# Deep Tracks - The Beatles - "Let It Be"



## Guest (Sep 30, 2018)

View attachment 108478


There is *No Limit* to the number of selections allowed for this particular poll.

On all polls created if you click on the number of votes following the song title the username of all voters and their chosen selections will appear.

The tunes themselves will be found below the poll itself as links rather than as embedded videos due to bandwidth issues for those who wish to reacquaint themselves with a tune that may have receded a bit too far into the past to be remembered with the clarity that came when they were first released...

Next up is - The Beatles - "Let It Be"

"Let It Be" is the twelfth and final studio album by the Beatles. It was released on 8 May 1970, almost a month after the group's break-up. Like most of the band's previous releases, it was a number one album in many countries, including both the US and the UK, and was released in tandem with the motion picture of the same name.

The album was conceived as a return to the Beatles' earlier, less complicated approach to music. It was recorded and projected for release (under its original title of Get Back) before their album Abbey Road (1969); for this reason, some critics and fans, such as Mark Lewisohn, argue that Abbey Road should be considered the group's final album and Let It Be the penultimate.

Rehearsals began at Twickenham Film Studios in January 1969 as part of a planned documentary showing the Beatles preparing to return to live performance. A project initiated by Paul McCartney, the filmed rehearsals were marked by ill-feeling, leading to George Harrison's temporary departure from the group. As a condition of his return, the Beatles reconvened at their own Apple Studio, where they completed the recordings with the help of guest musician Billy Preston.

Following several rejected mixes by Glyn Johns, a new version of the album was produced by Phil Spector in March-April 1970. While three songs from the sessions were released as singles before the album's release, "Get Back"/"Don't Let Me Down" and "Let It Be", the songs were remixed by Spector for the album and "Don't Let Me Down" was not included. "Let It Be... Naked" was released in 2003, an alternative version of the album, without any of Spector's production work and using some different takes of songs.

By late 1968, more than two years after the Beatles gave up touring, Paul McCartney was eager for the group to perform live again. The sessions for that year's "The Beatles" (commonly known as the "White Album") had seen a number of serious arguments and strained relations among the group.

McCartney felt that the band's cohesiveness had been lost through years without playing live, and from each Beatle playing parts individually in the studio and using overdubs rather than as a group. He believed that the best way to improve band relations and revive enthusiasm was to get the group back into rehearsal as quickly as possible and begin work on a new album that made little or no use of studio artifice or multiple overdubbing. This would allow the group to return to their roots by playing as a true ensemble, recording some or all of the new album during a one-off live concert or full concert tour. This idea mirrored the "back to basics" attitude of a number of rock musicians at this time in reaction against the psychedelic and progressive music dominant in the previous two years. The concert itself would be filmed for broadcast on worldwide television, with the album released to coincide with it.

The other three Beatles were less enthusiastic about McCartney's proposals. They had just completed five months' work on their previous album and were skeptical about the prospects of returning to live performance. George Harrison in particular was opposed to the idea of touring, having taken the strongest dislike of any in the group to the grueling tours of the Beatlemania era. However, he had recently enjoyed a series of jam sessions with Bob Dylan and the Band in America, rediscovering his liking for straightforward ensemble playing, and was attracted to the idea of the "back to basics" approach.

The same approach greatly appealed to John Lennon, who had grown increasingly weary of what he regarded as the excessive technical artifice used on their recordings since "Revolver" and had also made a recent return to no-frills ensemble playing with an appearance on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.

In addition, all the group members had greatly enjoyed the recording of Lennon's "The Beatles" track "Happiness is a Warm Gun", which, due to its multiple sections and time signature changes, had required the Beatles to focus sharply and revive their ensemble playing skills to lay down a coherent basic rhythm track. In the end, the group agreed to convene for rehearsals immediately following 1 January 1969, even though no firm direction for the new project had been agreed on.

