Let It Be/Get Back 50th Anniversary Releases! (Content and Sound Quality Discussion Only)!

I am not talking about some kind of "50 years later" hindsight, but simply what happened between February and June 1969 that led to the shelving of the album. Nothing to do with them breaking up, not about infighting and band drama, simply what happened with Get Back as an album. Just with text, as was used throughout the series when there was no footage.

As for the AAA release, the tapes being "retired" or "worn out" is an ooooooold excuse. They failed to do it with the stereo box, but did it with the mono box and red and blue albums. The fans have been asking for the two stereo only albums to be released AAA since 2014 and they have failed to do so. They did un-needed "remixes" instead. Certainly for Abbey Road and Let It Be. The other albums have their definitive versions released in high quality, AAA that matches the original releases. The two stereo albums also deserved the same treatment. I hate the digital "Abbey Road" record, it sounds awful to me. Hell, I would take a AAA release from the 1978 ToEMI 76cm/s dub from the master that was used for the Pro-Use record and "black triangle" CD!

This is just one of the reasons I hate the "remix" rubbish that everyone is doing now. A 50th anniversary is the time to do something like a AAA release, even as a final "never to be done again" analogue release. Instead, they pull the "remix" card. If remixes were done Bowie's Station To Station style with a remix AND a AAA record (and flat transfer to CD in this case), I would not care less about the remixes. I said the exact same thing in the Hunky Dory 50th thread after that godawful Changes remix appeared on youtube. Remixes, especially those that are NOT NEEDED such as Abbey Road, are just an insult to the original work in my opinion. Especially when all the artists are not alive to approve what is being done to their legacy. I have not heard it yet, but I keep reading that the Let It Be remix appears to be barely different to the original for most of the album. The Long and Winding Road excluded of course. I played the AR remix record once, I wonder if the LIB remix will be different?

Actually on topic, why the hell did Glyn Johns assemble such an apparently terrible batch of takes for Get Back? That seems to be what I am reading. None of the rooftop performances were used? That was the whole point of them! I will be interested to compare the Get Back versions to the LIB versions, seeing as rooftop performances WERE used there. I have to wonder how the album would have turned out if they had just stuck to Martin as they probably should have, AND if there were no cameras on them constantly.

 

I often hear people talking about the album being “shelved” or otherwise suggesting that the delay in releasing it reflects a lack of confidence in the material, but I really don’t think that’s what happened. It’s much simpler than that: even before Glyn made his first compilation, it had already been determined that the album that would become Let It Be was going to be at least a companion to Lindsay-Hogg’s film, if not an actual soundtrack, and so the delay in releasing it was driven by the completion of the film above all other factors. After all, the album was released on May 8, 1970, and the movie debuted May 13 in the US and May 20 in the UK. That’s not a coincidence—that’s a plan.

 

Funny how they know there’s strong interest in the rooftop concert that they would create a special IMAX event but not include it in the Let It Be box.

 

Opportunity for a further big release in a few more years. Got to hand it to record companies, they know how to milk their assets.

 

And still not give us everything us oldsters want......

 

Well, Giles *did say* that the Rooftop, as well as the many studio jams, were best seen and heard at the same time. And the album has three of the five songs already.

I think we would all like an uninterrupted rooftop, and all these newly published tunes, but would they make a good Beatles album?

I think all these tunes are better served as extras on a deluxe blu-ray set, as Giles’ remark suggests. And Mr. Jackson is known to have issued those in abundance. His recent online research into the Beatles recordings in February indicates that he is not done with this project.

 

I generally concur with your feelings about remixes, finding them of little interest other than as mere curiosities to be listened to once or twice and then quickly filed away for reference purposes. For Let it Be Giles deployed a lighter hand than previous, and with the gains in clarity and fidelity over the previously issued versions it has it uses. I still find it flawed by his insistence on unnecessarily boosting the low end on everything which changes the overall tonal balance more than I would like, and found it necessary to roll off most of this in software to arrive at my final listening versions.

Glyn Johns did in fact use the "One After 909" rooftop performance in his version (in an inferior mix to Spector's), but yes, otherwise I think he was just too close to the project, and his concept of presenting the band in loose rehearsal rather than a final polished studio product just didn't work - and was rightly rejected by the band. Too bad in retrospect that George Martin either lacked the interest or had been consciously pushed aside by the band to such a degree at that point that he couldn't have played a larger role in the project - likely bringing a more "big picture" focus it definitely would have benefited from.

