THE BEATLES: LET IT BE (1969-1970)
1) Two Of Us; 2) Dig A Pony;
3) Across The Universe; 4) I Me Mine; 5) Dig It; 6) Let It Be; 7) Maggie Mae;
8) I've Got A Feeling; 9) One After 909; 10) The Long And Winding Road; 11) For
You Blue; 12) Get Back.
I am going to go for a little change of
protocol here. Technically, Let It Be
was the last original Beatles album, since it was released on May 8, 1970,
exactly one month after the infamous McCartney press release about his leaving
the band. It was also the last album on which three out of four Beatles (no
Lennon) recorded a new version of an older song (George's ʽI Me Mineʼ, with the
final sessions dated to January 1970), and most of the mixing was done in
March/April 1970 by Phil Spector. Naturally, most discographies and review sets
place it at the end of the line. Besides, it's called Let It Be. The title track is called ʽLet It Beʼ. How could there
be a more perfect title and a more perfect title track for the Beatles' swan
song?
But, ironically, the first rehearsal of ʽLet It
Beʼ took place on January 3, 1969, at a time when tension was already running
high, but there was no thought yet of an actual break-up — and the song was
never intended as a musical testament, as it is quite easy to see from the
lyrics. On the contrary, it is a pacifying piece, maybe even a subconscious
plea for everybody to just take it easy. Which no one did, unfortunately,
because by early 1969, Paul's «take it easy» was unequivocally understood by
everyone as «take it easy and just do as I say», whether he really meant it or
not.
The «finished» album may have come out in 1970,
but in 99% of all possible ways and manners, it belongs in early 1969; and
props must be given to Spector for preserving much of the attitude of early 1969. Upon release, Let It Be was heavily criticized for sounding ragged and
unfinished, but that is exactly what the Beatles' musical grip was at the time — ragged and unfinished.
If you ever saw the movie, you might even get the feeling that the Beatles themselves were quite ragged, although
much of this has to do with the cold London climate and the necessity of
getting up early in the morning to participate in the filming.
I have no reason to doubt that Paul's complex
plan to revitalize the band was undertaken with the best of all possible
intentions. Unfortunately, it just proved what many might have felt all along:
namely, that being a genius composer does not automatically make you eligible
for «smart politician». Probably the most correct strategy at the time, if one
really wanted to preserve the band as
a single entity, was to take a break — let everybody's nerves cool down after
the already heated White Album
sessions, invent alternate outlets for everybody's individuality, maybe even
settle on part-time solo, part-time collective careers. Instead, less than two
months after The Beatles was
finally launched, Paul was pressing the band back in the studio, and how.
The idea of getting «back to the roots»,
playing much of the material «live in the studio», like they did in 1963,
without giving in to studio trickery where each band member would sit in his
own cubicle, turned out to be disastrous. For one thing, it'd been a long,
long, long time since they ever did anything like that — two or three years at
least. Listening to the early takes of Let
It Be material, or watching the Twickenham footage in the movie, shows just
how painfully rusty, and, at times, quite sloppy the results came to sound. For
another, it actually involved spending more time in the presence of each other,
and an increased necessity of compromising
— something that was much more easily done in 1963 than in 1969.
And finally, it was just plain wrong. It is one thing to abandon an
idea that did not work, and retrace one's steps back to the previous level
when things were going all right. But the concept of «getting back to the
roots» from a level that you have
perfectly mastered is nothing short of ridiculous. (Four years later, a
similar change of mind would forever destroy the «hipness» of Eric Clapton).
Simply put, Paul's plan was completely doomed from the start, and it also laid
to rest whatever hopes there might have been of the Beatles eventually sorting
out their mutual problems. In a way, Paul did
kill the Beatles with the «Get Back» project — injecting a lethal dose of camaraderie
instead of a careful, step-by-step treatment.