The rehearsals and recording sessions for the album did not run smoothly. The acrimony that began during the recording of the White Album resumed soon after the rehearsals began. The Beatles were not getting along, and Lennon and McCartney weren't working together as before.

McCartney assumed the role of the leader, while a detached Lennon was more interested in spending time and making music with his soon-to-be wife Yoko Ono, who was present in the studio with him at all times. Lennon was in a fragile emotional state, with Ono having suffered a miscarriage of their child just six weeks before the start of the sessions, following a drug bust the month before. All of these factors led to friction within the band.

At one point, Harrison quit the group after several arguments with McCartney and a falling out with Lennon, due to the former's perfectionism and the latter's disengagement. Harrison was coaxed back a few days later. The film version is famous for showcasing a number of conflicts between the group members and has frequently been referred to as a documentary that was intended to show the making of an album but instead shows "the break-up of a band".

The rehearsals quickly disintegrated into what one biographer characterized as a "hostile lethargy".

Unable to generate much enthusiasm or focus their attention, the Beatles' playing was largely ragged and unprofessional, not helped by the fact that they were severely out of practice at playing as a live ensemble.

McCartney tried to organize and encourage his bandmates, but his attempts to hold the band together and rally spirits were seen by the others as controlling and patronizing.

Matters came to a head on 6 January, when Harrison had a heated argument with McCartney during a rehearsal of "Two of Us", which later became one of the most famous sequences in the "Let It Be" film. What is not shown in the film is another, allegedly much more severe argument that Harrison had with Lennon on 10 January. Harrison had become fed up with Lennon's creative and communicative disengagement from the band and the two had a heated row during the day's lunch break. According to journalist Michael Housego of The Daily Sketch, this descended into violence with Harrison and Lennon allegedly throwing punches at each other. Harrison denied this in a 16 January interview for the Daily Express, saying: "There was no punch-up. We just fell out." After lunch, Harrison announced that he was "leaving the band now" and told the others "see you round the clubs".

A week later the band agreed to Harrison's terms for returning to the group, which included abandoning the cold and cavernous soundstage at Twickenham. Sessions resumed on 22 January when the Beatles moved to Apple Studio, in the basement of their Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row, central London. Multi-track recording began on that date and continued until 31 January.

Harrison brought in keyboardist Billy Preston to ease tensions and supplement the band's sound. Preston worked with the group throughout their stay at Apple.

In March 1970, American producer Phil Spector was brought in by business manager Allen Klein to work on the album. Spector remixed all of the tracks, adding orchestra and choir to three tracks, and compiled the eventually released album - by now entitled "Let It Be".

The album and the film of the same name were released on 8 May 1970; the Beatles had already broken up by that time. The film captured the critical tensions within the band, and also included footage from the rooftop concert. The rooftop performance closed with the song "Get Back", and afterwards Lennon said, "I'd like to say 'thank you' on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition." The joke was added to the studio version of the song that appeared on the album.






"Let It Be" topped albums charts in both America and the UK, and the "Let It Be" single and "The Long and Winding Road" also reached number one in the US.

Despite its commercial success, according to Beatles Diary author Keith Badman, "reviews [were] not good".

NME critic Alan Smith wrote: "If the new Beatles' soundtrack is to be their last then it will stand as a cheapskate epitaph, a cardboard tombstone, a sad and tatty end to a musical fusion which wiped clean and drew again the face of pop." Smith added that the album showed "contempt for the intelligence of today's record-buyer" and that the Beatles had "sold out all the principles for which they ever stood".

Reviewing for Rolling Stone, John Mendelsohn was also critical of the album, citing Spector's production embellishments as a weakness: "Musically, boys, you passed the audition. In terms of having the judgment to avoid either over-producing yourselves or casting the fate of your get-back statement to the most notorious of all over-producers, you didn't."

