Why disdain for "Let It Be... Naked?"

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Strat-Mangler, Jul 11, 2014.

  1. Lance Hall

    Lance Hall Senior Member

    Location:
    Fort Worth, Texas
    The people (like me) that criticize the sound are really just saying it could have been a little better.

    The overall concept of reducing the Spector footprint was welcome and something people have been wanting.

    It could still be tweaked and made a little better in a soft reissue.

    They revised the BBC set by dialing back the noise processing (I think) and removing some of the overlaps between tracks.

    They heavily remastered the Anthology series for iTunes and improved the poorer sounding tracks without remixing.

    I'd still like to see an updated "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" by improving on the 1999 mixes (and not replacing with the Giles mixes!). The vocals and drums are too loud and everything else too soft like Lennon's ice cream.

    I'm always improving my older remixes.
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2018
  2. bvb1123

    bvb1123 Rock and Roll Martian

    Location:
    Cincinnati Ohio
    Let It Be...Naked is better overall to Let It Be to me. Sans strings and chorales the music is more immediate. But I can't forgive it for using that terrible version of "Don't Let Me Down". Shut up, Paul! Let John sing his song!
     
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  3. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    100% agree.

    I didn't listen to Let It Be for about 10 years because I hated the vibe, the chatter, and the disastrous overproduction.

    Let It Be....Naked has a White Album feel to it, it saved the body of work for me, and I love it. No Beatles fan can say they prefer the Spector original.
     
  4. anth67

    anth67 Purveyor of Hogwash

    Location:
    PNW USA
    :thumbsdow
     
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  5. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    How can cleaning up the Spector production be a bad thing? Isn't that why so many criticize Giles Martin and his work on Pepper, ask him to stop the overproduction and leave things more clean and natural sounding?

    Make your minds up already.
     
  6. Contact Lost

    Contact Lost Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    I agree with that one. Imo, the best sounding version. The funny thing that this tune was already pretty naked as it was. It was fairly simple, acoustic masterpiece. One of my Paul's favorite. The naked version is extremely similar to the original overall, but sounds more cohesive, softer and warmer. I just can't listen to the original version anymore.
    I like the naked version one actually and it's my go to version. As above, I think the mastering for the naked album was just better overall.
    My go to version is 1+. Yes, it's a louder mix, I suppose, but I really like the EQ there. Love how the cymbals and guitars sound.
     
  7. Schoolmaster Bones

    Schoolmaster Bones Poe's Lawyer

    Location:
    ‎The Midwest
    Splitting hairs, I admit - but the two things about the Naked version that bug me: First, the LIBN edit repeats the line "...all through your life" instead of the Spector edit repeat of "...all through the day". Lyrically, I'm more inclined to the 1970 edit - it makes more sense to me poetically ("all through your life" sounds so final), which is what I replicated using the Anthology 3 source.
    Second, the LIBN mix fades early, leaving out most of the trippy organ sound at the end. I need to hear that organ at the end. That's good stuff.
     
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  8. abzach

    abzach Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    Let It Be (1970) is the second best Beatles album after Abbey Road and one of the best albums ever made. I like LIBN as well, but not at all as much - it's too cleaned up and the CD version is peak limited.
     
  9. Diamond Star Halo

    Diamond Star Halo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver
    This is how I would’ve been compiled Let It Be. All tracks are the Spectorized versions except where noted:

    Two of Us
    I Dig a Pony
    I Me Mine
    Don’t Let Me Down
    Ballad of John and Yoko
    Dig It
    Let It Be

    I’ve Got A Feeling
    Across the Universe (Anthology version)
    All Things Must Pass (demo)
    One After 909
    The Long and Winding Road (Anthology)
    Maggie May
    Get Back (single)
     
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  10. deredordica

    deredordica Music Freak

    Location:
    Sonoma County, CA
    I don't know. I grew up listening to the original, which I never had a problem with to begin with. When I heard the "naked" version, I didn't find the differences very compelling; I listened once and never looked back. Even if it is a bajillion times "better", I still somehow have no interest in hearing it again. I guess I'm just used to the original--of course, there most certainly could be a "nostalgia factor" at play here, though I did miss the strings, which I have always liked very much.
     
  11. anth67

    anth67 Purveyor of Hogwash

    Location:
    PNW USA
    I fall into none of your sweeping generalizations, sorry . I don't believe Spector is all bad (he rescued, and improved, Across the Universe), and in any event that's the album many have enjoyed since 1970 so a new version isn't going to supplant their hearts ~ this means they're not Beatles fans? : ) The new version is easily as flawed as Spector's for (mostly) different reasons ~ which can be summed up in the basic fact that it's not "naked" and therefore disappoints those of us who expected it to be what its name & press releases claimed. I don't have a clear preference between them, with their respective pluses and minuses.

