Abbey Road 50th Anniversary Discussion. What Can We Expect?

HEY nice new profile picture!

 

I was in college when LIBN came out and I didn’t even really know about it until a friend of mine (who knew I listened to The Beatles) told me about it. His uncle had gifted him the CD and he has no use for it. So he was more than happy to pass it over to me

 

Hello folks,
Since we have a lot of Let it Be related discussions, I will ask it here.

Why there are 2 quite different Spector versions of the Let it Be track? I mean there's an album version with the "heavier" and imo, the best version of George's solo, different bass sound and backing vocals / orchestrations. Also the album version has very loud tom toms and overall sounds "rockier". And there's a single version, available on the 1+ and Past Masters, with different solo, and all above is also different. Who's idea it was? Who decided which solo to include and what is the rationale to have these 2 versions? I'm not talking about "naked" version here.

 

The single isn't a "Spector" version it is officially a GM production.

 

Yeah. Only been behind huge ssl desks a couple of times and at first they dwarf you. Wonderful to work on though. It’s been many years since i worked a real desk though. Nowadays it’s all software into summing amps, and sometimes not even the latter.

Agree 100% George soloing in an ill-suited minor pentatonic scale. George had the right ears on when he nixed that.

And don’t mind the missspell. Man i’ve had my name missspelled so much on albums i’ve done sessions for that nowadays i hardly thing about it ;-)

@Onder thanks man. I am nowhere your level in attention to detail

 

Spector had nothing to do with the single version.

 

I think I should have asked why there are 2 version then. Did not know that GM was also involved.

 

Yep, I would think anyone who has paid attention to mike knows that when he changes his profile picture, we're close.

 

Well, that's the main problem for me. The album doesn't know what it wants to be. You have the chatter and ditties like Dig it, the rough documentary feel, and then an orchestra and choir appear. It's jarring. Naked takes one option, and goes for it. For better or worse (I think for better), it's a more consistent album.

Not sure about Paul.

 

This. And clearly more than any other Beatles album, Let It Be offers the body of work in three distinctly different ways that any fan can embrace any way they like:

1. Glyn Johns 'raw'
2. Phil Spector 'produced'
3. Paul McCartney 'polished'

Pick your go-to, occasionally listen to the alternatives, there you go.

 

My LIB version starts with old Lennon/McCartney songs, then oldies, then non Album tracks that were worked on , then instrumental jams and rehearsals and then finally Let It Be tracks. It maybe be longer than a CD but it kind of tells a story.

 

Here's a video about the two different versions of Let It Be focusing on the guitar solos.

 

And here disappears the sun...

 

They were having a great time!

 

Its strange that these photos are from a Maxwell's Silver Hammer session. Seems hindsight made George seem like he didn't enjoy recording the song but from these photos it looks like him and Paul are having a great old time.

 

George Martin and Paul worked on Let It Be in Jan 1970 with the intent of releasing it as the next Beatles single. They had the same with Get Back/Don’t Let Me Down in Mar or Apr 1969.

Spector remixed the album in Mar 1970 and decided to do his own new mixes of both previously released singles, Get Back and Let It Be, for the new project. He chose different guitar solo overdub for Let It Be, perhaps in consultation with George Harrison. He also chose to exclude the coda from Get Back.

 

It’ll be interesting to see how Apple expands Abbey Road for the upcoming deluxe set. They don’t have original mono mix (like Pepper 50) or home demos session (like WA50) to include as bonus disc. So if they’re not going to very generous with outtakes, then it will be difficult to fill up content for at least 2 bonus discs (my guess is that AR50 set will be 3CD/1 Blu-ray package).

 

What's odd is they used a take of 'Let It Be' with that wrong played piano chord in the final 'Mother Mary' verse.

 

Love that mistake btw. It’s quite a beautiful (if unintended) little variation.

 

I can’t believe that I never heard that! Another new piece of Beatle information comes my way thanks to his forum

 

To be honest, for a long time I didn't notice that either. Thought it was just a simple double time chord for variation.^^

 

I seem to remember in Glyn Johns' autobiography that Johns said he was giving the Beatles what they had asked for. An album that doesn't have studio magic with overdubs. The Beatles wanted an album to show how they recorded new songs. Johns seemed to be putting the blame on the Beatles because it was their vision of how the album was supposed to be. When looking at it this way it seems unfair to blame Johns if you don't like his raw version of Get Back. He was doing what the Beatles asked.

I think once the Beatles heard this raw version they weren't happy and realized this approach was not going to work. They obviously had many other distractions and personal issues which led them to shelve the album.

 

I don't mean the rawness/lack of overdubs. I mean the subpar versions of songs he chose, and things like "Rocker."

 

Now what if Giles made it?

 

But then he compiled two or three more similar versions which also got dismissed. You would think after the first time he would have changed some takes etc.