Get Back: The Unauthorized Chronicle of the Beatles ""Let It Be"" Disaster

In January 1969, the Beatles gave their last public performance, and the rehearsals for the concert were filmed and recorded for a promotional documentary. Although bits of these tapes were released as Let It Be, most have not been available to the public. This was a crucial time in the band's career, for the group was falling apart. In this tedious book, the authors reconstruct the hundreds of hours on the tapes in an attempt to shed light on the breakup. Bickering and aimlessness prevail. John Lennon, often in a drug-induced daze, brings his wife, Yoko Ono, who disrupts the sessions. George Harrison, resentful that the others don't respect his compositions, walks out. Paul McCartney ineffectually tries to keep the group together. Ringo Starr has little to say. This account of the last, sad days of the Beatles is depressing and tiresome, especially as the authors summarize even the most uninteresting details and paraphrase the conversations instead of letting the musicians speak in their own words. Sulpy, who publishes the Beatles magazine 910, and Schweighardt, who publishes the Beatles newsletter How Do You Do It?, would have done better to let it be. (Sept.)