Beatles' Let It Be (33 1/3) Read Online Free Page A

backing track, with only Paul’s vocal live, a careful listen reveals traces of the other Beatles’ vocals. It was technically the first time since the group’s last official concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, on August 29, 1966, that the Beatles would be performing in front of a live audience. It was film producer Denis O’Dell’s idea to have the group “perform” at Twickenham with a small invited audience. O’Dell recalled thinking, “IfI could only get these guys together with an audience, to do it would be wonderful.”
    O’Dell was a producer on
A Hard Day’s Night, Magical Mystery Tour,
Richard Lester’s
How I Won The War—
which starred John Lennon—and later, although not credited, on
Let It Be.
He also served as the producer of
The Magic Christian,
which starred Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr and which began filming in February 1969, also at Twickenham.
    The studio audience, picked up by bus and taken to the filming, was recruited by the Beatles’ personal assistant Mal Evans from a group of fans hanging around Abbey Road Studios. Leaflets distributed by students brought more people in, and some invited guests also attended.
    The Beatles ran through three complete takes of the song for the film cameras. The clip that was eventually used included the first half from take one, presumably the second take, and the last half of what was most likely the third take. It was also O’Dell’s idea to have the audience crowd around the group as the song moved toward its joyous climax; the few who were lucky enough to climb onto Ringo’s drum riser were at times teetering on the edge of falling. The sense that things were somewhat out of control and that the wall between the group and its audience was crumbling, as had occurred at a previous live concert, matched the joyously optimisticmood of the song. The group arrived in the early afternoon and, according to O’Dell, the filming didn’t end until nearly 4 a.m.
    One would think that the filming might have drained the Beatles and might even have reminded them of why they had stopped performing live in the first place. Actually, it had just the opposite effect. O’Dell recalled the group sitting around in those near-dawn hours having scotch-and-cokes. While he thought the idea of getting them to perform in a somewhat live situation would make for an interesting promotional clip, he had no idea what the group would say to him as the sun began to rise over London. O’Dell remarked, “Collectively they said, ‘Denis this was a great evening. Now we must talk about doing a big show together.’” O’Dell recalled that in particular John Lennon was the most interested in the idea.
    Michael Lindsay-Hogg concurs that it was the filming of the “Hey Jude” clip that was the catalyst for
Let It Be.
“They were jamming and having a good time and having a better time than they thought they were going to have. So they sort of thought maybe there is some way they can do something again in some sort of performance way.”
    While it has generally been thought that the Beatles began the “Get Back” sessions as a way to “get back” to their roots and to erase the fractured mood of thesessions for
The White Album,
it’s not entirely true. It was mostly down to the good feelings from the semilive performance for the filming of the “Hey Jude” clip.
    It was at this point that the idea for the Beatles to do a live concert, which would be filmed for a television special, was first considered. The band would begin filming rehearsals for the proposed concert back at Twickenham.

Chapter Two
Everybody Had A Hard Year
    The Beatles entered 1969 in a period of flux and they would see major changes in their lives—both personal and professional—in the months ahead.
    George Harrison and his wife Pattie, whom he married in January 1966, were living in a bungalow called Kinfauns on the Claremont Estate in Esher, Surrey. Harrison had bought the bungalow in