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Most of you probably know that “Let it
be” was never really intended to be a full-fledged Beatles album.
The idea was that a documentary would be made which would give an
insight as to how the Beatles worked, how they created new songs and
how in the end they recorded it all for posterity. Recorded at
Twickenham Film Studios in january 1969 the material was not issued
until the next year when the four Beatles had definitely decided
that it was all over. 1969 saw the release of “Abbey road” instead.
However when “Let it be” was released you could buy the ‘normal’
release or you could pay £1 extra for probably one of the first
limited editions ever released. That limited edition was packaged in
a large box and contained a thick book containing loads of stills
taken during the filming. At one point John Lennon was noted saying
: ‘let it be was the worst piece of crap we ever recorded so it’s
amazing to see what producer Phil Spector did with it to come up
with the eventual album’.
33 years after it’s actual release
“Let it be … naked” is released explained by a recordcompany
executive as being a token of ‘respect’ for The Beatles having been
given the green light by Apple Corps. I’m afraid that we have to
translate the word ‘respect’ in big dollar signs because if they
tackle this album they can take on every single official album the
Beatles have ever released. “Let it be” however seemed to be an easy
target because it was the only one produced by an external producer
being the rather extravagant Phil Spector. Getting rid of Spector’s
production and going back to the bare bones so to speak has some
reviewers label the new “Let it be” as being The Beatles’ perfect
garage album. For my taste the songs on this album still remain a
long way removed from authentic garage sounds as they are still too
sofisticated even with practically no arrangement. The Beatles
remain true genius even when they only tackle a handful of chords.
So what you get now are the original
recording sessions as produced and supervised by The Beatles and
George Martin. Remixed and produced again in the Abbey Road studios
the warmth of the analogue recordings is more apparent whilst tape
hiss has disappeared completely. When you put your headphones on and
you close your eyes you are there yourself, in Abbey Road studios
during the recordings in january 1969. So this newly released album
kind of acts as a time machine because even although visuals are not
contained within this package you can clearly imagine what it was
like so many years ago. For sure the people who worked in the studio
in 1969 can be seen as true magicians knowing the limitations of the
recording techniques back then. Today of course you can go as mad as
you like as everything has drastically developped yet the eleven
songs contained on this disc remain timeless. They could have been
written and recorded yesterday although I’m convinced that noone on
the whole planet has the slightest bit of creativity and genius that
these four musicians had. I’m convinced a superior God was
responsible for putting them together in the first place resulting
in the best band the world has ever witnessed.
The band then switched to further
rehearse and record their new material at Savile Row, London where
on 30th january ’69 they played an unannounced lunchtime
concert on the roof of the Apple buidling. It turned out to be their
last concert together … ever ! Four songs on this album were taken
from that session. In the end Glyn Johns compiled the album “Get
Back” which had to match the nature of the documentary but in the
end it was never released. That’s when these shelved recordings came
in the hands of Phil Spector who added two more tracks to the
original list. These songs are now omitted from “Let it be … naked”
to really focus on what really happened in january 1969. The Abbey
Road magicians have altered some mistakes such as Lennon’s vocal
blunder during the second verse of ‘Don’t let me down’ or his
inaccurate bassplaying on ‘The long and winding road’. The way the
arrangements have been stripped down results in “Let it be” being
the logical album in between the “White album” and “Abbey road”.
However it doesn’t come easy once you have known and loved certain
songs and it’s arrangement for more than thrty years. We all know
that Paul McCartney has never liked the choirs and strings which
Spector added to ‘The long and winding road’. Getting rid of this
‘over-production’ makes it difficult to enjoy the same song the way
you have done for over three decades. A song like ‘Dig a pony’ then
again proves the kind of direction Harrison is about to take for
solo purposes making the album a true hotchpotch of ideas. By
getting rid of the Phil Spector production Billy Preston’s
contributions also are more highlighted delevering indeed a
different endresult at times.
With
only a total playing time of a mere 35 minutes, EMI has decided to
include a bonusdisc. ‘Fly on the wall’ is as it’s title implies :
you feel as if you’re a fly on the wall in the studio whilst The
Beatles are recording their music. The 21’ long track is compiled
out of bits and pieces of recording and narration. No less than 21
musical snippets are used accompanied by 14 bits of conversation.
Personally I would have loved to have seen the “Let it be” film
added as a DVD. When “Let it be” was issued on vinyl in may 1970,
the limited run contained that lavish book. It would have been nice
to repeat this offer those many years later replacing the book and
it’s stills with the actual moving pictures as recorded in january
1969 on DVD. A missed opportunity ? However, although a lot of
Beatles enthousiasts will probably be thrilled with this new
release, finally being able to replace their dodgy bootlegs by the
‘real thing’, I do hope that EMI/Apple will not treat every single
Beatles output the same way because if they do they will damage the
Beatles legacy forever. Maybe they should have left the original
recordings alone and taken the title literally : “Let it be”. Indeed
!
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