mail: daniel_fjall@hotmail.com
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please please me with the beatles a hard day's night beatles for sale help! rubber soul revolver sgt pepper's lonely hearts club band magical mystery tour the beatles yellow submarine abbey road let it be/let it be... naked
Please Please Me The debut album of the Beatles, recorded live in the studio in just 12 hours, may not match the musical adventures of their latter efforts, but it is still rather good. It was a huge record way back when, and if you compare it to the other albums released in the really early sixties, it comes off as a masterpiece. But that doesn’t matter much, does it? The good news is that it still holds up today. Obviously not production wise or lyrically (with a few exceptions), but if judged purely on melody and chord changes it most certainly is capable of being compared to modern pop albums. Also it feels fresh and the playing is exciting and filled with energy. It’s a record that makes you happy. One might argue that some songs are just silly and laughable, on the other hand, “I Saw Her Standing There”, the dead classic “Twist And Shout” as well as the title track shows that these guys weren’t just lucky. They had something. “Please, Please Me” is a 3 minute masterpiece, at least in my opinion. Although the music doesn’t sound that revolutionizing, the revolution had already started. The group decided to release an original song instead of a cover as their first single, the B-side was also written by themselves and 8 of these 14 songs were written by Lennon/McCartney ( or McCartney/Lennon as it read in the early days). Something very unusual. Groups often released songs written by other people as singles and the album was done to promote the single. It was all about to change.
With The Beatles Released the same year as the debut, With The Beatles follows the same pattern as the previous album with a mix of original songs and a bunch of covers. While most people tend to think this is an improvement over Please Please Me, I disagree. Sure, the highlights, including “It Won’t Belong” is pop heaven with the rough, but perfect vocals, irresistible melody and exciting, uplifting playing. However, some of the songs seems a bit tired and a couple of covers isn’t too convincing. The overall tone of the album is a bit more serious this time around and the true highlights are as perfect as expected, but on the other hand, there are fillers here in the true sense of the word. “Little Child”, “Devil In Her Heart” and “Hold Me Tight” really isn’t that great. Then, there are good news too. George’s first original composition, “Don’t Bother” me stands out as a semi-forgotten gem and the covers of “Please Mr. Postman” and “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me” is particularly successful. It’s not that it feels rushed or anything, but it’s not as good as it could have been. Especially when you think about the singles the group released during the same period. Thanks to classics such as Paul’s “All My Loving”, the album boarders to essential, even if the song in question isn’t a favorite of mine personally. Anyway, thanks to the singles (“She Loves You”, “I Want To Hold Your Hand” etc) the group managed to reach unbelievable hights and got the chance to make a film. A film with a soundtrack that really raised the standards for pop music at the time.
A Hard Day’s Night The Beatles took the chance of making a film and it was a hit both with the audience and artistically. This is the soundtrack, filled out with other new material. Most importantly, the album is very even all the way through. Yes, the songs may not be particularly deep, profound or anything, but this is pure pop. Every track here easily match the highlights on the earlier two albums and together that probably means that this was the greatest pop album ever released at the time. Another important thing is that this was the first (and only) album to exist entirely of Lennon/McCartney compositions. The covers are gone and that helped to pawn the way for artist writing their own songs, rather than having professional songwriters composing for professional singers. However, most importantly is the quality of the songs and the performance. The title track is just great and will give even the most casual listener an adrenaline rush. “I Should Have Known Better” possesses a really catchy melody and some ear grabbing harmonica, Paul’s love wild “Can’t Buy Me Love” was released as a single and topped the charts in America, with four other Beatles songs at 2-5 position. A record yet to be beaten. “Any Time At All” is sadly a bit forgotten among the other hits here, which is a real shame since it’s a fantastic pop up-tempo number. Obviously, there are a couple of beautiful ballads as well. “And I Love Her” stands out as one of McCartney’s finest moments to this day, “I’ll Get Back” has a more bitter tone and “If I Fell” features nice harmony singing. All this, together with lost masterpieces such as “Things We Said Today”, makes a truly essential album. A classic album filled with classic pop tunes from a time when it was all about cracking a smile.
