Paul McCartney braced himself before watching Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back documentary for the first time, worried that the film would rehash all the arguments and tension from the band’s final year.
McCartney and surviving bandmate Ringo Starr didn’t have a lot of good memories surrounding the way their band dissolved at the end of the ’60s, but Get Back served as a reminder of why the Fab Four stayed together for as long as they did – despite their disagreements, they had a lot of fun.
Speaking on the Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade podcast, McCartney recalled his misgivings about Jackson’s initial idea for the project and what the director did to encourage him about what the final product would be.
“He sent me a little clip, which really saved my life,” McCartney recalled.
“There’s a little bit where I’m working on ‘She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.’ …And I go, ‘Hello, Tuesday,’ and he immediately picks it up, [‘I’ve got something of his in the garden’]. …And I thought, ‘Oh God, yeah, that’s how it was!’ It was fantastic. I loved it.”
The movie helped reframe how McCartney saw the Beatles and his part in the dissolution of the band.
“I really forgave myself when I saw that,” he said.
“Everyone’s messing around and we’re all messing around, we’re goofing around. …I thought I was too bossy. I thought that had been the problem, but when I saw the film I’m not being bossy at all. I’m just trying to get people to work. … Peter said to me, ‘Well, someone had to do that. Someone had to be that guy.’ So I forgave myself, I let myself all. That’s all I was trying to do.”