Still, the Beatles could be fairly great even
at their collective worst, and for demonstrating that, we have to say a big
thank you to Phil Spector. These days, mostly due to active counter-propaganda
on Paul's part, his role in the album is usually remembered as that of «the guy
who put those corny strings on ʽThe Long And Winding Roadʼ, but I am completely
on John's side of the debate: strings or no strings, Spector took the chaotic,
confusing, incoherent mass of tapes from the January 1969 sessions and made the
best of them. And, furthermore, he did not merely select the «cream of the
crop» — he somehow managed to convey the dishevelled, tense spirit of the
sessions, while at the same time avoiding showing us all of their blandness. In
other words, Let It Be manages to be
a glorious mess, as compared to the depressing mess that we can now officially
observe in the outtakes included on Anthology
3.
Paul's original idea was to record the final
version live, and Spector actually respected that intent: although only four
songs were included from the «Rooftop Concert» — the culmination of the whole
enterprise — there is certainly a live feel to the entire album, conveyed by
the inclusion of snippets of dialog, pseudo-announcements ("I Dig A Pygmy,
by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids! Phase One, in which Doris gets her
oats!"), and little odd bits like the band launching into an accappella
comic rendition of ʽDanny Boyʼ at the end of one of the rooftop numbers. Throw
in such snippets as ʽMaggie Maeʼ and a little slice from the large ʽDig Itʼ jam
that introduces ʽLet It Beʼ, and the informal, messy feeling is complete.
It does not necessarily help, because the ʽDig Itʼ jam is pointless, ʽMaggie Maeʼ is just a
moment of occasional silliness, and the jokes and adlibs are only funny for the
first time. But it provides some authenticity. There is no way that Let It Be could ever demand to be
included into a Beatles «Top 3» or
something like that, anyway — so, if this is going to be a relatively minor
release, one might as well throw on something special that would indirectly
hint at why it is a minor release.
Sure, the best explanation would probably have to be the heated McCartney /
Harrison studio exchange, captured in the movie, but that's carrying it a bit too far. We're happy enough with Lennon's
self-ironic "thank you on behalf
of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition" at the end
of the album. Would there ever have been a reason for asking that question on
any previous record?
Still, there are at least three fully
accomplished, well-produced, «completed» Beatles classics on the record — one
of John's (ʽAcross The Universeʼ) and two of Paul's (the title track and ʽThe
Long And Winding Roadʼ), which is already more great stuff than there is on...
er, Yellow Submarine. John's song
is intentionally «transcendental», and probably the quintessential «transcendental»
Beatles song altogether — again, not without irony, considering how this
stately, gracefully flowing, humbly meditative anthem was written and recorded
at the height of the Beatles' personal quibbles and quabbles. Discussing the
religious ecstasy of ʽLet It Beʼ is hardly necessary, although I must mention
that this particular version is my personal favorite, compared to the single
release and the movie take — because of Harrison's decision to make the solo a
little more dynamic and «screechy» by going all the way up before elegantly
coming down again.
As for ʽRoadʼ, well... frankly speaking, the
song is not one of my favorite McCartney ballads anyway, so it is hard for me
to say whether it works better or worse with Spector's strings or without them.
It's got plenty of romantic pathos in its original incarnation anyway, so if it
is the «corniness» that annoys the listener, it's right there from the
beginning. If, however, it is the amazement at yet another impeccable piano/vocal
combination from Macca's heart that you're after, the strings arrangement hides
neither part of it from you.
Of the «rooftop» numbers, ʽGet Backʼ is the
only one that approaches the same level of accomplishment, and for good
reason: the band must have spent plenty of time working on the song in the
studio, to get locked in such a tight, ideally directed groove, with Billy
Preston on electric piano as the star of the show. Arguably McCartney's
greatest contribution to the restrictive world of the boogie — that stomping,
cavalry-charging rhythm seems so simple when you come to think of it, but
somehow, nobody ever did it just like that before. Had all of their new songs
come out sounding thus easy-going and inspired, the message of "get back
to where you once belonged" might not have been wasted on the band.