Beatles For Sale Generally called a step back by most people, but I say it shows a lot of progress and especially the lyrics seems more mature and grown up. Lennon is the one who mainly shows it with his Dylan-inspired songs, such as “I’m A Loser” and “No Reply”. The latter also being very successful melodically. There’s no way you can resist to the chorus. Paul yet again has a beautiful ballad titled “I’ll Follow The Sun”, featuring gorgeous acoustic guitar picking. The only argument that really supports the “step back”-theory is that the covers are back. Some of them are just awful (“Mr Moonlight”), some are decent (“Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby”, “Words of Love”) and some are done with the same energy as the most exciting covers from the two first albums (“Kansas City”, “Rock & Roll Music”) and actually improving the original versions. Of course there are the perfect pop hits as well, that are both undeniable catchy and minor experimental at the same time. “Eight Days A Week”, for instance has a fade-in during the intro, and it was something special back then. Especially since it was the first track on the B-side. A cool effect destroyed by the CD-age. Who cares anyway, it’s a good song. “Every Little Thing” might have banal lyrics, but that melody is quite perfect and takes a huge leap production wise with those amazingly fitting drums during the chorus. The Beatles were worn out at the time. Everybody wanted them to be on their tv-show, their radio-show, in their magazine. Everybody wanted them to do concerts and commercials. At the same time the record company demanded them to fulfill their contract (at least two albums/year). The pressure was enormous, but I say the boys did pretty well.
Help! With some perspective Help! is often regarded as an album placed somewhere in between the dull For Sale and the brilliancy of A Hard Day’s Night and the mysterious Rubber Soul. Based on quality, that is. However, I still claim that you can see some progress with every album the group released. This time around, the Beatles managed not only to come up with great pop melodies, but also it sounded so damn good. The production is really great, not only judged by the mid-60’s standard, but also compared to Rubber Soul. Musically, especially Lennon/McCartney continues to grow. Both the title track and “Ticket To Ride” belongs to the very best Lennon ever wrote. Catchy melodies, but still with a serious tone. Also, this is arguably John’s peak as a vocalist. Seriously. He sounds so friggin’ great on these tracks. “You’re Going To Lose That Girl” is a great example, which is in my opinion, sadly a bit forgotten in the Beatles catalog. Filled with hooks, and well designed harmony vocals which reminds of earlier efforts, such as “Please Mr. Postman”. Only better. Paul didn’t write as much as John for this album, but he once again shows that he is a master of melodies. Just listen to “Another Girl” and “The Night Before” and try to listen to the melodies. How great the notes floats with the song, and how effortlessly he sings them. “I’ve Just Seen A Face” has a clear country flavor, and might be somewhat lightweight, but yet again, ‘catchy’ is the word. How could you resist? The seriousness of For Sale isn’t gone, and it’s even more developed on Help. John’s “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” takes things one step further and is obviously influenced by Bob Dylan. With it’s stripped down arrangement it comes off as even more personal than the title track (which probably isn’t the case), but the results are great. Of course, Paul doesn’t want to be any worse and also delivers his own spare arranged acoustic song, “Yesterday” which probably doesn’t need any introduction to anyone. So, whilest Paul might have the best song here with “Yesterday”, John’s songs offers a high quality throughout, with “Only Love” being the only misstep. George gives us two nice, but rather anonymous songs and Ringo sings “Act Naturally”, a country cover that they frankly should have left behind in Hamburg. Overall a really good album that earns more attention than it’s given. Anyway, even greater things were about to come.
