Opening today (March 18th) at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum is the new groundbreaking exhibit, titled The Beatles: Get Back To Let It Be. The exhibit runs through March 2023 and serves as an immersive complement to Peter Jackson‘s Get Back docuseries.
The multimedia exhibit welcomes fans to step into the Beatles’ January 1969 rehearsals, sessions, and witness the band’s final rooftop performance, surrounded by large-scale projections and superior sound.
According to the press release: “The scene is thrillingly set with original instruments, clothing, handwritten lyrics, and other unique items, including several on loan directly from Beatles principals. Special events to be hosted by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during the exhibit’s run, including interviews, film screenings, panels, and more will be announced throughout the year.
We caught up with Greg Harris, the President and CEO at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and asked him for the lowdown in what it took to bring the Beatles' Let It Be experience to life: “This exhibit has been in the works for, at least, four years. And through it all it's been a collaboration with the folks at Apple Corps Ltd. as well as Peter Jackson — and then all of the different parties with the Beatles; Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the estates of John Lennon, the estates of George Harrison. And all of those folks really collaborated on this and the goal was to have an exhibit that would open after the film was out to the public and that could tell a similar story but in a museum exhibition and really engage visitors and fans from around the world.”
We asked Harris — also a die-hard Beatles fan — how he reacted the first time he witnessed all these iconic and legendary items up close and personal: “I did get emotional and here's why: When you see that Ludwig kit of Ringo's that he's playing on the rooftop and the red raincoat he's wearing while he's playing it — it just sends a lightning bolt to your senses from your recognition through the decades of the image and the sounds that were coming off of the vinyl and who you were with and where you were. . . And that's the sort of stuff this triggers. And that's why I get emotional, 'cause these are the singular pieces that made history at that moment and you're in the same room with them.”
The Beatles: Get Back To Let It Be' exhibit features such one of a kind Let It Be-era artifacts as:
Paul McCartney's black and gray shirt that was worn in the studio and handwritten lyrics for “I've Got A Feeling.”
Ringo Starr's maple Ludwig drum kit and his borrowed red raincoat from the rooftop performance.
John Lennon's iconic eyeglasses, Wrangler jacket, an Epiphone electric guitar, and handwritten lyrics for “Dig A Pony.”
George Harrison's pink pinstripe suit and handwritten lyrics for “I Me Mine.”
