It was the summer of 1970 when I told my mother I was going somewhere that I can't remember. Probably to one of my friends house or something. In truth I was heading to the Ruskin Twin Theater to see the new Beatles movie titled "Let It Be". I had no idea what to expect as I entered the theater and sat down in the nearly empty auditorium.
The film was a documentary of The Beatles recording songs in a big warehouse then movie to the new Apple Studios to end the movie with their last live performance as a group on the roof of Apple. I did not think it was a very good movie at the time. The film was dark and grainy. My four heroes did more talking and arguing then they did playing music. After I saw the movie I was not sure what I had just witnessed. I spent many hours trying to figure out why this film was made. In my eyes at the time, I could see that this great band would not last much longer. They were done. I was frustrated after seeing it and a little irritated. The Beatles should go out on a high note, not this grainy movie where they were always on each others back about something. An hour and a half of The Beatles not being the Beatles.
The previous year The Beatles had released the album "Abbey Road". This album was a great album and became one of my favorites. There were hints in that album though that would be reflected in the LET IT BE film. ABBEY ROAD had a lot more Paul and a markedly less presence of John. Almost the entire second side of the album was Paul with a couple of short songs by John. The big take away from ABBEY ROAD was that it seemed like George had learned how to write masterful songs out of nowhere. After seeing the film I wondered of there would be another Beatles album or if the catalogue was done.
Not too long after the release of the movie an album titled LET IT BE was released. Sensing that this could well be the last Beatles album from what I had seen in the movie, I bought it. As I listened to that album the first several times I was immediately put off by it. This thing did not sound like The Beatles I had come to know. I checked the credits on the back of the album and found out what had changed. George Martin, The Beatles iconic producer from the very early days of the band was not listed as the producer. He had been replaced by Phil Spector known for his "wall of sound" producing. That was what I was hearing and that is why I had felt like I was listening to the YELLOW SUBMARINE soundtrack or MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR only maybe a little worse.
The songs on this album were good. As I listened to them more I felt like these songs had the potential to be very good. It just didn't sound like The Beatles. Spector had over produced the songs. He had dubbed in a full on choir backing on some of the tracks and an orchestra that over powered The Beatles not only instrumentally but almost drowned out the vocals. The two songs that Spector destroyed the most were Paul's beautiful ballads "The Long and Winding Road" and the title track "Let It Be" along with John's "Across The Universe". I rated this album toward the bottom of Beatles releases. The album did go to number 1 in both the UK and the States, but that was expected of a Beatles album.
Now is the time to address the history of this album and why it turned into a mess. For the most part it is still a mess although there have been attempts to rescue it.
As you know LET IT BE was recorded before ABBEY ROAD even though it was the last album they released. If you don't know that 53 years after the fact, shame on you. You need to brush up on your Beatles history. You appall me.
The original plan for LET IT BE was that it would be a project that would include three things. First off, the album would recorded "live" in the studio and would be produced with each song having a single take. There would be no vocal or instrumental over dubs. Just the best take of each song mixed and cleaned up a little but finished without anything extra except for what was recorded in the studio. There would be a film documenting The Beatles taking these songs from their creative infancy to the final product in studio and finally there was the possibility of the Beatles doing a live performance for the first time in four years. It sounds like a great plan, and I think it would have been except things kind of went sideways.
As the band tried to record these songs with the idea of no overdubs using only the single takes of each song they found it difficult to do the songs the way they wanted them to sound with only the four of them. Enter Mr. Billy Preston. Preston was a keyboard player who The Beatles had met in Germany when they were just starting out. Preston happened to be in the UK and stopped by to visit with the band. They immediately recruited hm to play the keys to fill in voids in the sound of the songs. "Get Back" is labeled as being recorded by "The Beatles and Billy Preston". Preston saved these recordings from ending up even worse than the production by Spector.
The Beatles had a lot of songs they were working on for LET IT BE that would not make the cut but would show up on ABBEY ROAD and some that even made it to their early solo albums after the break up. After the band finished recording the songs for LET IT BE they took a short break and began working on ABBEY ROAD since they had many of the songs almost ready to record bu this time. As they waited for the film to be edited and released the LET IT BE album was shelved waiting for the release of the movie.
