David Gilmour has admitted he found The Beatles‘ Get Back documentary a “hard watch”.
The Pink Floyd guitarist made the comments in a new print interview with Uncut (via Guitar.com), where he spoke about the Peter Jackson-directed documentary released in 2021. Get Back was constructed from over 60 hours of footage when they recorded their final album, 1970’s ‘Let It Be’.
In the interview, he shared that he frequently watches documentaries of bands from the 60s and 70s, including The Beatles. He called Get Back a “hard watch”, specifically noting “Paul being domineering and and John ducking back because of the moment he was in at the time and George leaving and coming back.
He added: “Horrible, really, I mean it’s lovely for us to watch, but I’m surprised Paul allowed it.”
In a review of Get Back, NME praised the documentary as worthy of five stars, writing: “For diehards, the slower moments may even end up giving the most enjoyment. Who wouldn’t want to watch Macca piece together the melody for ‘Let It Be’ over 15 minutes of canned choruses and rejigged refrains? Or glimpse Ringo, after a long period of fuck all, sheepishly plodding out ‘Octopus’s Garden’ on the piano, looking up to check if anyone’s listening? What about Linda and Yoko laughing in a corner, decimating five decades of sexist tabloid nonsense in one frame?
“It is precisely because of Get Back‘s lax editorial policy that it succeeds. You might not be able to say anything new about The Beatles in 2021, but Jackson hasn’t tried. He’s shown us instead.”
Gilmour recently announced the details of ‘Luck And Strange’, his first solo album in nine years. He shared its first track ‘The Piper’s Call’ on April 25, releasing its music video the next day. The record will be released on September 6.
His upcoming fifth studio LP was produced by David and Charlie Andrew (Alt-J, Wolf Alice), of whom Gilmour said: “We invited Charlie to the house, so he came and listened to some demos, and said things like, ‘Well, why does there have to be a guitar solo there?’ and ‘Do they all fade out? Can’t some of them just end?’”
“He has a wonderful lack of knowledge or respect for this past of mine,” continued the musician. “He’s very direct and not in any way overawed, and I love that. That is just so good for me because the last thing you want is people just deferring to you.”
In other news, Gilmour recently contributed to a star-studded cover of Mark Knopfler’s ‘Going Home’ for Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.