GET BACK
Get Back, Peter Jackson’s delightful recut of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 documentary Let it Be, transported me back to a chapter in my life I seldom share, because it’s kind of incredible. During my senior year in high school I was a stock boy at Loft’s Candy Shop in the Forest Hills, Queens Continental Avenue subway station. Soot, brusque commuters and the clamor of trains made work really unpleasant. Weed and rock ’n’ roll barely mitigated the distress. But cannabis did enhance my active fantasy life. So when in early February 1970 I learned from Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, “It Happened Last Night,” that Apple Records had an office in midtown, I imagined I could walk in, chat with whomever was in charge and secure something far better than the confectionery gig. Which, miraculously, I did. At first it was a bumpy ride, because I knew nothing about how such enterprises functioned. My dad ...