Rubber Soul Clearly they were smoking something.... Anyway, this is really mature stuff. Yes, there were people being even more serious than the fab four. There were people being more easy listening than the Beatles. No one combined the two worlds as successful as the Beatles. “Drive My Car” is simple pop, really. But, you can hear some soul influences, a bit different attack in the playing, a lyrical twist and the catchy melody has a new, slightly different packing than any other previous song the group released. The soft drug sounding “Norwegian Wood” is clearly a Dylan-influence that is musically interesting as well as lyrically. There are sitars, odd changes between the major and the minor key, lyrics about banging some bird... Suddenly folk music was hit list potential! What strikes me as interesting with this album is their vocal arrangements. Usually there were just one or two backing singers, now... well, just listen to “Nowhere Man” and see how the Beatles tried to approach the Beach Boys. I don’t think that the Beatles suddenly got interested in doing backing vocals by 1965, but that they just weren’t able to do it before. The Beach Boys more sophisticated harmonies are somewhat helped by their number of singers surpassing the singers in the Beatles. The Englishmen needed to do at least one overdub to create what the Americans could do in one take. Now, in 1965 the studios started to catch up with the musical ideas. Four tracks were now in use, which made it possible for the Beatles (and others too, obviously) to do more serious musical arrangements (including vocals). “In My Life” probably shows this new technology at it best, but without sounding like it was a difficult thing to do. You do not only have the very nice vocal arrangements, but also a piano solo, which was speeded up to get that particular feeling. Small things like that are all over this album. Another interesting thing with the album is how George Harrison’s songwriting skills has drastically improved. His contributions here are first rate material that any other group would be happy to have on their own albums. You should also try to listen for the bass on this record. McCartney haven’t developed his playing quite yet, but it’s getting there. His ideas would take form on Revolver and Sgt Pepper, but the playing is already groundbreaking compared to other pop records. There is one thing that constantly annoys me with Rubber Soul. The way it is mixed. It sounds fantastic in your ordinary speakers, but as soon you listen to it with headphones, it’s very clear that “stereo” was something very new and strange at that time. Neither George Martin or the group seems to have really understood it’s potential, but is trying to use it. Often the results are painfully embarrassing. The closing “Run For Your Life” is just one of the songs that sounds, just, odd and unfocused. But please remember, if you listen to it without headphones, you are most likely not to think about it.
Revolver And so it begins... Sure, say that Pet Sounds is the greatest album ever. Say that Sticky Fingers earns the title better. Why not Ziggy Stardust or Dark Side of The Moon? You might be right. Perhaps the Beatles didn’t release the greatest album ever. I do know one thing, though. The quality of the string of albums the Liverpool-group released from Revolver (maybe even Rubber Soul) and forward has never been matched by anyone and probably never will. No one has been this good and been able to keep the high quality for so long. It all comes together here. The Indian-influences, the acid and the pot, the more grown-up approach and the willing to experiment with technology and new sounds. All is mixed into something that was unique in the mid-sixties and remains unique to this day. No one has been able to reproduce the sound of Revolver. Not only is it's arrangements and production great, but it would not have worked without the great songwriting that makes the foundation of the album. It also have the perfect balance of all members. Paul’s bitter ballads (“Eleanor Rigby”, “For No One”) and patented catchiness (“Got To Get You Into My Life”, “Good Day Sunshine”) mixed with John’s psycedelic wordplays (“I’m Only Sleeping”, “She Said, “She Said”) and George’s combination of everything. There’s not a single weak track on the album, even though I can see why some people might be turned off by the silly “Yellow Submarine”. I still think it’s worth being on the album, thanks to the sound effects that might pass the average listener by. “Tomorrow Never Knows” is usually credited to John, but remember that it sounds like it does thanks to all members of the band. Ringo’s destinct and focused drumming, John’s lyrics and melody based on one chord, George’s fascination for the Indian culture and Paul’s homemade tape loops that runs throughout the song. A song that stands out because of it’s weird nature and is almost a stab at techno before the term existed. Of course, it sounds better than techno and echoed the experimental spirit that had grown strong in the culture at the time, particularly in San Francisco. What makes the album and the Beatles even more respectable is that they believed so much in this material that they considered them afford to leave out the amazing single that was released at the same time. “Paperback Writer”/”Rain” might be perfection defined, but you need to get Pastmasters II to hear it. Please do and realize that the group was playing in their own league at the time. I also think that Revolver was the last album to have a different track listing in the US, which is remarkable as well.
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band People that are somewhat suspicious towards Sgt Pepper often argue that it was great for it’s time, but isn’t very relevant in these modern days. However, whilst the actual sound of Revolver can’t be reproduced by modern techniques, Sgt Pepper is a lot easier to mimic. With orchestras and different instruments being available in every computer now, a lot of people try. Often they just end up sounding as nothing but poor amateurs in comparison. The basic reason for that is the song material. See, people tend to look at the arrangements, the experimentation with sounds and the artistic impact the album had at the time. Often the conclusion is that the album doesn’t deserve the acclaim it has gained over the years. All I can say is fine, but you would be missing the most important thing, the songs. And by songs I don’t mean an interesting guitar line, a beautiful vocal harmony part or a cool loop, those things belongs in the arrangement department. I’m talking about melody and chord changes. Something that the Beatles treats and knows better than anybody else at the time and to this day. Still, with the great help of producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick, the band managed to arrange and produce interesting sounds and next to perfect arrangements that fits the songs very well. Also, this might be the greatest bass album ever. Just try to keep focus on the bass lines the next time you listen to this album and I’m pretty sure you will be impressed. Not that the rest of the album is less mind blowing. Closing track “A Day In The Life” is worth all the hype alone.
