Let It Be(the album) proves the Beatles greatness?

I think so.

They were barely functioning as a unit at this point.

The songs were recorded over only several weeks with little enthusiasm.

You figure that they would have been creatively exhausted after just competing the sprawling White Album.

In the end the album was abondened by the Beatles.


And yet.....this album still manages to be great!

McCartney was on a roll on with this one. Let It Be is one of his greatest songs ever. Two Of Us, I've Got A Feeling, and Get Back are all classic songs. The Long and Winding Road is the worst of his bunch and I am still not exactly enthusiastic about it but when that is your worst song on the album...... it would be an achievement for most bands.

Lennon gives us the hard rocking I Dig A Pony and a rather weak rehash of One After 909. One After 909 is actually a pretty good song, but is poorly performed here. Of course we also get the timeless Across The Universe who's incredible beauty shines through even with the terrible post production done by Spector.

I feel that Harrison's songs here are not on the same level as his songs on the White Album or Abbey Road, yet they are still excellent. In fact, I feel that For You Blue is one of the most under rated Beatles tracks ever.

To sum it up, this album rules even with some weak performances and bad post production.The songwriting is stellar. As far as I am concerned this album blows away anything by today's 'top' bands such as Oasis, Radiohead or Cold Play and with Let It Be the Beatles weren't even trying. They were literally at their worst.

A pity the Beatles didn't get serious and spend a few more weeks on this album. As it stands now, it is a flawed masterpiece. With a bit more work it could have easily been an all time masterpiece, on par with Revolver, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, and the White Album.

Let It Be is one of my favorites...(well all of them are now arent they?) I think I Me Mine is a very good song and my favorites of George's here. I am not sure that how much I believe that they didnt put their all into this one...okay not their all, but I still think they cared enough about the music and that is why...even at 'their worst' a truly remarkable album was achieved.

I agree... they were going through a very difficult time during the recording of LIB, but they still managed to make an excellent album. There's no waist in it really.

It's really crazy to think they did such a great album when they were all tired of each other and they were being filmed all the time at the studio.

I think I prefer almost every version in Let It Be...Naked! though... still, the original Let It Be has something there, there's a whole story in it that makes it great, to me.

"Let It Be" was never one of my favorite albums... the apathy the band was feeling at that point really comes through. Paul's title track, "The Long and Winding Road", and "Get Back" are the shining moments in "Let It Be".

I love Phil Spector, but I also could live without his treatments to the tracks.

"Let It Be - Naked" revived my interest in that whole phase of the band's career. I listen to that instead of the original album.

It's OK- "One After 909" blows the '63 version away. I think, however, that it's mostly a Frankenstein that fails to uplift. Abbey Road outshines it.

Wow, Matt, that analysis blows me away!

(What's your take on LIB Naked?)

I haven't listen to Let it Be Naked. I only have listen to Let it Be. There are some good songs on there including two of us.

Originally Posted by pattiboyd's slave

Wow, Matt, that analysis blows me away!

I am just a regular Beatles fan. There are millions like me.

(What's your take on LIB Naked?)

Across the Universe and Long and Winding Road are a definite improvement.

To my ears, I've Got A Feeling seems to lose it's edge.

I have mixed feelings about it overall. It sounds too 'cleaned up' if that makes any sense

Yeah. LIB Naked sounds incomplete in places.

Originally Posted by matt5

I am just a regular Beatles fan. There are millions like me.

no there are not.

True fans are hard to find.

Originally Posted by matt5

:
Across the Universe and Long and Winding Road are a definite improvement.

To my ears, I've Got A Feeling seems to lose it's edge.

I have mixed feelings about it overall. It sounds too 'cleaned up' if that makes any sense

I think I know what you mean. The problem with "I've Got a Feeling" is that it is a completely different take of the song. It is good and all, but they really and truly nailed it in that first version on the rooftop, and that is the one we have had all these years. It's one track where Spector clearly did no harm (in fact, I think he hardly touched it).

I haven't posted before now, Matt, but I completely agree with your premise. To me, it is the blemishes, the emotional rawness, and the overall ambiguity of the project that makes the music so exciting. It could have been their "Exile on Main Street": rootsy raw and rich. "Let it Be" is to the Beatles, what "Smile" was to the Beach Boys, or "Lifehouse" was to the Who: the great unfinished, unfinishable project, an attempt to take it all to new level that failed, and yet (in some indefinable and scaled back way) succeeded.

Tony

I love "You and me". That's a fun song to sing as a duet.

