Ringo Starr was relieved to report that the next documentary about the Beatles’ final recording sessions will illustrate the “fun” they had at the time – because he was unhappy that the 1970 version focused too much on the bad side of things.
Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back is scheduled to arrive in August, assembled mainly from dozens of hours of footage taken at the time, but not used in the Michael Lindsay-Hogg film Let it be, which came out 51 years ago.
“I didn’t feel any joy in the original documentary,” said Starr at a press conference to promote his new EP, Zoom In. “It was all focused on a moment that went down between two of the guys,” he noted, referring to the disagreement between Paul McCartney and George Harrison. He added that the celebrated unannounced concert on the roof “also only lasted about seven to eight minutes [in Let It Be]. With Peter’s [movie] it’s 43 minutes long! It’s about music and a lot of joy. “
The drummer continued: “I talked to Peter several times about how I felt. I thought it sucked. I said, ‘There was a lot of laughter, I was there, we were laughing, we were having fun. We were playing and doing what we do. ‘So Peter kept coming to Los Angeles with his iPad and he showed me sections … he showed us laughing and having fun as a band. … There was a lot of joy in making those records, those tracks, so I’m certainly looking forward to seeing the whole thing. Even if you saw that little trailer that was released at the end of last year, it is a lot of fun. “
Starr expressed similar emotions in a recent appearance in The last show with Stephen Colbert. “I used to complain because the original documentary was very narrow, built around a moment,” he said. “There was no joy in that. … There was a little tension – no one can take that away – but to use that moment and not use those 56 hours of unused film. … That’s how it was. … Even if we had fights, like any family, we loved each other, you know, and it shows in the [new] movie.”
You can watch this interview below.