Magical Mystery Tour During this period the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein died. And if I should point at one single moment where the split up of the band began, it would be that very second. Brian had been taken care of everything around the Beatles, and even though he wasn’t the greatest businessman the world has known, he did a great job making sure that they could focus on the music and the music only. When he died, he left behind a mess for the people that never had been involved in it and while they tried to figure out everything, things got worse since nobody took care of things. Also, from reading interviews and articles I’ve gained the impression that John wanted to quit the group at this point. Not because he was artistically or personally suffering with the limitations of being in a band, but simply because he had no idea what to do. Paul, however, tried to keep the band going. They started to work on a new, silly movie about a people going to Blackpool and get drunk. A very loose concept, to say the least. Whilst the film was unquestionably their biggest belly flop, you should not dismiss the soundtrack which is filled with great songs. Originally released in the UK as a double EP, but later the current singles were added to make it a proper album for the American release. It is quite similar to Sgt Pepper, but then again, most of these songs were in circulation during the Pepper-sessions. “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” were the first songs they had started working on, and was meant to be included on Pepper. But because of the demand for new material from the record company, the songs were released as a single. And the first single not reaching the #1 spot in the British charts since the debut “Love Me Do”. The two songs were taking huge steps forward with the effects and different sections within the songs. The songs had been ignored for Sgt Pepper, but fitted Magical Mystery Tour perfectly. Another highlight is of course Lennon’s third psychedelic masterpiece during this period, “I Am The Walrus” (the other two being “A Day In The Life” and “Strawberry Fields Forever”). It has a simple melody and great lyrics with no content whatsoever, but at the same is about everything. John is often mentioned to have one of the greatest and most personal sounding singing voices, and while I sometimes wonder what the fuzz is all about, I’m instantly reminded whenever “I Am The Walrus” is on. He sounds so god damn good! Other songs where his vocals has that particular feel are “A Day In The Life” and the solo single “Instant Karma”. There’s just something about that guy. Just the sound of his voice... Oh well, Paul ain’t doing so bad either. Songs such as “Your Mother Should Know” and “Hello Goodbye” might not seem special to begin with, but they have something about them. The melodies are strong, there are nice harmony vocals and maybe simple on a nearly childish level, they are catchy. More mature and musical interesting are “Fool On The Hill” and “Penny Lane”. The latter is a distant observation on a small part of a town, inspired by Liverpool and the street Penny Lane. Whilst it isn’t psychedelia in the same way as John’s songs here, it certainly has something druggie about it. The lyrics are wellcrafted and there are some unusual chord changes. I do prefer “Fool On The Hill” of the two, though. It’s more sparesly arranged and it’s musical approach and lyrics brings earlier McCartney compositions such as “Eleanor Rigby”, “For No One” and “She’s Leaving Home”. Pul can be bitter too, even if “Fool On The Hill” doesn’t quite aim in the exact same direction. Magical Mystery Tour is a good collection of songs, there’s no doubt about that. I do believe that it’s slightly forgotten and ignored because of the movie fiasco and is left in the shadow of Sgt Pepper. It’s a shame. It deserves attention.
