The Beatles - Get Back: An Ode to the Creative Process

While watching the meditative 468 minutes peak behind the curtain that is The Beatles: Get Back I felt a reinvigorated respect towards the creative process. The hours of repetition only to find one small piece to the million piece puzzle, the frustration of trying to teach yourself what seems so clear in your head, the chiseling, the reshaping, searching, inquisitive longing, the fights with yourself and with others.

This all led me to thinking about Charlie Puth - the American singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known for his hit song See You Again on the Furious 7 soundtrack. Throughout the past year, Charlie Puth has been "documenting" the creation of his new song Light Switch. He's done this through a series of videos via TikTok, in which he asks a number of 'what if...' questions, leading towards another element of the song.

While it's clearly a marketing campaign building excitement to this upcoming single, opposed to an honest documentation of Puth in the studio, it still depicts the creative process in a manner that could be perceived as candid. And to his credit, Puth showcases a sense of wonder, searching, discovery, and an overall manner of fun which could promote his army of fans to try and create something themselves. Nothing is without it's merit. However, it's everything in between the short clips that are paramount, for all Puth showcases are the breakthroughs and rewards in absence of the fight of exploration.

In contrast, Get Back consciously chooses to scrutinise over the frustrations and near defeats that are frequently encountered throughout the process. The starting point of a new song is shown through a much less romantic lens when compared to Puth. It's more failure than success. At one point, after several unproductive days, Paul asks John if he's written any new songs, as it was part of an understanding that each member would try to come into the studio with a new idea each day. No, John replies. This leads to a desperate Paul frantically trying to find something new, a foundation to start building upon. Sitting alongside a yawning George and a half alive Ringo, with his Hofner bass across his lap Paul begins plucking the beings of the song Get Back, humming the early, early stages of a melody.

The banality of it all is miraculous. Hours lost, interests wandering, band members quitting and rejoining, all captured on the path towards a final product. "Final product" only refers to the fact that the band collectively decided to move on to the next one - at no point throughout Get Back does anyone proclaim "That's it! We're finished!" or any other moment of self-congratulatory completion. It's much closer to the universe of "good enough" despite completing songs that would hold cultural relevance for over 50 years. In comparison, the latest update in the Puth Light Switch saga was that if he gets 500,000 pre-saves of the song via Spotify and Apple Music, then he'll then finish and release the song. This mission was accomplished and Light Switch was released yesterday (congrats everyone).

Obviously the comparison between Charlie Puth and The Beatles is outlandish and considerably lopsided in terms of cultural relevance. But be it 1969 or 2021, the creative process remains the same. With the tools available, you fumble your way along the path of trying to realise your vision. But it's not the vision at all. It's the yearning, the carving, the coursing. It's moving forward. Get Back does an outstanding job at celebrating this journey, leading towards the cathartic reward of listening to the completed songs after enduring 400 hours of work prior. The trek is not always pretty nor interesting, but it's a universal denominator that connects all great art.