Fiddling on the roof

After the doco recut by Peter Jackson, the original Let It Be returns as odd as ever.

- GRAHAM REID

When The Beatle's documentary Let It Be screened at a cinema on Auckland's Queen St in late 1970, it seemed every hippie, stoner or university student in the city was there.

The Beatles were newsworthy despite their break-up, especially John Lennon and Yoko Ono's media-grabbing and the singles Cold Turkey and Instant Karma.

But already, The Beatles were sounding passé. Rock had subdivided into more noisy offshoots, side alleys and alternative sounds. However, there was still great anticipation that afternoon. Let It Be was, we already knew, The Beatles as we'd never seen them: in the studio, chatting, rehearsing.

Some girls screamed when Paul McCartney appeared. They were laughed at. This wasn't 1964 - which already seemed a distant age of innocence - but a more jaded time of adulthood, hard rock, marijuana and Vietnam.