Music lovers (many if not most of them of a certain age) have been talking about nothing but the new documentary The Beatles: Get Back, focusing on The Beatles as they record their Let It Be album. Filmmaker Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings trilogy) took 60-hours of never-before-seen footage and 150 hours of audio from the vaults, all recorded for Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s documentary (also called Let It Be) documenting the recording of the album and the beginning of the end of the band. From the footage, which took a team of four people four years to restore, Jackson created a film that is over seven hours long, released in three episodes on Disney+ on Thanksgiving.

The movie documents not only the recording of the album, but the lead-up to and performance of the group’s famous rooftop concert, showing the performance in its entirety, including the band doing more than one version of a couple of their songs, which were being recorded for their eventual placement on the album. (Jackson adds captions which let us know which version of a song made the final cut.)

The original mission Disney had for Jackson was a 2 1/2 hour theatrical movie to be released last year, but the pandemic changed the deadline and the scope of the project. Jackson’s first edit came in at a hefty 18 hours, which didn’t work for Disney, so the director streamlined the footage he had and came up with the seven-plus hour version.

In honor of six or so hours of the music documentary, here is a list of seven (or so) cool things we learn while watching The Beatles: Get Back.

The band came to the studio with ideas, not fully-formed songs

Despite the deadline to finish the album and have the songs ready to perform, the band came to the studio with almost no songs ready to record. Everyone had ideas for the songs, maybe a melody and a few lyrics, but the band worked on the tracks together until they became the tunes we know today. The documentary, especially the first part, was as much about the craft of music-making as it was about the band, allowing us to see musical genius at work. Even non-Beatles, such as the band’s road manager Mal Evans, chimed in on lyrics from time to time. It is absolutely magical to see the band create “Something” out of nothing.

The deadline – though it shifted midway through the film, made the whole process pretty suspenseful.

It’s not really suspenseful, because as we watch from the perspective of 52 years in the future, we know what happened. The songs got written, the album got recorded, the rooftop concert happened and everything worked out fine. But getting immersed in the documentary means suspending belief and getting wrapped up in the spirit of the film. As the movie progresses through the calendar towards a January 30th deadline for wrapping the album, there’s a palpable sense of urgency that the Fab Four needs to come together (ha), figure out the arrangements and work out their differences so that history happens the way it was meant to happen.

George leaves the band showing that the breakup had more to do with Paul than Yoko

For decades, people have slagged Yoko Ono as the cause of the band’s demise, but we learn in the documentary that that isn’t the case, even as Paul McCartney accurately predicts that “it’ll be funny in fifty years if people look back and say the Beatles broke up because Yoko sat on an amp.” In reality, tensions between John Lennon, Paul and George Harrison over songwriting were more to blame, something we find out about because Lindsay-Hogg secretly bugged a conversation between Lennon and McCartney where the former accuses the latter of being a little too dictatorial about arranging the band’s songs. The film recounts a couple of meetings off camera between the bandmates. After a disastrous first parley, the lads finally come to an accord and George returns to the recording sessions.

Billy Preston brings out the best in the band and the documentary

Things get tense between the band in part one, and by the end of the first episode it looks like all is lost because George Harrison abruptly – and quite casually – quits the band. But something significant happens in the next episode that changes the temperature in the room. Musician Billy Preston makes his entrance about halfway through Part 2, during the “Day 14” chapter to say hello to the band. According to the documentary, Preston did not know that the Beatles were in need of a keyboardist to play during the live performances they would be recording. The band greets Preston warmly, treat him to an impromptu performance of “A Taste of Honey”, and then John casually asks him if he wants to be on their record, which he agrees to. He becomes so integral to the recording that the group dubs him the ‘fifth Beatle.” Preston’s energy lightens the mood in the room, and both his talent and his enthusiasm add something delightful to the viewing experience.

The audio restoration was a more complicated process than the video

The original sound was recorded on mono tapes, and this rendered certain conversations essentially inaudible. The technology that restored the sound had to take audio that had been mixed down to a mono track and then revert that back to multi-tracks so that the conversations were audible. As for the film, it was shot on 16mm which was later blown up to 35mm for the theatrical run, which gave the finished product a grainy look. Jackson and his team used the same technology he employed in restoring World War I film footage for his movie They Shall Not Grow Old to make the film look good on our HD sets.

There is a real sense of fun as the band jam and collaborate on songs together

Previous movies like Help and A Hard Day’s Night show the band as fun-loving, cheeky lads who don’t take anything seriously. But that same sense of goofiness is present in Get Back. The band works on the album, but they still have time to mug for the camera, and as they work through the arrangements, and they swap instruments (everyone seems to be able to play anything). Ringo Star and Paul both pound on the piano as they sing covers – in fact a lot of the documentary shows the band jamming to classics just for the fun of it. Jackson got a special dispensation from Disney to not bleep out the swearing from the band – most of it is good-natured anyway – that happens when the band is talking frankly. We also see the band’s family in the studio; not just Yoko but Paul’s girlfriend Linda Eastman and her daughter Heather, who Paul later adopted after he and Linda marry, and Ringo’s first wife Maureen Starkey are all there making the atmosphere very convivial.

The response to the rooftop concert was mostly positive among the onlookers, despite police assertions

During the concert on the roof, Lindsay-Hogg sent his cameramen down to street level to talk to the confused passers-by to ask what they thought about the music they were hearing, and the responses were mostly positive, even among those of an older generation. Of course there was some confusion as to what was actually happening, and a few curmudgeons expressed their disdain for the production, but the sounds were greeted with smiles on the street, and the rooves of nearby buildings were covered with people who wanted a better look – and listen – to the proceedings. Naturally, some people did complain about the noise, prompting the famous visit by a couple of constables from the London police who tried to stop the concert, including one PC who tells the filmmakers that the police received 30 complaints about the noise in under a half an hour. Thanks to the delaying tactics of the receptionist, however, the bobbies didn’t shut down the concert, even after they ascended to the rooftop to see what was happening.

Seven hours didn’t feel too long

Yes, it’s a long haul from beginning to end. But broken into three parts, the production doesn’t really feel too long. (Eighteen hours on the other hand, would have been way too much.) There’s a lot to take in here – the song craft, the personal relationships between the band members, the propulsion towards the goal of completing the album and the sense of enjoyment the group has making music together (even after George returns from his walkout) make the time spent on this piece of music history well worth the time.