Beatles - Let It Be - DVD

I agree with you in general about lack of 50th Anniversary hype. Not sure what happened, maybe lackluster response to the products/merch that are out there? It's not too late to mark the 65 Shea concert, but you'd think there'd be some buzz building about it now. If the market for this type of merch has diminished to the point where the ROI isn't worth it, probably best to just drop it. Around SHTV there's no lack of passion for The Beatles, but we are a niche group.

 

When it eventually gets released, I hope it's the original version on one disc & any alternate version on a separate disc. Among the extras I'd like to see a documentary about why it was delayed.

 

Oh dear lord, no. Making that will cause more delays.

 

Seeing this thread has inspired me to post this. The original United Artists logo for the film, from the first Magnetic Video printings in early 1981.

Unfortunately, a Blu-Ray would likely plaster it with the logo of Apple Corps Ltd.

 

Not to stray too OT, but if they thought the jewel of their 50th Anniversary plans was getting fans excited to buy the cannibalized US versions of Beatles lps on CD (at full list price) they are kookoo bananas

 

The entire rooftop gig is likely to be seen and heard in 5.1 when Ron Howard's documentary about The Beatles live is released. If the whole gig is not in the film proper , then it should certainly be offered as an extra on any disc release. Moreover, given the fact that all The Beatles performances filmed for Get Back were "live"and assuming Mr. Howard has been given access to the film and audio, a release of the film " Let It Be" may depend on how Howard incorporates the January '69 sessions in his documentary.

 

Unless Apple Corps changes their marketing staff, don't expect to see them announce any anniversary milestones anytime soon. The last thing they seem to want is to put a stamp on the Beatles recordings as "old" music. They appear to want to push the Beatles as timeless, and not put any date monikers, which seems to be their solution to it, not sure it works or not, but the media certainly has no problems putting those anniversary tags on everything.

 

Apple Corps ''clueless'?. Hardly. Since the arrival of Jeff Jones we've been VERY well treated. Full catalogue remastered AND mono catalogue, too; mono albums on vinyl (as with the stereo catalogue), BBC Vol. 2, plus remasters of 'Red', 'Blue' & '1'(and recently on vinyl). I know that us Beatles fans want everything and NOW, but it doesn't work like that. Btw, 'the problem with 'Shea Stadium' is - AFAIK - the same as it was when it was restored during the 'Anthology' project; the support acts want a small fortune to use their bits. Apple don't want to release a 30-minute DVD, presumably, so I'm not sure how that gets resolved. Maybe some fans think the Neil Aspinall years were a thing of wonder. Lest we forget, he didn't even want any remasters. I'm sure Universal want more Beatles releases and I'm also sure that Jeff Jones is more inclined to listen than Neil Aspinall, but he has to sell it to the board. Aspinall didn't even try.

 

I recall sometime after the anthology was released on DVD and fans were commenting on how great the promotional videos looked in that production. Specifically , "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" were stunning in their color . It was then suggested that perhaps a full DVD of remastered promo films in 5.1 sound would be a great release for fans. Mr. Aspinall's response was that such an idea was "too obvious" and declined to comment further.

 

In regard to the Shea! film, Ron Furmanek mastered the film in stereo in 1991 and Apple did nothing with it. This was recently released on a boot DVD and the results are very nice. Makes one imagine what he could do with this footage with today's technology. Its funny that the support acts would demand so much because for the most part their appearances are very brief.

 

None of that summary offers any explanation on the 25+ year unavailability of Let It Be.

 

re: Neil Aspinall

It's always been interesting to me that Neil ended up being the guy who never pushed/proposed any new projects. It's ironic actually because he was the guy who devised and constantly pushed for "The Long and Winding Road" (later, of course "The Beatles Anthology") documentary to come to fruition!

re: Apple currently

Unlike these other proposed ideas for projects, the reissue of the "Let It Be" movie was actually announced, scheduled, and promoted about 11 years ago. I know it fell apart during the Aspinall years, but the four parties should have gotten their heads straight with that one and got it out. Some serious money lost by letting that one slip... That said, even at this point, I'd think Universal would love to see this reissued because it can only sell more more music and ancillary product.

 

Post #222 (in part).

 

I can't see George Harrison, on his death bed, whispering to his wife, "no matter what happens....never agree to release Let It Be!!!"

OTOH, I can't think of a better explanation, either. I don't see Yoko being the hold-up with LIB---she had no problem putting out other films that may have cast her or John in a less than favorable light.

 

"On Air" and some half-cocked movie Blurays aside (of which only MMT wasn't really 'off the shelf' and even then they mucked it up), the main thing Apple do is find yet more ways to milk the 2009 remasters. Six years old and we're still being constantly presented with them in slightly different orders on slightly different formats.

To a large extent, Apple seem content enough with what the bootleggers produce to not actually care about spending their own money on such things.

 

In fairness, people did gripe loudly about the absence of remasters for more than a decade, so you can't blame Apple for milking them for all they're worth now. The corporate strategy seems to be---re-release everything possible before moving on to stuff like the Promo Videos Compiled or Let It Be. Hence, we get Yellow Submarine and MMT on DVD for the 2nd time around before other items see their first reissue...

 

I can and will blame them for their greedy and lazy recycling of those remasters. It's unnecessary and desperate.

They're never going to do the promos (the 'promos DVD' market is sadly 100% dead by this point) or Let It Be (the same lame excuses as the 1991 VHS or the 2003 2-disc DVD), or any more outtakes/rarities albums (they just don't care). I would put money on it. The idea of 'extras' or fan-service of any kind poofed out of existence a while back. 2009 aside we've been no better under this Apple regime than the last one.

Basically, we all want to throw our cash at them for archival treats on CD, vinyl, DVD and Bluray. And they STILL don't want it.

 

My guess is any competing release would be delayed at least a year after Howard's documentary is released.

Once in 1987-1988 and again in 2009 is not greedy. Two remasters of the entire Beatles catalogue? Not a big deal, and there was a huge shift in mastering technology in 20 years. You want greedy and lazy, take Capitol Records and the Beach Boys' catalogue. How many times have those tracks been endlessly (Summer) recycled?

 

1990, 2000 and 2012 and that's not counting all those useless Pet Sounds remasters [SARCASM!].

 

Ron Howard's documentary about The Beatles, Jul 16, 2014.

Doing a Google search, this is all I could find. More waltzin' around a myth?
Still run my Magnetic Video Beta now & then.

 

I think it was Yoko who vetoed the release. She made the comment the "life's a long time" when asked when or if it is going to get released.

I'm glad I'm much younger and still able to hold on for a while.

 

To be fair, JJ, LOTS of countries have only had MMT on DVD once.

 

I was told quite a few years ago (while at the Beatles Convention in Liverpool - by someone who was VERY well placed to know) that it's not the person you'd automatically guess who's vetoing LIB. He wouldn't go any further than that, unfortunately, (and didn't even hint at who it was) and I wouldn't have asked him to betray a confidence.

 

AND The Stones, AND Elvis Costello, AND The Who.

 

I believe Mr. Furmanek also prepared Let it Be in the Nineties.