Glyn Johns was a well respected recording engineer that worked with the band here and there. He had recorded the vast majority of the album before having to leave early because of contractual obligations in Los Angeles. He returned after all the recording had been done to finish what he had started. He made his own mix of the album knowing what the intent of the group was and gave his work to Apple, leaving it there for approval and release. His work would not see the light of day until 2020 it would finally be released as part of a release marking the 50th anniversary of the albums release.
Meanwhile The Beatles had signed a new agent by the name of Alan Kline. From everything I have read, Kline was not the most honest agent around looking out more for making a quick buck instead of quality. If I read the history correctly, it was Kline who decided to release the LET IT BE album bringing in Spector to produce and mix the album and that was where the disaster began.
After hearing the album, George Martin said he immediately looked at the credits to see if he was listed as a co-producer. He was not. Only Phil Spector's name was listed as producer. This could be a good or bad thing for Martin. Paul has said when he first heard the final product he was fit to be tied. This release was not what the group had intended. John and George seemed to take a "whatever" attitude and I haven't heard what Ringo's reaction was at the time.
By the time the film and album were released The Beatles were basically finished as a band. Paul had started working on McCARTNEY during the production of ABBEY ROAD. John had likewise started working on his first solo album and had let the Beatles slide into his past. George had his own publishing company and had a slew of songs from over the years that had not made it onto Beatles albums. He was working on a three disc collection of these songs as his first solo project. The album became settled into the lower third of The Beatles canon and was left there. It was what it was.
In 2003 McCartney decided to revisit LET IT BE and try to fix it. His idea was to bring it back to the way the Beatles intended it to be. It would be difficult. He had to get rid of all of the strings and choirs and the overdubbing of vocals and instruments. The problem was that to do this he would pretty much have to toss the takes that Spector had ruined and use takes that were not necessarily the best of the bunch. What Paul ended up with was a very raw sounding recording of the songs. He titled it "LET IT BE-NAKED". To be honest it was a valiant attempt by Paul but with the inferior takes it didn't quite bring the songs out with their full potential. It sounds very rough. Actually, to me, it sounds like an unfinished album. The album was met with mixed reactions. It was nice to hear the songs without all of the over producing but left a lot to be desired.
Then came the year 2020 and Giles Martin. Giles is the son of George Martin and is a excellent producer and engineer. Apple had hired Giles in 2017 to remix SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND" for the albums 50th anniversary. Giles took the original mix and did a remix using new technology and brought out a very clean sounding album that made the album sound totally different. The result was almost like rediscovering the Beatles. It was a vast improvement. Apple decided to follow through and in 2018 Giles did his magic on "The Beatles (The White Album)" with the same result. This was followed in 2019 with the same treatment for the 50th anniversary of ABBEY ROAD.
It only made sense then that in 2020 Giles would rework LET IT BE. Giles has said that LET IT BE was quite a challenge. He had to use Spectors original mix and somehow try to make it sound new. It was not an easy task. He tried to put as much of the "wall of sound" into the deep background as he could to bring out more of the Beatles. I must say, given the mix he had he did a very good job. The Spector still there but it isn't as messy sounding. At the same time that Giles was working on trying t fix the Spector mess, Apple dusted off the Glyn Johns mix from the vault. The two were released together in the deluxe release of LET IT BE for the 50th Anniversary. In my opinion, Glyn Johns mix is about as close as you can get to what the Beatles started out wanting. It is a totally different sound. Johns used a lot of little tricks without crossing the line of over dubbing or adding anything. He used a lot of reverberation in his mix. He included some banter and joking between the group before a recording started. This version is my go to version of LET IT BE now without taking anything away from Giles Martin.
So is LET IT BE finally fixed? I don't think so. Spector took the best takes that there were and just took it entirely in the opposite direction that the Beatles were aiming for. But Giles Martin did as good of a job as possible with these Spector mixes and Glyn Johns mix of the album is very refreshing.
With this 2020 release I move LET IT BE up the chart of the Beatles albums.
Addendum: After LET IT BE was rereleased in 2020, Peter Jackson used new technology that is able to separate sounds using artificial intelligent programs to remake the LET IT BE movie. He took hundreds of hours of footage from the recording sessions and created a HD 8 hour long film titled "GET BACK". His film brings out the real story of those few weeks of recording. Yes there was some friction but it wasn't as dark as the original made it out to be. It was good to see the four working together on each others songs and working hard to record them correctly. If anything, it is Peter Jackson's GET BACK that finally saves LET IT BE from the disaster that was released in 1970.
