George Harrison's son Dhani Harrison gave a quick, sneak peek into Peter Jackson's upcoming documentary, The Beatles – Get Back. Dhani, who's busy promoting George Harrison's All Things Must Pass “50th Anniversary Edition,” which he co-produced and compiled, spoke to Esquire about what he's seen of the film.
Peter Jackson recently revealed that his initial cut of the 55-hours of Let It Be outtakes from January 1969 was originally a whopping 18 hours long. The Beatles – Get Back will roll out over three days, November 25th, 26th, and 27th, 2021, exclusively on Disney+. Each of the three episodes is approximately two hours in length.
Dhani recalled getting his first taste of the hotly anticipated doc: “I had one night viewing, he basically made a reel for me with all of my dad’s footage and I could see if there was anything I didn’t want in, anything I thought was bad or not tasteful, and it was all just beautiful. He was very complimentary about my dad’s behavior in all of the reels.”
He went on to say, “I got to see the moment when (my dad) played them 'All Things Must Pass' and they were kind of like, 'meh.' They’re playing along with it, but it’s a swing and a miss. It’s funny, I’m really glad that at some point people will be able to see that moment having heard the way that 'All Things Must Pass' turned out. Even if you look at the diary entry we put in the book, it’s like, 'Got up, left the Beatles, went and had lunch' — it’s so nonchalant, but y'know that he was kind of secretly brewing this ridiculous triple vinyl record in his head and he wasn’t going to let anything get in his way. Just like, 'Okay, I’ve got to leave the Beatles now, because I’m not going to be able to do what I need to do.'”
Several of the songs on George Harrison's All Things Must Past were actually songs that were reject by John Lennon and Paul McCartney over the years. Among the titles that were performed and/or developed during the Let It Be sessions were “All Things Must Pass,” “The Art Of Dying,” Isn't It A Pity,” “Let It Down,” and “Hear Me Lord.”
Harrison's first wife, Pattie Boyd, told us that Harrison often felt his material was passed over on Beatles albums to make more room for Lennon-McCartney songs: “I think he felt quite often that Paul didn't think that his songs were quite good enough for a Beatles album. Because he felt that he was being left out quite often — song-wise. Obviously Paul and John together were terribly prolific, and if not together then individually. It was all, y'know, a question of time.”