“I’m surprised Paul allowed it”: David Gilmour says he found The Beatles Get Back documentary “a hard watch”
The lengthy Peter Jackson documentary captures the tensions in the band while making their final album.
Credit: Gus Stewart/Redferns
David Gilmour says he was surprised that Paul McCartney allowed The Beatles‘ 2021 documentary Get Back to be made, having admitted he found it a “difficult watch”.
The eight-hour long documentary was pieced together by Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson after he was given over 60 hours of unused archive footage from when the Fab Four were recording 1970’s Let It Be, which ended up being their final album. Naturally, however, it does paint a picture of the discord in the band at the time which contributed to them parting ways.
In the new print edition of Uncut, the Pink Floyd guitarist says he can often be found watching documentaries about bands from the ’60s and ’70s, meaning Get Back would probably be right up his street.
Explaining why he found it difficult viewing, he points to “Paul being domineering and and John ducking back because of the moment he was in at the time and George leaving and coming back. Horrible, really, I mean it’s lovely for us to watch, but I’m surprised Paul allowed it.”
Indeed, another Beatles documentary, Let It Be, is set to come to Disney+ next week. The restored 1970 documentary has been difficult to obtain throughout the years, prompting a large amount of bootlegging, but it will now be available to stream for the first time.
In spite of that, Ringo Starr has said that there is “not a lot of joy” in the documentary, which captures the group at a similar point in time. It also includes their iconic rooftop gig, which ended up being their last performance together.
Meanwhile, Gilmour says elsewhere in the interview that he has “no idea” what he’s trying to achieve when he is soloing. Likening it to his love of flying, he says that “if they have an airborne quality to them, that’s good fortune”.