The Beatles' final gig, on the rooftop at Apple Corps, January 30th 1969.

I have the full 35mm print which I downloaded from t0rrents, this was taken from the BBC broadcast of the film in 1982.

uh...

Oh, does that not make sense then? idk, I'm just copying what is on the torrent site. As I understand it, it just means that I have a 1st gen copy from the BBC broadcast.

The full detailed explanation of which version is which, is here
http://wogew.blogspot.com/

Some highlights

1982: BBC2 shows Let It Be for the fourth and last time on May 8. 16mm version, mono.
1992: Original 16mm film restored by Ron Furmanek, remastered sound, stereo when available.
1997: VCI (UK) announces plans to release the 1992 restoration of the film on VHS. It doesn't happen.
2003: Original 16mm film plus outtakes restored by Bob Smeaton.
2003: Movie director Lindsay-Hogg says 2 DVDs with the film and outtakes ready for 2004.
2011: Original film and outtakes re-transferred again in higher resolution for future release.
2015: The last 34 minutes of Furmanek's unpublished 1992 restoration uploaded on YouTube
2015: Apple releases a collection of The Beatles' promotional films on Blu-ray and DVD. The material from "Let It Be" looks unrestored. This triggers speculation that Apple saves the restored version for a later stand-alone release.

Man, that final Beatles gig really was up there

They should transfer the whole thing right off a roof

Yeah, a 35mm print would be five or so individual reels of physical film in cans, weighing about 30kilos, that you would need two sound-insulated projectors and a theatre to watch. You definitely did not download that from a torrent.

It’s also insanely unlikely that the BBC were even TXing off a 35mm print. Your “first gen” copy is at best: 35mm -> telecined to 1” videotape -> broadcast reduced to 625 lines -> now in mono, not stereo -> recorded on home Betamax at 250 lines (or 240 for VHS) -> never ever played back by the user even once, for decades, until they converted it to digital -> probably also compressed for torrenting.

xposts obv, typing with one thumb while a cat sleeps on my other arm

Tell that cat to move over. Twice, if necessary.

leave my kitten alone

i'm not a beatles expert but the film has never been shown in its originally filmed (16mm) aspect ratio, right? it was cropped for 35mm and then cropped further from the 35mm for 4:3 broadcasts?

i might be interested in peter jackson's four-hour epic take on the story if he gets howard shore to record a ponderous and heavy-handed score, preferably replacing the shit the beatles actually played during these sessions

Lord of the Ringos

ugh Huffpost made same pun

I assumed the broadcast was 4:3, but didn’t mention cropping bcz I also strongly suspected it was from 16mm, which pisces’ list does indicate

but I also have no idea if the original edit was done at widescreen, or on 16mm elements & then recomposited for theatrical

finally someone is using their clout to let the world know about the beatles

Used to be, you'd have to go to a pizza place to hear them.

Apparently there was some Beatles tribute band recreating this just across the road from where I work, at lunch time.

In Liverpool or London? There was supposedly something in Liverpool One.

Some wag over on the Hoffman forums suggests a new happier Let It Be reminds them of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os6raCCmAFk

... sorry, London, on the roof of St Pancras Station, though I can't see any mention of it anywhere.

https://tucson.com/entertainment/music/tucson-bands-to-recreate-beatles-famous-and-final-london-rooftop/article_9935b3ec-7a4a-55eb-abb7-b046712f7968.html

It's crazy to me that the Simpsons barbershop quartet episode aired 24 years after the Beatles' rooftop gig, but it'll have aired 26 years ago this year.

Yeah that's a pretty crazy stat, that Simpsons ep feels like last week.

Interesting tidbit from Mark Lewisohn about the Twickenham footage.

@TheBeatles did it and now I’ve done it. An exhausting but exhilarating month’s work comes to an end. Finally I know how it was – and how I’ve been wrong in all my past writings. We’ve ALL had it wrong. Roll on Peter Jackson’s film and my Volume 3. #Twickenham #SavileRow #Jan69 pic.twitter.com/XhX2DrtCUU

— Mark Lewisohn (@marklewisohn) January 31, 2019

just put out Vol 2 already!