The bad news is, instead of going on another
creative rampage, a lot of studio time was wasted on remembering, rehearsing,
and re-recording old standards — from ʽBlue Suede Shoesʼ to ʽBesame Muchoʼ —
none of which had any reason to appear on the final album, and none of which,
fortunately, did. The only exception was made for the Beatles' own ʽOne After
909ʼ, a song they'd originally tried to record at least in 1963, and now
replayed it «rootsy-style» on the rooftop. It's funny, and they had lots of fun
playing it, and it features an original Billy Preston piano part with a cool
«electronic» ring to it... but for some reason, I've always enjoyed the
original version more: the slower, more relaxed, laid back original matched the
sarcastic lyrics better than the rooftop version, which tries to kick more ass in
a rowdier way. Besides, John and Paul's voices do not mix up all that well on
the live performance.
On the other hand ʽI've Got A Feelingʼ is, to
me, the forgotten gem on the album. It makes for a classy, fresh, inspiring
start of Side Two; it's got one of the band's best ever «looping» riffs; it's
really two songs alternating with each other and then locked onto one another;
it has George Harrison playing the nastiest licks of his career at 1:25 into
the song (and it's hilarious how he never
managed to get them quite right in the Twickenham Studios part of the footage —
and then got it so perfectly once the band was finally on the roof) — and even
the lyrics make sense, because it is... well, it's probably the world's finest
ode to human ability to feel. In that
respect, it's funny how, in this battle, it is Paul who is the herky-jerky one,
whereas John is all but playing the Dalai-lama on the "Everybody had a
hard year..." part. Down with stereotypes!
Sure, the album feels incomplete. Some of the
songs are objectively underworked — George's ʽI Me Mineʼ, fantastic as it is,
lasted all of 1:34, and Spector had to replay the same section twice to bring
it to a more logical completion (with brass overdubs on the second verse so it
wouldn't feel too obvious). John's ʽDig A Ponyʼ gives the feeling of leaving
too many melodic lines unresolved, as if he wasn't given enough time to
complete all the sections. ʽFor You Blueʼ feels a little naked, too, although I
love the song dearly because of its odd combination of sounds — John playing
lap steel and Paul getting it on with an electric piano that seems to have been
dragged out into tropical sunlight and left out to dry for twelve hours
straight (I almost physically feel dehydrated myself each time after the
performance).
But let us also remember that, much to the
Beatles honor, they realized it full well themselves: this is why the final
album was indefinitely shelved, as the band regrouped itself for the final effort
of Abbey Road, and this is why it
was only released after it became clear to everybody that a brand new studio
album from the Beatles was not forthcoming.
Let It Be is a self-acknowledged
failure, with a few moments of utter brilliance and some moments that are not quite up there (but, goes without saying,
still better than 99% of the... well, you know). It should not be passed off as
«just another Beatles album» — it is in equal parts a Beatles album and a
historical document, and should be taken as such.
Which brings me to my last point: the recent
re-invention of Let It Be as Let It Be... Naked is little more than
a postmortem curio (I'm not saying «cash bait», because the process of messing
around with the tapes again may have meant much more to Paul than simply an
extra source of revenue). By discarding the Spector «innovations», taking out
the «live» bits and snippets, and reshuffling the tracks, the Naked version tries to pass it off for
«another Beatles album» — but it doesn't work that way. That Beatles album never
existed in the first place. And I have no interest whatsoever in hearing ʽTwo
Of Usʼ without the "I dig a pygmy...!" introduction, or ʽOne After
909ʼ without the ʽDanny Boyʼ bit.
Particularly the latter. Watch the Let It Be movie and you'll have to agree with the obvious: throughout
that cold and miserable January of 1969, the happiest moment in the Beatles'
collective life happened during those forty minutes of playing on the roof —
fueled by the genuine excitement of it all and the impending danger of getting
their heads smashed in by the police. The more of those minutes we have included
on our copy of Let It Be, the better
it makes us feel — realizing that the whole venture was not a complete waste, after all. At the very last
moment of his crazy plan, Paul finally had it going right. Too bad that forty
minutes of playing live in the cold never got around to compensate for twenty
days of misery that preceded it. Not even Billy Preston helped in the long run.
