This is a great companion to the Peter Jackson-directed film, 'The Beatles: Get Back'. There are at least as many photos as there is text. I can't recall ALL of this dialogue being in the film. The only part that may not have been in the film was the extended passage in which John extols the talents of Allan Klein as a desirable cutthroat manager to George. Ringo may have been in the room but Paul is notably absent. There's a similar conversation between John and George in which George says he'd like to put out his own album, just to get the huge backlog of songs he's written out there. Both he and John acknowledge that this is a good idea and they both assume that it won't affect the Beatles from continuing to get together to do group projects. Significantly, Paul is absent from this conversation. If he had been and if George had pursued the subject in situations in which all four of them were present then they might have not blown apart so dramatically later in the year.
Relations soured significantly, mostly because of the rift that resulted from John's insistence on getting Allen Klein to manage them, which George and Ringo went along with but Paul, notably, resisted. I find it ironic that the 'Get Back/Let it Be' sessions were NOT the nadir of relations between the group as has been interpreted over the past 50 years. Throughout these sessions, those tensions are present but contained. John and Paul's bond is still close, at least as creative leaders of the group, even if they may have drifted apart personally. The thread of George's mounting resentment runs through the entire experience. Repeatedly, he tries to suggest another new one of his that they can try, only to be politely ignored. He'll say, "I've got a new one", only to have John say, "Well, I've got something I've been working on" or Paul would say, "Let's work on this one some more (referring to one of his own compositions)".
One unspoken problem throughout this time is John's heroin addiction. It's largely responsible for him showing up late, him showing up with no new compositions except for the well-worn "Don't Let Me Down" or "Dig a Pony". The only other new ones from him are older, already complete songs: "Across the Universe" (one of his all-time best) and "One After 909", an early song that never measured up to his best early songs.
But when the energy blends just right, they create some joyous musical experiences. They're still capable of creating magic together. As I've said before, I just wish the quality of the songs were consistently as good as the batch on 'Rubber Soul' or 'Revolver' or 'Sgt. Pepper'. Now, THAT was something to get excited about!
'The Beatles: Get Back', whether as written transcript or visual documentary or recorded album, works best as a character study that does provide a fascinating insight into these four personalities, how they worked, joked, played, and argued. In those respects it's a fascinating document.