    And I couldn't care less about Giles, I bought the Pepper reissue for the bonus tracks.
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2018
  12. slop101

    slop101 Guitar Geek

    Location:
    So. Cal.
    LiB Naked is great!
    I've always hated Specter's (over)production.
     
  13. I hadn't heard any disdain for LIBN until this thread popped up. I think I'd already heard some of the tracks on the "Get Back To Toronto" bootleg LP and didn't have a problem with them when that LP came out. LIBN is an insight into what the Beatles were doing at the time and how much impact Phil Spector had on his versions of their recordings. No. I don't think there is any disdain for LIBN at all. Plus, we still have the original LIB album around, so LIBN is just icing on the cake.
     
  14. MRamble

    MRamble Forum Resident

    Perfectly stated. LIBN finally felt and sounded like The Beatles.
     
  15. Chief

    Chief Over 12,000 Served

    I see LIBN as a botched project with many positive results regardless.

    If I was going to try this project, I'd include one of the Glyn Johns mixes on one disc. Then on the second disc, I'd include the fantasy "mashup" that they ended up releasing. And I'd call it something like "Get Back with Don't Let Me Down and 10 Other Songs" instead of "Naked".
     
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  16. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    +1

    I know it was a very popular album to millions of people, but to me it was forgotten. The movie was depressing, the cover looked bleak, Billy Preston overkill and cheezy orchestrations and shrill girls voices made it sound out of place. And the production was all muddied, unlike Abbey Road and the White Album which are sonic masterpieces, Let It Be sounded like it was hollow and vacant. I simply never listened to it. Instead, I had a boot of the Get Back album, and that was my go-to for 20 years. Still never cared to hear it even when the '09 remasters were released.

    When Naked came out I was thrilled. The same honest effort from the Get Back boot but cleaned up, tracks added, and just a night and day listening experience from a sonic standpoint, felt like the White Album Sides 5 and 6. To me it was discovering a brand new Beatles album I'd never heard before.

    When I hear so-called purists put Naked down as something the Beatles wouldn't have wanted, I have to laugh. They shelved the project as low-quality and only released it to cash out at the band's end. And the criticisms they themselves had of it with Spector's heavy hand, sloppy playing, false starts, it was a work they did not like.

    If you look at all the albums released after the band broke up, from Love to Love Songs to Reel Music to Anthology to Pepper 50, Let It Be....Naked is the best work that EMI has achieved. It's the only instance where a reissue is better than the original.
     
  17. A well respected man

    A well respected man Some Mother's Son

    Location:
    Madrid, Spain
    Nope. Paul didn't approve it or approve of it, actually he even asked the alterations to The Long and Winding Road to be changed (Spector didn't comply):

    [​IMG]


    So, as I said, none of the two versions were sanctioned by the whole group. The only difference is the Spector version came out 33 years earlier.
     
  18. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    From what I understand, after initially giving it the go ahead, Paul expressed these misgivings about this one song (and I can't say that I blame him). It's certainly not uncommon for a songwriter to have second thoughts about how the arrangements for a particular track turned out, but that doesn't negate the release. It was the version that was included with the complete reissue box set, not Naked. Even if some listeners prefer Naked, I don't see how this is even up for debate.
     
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  19. A well respected man

    A well respected man Some Mother's Son

    Location:
    Madrid, Spain
    No, he never gave the "go ahead". Read the letter: Spector added to the recording without his permission. Also, he says he had considered orchestrating the song and decided against it.

    In Anthology Paul makes it clear that he wasn't consulted about bringing Spector in to re-produce the record, and that he wasn't aware of what he was doing with it.

    It's also clear in this 1970 quote:

    The album was finished a year ago, but a few months ago American record producer Phil Spector was called in by John Lennon to tidy up some of the tracks. But a few weeks ago, I was sent a re-mixed version of my song 'The Long And Winding Road', with harps, horns, an orchestra and women's choir added. No one had asked me what I thought. I couldn't believe it. I would never have female voices on a Beatles record. The record came with a note from Allen Klein saying he thought the changes were necessary. I don't blame Phil Spector for doing it but it just goes to show that it's no good me sitting here thinking I'm in control because obviously I'm not. Anyway I've sent Klein a letter asking for some of the things to be altered, but I haven't received an answer yet.

