Beatles: Let it Be (album)

I've grown to like the TLAWR orchestration and choir. It gives the song a 70's vibe.

 

Let It Be is my least favorite Beatle album, despite being one of their records I bought upon release (I was 11 at the time). I can still remember getting home with it and trying to understand what a "new phase Beatles album" meant. At that age, I also did not understand/realize that Abbey Road was really their last album, but that due to the now well known internal discord, LIB came out after AR. I know many forum members really like LIB, but I personally just can't get there. It's still a Beatles album, so in the end, it's all good.

 

Without wanting to drag this into the realm of fan fiction, I wonder what would've become of the sessions had they not (I assume) been under contract to put the film out. A lot of the work on the final album (eg, rejigging Across the Universe and recording I Me Mine properly) seemed to be geared towards making sure they had a proper soundtrack album for the film. If they hadn't felt obliged to put out a film soundtrack, perhaps they would've scrapped most of it and just put out Get Back and one or two other singles. (I know, I know, the film and concert was a lot of the impetus for doing the sessions in the first place...)

 

I much prefer the spare versions of "The Long & Winding Road" & "Across The Universe"..."Let It Be" I dig either way & prefer the more raw & ripping & less effects laden Harrison solo (though I love all of his solos on this one)... Concerning "The Long & Winding Road", I'll add that McCartney himself chose an even worse over the top slick, & far from sparse arrangement when he re-did on "Give My Regards To Broad Street" too.
The "Wings Over America" version had horns (that seemed to echo the Spector/Hewson model to me), but sounded much better than Broad Street...

 

No "I Me Mine"?! & even more so no "Across The Universe"?!?!

 

some great songs ,but overall sloppy with not the best Lennon Abby Road is a lot better

 

I like Let It Be. It was one of the first Beatles albums I ever bought. I was 13 at the time. I think I bought Pepper and then LIB. I wanted a mature Beatles album and didn't know anything about the White Album. I recognized that it was pretty sloppy and ragged but I figured that they were just trying to distance themselves from the more polished approach of Pepper and what I considered the bubblegum aspects of their early hits. I have always loved "Two Of Us" and regarded it as one of their best songs. I loved "I Dig A Pony", mostly for John's delightful vocal delivery. "I Me Mine" was an instant telegraph of George's anti-materialistic philosophy. "Across The Universe" was visionary to me. "Let It Be" is a classic, with a guitar solo as iconic as that in "Stairway to Heaven." I didn't think much of "The Long and Winding Road" at the time but it's my favorite track now, bubble machine and all.

It's a great album to me and the original is definitive. "Naked" was interesting for a couple of spins but it's no replacement.

 

thats pretty close to my prefered selections, but yours can be done with already existing releases, I'd also keep a lot more of the chat from LIB but good darts on that selection !

 

I agree although the fact that John and George stole the tapes in the dead of night to give to Spector would indicate that at least those two knew that the John's version could never be released commercially, and for all its faults ( some of which are not forgivable ) LIB does tidy it up massively and make a releasable album rather than a mish mass of demo's, the songs deserved better than that and grudgingly Spector granted them at least that

 

you could argue neither of them were part of the project. certainly not across. if i were releasing the album in 1969 i would leave them out, if releasing in 1970 however i would happily include them....the naked versions anyway.

 

I was 17 when this album was released in the Spring of 1970, a senior in high school. I was so used to everything The Beatles put out being the best thing I’d ever heard that Let It Be was something of a disappointment. It wasn’t so much the Phil Spector production that bothered me, it was the throw-away feeling of some of the songs, especially “Dig A Pony” and the “Dig It” snippet. On the other hand, I absolutely loved “Across The Universe” and “The Long And Winding Road,” the same songs that get bashed for the Wall Of Sound treatment. And I really liked “Two Of Us” and “One After 909.”

