“The Beatles: Get Back” — What Would a Cultural Revival for The Beatles Look Like?
Peter Jackson has gone from wizards and dragons to musicians with a flair for the magical mystery. The Beatles are the most celebrated band of all time, and are back in a big way through the director’s documentary series on Disney+. Its name, Get Back, refers to the namesake song as well as the album around which the series was planned: Let It Be. That’s because the album was initially – you guessed it – slated to be called Get Back. That is just one of the fascinating facts revealed in the elucidating series, which comprises three episodes that come in at two to three hours each. That’s a lot of Beatles time, running up to almost eight hours of material. As a series, Get Back works to dispel and confirm many myths around the band.
Funnily enough, this isn’t the first time that the lore of Peter Jackson and The Beatles has crossed paths. The BBC reveals that Lord of the Rings writer JRR Tolkien refused the band the rights to the fantasy film in 1968. Who knows how the Fab Four would have fitted in with Frodo and the gang?
Interestingly, cultural revivals tend to come in waves, and the series has coincided with the release of a new LP by Ringo Starr and a book by Paul McCartney. So, we wondered what else could come from this current Beatlemania?
A definitive book on the band
Of course, there are already many books documenting the most talked-about band in music history. Ian Macdonald’s Revolution in the Head, Mark Lewis’ The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions and Bob Spitz’ The Beatles are among the heavy hitters in this category. But we’d be really interested to see what a book by music historians such as Chuck Klosterman or Walter Isaacson (the de facto king of bio books) might look like. After all, the band has inspired countless other musicians, including Tom Ciurczak. There’s even a book to accompany the TV series.
Casino game spin-offs
The Beatles did get their own edition of Rock Band back in 2009, but they’ve since been quiet on the game front. NetEnt started this trend when it introduced a series of games based on classic rock groups like Guns N’ Roses. Several gaming platforms subsequently spun off of this idea with their own takes on music-based slot gaming. A handful of sites host games that revolve around major pop stars; some embrace games with their own original rock soundtracks; and Cheeky Bingo has taken the approach of hosting a game based on Britain’s Got Talent in what amounts to an indirect showcase of the modern pop scene. Could the Fab Four be next in line?
Biopic
After the recent successes of biopic movies based on the lives of Elton John and Queen, a movie about The Beatles could be a huge hit. Of course, this has been done before with the band, with Backbeat and Nowhere Boy among the most successful and acclaimed. There was also the Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle movie Yesterday, and there is a movie about the late manager of the band, Brian Epstein, in the works. He had a fascinating and tragic life, having to navigate a homophobic society as a gay man in the closet.
Live Performances
This one is a bit of a push, because they’ve said they won’t perform in the past. But wouldn’t it be great to see the two remaining Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, back together on the big stage. Nobody expected to see the foursome on that roof that time… so who knows when and how it might happen. The pair are still in touch, so here’s to hoping.