What a strange ride these last few years have been. Maybe history books will dub them the COVID YEARS like men and women who came of age during the forties were called THE GREATEST GENERATION.

While people who have witnessed the same things don’t seem able to agree on the facts, on a personal level, most of us have shared some experiences.  Most of us know too well how Increased isolation and the unpredictability of events have impacted our psyches.

After postponing plans to get together at a friend’s multiple times to watch Get Back, Peter Jackson’s treatment of the Beatles rehearsal and recording sessions in January of 1969, we finally got together to see the first two hours of this love letter to friendship and creativity just a few days ago.

As befitting the times, It was an intimate gathering; just the Fab Four, me, my friend and her TV.  The television screen has become my closest companion for the last twenty-two months.

I heard a lot of buzz about the film, how the eight hours, presented in three segments, is not a typical documentary. Certainly, it is not focused on making a point or bringing up some new quotes from people who were “in the room” where it happened.

It is an immersive experience. Get Back isn’t ABOUT creativity and friendship. It is a chance to BE with friends BEING creative and hanging out with each other. I witnessed moments of tenderness and understanding and times when they were irritated and short with each other — like friends will be.

Leave it to the Beatles to develop content/footage for a reality TV show BEFORE such a thing existed.

In 1969, after the group’s members started to go their separate ways, and after a two-year touring hiatus, the group, and their handlers, decided to film rehearsals leading up to a TV special and a “Live” album.

Although they were under intense pressure, the sense of boyhood friends PLAYING came through. I watched with amusement as their roadies and assistants fetched them beer the same way a mother might bring her children and schoolmates milk and cookies or Lunchables.

Play can be serious business. Their handlers were happy to wait on them. They understood their jobs depended on freeing up John, George, Paul and Ringo to experiment.

I observed when the four were enjoying being together — when they were open-hearted and listened fully to each other —and when they were ready to move on to the next phase of their lives.

I observed when they experienced creative conflicts, something they probably didn’t entertain when they were rocking out in Hamburg or filling stadiums on tour. As they got older, their artistic sensibilities developed and they wanted to do things according to their own vision.

I felt for the discomfort they grappled with — not wanting to produce something that each could not personally buy into but not wanting to let the others down.

There’s no way to capture the gravity of this in an hour and forty-eight minutes.

Watching the first segment of Get Back (and committing to watching the rest) with one buddy, during a pandemic when in-person experiences are rare, was a kind of meditation on friendship.

Friendship, like watching rehearsal footage, takes time. Sometimes it’s easy and fun. Sometimes, having different points of view with a close chum can break your heart.

Sometimes, the joy of someone seeming to know you better than you know yourself is indescribably wonderful. And sometimes, that someone with whom you have such a shared history can’t or won’t give you what you want can be devastating.

Sometimes, friends just know when space is called for. Acceptance of things as they are does not mean there is an absence of love.

I think true friendship takes time. I am grateful for giving myself the time and flexibility to have this kind of relationship with several people, and I’m grateful for making the time to see Get Back.

Spending the afternoon with old friends is no small thing.