As a U.S. fan, I was used to Beatles albums having current and recent singles on them. With Let It Be, that would have meant including the single versions of “Get Back” and “Let It Be” (“Don’t Let Me Down” having already appeared on the Hey Jude album). So I was especially perturbed when the single versions of those songs did not appear on the album. I would cringe when I heard the heavy guitar parts on “Let It Be” and fume about the absence of the coda on “Get Back.” I wasn’t familiar with the usual British practice of not including singles on the albums and didn’t appreciate that we were actually being given more bang for the buck. I didn’t own the two singles, and I wanted the “correct” versions of those songs!

As time went by, I began to understand the hatred for the Spector production on this album. But Let It Be . . . Naked did not, in my view, fix the problem. From the get-go, the new version made a major mistake by once again removing the coda from “Get Back.” Not even Paul’s “woo-o-o” at the end, just a sudden cold stop! The problem was exacerbated with the rooftop songs, such as “One After 909” and “I’ve Got A Feeling,” which eliminate the chatter at the end by using very abrupt and unnatural fades. But there are saving graces: I really like the treatment given “Across The Universe,” and I think the new version of “Don’t Let Me Down” (cobbled together from the two rooftop performances) is better than the single version. I also like having the different guitar solo in “Let It Be” and the alternate take of “The Long And Winding Road”—far superior instrumentally to the take used by Spector, even though I’ll never get used to the lyric change (“you’ve always known”) that Paul made to that song. It’s bad enough that “Let It Be” talks about Mother Mary (I know, it’s actually Paul’s mum), but now it sounds like TLAWR is addressed to an Almighty and not a lost lover or friend.

I also don’t care for the running order of the songs on Naked, and it just lacks the charm of the original version. It certainly doesn’t capture the “warts and all” intent of this project. My way around the missteps of Naked and the excesses of Spector is to simply burn my own version, using the remastered Let It Be as the template. I substituted the de-Spectorized version of “I Me Mine” from Naked; replaced “Across The Universe” and “The Long And Winding Road” with the unfinished, truly naked versions of those songs found on Anthology; and exchanged the album version of “Let It Be” for the single version off Past Masters. That got rid of the Wall Of Sound. Then I added two songs to the track list: “Old Brown Shoe” (before “Across The Universe”) and the single version of “Don’t Let Me Down” (before “Get Back”). I like “Old Brown Shoe” here; its inclusion gives George a weightier presence on the album, and the group did rehearse that song rather extensively during the studio sessions of January 28. Finally, I replaced the coda-less version of “Get Back” with the single version, editing in the spoken bits before and after the performance. As before, the album ends appropriately with John’s “I hope we passed the audition.” And it’s proper that this follows the coda, since The Beatles did in fact perform a coda during the live rooftop performance of “Get Back” from which that quip was lifted.

The original Let It Be will always be my go-to version. But I’m glad to have Naked, and it’s kind of fun to rewrite this chapter of Beatles history by burning one’s own.

 

LIB is definitely my least-favorite Beatles album, though not necessarily the one I listen to least.

Truthfully, I wish George Martin had been given the chance to put together the album. IMO, the "Don't Let Me Down" single was the best thing to come out of the LIB sessions, and it's of my favorite Beatles songs, period.

I also really dislike "Long and Winding Road" in all its incarnations. Too maudlin, and too same-y, given that "Let It Be" is on the same album.

It would have been nice if some of the non-album singles made it onto the LIB album and, obviously, it would have been especially wonderful if the Beatles had gone back into the studio for a week or two to get down good versions of rehearsed songs, like "All Things Must Pass."

Given that that did not happen, though, I have a hard time choosing between the Johns mix, the official release, and Naked. All have their strong points and flaws, but none sound as good as the single of "Don't Let Me Down."

 

His objection was more over the fact that he wasn't involved in the process and the arrangement was over wrought.

The horn parts are much more restrained than the use of the choir AND strings.

