Let It Be | Page 6 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Lots of interesting glimpses into the Beatles individually and together in various scenes “backstage” while rehearsing, etc.

Some scenes or moments I remember that stuck in my mind:

1) Everyone’s just sitting around in some room casually, in between recording, and Paul is talking to John, and Paul is going on — and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on — expressing something I can’t remember (probably something about the band’s direction) and frankly not all that interesting, all the while John is patiently listening and nodding his head. 

2) Paul along with George and Ringo (John absent at that point) rehearsing “The Long And Winding Road ” in a comical way with the tempo speeded up — you can tell George and Ringo are enjoying this way of poking fun at the song, then Paul at a certain point stops the fun and says (to paraphrase): “Okay, laddies, let’s get serious now…!”  It was like George and Ringo were having TOO much fun, at Paul’s expense…

3) Paul is rehearsing some song with George (can’t remember which one) and Paul is stopping George about 100 times, telling him over and over again that he’s not QUITE doing a certain guitar lick right — all the while George is patiently listening and trying to do it right.  Hmmm… seeds of future resentments…?

4) Paul (with Linda and their little daughter in tow) arrives in London a bit late in the morning at the studio where everybody is already sitting around waiting and talking.  Paul immediately goes all around the room, individually saying hello to everyone.  I thought that was interesting that he would be so consciously social like that, rather than just waving his hand and saying hello to everyone in a general way.  Meanwhile, his little daughter (Mary?) has crawled over to where Ringo is sitting at a drumset, and Ringo has picked her up and is letting her play with the cymbals (I think she’s even holding a stick).  A little later, she has crawled elsewhere, and we see Paul and the little girl having a moment together, sort of playfully and intimately just having nonsensical fun.  Then Paul needed to get serious because it was time to start getting everyone together for rehearsals — and what I found fascinating is that all Paul had to do was subtly change his demeanor and the little girl instantly recognized that she had to behave and quiet down now.

5) Paul and the other three taking a break from the normal list of songs to do a rendition of “Besame Mucho ” with Paul affecting a comically operatic voice — and quite good.

6) Their rehearsal of “Two Of Us ” which — by the unspoken warmth and looks between John and Paul made me think that song was always about the two of them and their friendship (only recently I’ve heard here at BB that the song is supposed to be about Paul and Linda?).

Anyway, some of the details in my memory as recounted above may be inaccurate — I’ve been known to misremember the past before…!

Ah, Heather… thanks AppleScruffJunior.  That George shock video is funny — I have a feeling that the second time he’s shocked he wasn’t really shocked, but he had that spasm of flinching only because of the sudden feedback sound making him think it happened again, because he was already obviously spooked about being shocked the first time.