    Let It Be


    Of course the version included in the box sets is the Spector version. It's the original release, no one denies that. I'm just saying Naked is just as legitimate as a Bealtes album. Both came out when the Beatles had already split up, and both were done without the whole band's consent.
     
  20. anth67

    anth67 Purveyor of Hogwash

    Location:
    PNW USA
    One came out 5 minutes after they split up, eight months after their previous album (which had come out TEN months after the album before it), as a final release in their initial trajectory...of all new (to the public) songs. Excepting the singles, which had nevertheless never appeared on an album.

    Not sure how you can say that something compiled & edited 33 years later, with no new songs, with only two Beatles still on the planet earth, could be "just as legitimate a Beatles album."

    But as always on these threads...we can agree to disagree :frog:
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2018
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  21. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    One of the band members objects to the arrangements on one of the songs and that's enough to throw the whole thing out the window? O.K.
     
  22. alchemy

    alchemy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sterling, VA
    Why disdain for "Let It Be... Naked?"

    Well not so much disdain, as for me a missed opportunity.

    1) I've liked The original Let It Be since it first came out. I was bummed that I didn`t get the original box set with the booklet.

    2) Why not on the re-issue, issue it as a box Set.
    Include the new version, the remastered original, how about re-masteres of the Glyn Johns versions.
    Add in for fun the complete Roof Top performance, including first and second takes.

    Then add two bonus discs.
    One I would call Warm Ups, all those different takes of old rock 'n' roll songs.
    I don't care if the takes are incomplete or fall apart. That to me is the Fly On The Wall.

    The Second one I would call Damon's. It would have the demo's and first takes of original songs intended for the project. Once again as Demo's I don't care how raw they are, or how un together the takes are, once again, I'm a Fly On The Wall.
     
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  23. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    I get so tired of the Spector ruined The Beatles revisionism. With LIB he took a shambolic mountain of tape and turned it into something commercial.

    Same with All Things Must Pass. He took some good ideas that were often too modest in their execution and turned them into a good commercial product.

    In retrospect might be have made some mistakes with these albums? Sure. But not as many as the revisionists would have us believe.
     
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  24. Diamond Star Halo

    Diamond Star Halo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver
    For the most part, I think Spector did a good job on Let It Be. He picked all of the best takes, and did an excellent job of editing it all together. My main gripe is with the over-the-top schmaltzy orchestra and choir The Long and Winding Road. Also, I hate Spector’s slowed-down, smacked out Across the Universe with all the choirs and strings and such.

    If Spector made the decision to omit Don’t Let Me Down, that’s also a strike against him.

    As for All Things Must Pass and Imagine, I can’t stand the production on either, although most of the songs are still too good to be ruined by Phil’s excesses. All too often his “wall of sound” approach doesn’t serve the songs. Unlike George Martin, his string arrangements sometimes sound schmaltzy and dated, and he overused them.

    It has been documented that Spector was not involved with Plastic Ono Band despite the producer credit, so that would explain why the production is minimal and works so well.
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2018
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  25. muffmasterh

    muffmasterh Forum Resident

    Location:
    East London U.K
    i agree, Spector save the project but at the cost of totally compromising the whole point of it. Johns versions were unreleasable and probably the whole band knew it ( certainly John and George ) thats why they vetoed them but then Spector finds the takes that Johns couldn't but then unforgivably adds orchestration to some. However it could be that due to time constraints - the hatchet job had to be done quickly - orchestrating those tracks was an easier quicker fix to save them.

    As i understand it Don't Let me Down was removed by Klein for the Hey Jude tidy up album.

    There is another thread about what LIB could have been and i posted my suggestions for that on that thread, i have always been of the opinion that Naked was a missed opportunity, there is a great album lurking in there and we just haven't unleashed it yet, its a half way between spector - who nearly got it right but blew it - and Naked which lacks both the cohesiveness of Spector's and the chance to create a pseudo live roof top set side two and removing the chatter which I liked, my naked would have been :-

    All Chatter & Dig It restored, but all other cuts cuts from Naked

    Side one
    Two of us
    Long & Winding Road
    I me Mine
    Across the Universe
    For You Blue
    Dig it
    Let it Be

    Side two, pseudo live roof top set ( but using the cuts from Naked plus chatter and maybe even added chatter. )

    Dig a Pony ( but with the all i wants restored if possible )
    Get Back
    One after 909
    Don't Let Me Down
    Got a Feeling
    Get Back reprise
    Then after a short pause i would add Maggie Mae as a kind of " Her Majesty " touch right at the end.

    I would also not be adverse to addressing some of the criticisms of some of the Naked cuts if possible, but this is not a big an issue for me as it seems to be for some others.
     

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