 

LIB is a good album but not quite up to Beatles standards. I never liked the Spectorized Long and Winding Road (even at 14 when it first came out, I knew something was off about it, though I didn't quite know what or why), and I think I've only listened to the original album twice since Naked came out. I think Naked is clearly the superior version, though I do miss the banter from the released version. Though I could live without the electronic effects on the Naked version of Across the Universe, it's still better than the sludge that Spector poured all over the original release. Similarly, what Spector did to the title tune is a crime (for the record, the original single release is my favorite version of that song, and perhaps my favorite record of all time).

 

I like the sound of LIB Naked. Brilliant clarity

 

I remember not being able to listen to this mix all the way through. Reguardless my in top 5 favorite Albums by The Beatles.
White Album has always be my favorite of all time.

 

It is interesting to think about what would have happened had the Let It Be album never been released. It would probably have gone down as a classic 'album-that-could-have-been' in the same mould as Smile.

It would probably have improved the reputation of some of the songs like Dig A Pony and For You Blue.

I can imagine Let It Be, Get Back and The Long And Winding Road released as the singles from the sessions (like Good Vibrations was released as a single), with the other songs remaining unreleased until the Anthology albums.

The other positive about that situation is that we would probably get a great box-set like the Smile sessions box, which is something that I think that Apple should release, so that we can make our own versions legally and with ease.

 

Your optimism is precious
However, this is the Beatles.

 

I would've preferred the "Get Back" album a lot more but I do enjoy "Let It Be" too. In fact, I was just listening to it over the weekend (US vinyl 1st press) and was thinking that the Phil "Spectorazation" of the set really was not as bad as I remember. Perhaps, as noted by others, it sounds a lot better as it ages and the story behind it fades away from first hand aging memories.

 

I just picked up a NM original Apple Let It Be a few days ago. I too was a senior when the album was released and had been a Beatles fan all my young life. I haven't owned the original vinyl version of the album in many years and it's interesting to go back and give it a listen. I guess it's because this is the way I first heard the album but the Spector production doesn't bother me at all. In fact I like it. I think that the naked version is worth owning but I'm happy to get back to my memories of the way the original record sounded. It was always kind of bittersweet listening experience for me, even 44 years ago. I still remember going down to the local theater and watching the movie when it was released and leaving with a somewhat melancholy feeling. The dream was indeed over.

 

That looks pretty good. I would swap "Don't Let Me Down" with the single version, and try to make an exception for (A3) "I Me Mine" and (LIB Naked) "Across The Universe", as those tracks are so thoroughly identified with this album.

I have a somewhat unusual experience with this album, as my first exposure to these songs was from a bootleg 8-track my older brother acquired. The proper 1970 LP came out shortly after. I've never been quite satisfied with any version, with the possible exception being the bootleg 8-track.

 

January. Get Back sessions. Bump.

 

I've mentioned this in a few other posts. It would have been interesting if some of the sessions were captured on video tape as opposed to film. Both Revolution and Hey Jude were filmed in both mediums I believe. I have to guess it was cheaper than film even back then. Even if they had just one camera running. Even though your original thread is about the album, just a comment on your bump. My general point is if there was more video record of performances, might have been easier to create a DVD of the LP. Might look weird though to show them playing live to an orchestrated recording. This (a DVD of the actual released album) is a different idea than what I have stated in the past- a DVD of finished live performances stripped, and in lieu of the "controversial" movie.

 

In the lower order of Beatles albums.

I'll take the original over the others.

 

I enjoy Let It Be on a whole. I'd rank it tied for my 4th favorite Beatle album to listen too. Spector may have overdid orchestration some but he essentially salvaged a product which may well have went unreleased had things turned differently. For that I am forever thankful.

LIB Naked shouldn't have had an official release IMO. I do not believe in trying to rewrite history. Better to leave as bootlegs and allow for the eternal debate over the Get Back sessions and subsequent Beatles album.