I can only hope that future re-editions of the
Beatles' catalog will never succumb to the mistake of replacing the original Let It Be with the Naked version — although, perhaps, both have a reason to exist. To
me, the Beatles are interesting not only as masters of the pop hook, but also as
live human beings with a juicier feel for the universe than my own, and I sense
their presence as such much better on the original album than on the sterilized
«remake». Not that it's a matter of life and death or anything — screwing
around with a Beatles album is nowhere near as dangerous as screwing around
with the multiplication table — but on that little grading scale of life's tiny
nitpicks it at least feels more important to me than the Greedo controversy.
Am I wrong in thinking that Paul McCartney is more precious for humanity than
George Lucas? You tell me.
I just have some thoughts on the break up of the Beatles because I can't add much to the musical discussion after your flawless analysis.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, you are right, Paul, in all his best intentions, destroyed the group. I've read nearly every Beatle biography under the sun, and what I've taken away is that George, John, and Ringo had a sort of 'whatever' attitude towards continuing the Beatles, while Paul REALLY wanted it. Perhaps if Paul backed off the pedal a bit, allowed George and John to make some solo albums, and didn't put so much weight on movies and live performances, the group would have just continued to meet every 2-3 years in the studio to make a quick album like they did with 'Abbey Road.' In the end their differences never seemed to be a question of friendship, but rather that of business and personal ambition. The bullshit of the 'Let it Be' film and album, coupled with the Allan Klein fiasco, was the real destruction of the group, not really Yoko or Linda. These events led to a decade of bitterness that left no real possibility of a Beatles reunion in the 70s, but the 80s was a whole different ball game. John was very much involved and aware of the 'Anthology' project, which had been in the works since 1970, and supposedly, the plan was for a reunion on some Beatle anniversary in the mid 80s. Here are incredible Yoko quotes,
"Just days before his brutal death, John was making plans to go to England for a triumphant Beatles reunion. His greatest dream was to recreate the musical magic of the early years with Paul, George and Ringo...(he) felt that they had travelled different paths for long enough. He felt they had grown up and were mature enough to try writing and recording new songs."
Pretty incredible, no?
Not wrong at all. George Lucas has great ideas, but left to his own devices he cannot marshal them properly - see the prequels. Paul benefited from the other Beatles' influences, but he could certainly hold his own.
ReplyDeleteGeorge,
ReplyDeleteLong time follower of your reviews. Another fantastic review (as usual)! I have a few factual corrections for you however.
First off, "Across the Universe" was actually recorded a full year earlier in early '68, as part of the same sessions that gave us Lady Madonna and Hey Bulldog. The song was written when they were followers of the Maharishi (which makes sense given all the meditation-centric lyrics). So it wasnt really written and recorded at the height of their personal squibbles, it was written and recorded when they were rushing to catch the Marrakesh express! Phil Spector slowed the take waaaay down and added strings etc. As seen in the movie, the Beatles were practicing the song with the intention on re-recording it, but they never did.
Secondly, the version of Get Back thats on Let it Be is not a rooftop performance. Its actually a studio version (recorded on Jan 27th, the day after the single version was recorded interstingly). Phil Spector dubbed in rooftop clips at the beginning and end to make it seem like it was the rooftop version. So they did spend alot of time perfecting that groove in the studio and this is actually one of those rehersals.
Thanks for all the great reviews!
Also, its actually not an eletric piano that Paul is playing in For You Blue - its a regular piano thats been distorted all to hell. They did the same trick in Lady Madonna actually.
DeleteWas the distorted piano in For You Blue an example of Paul looking for a different sound, or just really crappy microphones in Apple's makeshift basement studio? You decide!
Yep, thanks for the corrections. The mikes did capture the rest of the instruments properly, so it must have been intentional. The "normal piano" takes sound far less intriguing.
DeleteI really dislike the whole notion of Let It Be...Naked. Really, all that Paul did was remove every single aspect of the record that came from Phil Spector. He used the same takes, edited together the same way even. He just removed all traces of Phil Spector from the album. Interestingly, this album was timed right when Phil was on trial for the murder of that young woman!
ReplyDeleteDon't Let me down sounds different from single version.
DeleteDon't Let Me Down wasn't on Let It Be though, it was only a single. Phil Spector didnt produce the original version of Dont Let Me Down because the single came out in 1969 and he wasn't involved yet.
