I grew up with the Beatles music. In 1963 I was five and listened to anything my ten year old sister liked and remember being excited as the singles came along for the next seven years. By the time it was all over I was twelve but then had a lifetime to digest all the music, the albums and the films.
This week the three Get Back films have emerged and have only confirmed that I feel so lucky to have grown up in this period of popular culture. Watching Paul McCartney conjure the song Get Back out of thin air in two minutes had the tears welling up in my eyes. The interaction between four musicians who were supposed to be at each other's throats demonstrates there was still a lot of love left between them even if George did go AWOL for a few days.
As the tea, toast and marmalade are consumed there is something very British about these four mates referencing Charles Hawtrey and Vera Lynn. Then there is their joy at playing some of the songs they covered in Hamburg including Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Let's not forget that before the Beatles covered these songs most people in Britain had not heard of these artists.
As McCartney begins to work out the chord structure of Let it Be on the piano it's hard not to shout, “It goes like this! These are the words” and then you realise you are watching the words and music being created – at this particular point in the film that song does not exist as a whole.
This is the real beauty of these films; watching the creative process in action and watching four musicians working with each other to create some of those songs that mesmerised me as a child.
Thanks to Michael Lyndsay Hogg for filming (although doesn't he look like a sixth former having his first blow on a cigar) and thanks to Peter Jackson for wading through the footage and making these films the musical highlight of the year.