Originally Posted by AMBOISVERT

I haven't posted before now, Matt, but I completely agree with your premise. To me, it is the blemishes, the emotional rawness, and the overall ambiguity of the project that makes the music so exciting. It could have been their "Exile on Main Street": rootsy raw and rich. "Let it Be" is to the Beatles, what "Smile" was to the Beach Boys, or "Lifehouse" was to the Who: the great unfinished, unfinishable project, an attempt to take it all to new level that failed, and yet (in some indefinable and scaled back way) succeeded.

Tony

If you put it that way, yes... "Let It Be" is worth a listen. However, I am very glad that it was not their swan song... "Abbey Road" was a much more momentous "farewell".

I've always liked Let it Be, but it was never one of my favorites. There are some great songs on it (in particular I like For Your Blue, Two of Us, Across the Universe), but I don't listen to it quite as often as, say Rubber Soul, or Revolver.
For the longest time, when I was younger, I thought Let it Be was the last album they recorded, until I learned otherwise that Abbey Road was the last one. To me, Abbey Road was a bit better, IMO.... but I still like Let it Be! I play it when I get in the mood to listen to it. For some strange reason, it's usually sad days!

Originally Posted by matt5

Across the Universe and Long and Winding Road are a definite improvement.

To my ears, I've Got A Feeling seems to lose it's edge.

I have mixed feelings about it overall. It sounds too 'cleaned up' if that makes any sense

I agree that it does sound to 'cleaned up'. The songs that Phil didn't over do on the original "Let It Be" sounds better there. Tho neither the "Let It Be" version of "Across The Universe" nor the one on "Let It Be... naked" is doing the song justice imo, I prefer the Anthology version. It's a great song nevertheless, but recorded long before "Let It Be" so to me "Across The Universe" doesn't really proves the greatness of the Beatles at the time "Let It Be" was recorded.

There are some good performances, but at the time they weren't playing very well. Where early on they might only needed on run through to get a song right, if you listen to the "Get Back" sessions, many of the performances sound tiresome. Out of I don't know how many run-throughs, rehearsals, only a handfull were good enough to be released. Still I have to agree, the end product is still a good album. But for me "Abbey Road" proves the Beatles greatness. That they still could get together and bring out an album like that is amazing.

Since we are on the subject of Let It Be, I was thinking how great the rooftop "concert" is. I mean the Beatles doing a live show anywhere in 1969, how fecking great was that! BUTT! (And I know many have cried a few endless tears over this matter in the past) Why didn't the boys do a live show somewhere else besides a goddamn roof in the middle of London during "business hours?" Despite all the in-house bickering, just look how happy they are playing together in front of people! Don't tell me they couldn't have rented Albert Hall for one lousy night and filmed That!
As I said, I know this subject is one loftier minds than mine have haggard and debated over the past thirty + years. But Damn!

One more thing, despite of his overproduction on "Across The Universe", "Let It Be" does show more the greatness of Phil Spector. He made something out of those endless rehearsals, choosing the best performances. He only ever added orchestra on three songs, one of those "Across The Universe" he made worse even adding a female orchestra, the "Long and Winding Road" got better, and it didn't hurt "I Me Mine" either, the other songs he pretty much left alone, but he made a tight album in the end.

yeah i do agree spector overproduced some, help others, but i just think the overall bad vibes of the album did affect it end results...the fact that it was Mccartney who was into making the album and film of it in the first place, and then getting cut out of how the songs were mixed and mastered in the end, both Jonn and George not wanting to be there at all...Well what i like most about the album is the "Live" sounding songs, Two of us, Ive got a feeling and One after 909, makes me think that the original concept of doing a live album would have been a good idea...

Originally Posted by 62hofner

If you put it that way, yes... "Let It Be" is worth a listen. However, I am very glad that it was not their swan song... "Abbey Road" was a much more momentous "farewell".

I hasten to add that I almost never listen to the album in its original Phil Spectorized phorm any more. As someone else has mentioned, he did a very nice job with some of the sparkier songs (Two of Us, I've got a Feeling, For You Blue), but mostly, since I have enough raw material now, and CD-burning is easy, I make own versions of LET IT BE/GET BACK, with my own playlist and preferred versions/mixes. I can't really imagine doing that with any other Beatles album. I also agree that ABBEY ROAD makes a better swan song. I just wish they'd gone ahead and released a Glyn Johns mix, and then really ended with ABBEY ROAD, instead of the ultimate/penultimate reversal that they ended up with, plus strings.

Tony