Delete>I really dislike the whole notion of Let It Be...Naked. Really, all that Paul did was remove every single aspect of the record that came from Phil Spector. He used the same takes, edited together the same way even. He just removed all traces of Phil Spector from the album.
DeleteWasn't that literally the entire point?
You're wrong, JeffGutman - the 'Naked' album is NOT merely the "same takes" - quite obviously "I've Got a Feeling" and "The Long and Winding Road" are both different takes (in the case of "Feeling," an edit of an alternate rooftop take grafted onto the original album take). Title track has portions of an alternate take.
DeleteHow could "every single aspect" of the Spector production be removed - in your words - when you point out that some of the edits are, in fact, Spector's work (including the missing intro for "Dig a Pony" and the lengthened "I Me Mine)? Not "all traces" of Spector have been removed.
And why continue propagating the notion that McCartney himself was somehow personally responsible for the production of the "...Naked" album? He wasn't. There was a team of people working on it. McCartney DID NOT do the actual dirty work of producing the remixed, re-edited takes on "...Naked."
Two more comments, George:
ReplyDeleteThe solo guitar part in Ive Got a Feeling at 1:25 is actually John. You can see Paul teaching him the part in the film during the rehersal scenes and John's looks overwhelmingly annoyed.
I thought it was interesting to learn that Jefferson Airplane performed a rooftop concert one month earlier (Dec 1968) in NYC. I wonder if the Beatles were inspired to do their concert after hearing about Jefferson Airplane's?
Don't think so. George is always credited on lead guitar for 'I've Got A Feeling' in every source I've seen. In the Twickenham part of the movie, the camera is on John, but they are sitting next to each other and are really playing that descending line simultaneously. The final take is all George, I think.
DeleteThe Jefferson Airplane thing is probably a coincidence, but who knows. I thought the Beatles settled on the rooftop just because it was the easiest thing to do out of all the ideas proposed for the live finale.
I think you're right George! All these years I thought that John played that lick in Ive Got a Feeling - mostly because of the way the footage is edited in that scene in the movie where they're practicing the part. In the rehersal footage, they keep cutting to John while the part is being played. But on second thought, the actual tone of that guitar part is entirely the tone George had during the rooftop concert. Good call!
DeleteThis feels like their swan song to me, since at least one new song was recorded (the great "I me Mine" was only rehearsed the year before) and Spector completed others unfinished by 1970.
ReplyDeleteQuality-wise, only "Pony"/"Feeling" are disappointing while the short pieces of side one are decent filler. Love the orchestral aspects of Paul's anthems plus "Universe."
A fitting end considering all the problems they faced, splitting up before deteriorating like so many bands have.
I've never had a problem with this album, to be honest: many people seem to really hate it or disregard it with a weird passion. The weird-looseness of the album (perfectly captured by Phil Spector, as George pointed out, and ruined by the perfunctory and rather mean spirited "Naked" mix, which I dislike) is a first in the world of the Beatles. Yes, the "White Album" had a wild ruggedness to it but that seemed more like a conscious decision. The ruggedness here comes from the material, the playing and the weird atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteAnd from Spector himself, who, in spite of his horrific personality, personal life and the stupidly tragic end of his life, was an amazing producer. Not JUST because of his wall of sound (though that's his calling card) but for his ability to capture the feeling of a recording session and translate it to an album.
Blame him for the strings? Blah: I honestly feel that's a bit of a McCartney "in hindsight" complaint. People complain about the strings (not one of my favorite Paul songs but the strings at least give it an epic, tragic feel) so Paul says "oh that was all Phil!"
I find it hard to believe that Phil would do something like that against the will of the artist, even though he was an egomaniac and a lunatic.
The reason I feel this way is evidenced by his "production" on "Plastic Ono Band." Where are the generic swooping strings? The wall of sound? Non-existent and I believe that's because a) John probably told him he didn't want that on this record, though Phil would later provide him with that on later albums and b) Phil realized himself that it wouldn't suit the material. As a result, the album sounds like a highly polished demo.
Anyways, yeah fuck "Let It Be Naked" nonsense. The songs are still good but they lose the charm of the original album.
