[improviduto]

Submission courtesy of pimp_vince

Band: The Beatles
Album Let It Be



1970 (Apple)

Pruduced by: Phil Spector [except on Let It Be... Naked]

Members:

John Lennon - Vocal/Guitar/Keyboard
Paul McCartney - Vocal/Bass/Guitar/Keyboard
George Harrison - Lead Guitar/Backing Vocal
Ringo Starr - Drums/Backing Vocal

Notable Tracks:

-Let It Be
-Two Of Us
-Across The Universe
-The Long And Winding Road
-Get Back
-(Don't Let Me Down) [Re-Release]

This album, the last to be released by The Beatles, not the last to be recorded (that was Abbey Road), was met with mixed reviews and strong criticism by all. Don't Let Me Down was added to the album in favor of Dig It and Maggie May, they re-released the album three years ago with the title Let It Be... Naked, "naked" meaning 'no production'. They had finally realised Phil Spector sucked the life out of some songs with his heavy dubbing. The album was recorded in two parts; before the recordings of Abbey Road; and in amongst the Abbey Road recordings. It became the bittersweet end to a great run of hits, spanning seven years, leaving behind a legacy of albums never to be bettered or even challenged.
Paul and John's singing voices are as good as ever on this one, apparent especially on the folk-inspired piece, 'Two Of Us', one of my favorite Beatles acoustics. George provides a fantastic solo in the straightforward rock hit, 'Get Back'. And 'The Long And Winding Road', almost tells you right out that the Beatles are calling it quits and they wanna make you cry while they still can. John lets his weirdness shine through one last time with his wondeful acoustic, 'Across The Universe' another one of my favs. 'Let It Be' is my favorite Beatles song, i just can't express in words how beautiful this song is.

And some people said this album sucked... Let It Be could mop the floor with most albums, or even entire catalogs. 10 out of 10.

[Cortez The Killer]

Nice choice vince. Such a great album. And sadly there final one

[pimp_vince]

Nice choice vince. Such a great album. And sadly there final one

yeah i really love the beatles, i just thought that this "library" was lacking in the beatles department. also i think this forum could stand to get a little more hendrix eh?

[steppinout]

Across the Universe is my new favorite Beatles song.

[dorio]

You forget billy Preston: Keyboard for get back. Let it be said that let it be will ever
be let it be. The phil spector produced one. Let it be naked is just a vendetta from
mc Cartnrey over Spector cauz he can't defend himself at the moment having lots
troubles with justice over a musder case.

And let it be said that there would never had been a let it be without the initiative
of john Lennon who gave the masters to Spector who did the best he could with it.
paul had already left at the time ans was busy with his own first solo album...

[pimp_vince]

i think we can all agree that the beatles were pretty messed up at the time.

[dorio]

i think we can all agree that the beatles were pretty messed up at the time.

0h yeah ...

Check Revolver: those where the happy days

[juventusfc99]

I really like Let It Be, its nowhere near as bad as critics make it out to be.

[evgeny]

I can't see how can anyone criticize anything by the beatles, each thing they did is gold. Let It Be is an amazing album with amazing songs and it doesn't even matter who produced the album because the songs are there and they'll sound great anyway.

[Tuning Spork]

I really like that album. I do have some problems with Phil Spector, though, specifically on four tracks. He turned I Me Mine, Across the Universe, Let it Be and the Long and Winding Road into what someone once called "pompous goo," and that doesn't sound good or appropriate to the album. He also destroyed Dig It (in fairness, the massive cut-down of that track was Glyn Johns' idea). Those tracks did not deserve the treatment. Let it Be Naked is not the ultimate answer, but the orchestrally destroyed tracks, in my opinion, sounded the worse for Spector's work, though I suppose that the lack of digital tech in 1970 is a good excuse. Two credit caveats involving George Harrison, because he's damn cool: he sings lead vocals on two tracks (I Me Mine and For You Blue) and plays bass on two (Let it Be and the Long and Winding Road, when Paul was at the piano).

