“It’s just to downsize,” said Glyn Johns, the recording engineer and producer who features prominently in “The Beatles: Get Back,” Peter Jackson’s marathon documentary series about the ill-fated 1969 Beatles sessions that culminated in the ” Let It Be” album.
Johns wasn’t talking about the nearly eight-hour series, which critics and fans alike have embraced as a turning point on television, but the Austin Powers-esque outfits his 26-year-old self wears through it. “I look like a fucking clown,” he added.
Are Yeti-esque goatskin coat. are dandyish Oscar Wilde jackets. Are Capri-ready neck scarves and Janis Joplin sunglasses.
It’s hard to stand out in a documentary featuring four of the 20th century’s most famous people. But with his flair for accessories and slinky-pants cool, Mr. Johns found a new round of appreciators half a century later.
For Mr. Johns, 79, the experience was amusing – to an extent.
“I’ve had enough now, I’ll tell you,” he said with a laugh in a phone call from his home in Chichester, England. “I have 9,000 emails and texts from people from my past who are ruthlessly accepting the Mickey.”
“Some people say, ‘Oh, the coat you wore on X-day was fantastic’ or ‘Where did you get that goatskin coat?’ But generally they laugh at how ridiculous I looked, which of course is true.”
mr. Johns wasn’t the only peacock during those fateful weeks, as the Beatles struggled to overcome their differences and return to their roots with a no-nonsense rock ‘n’ roll album, accompanied in theory by a concert television special.
What you need to know about ‘The Beatles: Get Back’
Peter Jackson’s seven-hour documentary series, which explores the most contentious period in the band’s history, is available on Disney Plus.
While John Lennon and Paul McCartney seemed generally dressed for comfort, befitting long hours of toil in the studio, Ringo Starr appeared during one session in a lime green pinstripe suit with a forest green musketeer shirt. George Harrison, wore a similar ensemble in pink and purple. (Fashion sites, including W and Marie Claire, have offered guides on how to shop for the looks in “Get Back.”)
In such company, it’s a little surprising that Mr. Johns has received so much attention. Already a heavyweight in the industry, he would later become the go-to sound man for The Who, Eric Clapton, the Eagles, and many others. But at the time, Mr. Johns was anything but a Beatles insider. He was associated with the Rolling Stones, with whom he had collaborated since the early days. In fact, when the Beatles first approached him, he hesitated.
“I was at home on a very rare evening off and the phone rang, and the person on the other end of the line announced in a Liverpool accent that he was Paul McCartney,” he said. Mr. Johns thought it was Mick Jagger who was playing a prank, so he told him to get lost, albeit in saltier language.
“And of course it was quiet on the other end of the phone,” added Mr Johns. “He started all over again, and I thought, ‘Oh, it… is Paul McCartney, Jesus Christ!”
The Stones’ fashion influence on Mr. Johns is undeniable. “I remember Brian Jones once took me to a store on Carnaby Street, and we bought things,” he said. “I remember Mick giving me a fantastic shirt.”
“The coolest thing I think I wore in the movie was the crocodile Levi jacket, which I actually got from Keith Richards,” he added. “We were in Paris and Keith had this jacket made for him in France and it was delivered to the hotel. He took it out of the package, put it on and said, “Here it is, I don’t want it.” I have no idea what happened to it. Could be I gave it away.”
He also can’t remember where he got the goatskin jacket that viewers are so obsessed with, though he does remember what it smelled like after a rainstorm.
“I clearly remember standing in line for a plane with that jacket, and the people in front and behind me were moving away from me because it really smelled,” said Mr. Johns. “And of course at that time if you had long hair you were already suspicious anyway.”
Fans rightly praise Mr. Johns in the film as the epitome of ’60s British rocker cool, and the costume-like whimsy he (and several Beatles at different times) showcases in “Get Back” has all the color and exuberance of the top-psychedelic moment. .
In 1969, however, rock took a harder, darker turn, as evidenced by the Rolling Stones’ first album of the same name and Led Zeppelin’s first album of the same name (on which Mr. Johns both worked), not to mention Beatles songs like, yes, “Go back.”
The Beatles’ public image began to reflect that. For the cover photo of “Abbey Road,” taken on August 8 of that year (coincidentally, the same day four members of the Manson family headed for Sharon Tate’s Los Angeles home), Mr. McCartney and Mr. Starr for gloomy navy and black, Mr. Lennon white slate white and Mr. Harrison, “gravedigger” denim – at least according to the viral Paul-is-dead conspiracy theory of the day.
Also, the Beatles didn’t seem too excited for their final public appearance on a London rooftop – the pinnacle of ‘Get Back’.
Gone were the Technicolor satins. Mr. McCartney was actually dressed for the office in a somber black three-piece suit and an open-collared shirt. Mr. Lennon, in sneakers, and Mr. Starr went minimalist black-on-black, although the former wore a fur coat borrowed from Yoko Ono and the latter wore his wife Maureen’s bright red raincoat, presumably to gird herself against the winter cold. George Harrison looked somewhat festive, albeit a little thrift store chic, in bright green trousers and a grizzly-esque Mongolian lamb fur coat. And then, of course, there was the ever-present Mrs. Ono herself, in her ever-present black.
A traditional analysis was that by this time the Beatles had stopped broadcasting showbiz because they were bickering about money and management, and were heading for a breakup. That view became canonical after the release of “Let It Be,” the bleak 1970s documentary by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who features prominently in “Get Back,” capturing the hours of unseen footage that appear in the series.
for mr. Johns and many others, “Let It Be” has all the joys of divorce proceedings.
“It’s terrible, terrible,” Mr. Johns said of the earlier film. “My memory was that we had a really good time and that everyone got along well. The fact that George left the band 24 hours is no different than any other band I’ve ever worked with, or anyone who works in the office. People who work together for years fall out, and eventually patch it up again. It is normal.”
He could never have imagined that the Beatles were headed for a split.
“The four had been through this gigantic experience, from when they were unknown, to four of the most famous people in the world,” he said. “There was a huge bond between them. They were like family, really.”
He remembers much less what he was wearing and why.
“Listen, mate, it was 50 years ago, how do I remember?” said Mr. Johns, laughing. “I think everyone has their own style. But I was busy at work.”