The Beatles, Let It Be (50th Anniversary Edition) – Who am I to review a classic Beatles album, right? Nope, not gonna do it. It’s one of my top three fab four favorites, close behind A Hard Day’s Night and Rubber Soul, so I really don’t have any criticism to offer. It’s a looser, more casual record than most of their others, especially compared to the complex, dense White Album that came right before. The fragmented circumstances of the album’s recording has left one much-debated question floating out there since 1970 – is Let It Be the final Beatles album, or is it Abbey Road? I’ll briefly run down the story, which may or may not clarify things, and you can be the judge.
The band was beyond burnt out after the White Album was done. It had been a sometimes-tense struggle to complete. Egos and agendas were clashing, Ringo even quit during the sessions. The other three had to beg him to come back (although they had no problem adding their own drum parts while he was gone). The results sound more like Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison solo songs than anything they had recorded up to that point. The story goes that it was Sir Paul who suggested a different approach for the next one.
The plan was to film the group writing and rehearsing a batch of new songs for a triumphant return to live performing, in a venue to be determined later. In January of 1969, cameras, gear, Beatles, Beatle girlfriends and wives, and film and sound crews filled Twickenham Film Studios, a giant barn of a space. The whole process devolved into a mess. The boys found it difficult to create in that setting, song ideas were tried and tossed away in frustration, and the idea of a concert following the completion of the album was scrapped. When they realized Twickenham was a dead end, the band moved to the new basement studio in their Apple Records building. They hated that space, too, but finally managed to create and record enough songs for an album, played an impromptu goodbye concert on the building’s roof, and walked away from the whole project. All four realized the Beatles were disintegrating at that point, and they wanted a more focused artistic statement to go out on, so they went back to Abbey Road Studios and made the brilliant Abbey Road, released in September of 1969.
Let It Be hung on in limbo until May of 1970. A rather sour-feeling documentary was patched together for release from the Twickenham footage. The guy recording the chaotic sessions, Glyn Johns, created a mix in ’69 of the album, then called Get Back, which the band rejected as too ragged-sounding. Johns took a second stab at a mix and got a second rejection. So, there it sat, with the band apparently washing their hands of it. And then John quit the band, saying he wanted a “divorce” from the other three. The three remaining Beatles worked again, briefly, on a couple of the songs and producer Phil Spector was called in to finish the album, now called Let It Be because the first single “Get Back” had been released a year earlier and they needed something fresher. By the time the album finally came out in May, the Beatles were officially no more.
It was a difficult birth to say the least, and yet we’re left with another marvelous Beatles album. The lack of their usual obsessive studio tinkering means the album sounds more like an exceptionally talented band getting off on playing together than anything else in their catalog. “Two of Us” and “One After 909” are loose, shuffling rockers, with unfussy Lennon and McCartney harmonizing that sounds like a couple of close friends having a blast. George contributes two killer songs, “I Me Mine” and “For You Blue,” and reminds the world what a genius guitarist he was all over the record. The Beatles classic songs are here, they didn’t forget those in the pandemonium. Sir Paul brought his A-game with “Get Back,” “The Long and Winding Road,” and the title track. John’s “Across the Universe” is brilliant, with “Dig A Pony” not far behind. Even the obvious fillers, the 50-second jam called “Dig It” and John’s partial run-through of the old folk song “Maggie Mae” are brief shots of candid Beatle fun, giving the album a palpable feeling of band camaraderie the White Album didn't have. I love every minute of it, last Beatles album or not.
The only decision you have to make if you’re interested in the 50th anniversary version is how much of that story I just told you want to hear as recorded evidence. You can, like me, just pick up the new remastered album on vinyl or CD, and enjoy how incredible George Martin’s son, Giles, made this classic record sound. Even if you heard it a zillion times back in the day, you’ve never heard it sound this punchy and precise. The harmony vocal parts, especially, are vivid and exciting. You’ll be reminded once again that Beatle Paul was (and still is) one of the most inventive and melodic bassists to ever strap on a Hofner. If you want more, the other options are a 5-LP “super deluxe” vinyl version or 5-CD + Blu-ray “super deluxe” digital version. They both include a copy of Glyn John’s rejected Get Back album, freed at last from its long stint in bootleg purgatory, and lots and lots of session outtakes and rehearsals. Way too many for me to ever give serious listening time to, life is too short to obsess over the also-rans. I’m perfectly happy (thrilled, really) to enjoy the Beatles’ last, or second-to-last, artistic statement in such glorious audiophile quality.
P.S.: The one thing mega-fans are complaining about with the super deluxe sets is the lack of any video or audio from the concert on the roof of the Apple building, the Beatles' last live performance. Peter Jackson’s saving the first ever airing of the full concert for his six-hour The Beatles: Get Back documentary hitting Disney+ in November and I can't wait.
EARWORM: “The Long and Winding Road” (1969) Paul has said he hated the lush string section Phil Spector added to his song for the Let It Be release. Here’s an earlier take without it. Great song either way, if you ask me.
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