Trying to Rewrite history George? :P
ReplyDeleteWhat I mean to say is that, yes this album was created before Abbey Road, and, yes, we'd all have liked Abbey Road to have been the Beatles wonderful swan song; but, in the minds of the public and the record buyers, it was Let it Be that was the Beatles final farewell, warts 'n all. I know it's a pedantic quibble, but it was a peicemeal kind of ending for the band with this album, and this was the final album in every other respect other than chronologically.
Anyway, personally I vote for I've Got a Feeling as best track.
The problem with I've Got A Feeling is that my horribly addled brain now instantly associates those words with that godawful Black Eyed Peas song that used to get played on the radio every 10 minutes.
ReplyDeleteWhen I made my personal definitive Let It Be mix on iTunes, I used songs from Anthology, Let It Be and Let It Be...Naked. Even then it leaves me with an incomplete feeling.
ReplyDeleteSorry George, but this time I have to disagree with your review. The 'Let It Be' album is a mess, but not a glorious mess like the White Album, but an awful mess in which the most sloppy sounding Beatles songs sit uncomfortably close to their most overproduced tracks ever. In this case I feel that the finished product is less than the sum of its parts.
ReplyDeleteI don't enjoy either the many Lennon's adlibs stuck at the beginning and end of nearly all McCartney songs, it seems like a desperate attempt to fool listeners into thinking that John was still leading the band, and a personal insult to Paul. To follow the title track, reportedly written by Paul as a tribute to his mum with a drunken ditty about a prostitute of Liverpool is beyond tasteless. Again, it's shocking to hear how much worse than the single version is Spector's mix of 'Get Back, when both versions used the same take. And whatever happened to George's guitar on 'For You Blue'? You hear that delightful intro, and suddenly that guitar is gone.
It's a pity because I think The Beatles really did wonders, when you take in account the fraught circumstances under which this album was recorded, and that it was recorded in just ten days, what they did with the left-overs and some unfinished snippets of the White Album is nothing shirt of amazing.
Had it been properly mixed and sequenced it would be a damn good LP. Not their best but still a worthy addition to the catalog.
I did too my own custom-made version of 'let It Be' with which I'm quite happy, I think it has a better flow to it. This is the track order:
01.Get Back (single version)
02.The One After 909
03.For You Blue (Let It Be Naked)
04.Two Of Us
05.Maggie Mae
06.Don't Let Me Down (single B-side)
07.I've Got A Feeling
08.Dig A Pony
09.I Me Mine
10.The Long And Winding Road (Anthology 3)
11.Across The Universe (WWF album)
12.Let It Be.
I'm gonna have to defend the naked side of the argument here, I mean I agree that the record lost a bit of it's humour/liveliness but aside from that the naked album is (imo) an overall more solid album, almost every song song is better than its counterpart be it in production or a better take altogether, the album is indeed transformed from a "second-rate Beatles album into one more worthy of their legend".For proof check out 'the long and winding road' a completely different take which is a lot more beautiful and free of Spector's cheesy orchestrations with a breathtaking piano solo, I can really see why Paul was so upset, also 'For You Blue' sounds completely different as you can really hear the drums (especially in the intro) and Harrison's guitar. As for the title track, this is my favorite version (which also appears on the movie) as the solo here feels to me much much more melodic and sincere. All in all, I think this album suits the 'Back to Roots' idea much more efficiently and I think Paul was quite justified in making this version.
ReplyDeleteJust a mention here for the widely-bootlegged Glyn Johns "Final Mix", as authoritative as any subsequent mix (and my personal favorite). Avaialable always through torrents or the usual internet evil-doers.
ReplyDeleteIt drives me crazy when people blame Paul for wanting the band to do what a band is supposed to do -- create music and play live. Gosh, how outrageous of Paul to want to do that. And the fact is, George and John were grown men who AGREED to make Let it Be and then behaved like snotty sullen teen-agers throughout the recording process. They didn't HAVE to agree to make the album, but once they did agree to be there, sheesh, be a pro, stop whining, and get down to business. Or quit. But they chose to be in the studio and then they chose to whine about it endlessly. Question: Why do people always attack Paul's behavior during the Let it Be period yet never cast a spotlight on how badly John and George behaved?
