1969-The Final Year

On January 2, 1969, the Beatles convened at Twickenham Film Studios in London to start work on a project that they hoped would help them recreate some of the fun and spontaneity of the days before their incredible rise to stardom. Paul later said, “It was getting a bit fraught between us at that point, because we'd been together a long time and cracks were beginning to appear.” The project was to be called Get Back, and it was partially intended to satisfy Paul's strong desire to have the group play in front of an audience again. It would become a film and an album—actually, a film of the band making a new live album. Coming as it did only eleven weeks after they had finished recording The White Album, in which different working styles and interpersonal tensions had steadily risen to the surface, the film project may not have come at the best time.