The Beatles, a New Mantra, and My Wish for You

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At last year’s end, like many people in our generation and beyond, I found myself wildly absorbed in the legendary director Peter Jackson’s nearly 8-hour Beatles’ documentary Get Back. It’s meant to be experienced more than watched, with its insight into the impossibly complicated personal and musical relationships, the tensions pulling the band members in different directions despite the roots of their lives having long since grown intertwined, and even the tedium and repetition of the creative process grinding forward until inspiration strikes and flows. Watch for the moment the backbone of the song “Get Back” appears seemingly out of nowhere, or the arrival of keyboardist Billy Preston like a planet-shifting ray of sunshine that brings the group back to life, or the mad conspiratorial grins of longtime partners finding their groove.I expected nostalgia. What I didn’t expect was to find a mantra for 2022, but more on that in a bit. Whether you were part of Beatlemania in the 60s or not, their music has been a constant, a running soundtrack that never gets old or irrelevant. I spent my allowance on a Beatles’ record, my very first 45, when I was 5 years old (“I Wanna Hold Your Hand”), played a Beatles’ song for my first piano recital (“Eleanor Rigby”), took part in my first high school student short film set to a Beatle’s tune (“Here Comes the Sun”) and have never failed to smile, laugh, dance, or even tear up to the Beatles’ best (“In My Life”). I remember where I was the first time I heard “Hey Jude” on the radio, or when I first thought about real love (“Don’t Let Me Down”). And so on, just like you, I imagine.

Music doesn’t automatically make people feel things. Somewhere, somehow, the combination of time, place, song, artist, performance and listener creates an individual alchemy that can move us, open us up to a larger sense of life. When those moments turn out to be shared by so many, reaching across a half-century, the music transcends itself into something so profound that there’s not really a word for it. And it creates a sense of connection that we’ve missed and craved during this pandemic-induced isolation, a different kind of meeting up when we need it most.

At the end of the documentary, we see the Beatles’ last live performance, unannounced, atop the roof of their Apple Headquarters building at lunchtime in the middle of London’s business district, to the delight and confusion of the people below and the consternation of police officers sent to quell ‘the noise.’ The editing of this sequence is brilliant, giving us an array of opinions from passersby, the deadpan and hilarious efforts of the Apple receptionist trying to buy time before the officers would make it to the roof—and a performance so inspired and joyous that many of the cuts were lifted directly for the 1970 album “Let It Be.”

So, what’s to be gained from this much TV watching? It turns out, a lot. The doc has tons to say about culture, friendship under withering pressure and change, collaboration and the nature of creativity. Still, what hit me as so dead-on true was the love and happiness of connection. At various times in the studio, but mostly between the bandmembers whose troubles and frustrations disappeared in the thrill and adventure and sheer connectedness in those moments playing their music together, truly together, on that roof. And among all of us who love it.

So, my mantra for 2022 is connection. As a daily practice. During my eight hours with the Beatles, I relearned that this means truly putting in the time, being intentional and yet patient, risking openness. But, man, how worth it. From Beatlemania to Beatle-zen, my wish for you in this Spring is connection, to feed your soul, to fill others up, to capture that most human magic, and maybe just to lay on the floor and listen to music together.


Margaret Larson retired last year as host of KING‘s "New Day Northwest." Her impressive 35-year career included stints as a London-based foreign correspondent for NBC News and as a news anchor for the Today show, as well as a reporter for Dateline NBC and anchor at KING 5. 

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