🎥 Peter Jackson has released an exclusive sneak peek of his upcoming documentary “@TheBeatles: Get Back” #TheBeatlesGetBack will open August 2021 with never seen before footage of the band during the recording sessions of ‘Let it Be’ in 1969! pic.twitter.com/nWwzeuHE8U

— sir paul mccartney 🎲 (@Page_SirPaul) December 21, 2020

The editing might overdo the "it was actually a happy time" but it's a nice video (if I mute it) and it LOOKS great.

Linda and Yoko just chattin’! Hard to believe this has all just been sat on a shelf for so long. Looks great.

eheh yeah, and Yoko SMILING during these sessions !

omg that cut straight thru my cynicism

Looks good, but I really hope the film includes the lengthy feedback excursion, accompanied by Yoko, that began after George left in a huff.

That McCartney power stance at the start of "Get Back" is quite something.

Marty Dibergi looking good!

omg that cut straight thru my cynicism

I could watch a full 36-hours of this stuff. Looks amazing. Mind you, I've always kind of been on Yoko's side and everything, but it is really fucking weird how she's just sitting there all the time. I always imagined that she was just watching in the control room or something - didn't realise she was literally on a chair at John's elbow while the band played.

John and Paul looking genuinely fond of each other! George smiling! A lot!

all done with CG knowing Jackson

I often grow weary of the large-looming Beatles legend, so it’s nice to short circuit all that and just watch them in action.

all done with CG knowing Jackson

― Number None

They haven't inserted the cave trolls yet.

This looks very enjoyable, though I don't really care about that album - if it was Abbey Road, on the other hand...

i mean, there are prob some abbey road tracks in the mix. "maxwell's silver hammer" and "octopus' garden" promintently featured in the let it be movie (maybe this is bad news for some people)

I always imagined that she was just watching in the control room or something - didn't realise she was literally on a chair at John's elbow while the band played.

And when she was recovering from a car accident, her hospital bed was brought into the studio during the Abbey Road sessions.

though now i'm waiting for some beatlehead itt to inform me those were the only abbey road tracks in the mix during the get back project, i don't actually know xp

The Let It Be sessions basically mutated into the Abbey Road sessions, to an extent.

echoing AlXTC, does make it seem a bit like the movie is going to be "The Making of Get Back: the Beatles' Happiest Most Wonderful Time" but still, always thrilled to see good quality footage of the excellent band the Beatles playing their very very good music.

xxp

Some of the anecdotes in Craig Brown's 150 Glimpses of The Beatles paint Yoko in somewhat creepy, stalker-ish light. Tony Bramwell describes her as a "little black-clad figure" who would show up uninvited at Kenwood throughout 1967 asking for John. After Cynthia would turn her away, Yoko would seem to be leaving. But hours later Cynthia would look again and Yoko would still be at the end of the drive staring longingly at the house. *queue Hammer soundtrack*

Well yeah that sounds like someone in love, to me.

The teaser was fun. It's telling that most of the fun footage comes from the Apple Studio sessions. If you listen only to the Twickenham sessions, everything negative about the Get Back sessions seems to be true, but the change in scenery helped immensely - getting the hell of the Twickenham was the first thing they agreed on when they got their shit back together.

Right. Maybe that's why he went through all those contortions- not a trailer, not an excerpt, etc.

God, that green suit of Ringo's at 5:26..."If I had a million dollars (if I had a million dollars), well I'd buy you a green suit (but not a real green suit, that's cruel)"--actually, it looks pretty great.

Billy Preston is a very suave presence.

Love Ringo's red polka dot shirt, too!

