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There have been oceans of words eulogised and satirised about how Phil Spector ruined the "Let It Be" album with additional strings and choirs - a Production-obsessed nutter handed the poison chalice of haphazard recordings made by men already disinterested and in personal disarray. But as Ringo repeatedly said - once the count-in came - The Beatles were a band once more - and even half-baked - the magic was still there.
So I have always said knob to the detractors. I loved "Let It Be" as an album - that gorgeous four-photograph artwork where they looked like the coolest dudes on the planet (ruined for the 2003 Naked revamp by some negative atrocity photo in silver) - the beautiful ballads that literally stopped me in my tracks and made the hairs stand up on my arms - the fresh in-your-face feel to the rockers - and the witty asides that hovered around the main songs. And I know both of the snippets "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae" remain kind of superfluous, but they were in keeping with a band that had a laugh (the Naked disc was no fun at all).
So I am thrilled with this long overdue 50th Anniversary reissue of "Let It Be" in October 2021 (one year late due to Covid-19) in all its myriad versions. 2021's reissue goes back to basics - the album remixed and remastered onto CD1 with CD2 offering us tasty unreleased from the original sessions - and all of it in what can only be described as glorious audio - the best I have ever heard this album sound. And although I would have liked to buy the sexier Deluxe Edition Box Set with 4CDs and a BLU RAY (Apple 0602507138691) – I have had to settle (due to Gas Bills) for this sweaty little brute – the 2CD Edition.
Let's get to the long and very detailed road...
UK/EUROPE released 15 October 2021 – "Let It Be: 2CD Edition" by THE BEATLES on Apple/Universal 0602507138622 (Barcode 602507138622) is 2CD Edition Reissue. CD1 offers a New 2021 Mix and Remaster of the Album, while a Second CD offers 14 Outtake Highlights of Previously Unreleased material featured on the Deluxe Edition Box Set. It platys out as follows:
CD1 - Let It Be 2021 Mix (35:02 minutes):
1. Two Of Us [Side 1]
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 [Side 2]
9. One After 909
10. The Long And Winding Road
11. For You Blue
12. Get Back
Tracks 1 to 12 are their final released studio album "Let It Be" – released 8 May 1970 in the UK on Apple PXS 1 as a Limited Edition Box set with 168-Page Photographic Booklet and then November 1970 as a Single LP only on Apple PCS 7096. It was issued 18 May 1970 in the USA on Apple AR 34001 in a Gatefold Sleeve (the UK variant was a single sleeve) and was never a box set there.
CD2 – Outtake Highlights (52:35 minutes):
1. Morning Camera (Speech – Mono) / Two Of Us (Take 4)
2. Maggie Mae /Fancy My Chances With You (Mono)
3. For You Blue (Take 4)
4. Let It Be / Please Please Me /Let It Be (Take 10)
5. The Walk (Jam)
6. I've Got A Feeling (Take 10)
7. Dig A Pony (Take 14)
8. Get Back (Take 8)
9. Like Making An Album? (Speech)
10. One After 909 (Take 3)
11. Don't Let Me Down
12. The Long And Winding Road (Take 19)
13. Wake Up Little Susie / I Me Mine (Take 11)
14. Across The Universe (Unreleased Glyn Johns 1970 Mix)
The oversized Let It Be 40-page booklet is both visually beautiful and cool – a rare feat in this reissue game. Before pouring on the historical detail for every song on the album including the Outtakes, there’s a 1-Page Forward by surviving Beatle PAUL McCARTNEY (Page 5), a 2-Page Introduction by Remix and Remaster Engineer GILES MARTIN (Pages 6 and 7) and a stunning history by noted Beatles authority KEVIN HOWLETT (Pages 8 to 17). Gorgeous colour photos intersperse and follow discussions of the back-to-basics project and its convoluted history. I did not know that the Guitar Solo George did for the single mix of Let It Be was done 31 January 1969, while the LP cut was overdubbed 4 January 1970 with Linda McCartney doing some Backing Vocals too. Keyboardist Billy Preston added huge contributions to the songs and he is given good credit for (which did not happen when the LP came out).
It goes into how after being recorded before the Abbey Road album - the Let It Be LP (then titled Get Back) got waylaid for a while. Abbey Road was then released in September 1969 and legendary 60ts Producer Phil Spector was called in with a Carte blanch remit to make Let It be ready for marketplace in April 1970. The booklet shows the track by track changes he made – seventeen violins, cellos and other strings added to the big ballads and even I Me Mine. The remixed and completely rejiggered album was worldwide released May 1970 as their last studio album – the group having officially broken up only a month prior in bitterness and acrimony. The booklet also shows the photo they took at EMI Studios recapturing the young lads on the balcony as in Please Please Me – it was to be used as the Get Back artwork but ended up being applied to the 1973 Red and Blue Album double-albums.
