like a funeral dirge for critics and fans to pick apart in divining why the band was no more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the film winning an Academy Award for Best Original Score (or, Original Song Score, as it was once known), Let It Be<\/em> basically disappeared from the zeitgeist\u2014until it received a muddy VHS and laserdisc release in 1981. For the next four decades, Beatles fans had to pass around their terrible dubs of that print until Peter Jackson shocked the world in 2021 with his pristine restoration<\/a> of Lindsay-Hogg\u2019s footage remixed into the heralded three-part miniseries, The Beatles: Get Back<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson got the approval of McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison to edit the material into a much broader contextual tapestry of the final creative days of the band. The restoration literally produced a brighter and more thorough perspective of their complex dynamics\u2014and it also opened the door for today\u2019s re-release of Let It Be<\/em>, featuring Jackson\u2019s restored footage and pristine mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell. Now, historians, critics and fans alike will get to assess the film anew and discover its merits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After a diverse 50-year career in the arts as a director for television, theater and film, Sir Michael Lindsay-Hogg (now 84) says that he\u2019s glad to see Let It Be<\/em> getting a second life so many years after its release. \u201cIt does feel like it\u2019s time,\u201d he explains of the doc\u2019s 40-years in repose. \u201cI never would have thought it would take so much time. I never thought in 1974, when it was off the market, that it would be 50 years which is a long time for it to come out again. We\u2019re two generations down the line, so people can be seeing it now, who were not even born in the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can remember that fans were becoming increasingly aware that all was not well in The Beatles at the time, but very few of us ever feared that the band would split up. Now of course I look back on the lyrics of Let It Be as being something more than the quasi-religious, cemi gospel song that it was. Today I read it, or at least interpret it in open reading, as a plea to not \u00b4murder to dissect\u00b4as Wordsworth would have had it.\u00a0 Perhaps Let it Be can now be heard\u00a0 as The Beatles\u00b4 plea to let their work speak for itself?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post-Let It Be<\/em>, Lindsay-Hogg\u2019s short-format directing of music promos helped lay the groundwork for the music video era. He made his mark working with the Rolling Stones, Elton John and even reuniting with Paul McCartney to make music videos for his post-Beatles band, Wings. Through that on-going friendship, the director admits he often asked McCartney about getting Let It Be<\/em> released from limbo. \u201cMainly, Paul and I talked a lot about it over the years. I sometimes think if he hadn\u2019t seen me for a while, he might back away from me like he knew I\u2019d be asking, \u2018What\u2019s gonna happen with Let It Be<\/em>?\u2019\u201d he jokes about his obstinance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those conversations, Lindsay-Hogg says the reasons for the doc\u2019s dormancy, from the Beatles\u2019 corporate entity, Apple Corps Ltd., changed often. However, he debunks the particular theory that it was any specific band member who nixed its release. \u201cOne of the big reasons is that it was taken off the market for disagreement about music rights, regarding who owned the music rights to the VHS versus the movie studio rights versus EMI,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Known as promotional videos, Lindsay-Hogg says they were the next evolution of the French-created Scopitone videos, which were found in quarter-fed players (think visual jukeboxes) in bars around the world. \u201cThey were mainly French artists and they\u2019d wear very, very garish colors,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cEveryone is dressed in pink and lime green. They were cute little things. But that was the first [music] video that I\u2019d ever seen.\u201d The promotional videos allowed bands to fill in the gap between tours, or expand artistically outside of the television performance shows that were very stage focused. \u201cThe only bands who could afford the videos, in England anyway, were the Beatles and the Rolling Stones,\u201d Lindsay-Hogg continues. \u201cThey could afford them not only financially\u2014they weren\u2019t expensive\u2014but they could afford to tell the television shows that if you want us, you play the video. The TV shows were not only in England, but they\u2019d be in France, they\u2019d be in Spain, so therefore, they didn\u2019t have to travel anymore to France, Spain or Australia because of videos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lindsay-Hogg says the Beatles stopped touring in 1966 and then became innovators in the medium, working with director Joe McGrath on promo videos for songs like \u201cHelp\u201d and \u201cWe Can Work It Out,\u201d amongst others. As a director during that early era of music video creativity, Lindsay-Hogg says he was particularly proud of \u201cAngie\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s Only Rock and Roll,\u201d both of which he directed for the Rolling Stones, and \u201cHey Jude\u201d for the Beatles. \u201cThat one added an audience at the end,\u201d he says of the Beatles\u2019\u2014and McCartney\u2019s\u2014opus. \u201cThe influence of it is what became Let It Be<\/em>, because Paul thought they should play to an audience again and that they shouldn\u2019t be too much in their ivory tower. During the breaks when we were shooting \u2018Hey Jude,\u2019 the [band] had nothing else to do but play to the crowd which we got to be in the video. So they thought, \u2018Maybe we can do it again,\u2019 which is what gave [Paul] the idea to do a concert. And when that fell apart, that\u2019s what turned into the documentary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of Lindsay-Hogg\u2019s career, his C.V. was stacked with concert films he directed that remain all-timers in the genre. From The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus<\/em> to Simon and Garfunkel\u2019s The Concert in Central Park<\/em>, he was there to capture landmark events in the lifespans of many legendary musical acts. Asked where Let It Be<\/em> ranks in retrospect, Lindsay-Hogg says it remains a \u201cvery strange project\u201d because of how it evolved from a concert to a television special to eventually a documentary feature. \u201cIt turned into a documentary pretty much overnight and a documentary is very different\u2014because the product you end up with is going to be totally different,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be a one shot concert. It\u2019s going to have a lot of aspects of behavior, making music and doing all those things together, so that gave me a little bit of pause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlso, because I realized that no one had ever shot the Beatles rehearsing,\u201d he continues. \u201cYou have this extraordinary group of four musicians, and except for bits and pieces, no one ever shot them rehearsing. And so I thought, this is a kind of responsibility I have because of who they are. If I can show how they create their songs, and what a struggle it is, or how easy it is, that\u2019s part of what people would be interested in.