A Lesson In Creativity

A documentary on the world’s most influential band reveals how to tap into your own creativity

- Zoë Meunier

It’s early January 1969, and four friends sit together in a sparsely furnished film studio in the London suburb of Twickenham. Their winter coats are draped over the backs of their plain wooden chairs, which are positioned round a range of guitars, a drum set and a black grand piano with

its lid open. A large rectangular amplifier completes this otherwise large empty space.

Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, The Beatles, have an ambitious agenda—to write and rehearse 14 songs for a new album that they plan to perform in their final live concert on the rooftop of the Apple Studio in London’s Savile Row on 30 January. The album is Let It Be.

Much has been said about what went down during those 21 days, shot by filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg. But since the November 2021 release of New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson’s three-part documentary, The Beatles: Get Back, in which he used unused footage and audio recordings from these sessions, the Fab Four’s lasting musical legacy is again a hot topic of conversation. Over eight hours, viewers get a fly-on-the-wall perspective of the group’s creative song-making process. What we witness is a lesson on how to maximize our own creativity.

ALL YOU NEED IS … SILLINESS

The Beatles were experts in larking about, having fun and being spectacularly silly. Rarely do we see bickering in Jackson’s film, despite the widelyheld belief that the band was at loggerheads at this point in their career. Instead, while clearly aware of their tight deadline, they are also relaxed with the task at hand.