The only Beatles album to occasion negative, even hostile reviews, there are few other ock records as controversial as Let It Be. First off, several facts need to be explained: although released in May 1970, this was not their final album, but largely recorded in early 1969, way before Abbey Road. Phil Spector was enlisted in early 1970 to do some post-production mixing and overdubs, but he did not work with the band as a unit. And, although his use of strings has generated much criticism, by and large he left the original performances to stand as is: only "The Long and Winding Road" and (to a lesser degree) "Across the Universe" and "I Me Mine" get the Wall of Sound treatment. The main problem was that the material wasn't uniformly strong, and that the Beatles themselves were in fairly lousy moods due to intergroup tension. All that said, the album is on the whole underrated, even discounting the fact that a substandard Beatles record is better than almost any other group's best work. McCartney in particular offers several gems: the gospel-ish "Let It Be," which has some of his best lyrics; "Get Back," one of his hardest rockers; and the melodic "The Long and Winding Road," ruined by Spector's heavy-handed overdubs. The folky "Two of Us," with John and Paul harmonizing together, was also a highlight. Most of the rest of the material, by contrast, was going through the motions to some degree, although there are some good moments of straight hard rock in "I've Got a Feeling" and "Dig a Pony." As flawed and bumpy as it is, it's an album well worth having, as when the Beatles were in top form here, they were as good as ever. [In November 2003, the Beatles released an alternate version of Let It Be called Let It Be... Naked, which mixed out Spector's contributions and deleted snippets of conversation scattered throughout the album. "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae" were cut from the record in favor of "Don't Let Me Down," which was placed in the middle of an album that now had a considerably different sequencing than the originally released version of Let It Be.]
The BeatlesLet It Be[EMI; 1970/2009]Links: The Beatles | EMI | Purchase The Beatles Remasters Posted by Andrew Steadman on 10 September 2009Let It Be is easily the most flawed Beatles album. It may also be the most underappreciated of the band's late output, a collection of powerful tracks that summed up The Beatles' illustrious career, though it almost wasn't to be.The studio sessions for the ...
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During this weeks adventure in my local record store I was just searching for anything that would spark my interest. I had no biases this week unlike prior weeks where I looked for a specific band. This week I was open to anything. After around fifteen minutes of rummaging through the store I had a copy of Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere in my hands and ready to ch...
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Somebody decided that it would be a masterstroke to cross-breed the heavy-handed late-‘60s “rock” musical “Hair,” which attempted to co-opt and sanitize the counter-culture of the day (those free-spirited hippies and their psychedelic hymnal) for Broadway consumption, with the catalogue of the most successful recording artists of the 20th century, The Beatles - and capture the results on
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When I went to see Spiderman 3 (I have a hard time saying that without great shame, for it is possibly the worst movie I have ever seen.) I saw this trailer for this upcoming movie people other than me are sure to love. Let me paint you a picture if you can't view it:A cute british guy with longish messy hair comes on the screen singing "Hey Jude" and then we are led on an implied journey of t...
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The Beatles Rootop ConcertApple Rooftop Concert - London, Jan.30 1969. Part 1-3 together is the last 22 min. of the "Let it be" movie.
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Matt and I attended a wedding over the weekend for dear friends of ours. Now, granted, I was very sick (always happens-- between the end of the term stress and holiday stress and traveling, and well, my family), but I wasn't all that impressed with the band. It's not like they couldn't play their instruments or that the lead singer had a bad voice or anything, but there are just some songs you ...
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Jai guru deva om ... Does NASA hope that these soothing lyrics by Paul McCartney and John Lennon are going to prevent an alien invasion? In an unprecedented event, today, Monday, February 2nd, 2008 at 7PM EST, NASA will beam the Beatles' song "Across the Universe," literally across the universe to Polaris. A trip that will take the MP3 some 431 years to reach the North Star, 2.5 quadrillion mil...
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Somebody decided that it would be a masterstroke to cross-breed the heavy-handed late-‘60s “rock” musical “Hair,” which attempted to co-opt and sanitize the counter-culture of the day (those free-spirited hippies and their psychedelic hymnal) for Broadway consumption, with the catalogue of the most successful recording artists of the 20th century, The Beatles - and capture the results on
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3 Saville Row must be one of the most famous addresses in Britain. This was Beatles HQ when they formed Apple Records, famous for the rooftop concert recorded for the film Let It Be.When they weren’t on the roof they were in the basement studio. Here’s a photo of the mixing desk:When George visited San Francisco and the Haight Ashbury in 1967 he somehow invited a couple of Hells Angels to visi
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The Beatles Rootop ConcertApple Rooftop Concert - London, Jan.30 1969. Part 1-3 together is the last 22 min. of the "Let it be" movie.
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Stumbled upon this video watching some MOG TV. Beautiful Song and a cool video. Seeing Yoko hanging over John as he plays is a kinda funny given all that happened. Wonder if this is the actual recording or just a studio shoot.Check it out...
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I thought I might document my comments on Mark's current BROW (Get Back) George Martin backs me up, but listen to the tone in John's voice
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The BeatlesLet It Be[EMI; 1970/2009]Links: The Beatles | EMI | Purchase The Beatles Remasters Posted by Andrew Steadman on 10 September 2009Let It Be is easily the most flawed Beatles album. It may also be the most underappreciated of the band's late output, a collection of powerful tracks that summed up The Beatles' illustrious career, though it almost wasn't to be.The studio sessions for the ...
More >
Matt and I attended a wedding over the weekend for dear friends of ours. Now, granted, I was very sick (always happens-- between the end of the term stress and holiday stress and traveling, and well, my family), but I wasn't all that impressed with the band. It's not like they couldn't play their instruments or that the lead singer had a bad voice or anything, but there are just some songs you ...
More >
During this weeks adventure in my local record store I was just searching for anything that would spark my interest. I had no biases this week unlike prior weeks where I looked for a specific band. This week I was open to anything. After around fifteen minutes of rummaging through the store I had a copy of Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere in my hands and ready to ch...
More >
When I went to see Spiderman 3 (I have a hard time saying that without great shame, for it is possibly the worst movie I have ever seen.) I saw this trailer for this upcoming movie people other than me are sure to love. Let me paint you a picture if you can't view it:A cute british guy with longish messy hair comes on the screen singing "Hey Jude" and then we are led on an implied journey of t...
More >
| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Two of Us |
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| 2 Dig a Pony |
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| 3 Across the Universe |
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| 4 I Me Mine |
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| 5 Dig It |
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| 6 Let It Be |
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| 7 Maggie Mae |
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| 8 I've Got a Feeling |
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| 9 One After 909 |
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| 10 The Long and Winding Road |
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| 11 For You Blue |
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| 12 Get Back |
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| 13 Let It Be Mini-Documentary [Multimedia] |
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Click to purchase…
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 "Let It Be")
