Mary McCartney didn’t want her new documentary about Abbey Road Studios to focus too much on her own family—her father, Paul McCartney, and her mother, the late Linda McCartney—their band Wings, or even The Beatles. She wanted If These Walls Could Sing to look beyond what she already knew and explore the countless other artists and iconic recordings connected with that legendary London recording space. But there’s no getting around it: The world knows Abbey Road Studios because The Beatles named their final album after it and because of that record’s famous cover image of John, Ringo, Paul, and George strolling through its adjacent crosswalk.

That album was being finished just days before Mary was born in late 1969, so she has no memories from that era. When she considered making the documentary, which will debut this weekend at the Telluride Film Festival, she found that her memories of Abbey Road Studios were connected to a much later image: her father crossing that intersection in 1977, this time with her mother and a mild-mannered pony named Jet. 

“One of the reasons I wanted to do this documentary was because I remember seeing a picture of mum leading Jet across the zebra crossing,” Mary says in the opening interview with her father. “Do you remember that?” He answers in the clip below.

Of course a photo like that must have a story behind it. And it turned out to be Mary’s key to countless other stories too, told in the film by Elton John, Jimmy Page, Kate Bush, Roger Waters and David Gilmour, and composer John Williams, among others.

If These Walls Could Sing was produced by Mercury Studios and Ventureland, and even before its festival debut, it has already been acquired by Disney Original Documentary, which will set a release date for Disney+.

Vanity Fair: We're showing a clip from the film of you talking with your dad about Jet the pony. I love that photo of them on the famous Abbey Road crosswalk. And you even say that it helped inspire this documentary. Can you tell me more about it?

Mary McCartney: Yeah, I'm a photographer. That's been my main career and moving to directing felt like a natural progression. I've never done a feature documentary. And I was starting to think I'd like to do one. And then I had a message from a friend of mine who's a brilliant documentary producer, John Battsek [Oscar-winning producer of the documentaries One Day in September and Searching for Sugar Man.] He said, "Would you do a documentary about the history of Abbey Road Studios?" And I was a bit like, "Ohhhh, I'm not sure for my first documentary that is right." 

It was too close to the family?

It felt too close. I still work closely on my mother's archive, so I messaged the woman that runs that at my dad's office and I said, "Have you got any photos of me at Abbey Road?" And she instantly texted me back the pictures that are at the front [of the film] and I just thought, "I'm going to have to do this documentary."

And the pony photo came with that?

Then I remembered when I was young, my mom loved horses so much. We had horses, not in London, but she would get to have them visit for the day from the livery stable. And I remember her taking this horse, Jet, as they were crossing and seeing that picture and just thinking, "Oh my God. I mean, obviously I have to do this documentary." So then I phoned my friend John and I said, "I'm in."

I know the documentary goes well beyond Paul and The Beatles, but I love that this was a personal entry point. I felt like I got to know you a little better as it was starting. And then you were the guide to this world.

I didn't want to over overplay it. I am passionate about Abbey Road as a place because I do think a lot of people don't have the opportunity to go there. When you do get to walk into Abbey Road, I do believe people get this feeling. It is sort of a spiritual experience and the studios still have the atmosphere that they had from when they opened 90 years ago. I want to make it an emotional experience as a documentary, rather than doing all the historical points. I didn't want it to feel like a lesson. I really, really hope the viewer falls in love with it.

The Abbey Road album, of course, connects us to Abbey Road Studios because everybody knows the album. But this photo of Paul was interesting because it's the same place, but a different time than when that album cover was taken. It's during the Wings era. And he's walking back the opposite way. It felt very symbolic in that way. And it's a horse instead of John Lennon. [Laughs.]

Yeah, it's comical! It's like a new start, isn't it? It's like he's with his wife, they've fallen in love and they're obsessed with animals. And they're going to break the rules a little bit by taking a horse into Abbey Road Studios. But also, I wanted to open on that zebra crossing because it is a place of pilgrimage for so many people. 

Your film notes that they're reluctant even to paint the walls of Abbey Road because they don't want to disrupt the aural qualities of the room. And I wondered if you could talk to me about that, of their efforts to preserve it. But also, technology must update or you fall behind.

