SOUNDTRACK: THE BEATLES-Let It Be (1970).
I wrote about this album back in 2015.
Of all the fascinating details about Beatles releases, I don’t think any are more fascinating than the details about Let It Be. I’m not even close to understanding everything that went on here. But in a nutshell, it seems that they went into the studio to record an album called Get Back. They were even going to film the whole things. It got scrapped. Some members quit the band then rejoined. And then they recorded Abbey Road.
And then the band did a concert on a rooftop (almost exactly 46 years ago!). And soon after they broke up. Then some producers decided to release Let It Be as a soundtrack to the documentary made about their recording. They used some of the material from Get Back and some from the rooftop concert and then Phil Spector got involved and put all kinds of strings on everything and then the album was released in the UK on my first birthday.
There’s lots of snippets of dialogue which seem designed to make it feel like a soundtrack (which it doesn’t). There’s really short snippets of songs, there’s raw live songs, there’s overproduced string laden songs. It’s kind of a mess. But in there are some good songs too.
“Two of Us” is a pretty folkie number that I like quite a lot although I first became familiar with it from a Guster cover (which is pretty fine). I never quite understood the title of “Dig a Pony,” but it’s a big weird sloppy song. It’s kind of fun to sing along to—especially the falsetto “Beeeecause.” This song was recorded from their rooftop concert and it feels rawer than some of the other songs.
“Across the Universe” is a lovely song. Evidently Lennon didn’t contribute much to Let It Be, so they threw this on to give him more content. I actually know this more from the Fiona Apple version (which I think is actually better than this processed version). I don’t really care for the strings and echoes feel on this version. “Dig It” is a short piece of nonsense. It was exerted from a lengthy jam but for some reason only this little snippet was included on the record–it sounds odd here.
“Let it Be” is quite a lovely song. I don’t really care for the Phil Spectorisms that were done to it—the strings and choruses seem a bit cheesy. At the same time, the guitar solo (which is quite good) sounds too raw and harsh for the song. “Maggie Mae” is a traditional song, another bit of fun nonsense. I like “I Me Mine,” it’s rather dark and the chorus just rocks out. “I’ve Got a Feeling”, was also recorded on the roof, so it feels raw. There’s some great guitars sounds on it. Evidently it was initially two songs, and Lennon’s part (the repeated “everybody” section) was added to it.
“One After 909” sounds so much like an early Beatles song–very traditional rock and roll (which means I don’t really like it). Although the version is raw sounding (it was also recorded from the rooftop) so that’s kind of cool. Huh, Wikipedia says “the song was written no later than spring 1960 and perhaps as early as 1957, and is one of the first Lennon–McCartney compositions.” “The Long and Winding Road” is where all the controversy comes from. McCartney hated what Phil Spector did to his song. He HATED it. And I have to agree. It sounds nothing like the Beatles–it sounds very treacly and almost muzaky. It feels endless. At the same time, I’m not even sure if the song is that good–it’s so hard to tell after all these years. I think it kind of rips off the transition in “Hey Jude” which was used to much better effect.
“For You Blue” is a simple blues. I like it better than most of the Beatles’ blues, perhaps because of John’s slide guitar (and the funny comments through the song–which makes it seem like the band actually liked each other). “Get Back” ends the disc as a fun rollicking romp. I really like this song, although I’m surprised at how short it seems–I thought there was a lengthy outro. The end of the song (and the disc) has John asking if they passed the audition–lots of fun going on in this contentious recording session.
So it’s not the best career ending disc, although I guess as a soundtrack it’s pretty good. I’ve never seen the film, and I’m kind of curious to after having walked through all of these Beatles albums.
[READ: September 1, 2016] Let It Be
After reading Colin Meloy’s take on The Replacements’ Let It Be, Steve Matteo’s take on The Beatles’ Let It Be is really different.
Matteo did a ton of research into the recording of this record. Indeed, this book feels really long (and it drags occasionally). I have to assume that anyone who is a big fan of The Beatles will know much of what he covers here. I didn’t, so this works as a pretty thorough introduction for me. And, as my review of the record above notes: I didn’t know much about the recording in the first place. So this filled in some gaps (more gaps than I cared about actually).
The book begins with the earth shattering announcement that in 2003 police had recovered more than 500 hours of stolen tapes from the Let It Be sessions (I hadn’t heard about that, so I guess it didn’t shatter the earth all that much).
Rather than talking about this record itself, Matteo talks all about what went into the creation of the record. And, admittedly, it is a fascinating mix of ego, talent, angst, friendship, overworked-ness and nearly everything else. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 