Ringo Starr has criticised the 1970 Beatles documentary, ‘Let It Be’ for being “too miserable.”
Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the documentary covered the band’s recording sessions for their last and 12th album, ‘Let It Be.’ It heavily focused on the heated exchanges between Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
Participating in a Zoom Q and A session to celebrate his new record, ‘Zoom In’, Ringo Starr made the comments and also discussed the new upcoming documentary by Peter Jackson, ‘The Beatles: Get Back.’
“I didn’t feel any joy in the original documentary, it was all focused on one moment which went down between two of the lads [McCartney and Harrison ],” said Starr.
“The rooftop concert was also only about seven to eight minutes long. With Peter’s [documentary] it’s 43 minutes long [laughs]. It’s about the music and a lot of joy.”
He added: “I had several talks with Peter about how I felt. I thought it was miserable. I said, ‘There was lots of laughter, I was there, we were laughing, we were having fun. We were playing and doing what we do’.
“So Peter kept coming into LA with his iPad and he’d show me sections. He said, ‘Look what I’ve found here’ and he showed us laughing and having fun as a band.
“There was a lot of joy in making those records, those tracks so I’m certainly looking forward to seeing the whole thing. Even if you saw that little trailer that came out late last year, it’s full of fun.” (Quotes, NME)
‘The Beatles: Get Back’ will be released on August 27 as the original release date was changed due to the pandemic. You can get a sneak peek of the documentary below.
Ringo Starr’s new ep, ‘Zoom In’ was released earlier this week. It features both Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl and can be purchased here.