The Beatles The Beatles had spent the last two year to explore the full potential of the recording studio, and drifting into what’s been labled as “psychedelia”. However, it’s a vague term, and Beatles psychedelia was much more controlled and thought through compared to the jam-based improvisational music bands such as Pink Floyd and the entire San Francisco-scene was doing at the time. One thing is clear, though. On The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album) the band takes a step back to more traditional, basic rock. The guitars and the classic rock group set are back, which is kind of ironic since this was the band’s least group effort album so far. John, Paul and George were occupying three studios at the same time, working individually on their own songs. Partly because the work with the album was going slow and they were forced to have an album out soon, partly because the tension and personal conflicts between the band members. Ringo even went on holiday during the sessions, and actually had unofficially quit the group. He came back, though. Because of the separation between the band members the album is so diverse it’s almost ridiculous. Heavy rock and roll numbers such as “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey”, “Birthday” and “Helter Skelter” are placed next to softer ballads as “I Will”, “Julia” and “Blackbird”, which is mixed up with old big band show tunes (“Martha My Dear, Honey Pie”), silly sing along numbers (“Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da”, “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill”), social statements (“Revolution 1”, “Piggies”) and, of course, perfect pop songs (“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Sexy Sadie”). There are fillers here, and that’s expect on a double album, ‘songs’ like “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” and “Wild Honey Pie” seems useless, but they were never meant to be taken seriously anyway and actually add to the overall charm of the album. I probably would prefer if they were not there, but I don’t mind them either. Now, there obviously are songs here that more than well makes up for the inclusion of the lesser songs. If I had to pick just one song as a highlight I probably would choose Paul’s tender “Mother Nature’s Son”. Good melody, great vocals, nice horn arrangement and good guitar picking. “I’m So Tired” and “Cry Baby Cry” are two slow John songs that itches to your mind, whilst Paul’s Beach Boy’s parody “Back In The U.S.S.R.” is a rocker with great harmony vocals and, as always is the case with Paul, a very catchy melody. The most controversial song on the album belongs to John. The sound collage “Revolution 9” has stirred up many heathen discussions among fans, but I figured I won’t say anything about it, except that it was used hilariously in a Simpson-episode. That alone justifies it’s existence.
Yellow Submarine A soundtrack. Less inspired than the previous ones, and probably the only inessential considering that there are more of George Martin’s original, instrumental movie score than there are Beatle-songs. Sure, a fan might be interested in hearing Martin’s work once or twice, but it is not a very satisfying listen. Pleasant on occasion, but nothing more. The Beatles themselves contributed with six songs, two of them (“Yellow Submarine” and “All You Need Is Love”) already available on previous albums and the other four are songs that the group considered too weak being to take up space on their ‘real’ albums. However, even second-rated Beatle-material are enjoyable. George’s “It’s All Too Much” was originally written during the Sgt Pepper-sessions and has a great psychedelic feel to it, mostly because of it’s organ and odd guitar parts. The true highlight belongs to John, though. “Hey Bulldog” has a great piano riff and is actually pretty raw and rocking, even if the lyrics aren’t exactly Nobel-prize material. When the movie was re-released on VHS and DVD, the soundtrack was given a make-over. George Martin’s work was wiped off in favor of other Beatles songs that were used in the film, but didn’t make it to the original soundtrack. The new release is re-mastered and serves well as an alternative compilation of some of the groups finest material. Not very relevant if you already own the original albums, though. If you badly need Yellow Submarine, you must be a hardcore fan and should get the 1969-release. If you’re a novice, get the recent release as it will serve as a good introduction to the band.
Abbey Road After finishing The White Album, the Beatles returned to the studio to record some songs and a movie documentary. The name of the project was Get Back. Because of financial and management issues, there was a lot of tension between the members and finally the situation was out of control. The project was abandoned. After a while, the group returned to the studio and started working with new material. The result would become Abbey Road, a magical, timeless and just perfect album. Great, sparkling clear production combined with fantastic songs arguably makes Abbey Road the greatest record ever in the history of pop and rock and roll. Whilst Lennon wanted a pure rock album, Paul was very ambitious to make the perfect pop-album. They had to compromise. The first side is true to John’s needs and features six songs based on traditional songwriting. Those six songs are amazing, but the album is mostly remembered and respected for it’s second side. Paul’s side. Small bits and unfinished songs are tied together into something extraordinary. McCartney had been touching upon this before on Sgt Pepper when the title track moved into “With A Little Help From My Friends”, but never quite like this. Especially the last half of the second side is marvelous, starting with “Golden Slumbers” and ending appropriately with “The End”. This was the album the Beatles meant to be their last. It is a fantastic effort and it is hard to describe it. You need to hear it yourself. Anyway, Lennon would bring the unfinished tapes of Get Back to Phil Spector. An act that would have a sad and dark affect on Lennon’s already bruised friendship with McCartney.