ReplyDeleteSecond, I actually prefer Let it Be Naked to Let it Be. The track order is better. The inclusion of Don't Let Me Down is essential. And the removal of Spector's heavy production on Long and Winding Road and the removal of the children's voices on Across the Universe vastly improves both songs. Finally, the three John-Paul tracks in a row (Two of Us, I've Got a Feeling, and One After 909) make for a powerful one-two-three punch about the intensity of their collaboration. What's not to love?
I don't miss Lennon's snotty asides (usually directed at Paul's songs) at all. Let it Be Naked puts the focus back on the music -- and not on John's self-absorption and need to have the attention focused on him all the time.
-- Drew
P.S. I think John wanted all those spoken bits included on Let it Be because otherwise it becomes obvious that his own compositions on this album are really, really weak, compared with Paul's. Those spoken bits serve as a distraction. They're a way for John to demean Paul's songs when the real story of this album was how little John contributed to it, substantively.
ReplyDelete-- Drew
But the big question, left unanswered: is this a "two thumbs up" review or not? ;-)
ReplyDeleteI don’t feel as strongly about the “Naked” version as you or everyone else does, apparently. Although it doesn’t really meet the original back-to-the-roots objective, neither does the Spector version, obviously. Part of the problem is, as you mention, the Beatles had evolved into professional studio perfectionists, which was in direct conflict with the boo-boos-and-all concept. The thin, anemic takes of some of the songs on Anthology 3 reemphasize the point -that album would have sucked. However, “Naked” is a pretty good compromise – it’s just a different way of looking at the songs, and, in some cases, it improves on them. For what it’s worth, here are my choices:
ReplyDelete“Two of Us” – a very slight edge to the Naked remix for clarity, but it’s essentially the same.
“Dig a Pony” – not a great track, but the guitar is a bit louder and stronger on Naked.
“For You Blue” – like the extra acoustic guitar overdub and the louder piano on Naked.
“The Long and Winding Road” – I agree, one of Paul’s weakest Beatles song. I’ve HATED Spector’s schlocky arrangement since I was 12 (although, as Spector has correctly pointed out, Paul has used similar arrangements when playing the song live, like on Wings Over America and Live in New York City 2009, for all his complaints). I go with Naked here, too.
“I’ve Got a Feeling” – I can’t really tell the difference between the original and the remix. I also agree a fun and much underrated song.
“One After 909” – same here. Naked is a bit louder, I guess.
“Don’t Let Me Down” – another one that was never a favorite of mine. The single version is my preference – the Naked version is a little too rough.
“I Me Mine” – Spector’s idea to lengthen the song was great, and the orchestration adds drama without overdoing it. The original album version, by a hair.
“Across the Universe” – I’m probably in a minority of one here, but I actually think the Anthology 3 version (Take 2 from 2/68) is the best. The one guitar and the phasing effects pull off the perfect combination of simplicity and other-worldliness that is a bit atypical for the Beatles. On the other hand the WWF/Past Masters version may be George Martin’s single worst production job. Unusually sloppy. However, the other two versions, but with and without the choir, are nice, too.
“Get Back” – the single version, hands down. The coda pushes the song into a truly classic Beatles track - -why did they feel they had to chop it off for the album?
“Let it Be” – the Spector mix. Phil pushed George Martin’s horn arrangement from the single to the front of the mix without overwhelming the song. The Naked mix seems, well, more naked without it. Plus, Phil chose the stronger, more intense guitar solo from the two on the mulititrack master.
And I have to agree – even at their most dispirited, the Beatles could still make fine music.
The long and winding road version of Naked is much better than the original. Paul's Two of Us (about his one day trips with Linda, not about the early days of his friendship with Lennon, like some many people think)is also more impressive, without John's intrusive spoken bits.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally agree with Greg, when he said:P.S. I think John wanted all those spoken bits included on Let it Be because otherwise it becomes obvious that his own compositions on this album are really, really weak, compared with Paul's. Those spoken bits serve as a distraction. They're a way for John to demean Paul's songs when the real story of this album was how little John contributed to it, substantively.