 

….sorry, ladies and gents, can’t read 581 pages…..so forgive what’s probably repetition……

Discs 2 and 3 could fit onto 1 disc (very nearly) and disc 5 could have been tacked on the end of disc 1 and most people don’t have BluRay hifi so the heck with “6CD”…..

Disc 4 (Glyn Johns part 69 + part 70 mix apparently)- calling it “……the ****tiest load of badly recorded **** with a lousy feel to it ever…” [Lennon Rolling Stone 70] may have been a bit over the top but Spector certainly made very significant improvements, TLAWR notwithstanding (I think he did a fair job on Across The Universe)….probably should have “flushed out all the extraneous inanities to really do a number on the music.” [Shaffner, The Beatles Forever, probably the best 70s Beatles book]

….presumably we’re going to get a Get Back soundtrack album at some point?

 

I was surprised by how rarely George Martin was seen in Get Back. As producer, did he not have some commercial obligation to deliver an album for EMI?

 

No. He hadn’t worked for EMI since 1965, where he became a freelancer.

 

Even if he wasn't a salaried employee, someone must have been paying him. Did EMI no longer have a financial interest at that time? I suppose if Apple was the only company involved, and that company was owned by the band, then no-one would be applying pressure to George Martin to deliver product.

 

George Martin’s primary role would have kicked into gear only when they decided to start running the multitrack recorders. Until that happened, they weren’t supposed to be making an album—they were just rehearsing, albeit in the presence of a camera crew for a TV special. So when you see GM around before that, he’s there mostly to just gain familiarity with the material they’d eventually be recording. Which is why he’s present at Apple a lot more than at Twickenham.

 

John Lennon introduces him as their A/R-man. I know he was still their producer when they recorded at EMI, being a hired freelancer by then. But was he ALSO hired by EMI as their A/R-man at that time?

 

Also, I’ve heard his name is George Modern.

 

Absolutely no idea, probably not, and people have been upset over that for months already

 

I think John was being a tad facetious.

 

Here Comes the Sun alone needed a remix. Vocals panned to one side the whole time on the original is not a good mix. There was no insult done in providing a better mix.

 

We’re not sure how long they’re going to stretch this project out. They presented it as if it would just be the streaming, now they’re introducing the physical release, and the concert in IMAX. It could very well progress to an expanded edition, or a physical release of the concert, video and/or audio.
It’s not something to hold your breath for, but it’s still a possibility down the line.

 

Same as every other live album in existence

 

That is how George wanted it. That is all that matters to me. Nobody was bothered for 50 years after all.

Again, if a AAA LP of the original had been included in the box with the remix, I would not care less. The remix means we will not get a AAA now to replace the awful digital 2012 record. They will only want to flog the remix now. I doubt the 2012 is even in print now. It certainly seems to be scarcer now.

 

LOVE vocals panned to one side. Love split ADT vocals. Hated the centering on HCTS, ruins the feel of the original.

 

Nostalgia is clouding your judgment.

 

Yep when it went from being a TV show of a concert to be broadcast live as it happened with a preamble of rehearsal footage, to a feature film being made of the process, the timeline for an associated album would also have changed

 

He used One After 909 from the roof - it kicks off his album.

The Let It Be album also used his master studio takes of Let It Be, The Long and Winding Road, Maggie Mae, Get Back, and For You Blue. (Dig It too - but it's an excerpt). Of course, there were overdubs and/or remixing on these - by George Martin and/or Phil Spector - but they're the same takes.

I actually like Glyn's sequence. I did a "What If?" post where they didn't hand the reigns over to Phil, but instead asked Glyn for one more revised version:

Let It Be/Get Back 50th Anniversary Releases! (Content and Sound Quality Discussion Only)!

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. Technically - it also uses Glyn's takes of I Me Mine, and Across The Universe, but they weren't actually tracked during the Get Back sessions, so I didn't list them there.

 

I just played the CD box set this weekend while doing some housework and while it is a very nice listen especially the "Get Back" album...……

I just can't understand why or why not Giles could not come up with even 1 CD/Vinyl worth of "Best of Twickenham" material. Presented as a "warts and all" approach, it would have been nice.

That part of the story is sadly nearly 100% missing from the "Let it Be" anniversary box set.