Let It Be (Enhanced, Limited Edition, Original Recording Remastered)

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The Beatles

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For those who don't know the story, the tension and frustration experienced by The Beatles during the "White Album" sessions reached new heights during the GET BACK sessions. In an attempt to bring spirit to the band, Paul was pushing to have The Beatles play live again. Perhaps his thinking was that playing together (as they used to do) would reunite them (as they used to be). Instead, there was much talk of breaking up. It was decided that the group should at least rehearse together while being filmed, but George Harrison actually walked out and quit the group for a few days. Apparently what John said regarding The Beatles at this time was indeed a group reality: "It had become a job."

Excluding the filming that took place at Twickenham Studios (brought to a close by tension within the band and George's walkout), the GET BACK sessions began on January 22, 1969, and ended just nine days later, all of it taking place at the band's Apple headquarters rather than Abbey Road studios. Although The Beatles behaved a little better when keyboardist Billy Preston was brought in, the sessions did not go well, being mostly jamming--meandering from song to song. As George Martin appropriately pointed out, "they were rudderless at this time." Martin was not on hand for much of this, and even when he was present, it is unclear how involved he was. Engineer Glyn Johns was asked to compile the album--not George Martin. Though Johns complied, the ill-fated GET BACK was never given the group's stamp of approval and was left unreleased for over a year.

In January 1970--after the release of the glorious ABBEY ROAD but prior to Phil Spector's involvement--Glyn Johns was given another shot at compiling the album, but this turned out to be another futile attempt to make presentable the sessions that Paul has called "the break-up of The Beatles on film."

Early in 1969, Allen Klein became involved with The Beatles; it was agreed (excepting Paul) that he should run the group's finances and business affairs. Klein, who profited from any additional Beatles releases, was the most likely impetus behind the release of LET IT BE and the involvement of Phil Spector, with whom Klein had worked previously. Klein was notorious for bringing in his own people; George Harrison himself recalled that it was in fact Allen Klein who suggested to John and George that they should have Spector listen to the tapes. John and George, being Spector fans, certainly approved of the idea. So unbeknown to Paul or George Martin, Phil Spector was brought in to have a go at it. Martin recalled that it was all very sneaky and done behind people's backs at a time when "Allen Klein was running John."

Spector produced the LET IT BE album in seven days, beginning on March 23, 1970, and ending April 2. His version involved many edits and an abundance of remixing. The orchestrated overdubs on "Across The Universe," "The Long And Winding Road," and "I Me Mine" were done in one session--the arrangements were by Richard Hewson, not Spector. Two songs on LET IT BE did not come from the GET BACK sessions. John's vocal on "Across The Universe," along with some of the rhythm instruments, came from the original takes recorded in February 1968; and "I Me Mine" was recorded in January 1970, a full year after the project.

Overall, I don't think that the GET BACK sessions were particularly great, nor do I think that they should be trivialized. Although the performances are perhaps not quite representative of what The Beatles were capable of, the songs themselves are strong enough to overcome these less-than-ideal renditions. Spector essentially took the music from the rehearsal-like sessions, dressed it up, and powdered its nose. I never did believe that the orchestra and choir added to "The Long And Winding Road" turned Paul's song into something phony. This great song holds up under Spector's treatment, and I'm glad that Paul finally admitted it wasn't so bad: "I don't think it made it the worst record ever."

I enjoy Spector's LET IT BE and think it worthy of a five-star rating, probably because I'm such a Beatles fanatic. My gripes, however, are that (1) the recordings of "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down" released as the single should have made the album (instead, Spector's mix is solid but inferior on "Get Back," and he sidestepped "Don't Let Me Down"); and (2) the mix of "Let It Be" that became the single is superior to the one on the album, and I also prefer George's guitar solo on the single.

LET IT BE... NAKED, the latest attempt at presenting the material, does not address the inherent problems with the GET BACK sessions--the reasons that caused them to be rejected in the first place. Instead, this cleaned-up version again exposes a band that was focusing more on problems than on music. Why is LET IT BE thought by many to be the group's weakest effort, and ABBEY ROAD (recorded a few months later) thought by many to be one of the greatest rock albums ever made? I think it is clear that in the case of the latter, (1) the band members put aside their differences to focus on the music; and (2) George Martin was allowed to fully work his magic.