[retrodude1012]

let it be is my favorite song of all time!!!
THE BEATLES ARE THE BEST BAND EVER!!!

"MOTHER MARY COMES TO ME, SPEAKING WORDS OF WISDOM, LET IT BE!"

[the.soul.of.music]

Here is a bit of info i know about some unreleased songs from the get back sessions.


"I Want You"
"Oh Darlin"

were both wrote at the sessions.

There is a lot of unreleased originals that were wrote.

Lennon

"Madman"
"Imagine" (only the piano chords)
"Everybody Had A Hard Year"
"All I Want Is You"
"Child of nature" (wrote in india)
"Shaking In The 60s"
"Watching Rainbows"
"The Commonwealth Song"
"Hare Hare"
"Can You Dig It" (a 15 minute song that was to become the short "Dig It")
"Gimme Some Truth"
"Suzy Parker"

Macca

"From a Window"
"Maybe I'm Amazed"
"Teddy Boy"
"Rocker"
"The Piano song"
"Its For You"
"I Lost My Little Girl"
"Hot As Sun" (first wrote in 1960)
"Because I Know I Love Uou So" (first wrote in 1962)
"Oh Julie Julie"
"The Back Seat Of My Car"
"Get Of White Power"
"We Don't Need Pakies"
"Penina"
"Come And Get It"
"everybody on the wireless machine"

George

"All Things Must Pass"
"Hear Me Lord"
"Let It Down"
"Badge"


Now a few of the songs were gave away, and recorded for solo albums, but most of them were left.

You can get all of these from most Beatle bootlegs, known as Beatlegs.


Now that only a few, its hard to write a complete list, and i don't think there ever will be one.

[stifffingers]

People Rag on this album, I happen to like it alot. 'Cept for Across the Universe, Phil tried to pull a Strawberry Fields on it.

[el_burton]

Phil Spector gets a LOT of criticism for what he did to The Long and Winding Road, but he only added such lavish orchestration because it was a frankly shocking take. Paul's vocal is only meant to be a guide vocal, and John's bassline is so bad it could almost have been played by me.

I don't know why the take on the naked version wasn't used at the time, cos it's great. Better vocals and bass, and a great little solo from Billy Preston.

The album gets a lot of bad press, but think about the great songs on it: The Long And Winding Road, Let It Be, Don't Let Me Down, Get Back, Two Of Us, Across The Universe, I've Got A Feeling. For one of their worst albums, that's not bad really.

[pauliejay]

I don't know why the take on the naked version wasn't used at the time, cos it's great. Better vocals and bass, and a great little solo from Billy Preston.

Well basically the band had lost interest by this time and were busy recording Abbey Road. Glyn Johns tried putting a sequence of songs together from the Get Back session but was so heavily criticised for it (by the band) that to this day he carries those scars and won't talk about it.

[Lula1100]

ah,the beatles. the ugliest and most talented men in music history.
personally,i think there fun songs are their best like Twist and Shout,Ob-la-di and iam the walrus.in fact these might be my three favoraite songs of all time.hooks dont get any catchier then twist&shout.

[pauliejay]

They didn't actually write Twist And Shout, but it's catchy all the same.

[Lula1100]

i heard on the radio this morning that when paul was writing Yesterday,he couldnt think of a central word,i.e yesterday,even though he had all the main words.So,he used scrambled eggs.imagine;

"Scrambled eggs,
all my troubles seemed so far away.."

weird,huh?

[pauliejay]

Actually it was "Scrambled eggs, oh my darling how I love your legs"


George Harrison did much the same thing with Something... "Something in the way she moves, attracts me like a pomegranate..."

It's a standard technique for songwriters. You may have the melody and syllabic rhythm of a song, but not the words, so you use "place holders" instead. It's not like they are ever going to be seriously used in the finished song though!

[dorio]

True genius, they're the greatests songwriters of our time. Those 2 songs are 2
of the greatests gems i know. I knew bout the scramble eggs, paul said he dreamt that song and had the melody in mind when he woke up, and called it "scrambled
eggs" to call it something, but i didnt know about the pomegranate; beautiful !