In a retrospective review, Richie Unterberger of AllMusic described Let It Be as the "only Beatles album to occasion negative, even hostile reviews", but felt that it was "on the whole underrated". He singles out "some good moments of straight hard rock in 'I've Got a Feeling' and 'Dig a Pony'", and praises "Let It Be", "Get Back", and "the folky 'Two of Us', with John and Paul harmonising together".[

Despite a mixed review from Rolling Stone at the time of its release, the album was ranked number 86 in the magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Tme" in 2003 but was moved down to number 392 in the 2012 version.

The Beatles won the Academy Award for the Best Original Song Score in 1970 for the songs in the film.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_It_Be

Your commentary on any and every aspect of the album and especially any memories reawakened as a result of the poll is welcomed.


----------



## Guest (Sep 30, 2018)

"*Two Of Us*" -






"*Dig A Pony*" -






"*Across The Universe*" -






"*I Me Mine*" -






"*Dig It*" -






"*Let It Be*" -






"*Maggie Mae*" -






"*I've Got A Feeling*" -






"*One After 909*" -






"*The Long And Winding Road*" -






"*For You Blue*" -






"*Get Back*" -






"*Don't Let Me Down*" -


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Bearing in mind the bad feeling and the complete breakdown of both morale and motivation that riddled the sessions I thought it was almost a triumph over adversity that so much good stuff actually emerged. McCartney was still enjoying a creative high, which was the opposite to Lennon, who had retreated into his shell almost to the point where McCartney was virtually having to come up with song ideas on his behalf. I'm especially impressed with _I've Got a Feeling_, which, if you close your eyes, sounds like the kind of power rock that The Who were to crank out a year or two later.

I was never a fan of Phil Spector's embellishments, and so I was more than happy to pounce on the _Let It Be....Naked_ version when it emerged, especially as this time it included the non-album b-side _Don't Let Me Down_, which showed that Lennon could still deliver once he got his finger out. The tracks that were dropped to make way for it, _Maggie Mae_ and _Dig It_, were hardly essential in the first place.

It's an album which still gives me mixed emotions, as it's always at the back of my mind when listening to it that the music is from a group who are dying on the vine fast.


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I selected four tracks, the only ones I know.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

SixFootScowl said:


> I selected four tracks, the only ones I know.


I don't really know why I bothered to attempt a reasonable response to the original question bearing in mind the thread was started by a mischievous Australian who was so sad he/she/it created different identities so as to obtain saturation coverage.


----------



## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I've gone over the Let It Be album in detail in the Beatles Appraised thread, but there's quite a bit that deserves repeating, and a few things left unsaid.

The *Lennon* contributions:

As pointed out already, John had checked out: Whether it was his infatuation with Yoko, the heroin habit, his inherent laziness, being arrested for drug possession, his rebellious nature being focused on Paul's assumption of leadership status . . . well, it doesn't matter why, it only matters "how".

*Across the Universe* had been rescued from the dust bin of February 1968, and was not well regarded by Lennon, so much so that he gave it away to be used as a track on a charity album for the World Wildlife Fund. While it's a fairly solid track, it was never intended to be on the album until Glyn Johns found himself searching for usable material in order to produce a complete album. Spector, too, decided to include it, although it made some considerable changes to it.

*The One After 909* goes back to at least 1963, when The Beatles first tried a recording of it.

Lennon's contribution to *I've Got a Feeling* was an unused scrap Lennon left unfinished from December 1968. You can credit Paul for rescuing that morsel from the trashbin.

_*Dig It*_ was just some improvised jamming that was likely never seriously intended to be part of the album.

_*Maggie Mae*_ was just fooling around singing an old pub song, with origins that go back to the 1830s at least. This was likely also never intended to be seriously in contention on the tracklist of the album.

That leaves *Don't Let Me Down* and *I Dig A Pony* as the only truly "new" finished material John brought to the sessions. And, sadly, _*Don't Let Me Down*_ was pirated from the sessions and placed on the Hey Jude compilation (it HAD already been released as a single) by new manager Allen Klein, without any consult with The Beatles. And as it had just appeared on an album, new producer Phil Spector excluded it from his version of the *Get Back* album, which somehow ended up being titles *Let It Be*. Spector also chose to include some studio chatter, which also made it seem as though John was more involved than he really was.

