"Get Back": Worth the Trip?
The workhorse was Paul
I’m a Beatles fan and I have a lot of free time,1 so I actually binged all 753 hours of The Beatles: Get Back on Disney+ over the holiday weekend. My brain is numb after watching the burnt-out Fab Four bicker and sulk for hours at a time, but here are a few scattered observations…
Paul was the driving force of the band and I owe him an apology
Get Back documents the state of the band in January 1969, barely five years after their American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. Within half a decade, the lads had already seen and done more crazy $#!+ than most of us will experience in a lifetime, and they just looked tired.
But the biggest band in the world didn’t rest on their laurels. Or at least Paul didn’t:
“Get Back” wasn’t, and then it was. And it happened on an ordinary Tuesday morning, while George and Ringo sat there looking bored or stoned or both, because Paul was tired of waiting for John and his appendage to show up for rehearsal.
I used to think Paul was just a sap and John was the best one, but over time I’ve grown to appreciate Paul’s creativity and range. The man who wrote “Yesterday” also wrote “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” The author of “The Long and Winding Road”2 also whipped up “Get Back.” He’s still a sap, but he rocks when he wants to. And without his constant drive to create, those guys might still be sitting around trying to write an album. (Sorry, George fans, but you know it’s true.)
Paul also wrote the greatest Christmas song ever, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.
I won’t even say her name
What the hell was she doing there? The whole time. The entire freaking time.