There are three studios. Studio 1 is the biggest orchestral one where you have the classical performances and Jacqueline du Pré and the film scores. And then Studio 2 is more rock. But Studio 3 has changed several times over the years, so that one is more updated. But Studio 1 and Studio 2 is like, don't mess with it because there's nothing else like it in the world. There's nothing of that size and grandeur and layout.

And what I respect is they haven't changed it. Because so many places, people go, "You need to update it." And they change the floor and they change the size. But when you walk in Studio 1 and Studio 2, it's the same acoustics. That's why it's still there today because there is a certain feeling when you walk in. And they're busy. They're booked up right through the rest of the year.

Sometimes artists don't feel very precious about the places they work. It's the office, for them. But to the audience, it's a sacred place. I wondered if the musicians you interviewed felt that way about the studio. The only one who talked about it in mystical, magical ways was John Williams.

I think it was very soulful for him. It's very much about the feeling of the room. I think you are right. I think one of the most surprising things, and it links to what you are saying is, which I really didn't know, is that Abbey Road has all of this equipment lying around. So there would be instruments, like Mrs. Mill's Piano, or a grand piano that Daniel Barenboim was using, who's the maestro. And then The Beatles would come in, or Pink Floyd would come in and they'd be like, "Oh, can we play that?" And they would use them on their records. So in that way, there was sort of an irreverence of like, "What's that instrument in the corner? Let's call that over and let's put that on the track."

And that really interested me because that showed me that Abbey Road has really contributed not only the space, but the technical equipment and the instruments that happened to be there. It was little playground for everybody. 

You feature these famous bands, not just The Beatles, but Pink Floyd, who could be famously combative with each other. You interview Noel and Liam Gallagher from Oasis, who were notorious for that. Yet I was touched to see them talking in complimentary ways about each other.  Abbey Road was a place where people could synchronize.  

You're right. What I wanted from the interviews was to drill down into those musicians really feel about Abbey Road. "Do you really care about Abbey Road? It's a building and you recorded here, but whatever. Do you really care?" And I think from the interviews, you can really see they are thinking fondly about it.

Yes, there were some tense moments, or they're talking about some creative differences, or sometimes maybe they were a bit naughty in the studios. But I think ultimately there's a real love for the place. And I find that really interesting that people feel that way about a building still.

You did an interesting thing with Jimmy Page and Elton John. You talked to them not so much about their own famous songs, but about working at Abbey Road as background sessions musicians on other artists' hits. I didn't know that Elton John played the piano on The Hollies' “He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother,” or that Jimmy Page was a guitarist in the orchestra for Shirley Bassey's 007 theme to "Goldfinger."

It took a while! I knew that Elton John had played on “He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother,” but I didn't get the master until near the end of the edit. And I wasn't able to separate his piano until later. When you hear him playing, it's incredible. You're like, "Oh my goodness, that is Elton John playing piano."

The documentary is about Abbey Road, so always in the forefront of my mind was telling the story of Abbey Road Studios. So it opened with Edward Elgar conducting “Pomp and Circumstance” [at the studio's opening in 1931.]  Jacqueline du Pré—I've always loved her as a cellist, but I didn't realize that the pieces that I'd been listening to were [performed] there. So it all pieced together. It shows that it's pop, it shows that it's rock ‘n’ roll, but I tell the story through the musicians. 

And I was also really, really happy to get some spoken word from Kate Bush as well, which was very important to me. She produced her third record there. She wrote there and she directed the video [for “Sat in Your Lap”] there. So to me, that was very important to include her as well.

I wish you luck as you take this to Telluride. The last question I have for you is, whatever became of Jet the pony?

Jet was our pony for a very long time. He was named after the  [1973] song. He was a feisty little pony who we rode and loved. But it all comes back. I mean, that's a very unusual photo. And I loved the idea that by doing this documentary, I have been able to show the world one of my favorite photographs, which is my mother taking our pony across the zebra crossing to the studio. I just think it shows her character to a T and what a rule-breaker she was.