Likewise, _*Let It Be*_ (the single version produced by George Martin) was released in March 1970, when it was still uncertain when (or even "if") the *Get Back* sessions would ever be assembled into an acceptable album (after two or three rejected attempts by actual producer Glyn Johns). So Spector remixed this track as well, bringing the orchestrations a bit more up front, selecting the more recent Harrison guitar solo, adding some echo to Starr's high hat, and adding an extra chorus. Although John originally played bass guitar on the track, it was considered to be too sloppy, and McCartney overdubbed a new bass guitar track.

As for *I Dig A Pony*, well, it's got a very nice guitar riff, and the final arrangement was pretty stellar (after they dropped the awkward "All I Want Is" vocal intro. Lyrically, it's probably mostly about Yoko, although John's word-association lyrics obscure that. John was quite good at this sort of gobbledegookish lyricism, painting little potent phrases that evoke any old sort of imagery you like.

*Don't Let Me Down*, as released, was a version where it was only 2-part harmonies (from John and Paul), but there's some other recordings with John, Paul, and George singing some fine 3-part harmonies. This one is, again, about Yoko, and quite obviously so. Paul and George contributed a descending two-part lead guitar accompaniment to the verse and a countermelody in the bridge, a unique instrumental stroke of creative genius.

George was also not terribly interested in the project, although he was able to lure John into contributing to *For You Blue* by asking him to play slide guitar. George's other track, *I Me Mine*, didn't get a proper recording until January 1970, months after John had left the group. It had seen some rehearsal during the filming, but Lennon chose instead to waltz with Yoko.

While George eventually ended up with two tracks on the album, almost by default, Starr was not given a vocal slot.

Spector repurposed *Across The Universe* by removing the backing vocals and wah wah guitar, and adding some orchestration after slowing the track down to make it seem as though it were a new recording of the song, which it wasn't. *Get Back* and *Don't Let Me Down* had been released as a single a full year before the album was finally released [April 1969]; Spector remixed *Get Back*, chopping off the tag that had been spliced on, and adding studio chatter to the beginning and end.

Paul, on the other hand, contributed two rockers (_*I've Got a Feeling*_ and _*Get Back*_), two ballads (_*Let It Be*_ and _*The Long and Winding Road*_), and a folk duet (_*Two Of Us*_).

All in all, it was a real mess of an album, with barely enough material for a full-length LP. Not counting the two throwaway tracks, Dig It and Maggie Mae, it's only a 10-track album (and was only a 8-track album until the emergency session to get a proper studio recording of *I Me Mine*, and the last-minute decision to use _*Across the Universe*_). As released the album barely reached the 35-minute mark, and THAT only due to the inclusion of some studio chatter.

So here's something mildly interesting: Both original versions of the album (mixed by Glyn Johns) included "*Rocker*" and "*Save the Last Dance For Me*", two very short tracks that Spector discarded. The first version evidently used some unfinished version of McCartney's *Teddy Boy*, also unused by Spector, while Johns used the newly recorded I Me Mine, plus Across the Universe for the second version. Johns also used the Get Back coda as a reprise, so that the album had *Get Back* bookends to start and end the album. Both versions included *Don't Let Me Down*.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Lennon was twisted by Yoko and heroin by early 1969. McCartney virtually had to throw songs at the miserable self-absorbed jerk just to keep the band alive.


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

I voted almost all, Love the album still have it. Try to spin it tonight.


----------



## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

My track ranking:

1. The Long And Winding Road
2. Two Of Us
3. Across The Universe
4. Let It Be
5. Get Back
6. I’ve Got A Feeling
7. Dig A Pony
8. I Me Mine
9. For You Blue
10. One After 909
11. Maggie Mae
12. Dig It

Good album, one of my least favorites from them but still pretty great.


----------