\u201d However, once the documentary format was finally agreed upon by the band, Lindsay-Hogg knew that just rehearsal footage strung together wasn\u2019t going to be a satisfying film. \u201cIt would have no payoff,\u201d he points out. \u201cSo, we talked about various concert ideas we had, and none of them were quite right. There needed to be some kind of playing music conclusion to the movie. There was something complete about [playing] complete songs, not rehearsed items anymore. And I woke up one morning, and I thought, \u2018Well, what about the roof?\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he posed that to the band that day at lunch, Lindsay-Hogg says they were confused. \u201cPaul said, \u2018Do what on the roof?\u2019 And I said, \u2018A concert on the roof,\u2019\u201d he explains. \u201cAlthough they didn\u2019t all agree they were going to do the roof [concert] until after we were supposed to be<\/em> on the roof, it all took place pretty quickly in about four or five days.\u201d While the Let It Be<\/em> documentary languished in canisters for decades, the rooftop concert that ended the film took on a life of its own\u2014as not only a seminal performance for the band, but their last public concert together. Aesthetically, too, that whole section of the film went on to influence countless bands and concert films for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom my point of view, I had to figure out how to shoot it,\u201d Lindsay-Hogg says, looking back at the concert section. \u201cLike, how many cameras would be on the roof? And how I\u2019d be sure they all were pointing in the right direction because we didn\u2019t have ear phones for communication. We had hand signals. And also thinking, what\u2019s the effect of this going to be on the rest of the world down on the street? I wanted the music to be louder than it was so it would go to Regent Street and Oxford Street, and we\u2019d get all of London. But the technical people were afraid of getting it all back on the mics. And, it was a windy day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the most memorable scenes in the sequence is cinema verite footage cut into the concert of the gathering onlookers, and eventually the police who arrived to shut it all down. Lindsay-Hogg says all of that came out of brainstorming what was likely to happen on the day, and then being prepared for it. \u201cBecause it\u2019s a conservative area on Savile Row, mainly with high end men\u2019s tailors, there might be a complaint from the people in the shops,\u201d he remembers thinking. \u201cA complaint might mean that the police would come for disrupting business. And if the police come, then what do I have to do? We were going to stall the police if they came, but then they\u2019d be standing around in the lobby of the building. So, I built a little hut in the lobby with a two-way mirror so I\u2019d have a camera back there which the police would just think was a mirror. You had to think about it all as we knew it was going to be one shot only.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going back to its production, Lindsay-Hogg says\u00a0Let It Be<\/em>\u00a0was always a film beset with unexpected disappearances. He couldn\u2019t even get daily footage to review in a timely fashion. \u201cFunnily enough, it took a long time to see [footage] because we were having sync problems,\u201d he says. \u201cIt took like, six weeks before it was synced up.\u201d When he did review everything, he still remembers his initial impressions. \u201cI felt that on the roof, they were wonderful,\u201d he continues. \u201cIt reminded them of what it was really like to be a great rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band. When we went downstairs after it was over and everyone had a cup of tea, they were very excited. They felt they\u2019d done something. They hadn\u2019t toured for three years and there was a discussion in the group room, would they ever tour again? Would they just make music? You had a sense that they felt, whether they\u2019d do it again, no one knew, and they didn\u2019t as it turned out. But they felt this time had been great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Jackson\u2019s restoration, Lindsay-Hogg says it was decades until he even saw a copy of Let It Be<\/em> again. \u201cI had a copy from Apple, watermarked probably in 2012,\u201d he shares. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t a good copy. It had no vibrancy to it. And one of the things that I feel good about with how Let It Be<\/em> looks now is that it\u2019s just a very vibrant movie. I don\u2019t mean visually it\u2019s vibrant. I mean, it\u2019s vibrant emotionally. And that\u2019s why I kept being the nudge of all time,\u201d he laughs about his pestering for its release. \u201c\u2018Oh, God, here comes Michael again! Let\u2019s hide!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, if that were true, it might support my own feelings at the time that although the lyrics of the single Let It Be seemed cemi spiritual and personal and also quasi religious, perhaps the phrase, Let It Be, was actually a request from The Beatles to fans and media alike not to \u00b4murder to dissect\u00b4 as Wordsworth put it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had my generation and our media not been so intrusive then, John, Paul, George and Ringo might have been able to resolve their issues in peace and quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

the lyrics of the single Let It Be seemed cemi spiritual and personal and also quasi religious, perhaps the phrase, Let It Be, was actually a request from The Beatles to fans and media alike not to \u00b4murder to dissect\u00b4 as Wordsworth put it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,45,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cinema","category-music","category-performing-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21057"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21180,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21057\/revisions\/21180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}