John and Paul are kind of a classic duo consisting of one person who revels in being a confrontational jerk but who is also charming and amusing much of the time, and another person who wants to be seen as nice or "nice" but is all too often overbearing, manipulative insufferable, etc./PopPsych101

lol you wanna George staring daggers in the modern era? Check out his response to Paul's request (order?) to play "Blue Moon of Kentucky" ("The short version"). Paul's relentless cuteness gets to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wrgrm1eabI

Yeah, was gonna mention that one

I posted this in another Beatles thread, but whenever Paul starts talking during those group interviews in Anthology, George gets this look on his face like, “Ugh, this fucking guy.” If a camera or mic was on Paul, his Performing Persona took over, which George had no use for: “I’ve known you since you were 14, and I can tell when you’re bullshitting.”

One thing I love about that clip, though, is that they’re all, George included, enjoying it, but you get the sense that George just wants to hang out and play without the cameras, and without it being THE REUNITED BEATLES. He might’ve had a blast just swapping tunes and stories without the pressure of it being a heavy Beatle moment.

(Also, when Ringo goes into half time on “Raunchy,” it suddenly sounds more Beatle-y.)

Christ the Anthology era sucked so hard.

Christ: the Anthology <---- the perfect Christmas gift

Too bad Neil Innes and Eric Idle had a falling out before they finished it.

I heard somewhere, maybe from my Beatles nut friend, that the Anthology in the end was designed to be an easy, equitable way to get a heap of money to "the principals" (as I think they were collectively termed). So it served its purpose by, say, making Pete Best a millionaire.

Have I related, or posted anywhere, about the Beatles reunion story I read via the Edge's storied guitar tech, Dallas Schoo? This is the key bit:

There was the time in 1995 when Steve Miller invited him to his home studio in Idaho to service his guitar collection. Miller then warned him: He had some people coming to use his studio and Schoo had to promise to not freak out. Schoo rolled his eyes; he had seen it all.

Two days later, a fleet of SUVs pulled up and out get Paul and Linda McCartney, Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach, George and Olivia Harrison, and Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. They were there to mix “Free As A Bird,” the final new Beatles music that was made using a John Lennon demo tape of an unrecorded song, and they asked Schoo to maintain their guitars.

Schoo freaked out.

At one point, McCartney leaned over to Schoo during a break and struck up a conversation.

“So you’re with that U2?”

“Yes, yes, sir, I am.”

“That’s meant to be a big deal, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“But they didn’t change the world did they?”

Schoo erupts in laughter. “Then he looked at Harrison and said, ‘If it wasn’t for us, you’d still be walking around in Buddy Holly glasses.’ That story I’ve taken all over the world, man, and Paul and I have remained friends to this day.”

The bonus story I heard came from my friend's cousin, an esteemed producer in Nashville. Apparently he was in a session when he got a whispered furtive phone call from Dallas.

"Hey, man, it's Dallas. Do you hear this?" He holds up the phone to let him hear muffled music. "That's the fuckin' Beatles, man!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L-PUCx6PzA

Sorry, your story is better.

it's too bad paul didn't finish by excoriating chris for the lame and deeply unfunny sin of reading off of CUE CARDS

Heh, is that a reference to Zappa? #OneThread

ja

Having been thru a separation, if someone had asked me how to edit footage of the last year of my marriage while it was ending I would have chosen the material which showed the reasons for separation. As a grieving and justification process.

yeah but they did that already. in another fifty-one years, you might be ready to look at some photos of the kinder moments in your latter times.

I heard somewhere, maybe from my Beatles nut friend, that the Anthology in the end was designed to be an easy, equitable way to get a heap of money to "the principals" (as I think they were collectively termed). So it served its purpose by, say, making Pete Best a millionaire.

George was open about doing the Anthology stuff because his manager had stolen all his money via HandMade, and fucked off to an island. (The year of Anthology, Harrison sued O'Brien for £16 million, only won £6.7 million, but continued to actually lose more money suing him in bankruptcy court.)

yeah but they did that already. in another fifty-one years, you might be ready to look at some photos of the kinder moments in your latter times.
For sure, which is why I offered it to explain the difference between LiB and this film.

ah!