Without getting into further details and writing pages here, suffice it to say that I will always wish that George Martin had been given a serious shot at producing this album from the beginning. Maybe then we would have had another Beatles masterpiece.

[NOTE: There are two reviews of "Let It Be". The first review was originally published on Amazon.com October 20, 1998, the second March 6, 2000]

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Review 1 - The Messy Let It Be Masserce, October 20, 1998

I'm sure people (some of them, myself included) have heard all the negative hype about this record, and wanted to know what was up. I mean, come on, its The Beatles, only on very rare occasions did they mistep, so what's up with this particular one? Its all live. Its extremly messy. There's studio chatter on a lot of the tracts. Two of the tracts (Maggie Mae, Dig It), one is 50 seconds long, the other 40. They're two throwaways. Then we get to the (in)famous contribution from the wall-of-sound guy Phil Spector. I, like most other people, think that what he did pretty much ruins it. Across the Universe, it isn't that bad, but would have been better in its unvarnished state. One thing I like is what he did with I Me Mine, which is a great song. The original is on the Anthology 3 record (along with the original master version of The Long and Winding Road that Phil Spector ruined with his wall of sound.), and is far to short. What he did with that works. Long and Winding Road, I'm so glad they finally issued the original song. its so much better than the "official" version.

This is a seperate entity for the Beatles discoriagraphy. For The Beatles, yes it is sloppy, yes it is flawed, yes it was a mistake for The Beatles to bring in Phil Spector. Despire all of that, its a charming record. It has to be appreciated in itself. Its like an offical bootleg. You see the songs in process. Its like part of the Anthology cannon. There are some very charming moments.

One thing about this particular record tho', is though it gets bad hype all the time, this blows Beatles For Sale out of the water. No comparison. Whatsoever. To me, that is by far the worst Beatles record.

Oh, and whatever they say about Dig a Pony, don't believe them. Its one of my favorite tracks off this record, and I'm surprised that this in particular they pick on a lot. Two of Us is good too. Those two and I Me Mine and Let it Be are my favorite tracks.

Also, it has to be taken in context, The Beatles, forever tryign something new, were challenging themselves to make a record without overdubbing. It was all live. After they made the record, they thought it was "rubbish" (As Lennon called it), and proceeded to record the masterpiece Abbey Road. And they were fighting all the time. George Martin walked at on this album because of the tensions between The Beatles themselves. And still they recorded this. Granted, its a messy record, but any other artists who were going thru what they were at this time, there's no way they could record a record this good. Its definately worth having. Its Raw, Its Live, Its Messy. Its still really good too. And remember, a substandard Beatles record is better than most others best work. You'll be missing something if you don't get this. As one review once said, "All that said [talking about the problems I talked about], the album is on the whole underrated, even discounting the fact that a sub-standard Beatles record is better than almost any other group's best work."

It you want the Three Beatles Masterpieces, they're Sgt. Pepper, The White Album, and Abbey Road. Its amazing that one band can have so many classics in their discorigraphy. It a band could reach even 1/4 of the genious of any of these three, they'd have a masterpiece. And here are THREE! And that's only the top ... they have so much more!

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Review 2 - The final offical word from the Beatles...., March 6, 2000

AN interesting album as a whole. An interesting note about the production is that The Beatles shelved this album, and Phil Spector was brought in long after they had recorded it to sort through this mess and make a feasible album. I'm sure there is more stuff they could have included on it. The "Ain't She Sweet" off Anthology 3 was very good. There are many unreleased cover tunes from this era. Also, I think the single "Don't Bring Me Down" should have been released on there too. But for some strange reason, it was on the single only, making it one of their many B-Sides.

Another interesting thing is they totally got away from the point of this album. It was to play live. Well, they did, and I guess they thought it really sucked or something, because they sure as hell backed off and went to their usual recording style with their last album and their swan song Abbey Road. Interesting to note, however, that the last session they had as a group (with Lennon not present and not counting the Anthology session) they recorded I Me Mine, which was the very definition of all the problems plaguing The Beatles as a whole.

Bottom Line: Messy, live, two or three tracks WAY over produced. We had to wat TWENTY SIX years to get a decent version of Across the Universe. (Anthology 2 is by far the best of the commercially available 3 versions)

I'm the author of "The Messy Let It Be Massecre". If you find that helpful, or you do not like it, please put your vote here, as it will go on my review page.