It’s well documented that John Lennon hated what Spector did to "Across The Universe" in particular and started a feud with Macca that ultimately brought our best loved foursome to a horrible end (all discussed). So reinterpreted 'Naked' version aside - I for one am glad to be back at what I know and loved.
We (Joe Public) have been listening to Spectre's mix of "Across The Universe" for 50+ years straight and have genuinely loved it - were impossibly moved then and remain so to this day. In fact it’s hot-wired into my brain and I want it that way. The song "Let It Be" is the same – the strings that elevated "The Long & Winding Road" to a hymn too - the witty 'Pot Smoking FBI members' jibe from Lennon is at the end of "For You Blue" again (it was edited out on Naked). The larking-about 'sweet Loretta fart' Lennon intro to "Get Back" is here as is the song's punch when they kick in. I say all of this because many of us hardcore Beatles nuts will recall with a sigh the utter rubbish that CD2 of Let It Be...Naked offered – 21:56 minutes of big name tracks that turned out to 9 and 30-second snippets sandwiched between spoken cack you would never play again. Thank God this time in 2021, we get actual whole songs on CD2 – outtakes - albeit in rehearsal form.
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The second you debut the simplistic "Two Of Us" – the Remaster makes its presence known immediately. This is clear and has muscle – something the rather weedy original seemed to lack. The riffage of "Dig A Pony" is the same. But oh my God when it goes into Lennon’s moment "Across The Universe", I am grinning from ear to ear. Paul’s "Let It Be" too is the most beautiful I have ever heard it on this 2021 mix. The rocking "Get Back" with that fantastic George solo – all of it. The only slight let down is fuzziness in Harrison’s "For You Blue" which I suspect is inherent in the recording, but outside of that, songs like "I’ve Got A Feeling" are awesome. Let’s discuss the new stuff...
The thrill is hearing the Fabs work out glitches, develop the tunes, noticing the differences, how the tracks evolved. Again, it feels like you are eavesdropping on history, being allowed into something great, even if they and their tired-of-it tetchiness is sort of hidden from the stew by this reissue (you see it in the BLU RAY of the movie). That swing to "I've Got A Feeling" where Take 10 is a tad faster and more in your face is fabulous and the Glyn Johns unadorned mix of "Across The Universe" left me in tears – what a song – his voice and those lyrics. There are some disappointments – the "Don’t Let Me Down" take on the roof top feels off somehow (probably one of the best songs and it was inexplicably left off the album only to become a B-side to Get Back) and the much lauded unreleased cover of Jimmy McCracklin’s R&B classic turns out to be less than 50 seconds because the tapes were being changed over. You can hear the genius even in a rehearsal of Let It Be where the boys acknowledge Macca has indeed penned a winner.
This is a beautiful reissue despite what reservations some might have about the original LP as being a half-assed afterthought messed up by someone else. I dig this 2CD Edition of "Let It Be" and it has beautiful audio. Damn – I will need that Deluxe Edition, bills or no...
FANTASY TIME!
My May 1970 "Let It Be" as a Double-Album with a 4-Track "Get Back" EP as a Bonus
Each Side has the four on Lead Vocals; then next side mixes up the order and so on
The EP would be Rock 'n' Roll Orientated - A Nod to the Old Days in Germany
Side 1:
Get Back (Paul on Vocals)
Across The Universe (John on Lead)
I Me Mine (George on Lead)
Maggie Mae (ditty in-between tracks)
It Don't Come Easy (Ringo on Lead)
Side 2:
For You Blue (George on Lead)
Dig It (ditty in between tracks)
I've Got A Feeling (Paul and John on Leads)
Back Off Boogaloo (Ringo on Lead)
The Long And Winding Road (Paul On Lead)
Side 3:
Dig A Pony (John on Lead)
Two Of Us (Paul on Lead)
Beaucoup Of Blues (Ringo on Lead)
All Things Must Pass (George on Lead)
Side 4:
Oh My My (Ringo on Lead)
Don't Let Me Down (John)
Maybe I'm Amazed (Paul)
Isn't It A Pity (George)
Get Back E.P. (4-Track Picture Sleeve Extended Play Single at 45rpm)
Side 1:
One After 909
Teddy Boys
Side 2:
Let It Be Me (Everly Brothers cover)
I'm Ready
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