Insert Foot is loving Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” Beatles documentary.

Phone lines and the internet burned all over the world this week, and it wasn’t people remarking how lifelike tofurkey tastes in 2021. The hubbub was about four guys playing music more than half a century ago, as well as and a lot of misconceptions and conformation of what so many Beatles lovers already knew.

Rendering: Adam Pardee/STAFF.

To put it bluntly, Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” documentary is incredible. “The Lord of the Rings” director got access to 60 hours of footage shot during the Beatles Let it Be sessions in 1969, and spent four years editing it into the three-part, six-hour production.

And while it’s too long and more sleep-inducing than a belly full of turkey for some, the rest of us fell back in love with the greatest rock and roll band of anyone’s lifetime.

Especially among good friends whose relationships are rooted in music. I started hearing from former bandmates Friday morning, the day after it was released on Disney+. I actually tried to watch it on Thanksgiving to bore my kids to death, thus making dad look even older than he already does, but couldn’t get the stupid TV to work correctly.

After seeing the first two parts, I came to some conclusions, almost all of which weren’t entirely my own (and more reminders than revelations). Among them:

The 1970 movie “Let it Be” was misleading crap. It was a deliberate and cold set-up doubtlessly influenced by the discord among the four at the time.

Get through part I. Watch George Harrison quit the band. Watch them struggle. It just sets up the joy of part II (I haven’t watched part III yet).

The Beatles still worked well together as they entered the last phase of their career. Very well, in fact. At one point, producer George Martin commented on how the guys are looking at each other and playing together like a band. That was the point, because it wasn’t the case in 1968. Even though the latter-day Beatles songs are usually thought of as one-man compositions performed by a group, watching them all contribute to songs like “Get Back” shows how it was always a group effort to some degree.

John Lennon wasn’t a diva. At least not during “Let it Be.” And Yoko Ono wasn’t the distraction casual fans still love to claim while trying to look insightful. Yoko-bashing is so passe … it’s time to let it go (let it be?).

Ringo was truly a great drummer—look ma, no click track! This shouldn’t be news, but the guy was composing his parts back there like everyone else in the band.

The Beatles were way, way, WAY more than the sum of their parts–10,000 times better together than apart. That we already knew, but that gets lost in decades’ worth of opinions.

Great bands must spend time together to actually sound like a band. By this point in their careers, the Beatles could spend time apart, personally. But all those years doing everything together paid off when they got back in the studio. And nothing substitutes for playing together.

Paul McCartney was right to get pissed about his bandmates and Allen Klein turning Phil Spector loose on this material when they were breaking up. These songs were supposed to be anything but a wall of sound. It was about playing in a circle and vibing off each other while creating, without overdubs.

Billy Preston was closer to being the fifth Beatle than anyone knew … almost. Boy, did things change when he showed up. Some have ascribed it to a new voice being in the room, improving everyone’s manners. It was much more than that. Watching the Beatles react to what he immediately contributed was like watching someone fall in love. That’s the magic of making music with the right people. Like love, maybe you can’t describe it, but you know it when it happens.

Making music is work, if for no other reason than the hurry-up-and-wait factor. There’s a lot of sitting around. Every drummer in the world knows the look on Ringo’s face while John and Paul screw around.

By the way, McCartney and John Lennon sang and played together as naturally as most of us breathe air. Their attention in Jackson’s film is almost always fixated on each other. Even Yoko can’t penetrate that. For all the years of talk about how fractured they were during their last year, they were still communicating through facial expressions, clearly still wanting the other’s approval. It’s downright sweet at times.

Oftentimes, bands just need to shut up and play. Before they canceled the TV special to keep George in the band, they only had a few weeks to write and record an entire new record for the show. I kept having mini-heart attacks every time I thought about how the rest of us would approach something so seemingly insurmountable. No modern band would even think about trying that.

It’s difficult to watch without wondering what if. What if they kept playing? What if Lennon didn’t get shot and killed at 40 years old? Would they have reunited? Should they have? Was it a shame we didn’t get more or was it enough and should we just consider ourselves lucky we got what we got?  No … I don’t know … yes?  Whatever the answers, we have something new from the Beatles to experience after more than 50 years. That is pretty awesome. Thanks Peter Jackson.  I can’t wait to watch part III.

Follow music critic Tony Hicks at Twitter.com/TonyBaloney1967.