Let It Be
Let It Be... Naked We all know the story. Paul decided that the band should go back to their roots. Basically, I think it was because he wanted to perform live again, something that was impossible at the time with albums such as Revolver and Sgt Pepper. If they didn’t want to bring big orchestras with them on the road, the only way was to take the music back to the simple band format again. No overdubs or weird psychedelic mumbo jumbo, just plain simple Cavern Club rock. Even though John had told the group during a private meeting that he would leave the group, he seemed to like the idea of playing some more traditional music. I don’t think he was excited about doing concerts again, but I do believe that he considered it, whilst George and Ringo were against the touring idea all together. Let It Be is full of contradictions and contrasts. It is recorded very rough and has raw arrangements (“One After 909”, “I’ve Got A Feeling”), but at the same time it includes the most overblown and bombastic songs the group ever did (“The Long And Winding Road”, “Across The Universe”). Let It Be is also generally considered to be one of the weakest albums the Beatles did, but it does have some of the groups most loved songs (the title track, “Get Back”) and it is interesting that Paul, whom is supposed to be the pop perfectionist raged against Phil Spector’s grand arrangements and overdubs, whilst John, the rocker, not only defended the final result, but even slipped Spector the original tapes. I find the original 1970 release great and extremely underrated. However, no matter how much I adore songs such as “Across The Universe” and “Get Back”, I can’t deny that I like the George Martin produced, alternative versions (both available on Past Masters II) a lot better. Thanks to the Anthologies and various bootleg sources you could compare some songs even before Let It Be... Naked was released. The most controversial song, “The Long And Winding Road”, always sounded better on those records than the Spector-version. Not that the Spector-version is bad, I just think that the, well, naked versions were a tad better. Now, with the new version of Let It Be available to everyone, it’s impossible to not compare the two albums. Whilst Let It Be is, as I said, an album full of contradictions, Let It Be... Naked works better as an album, rather than a bunch of songs tossed together. Spector’s choirs, strings and orchestrations are wiped off which results in an album that’s still diverse, but also more unit-sounding. “Dig A Pony” and “Two of Us” doesn’t differ very much from the 1970-release, but some of the songs has changed a lot. “The Long And Winding Road” sets it’s focus on the great melody and Paul McCartney’s fine vocals and beautiful piano that was present in Spector’s version as well, but not easily spotted. It probably has the most notable change together with “Across The Universe”. Phil Spector had slowed down “Across The Universe” (which automatically changes the original key) and used layers of backing vocals and strings on it, the Naked version once again focus on the extremely strong melody, rather than a pretty arrangement. These two songs were fantastic on Let It Be, but now they manage to reach new hights thanks to a newly found humbleness. One song that actually works better in Spector’s hands is Harrison’s “I Me Mine”. The original version that Spector was given to work with was not even two minutes long and surely had potential, but was far from breath taking. Spector copied the first verse and added it at the end of the song, which made it a bit longer, and his string arrangement suited the song very well and intensified it. The Naked version is the shorter version, without the strings and it is fantastic here as well, but never reaching the standard of Spector’s version. Which only confirms the excellent work of Phil Spector. On Naked, the title track is lifted directly from the documentary the group filmed during the recording session. It has a different (and not quite as good) solo than on Let It Be, but that is easily compensated with the fantastic backing vocals during the chorus. Thinking about it, the only song that fails on both versions is Harrison’s uninspired, lightweight blues “For You Blue”. Yes, “I Me Mine” sounds better on the Spector-album, on the other hand, “One After 909” sounds really good on the 2003-version. It’s not drastically changed or anything, but it manages to deliver some classic rock (written in the early days, and the Beatles recorded an unused version in 1963 available on the first Anthology-CD), instead of being generic and uninteresting as it was in 1970. Let It Be... Naked is the stronger album in the end. And the one thing that weighs over in favor of it is the track list. Let It Be had two nonsense tunes on it (“Dig It”, “Maggie Mae”) that never where meant to be taken seriously. They are removed from Let It Be... Naked, which instead features the single at the time, “Don’t Let Me Down”. It’s a catchy song and it succeeds to be emotional at the same time. Great guitar parts, nice organ by Billy Preston (he plays all organ parts on the album) and a fantastic vocal performance by John. “Don’t Let Me Down” certainly is a huge improvement and addition to the album. Especially when it is replacing novelty songs such as “Dig It”. The recording of Let It Be had started in 1969, under the name of Get Back, but was abandoned because of the fights within the group (often concerning financial questions). The general spirit in the studio was so bad that George Martin left the album to be produced by his assistant Glyn Johns (he would later produce albums such as Slowhand and Exile On Main Street). George Martin was convinced that it was the end of the band and was surprised when Paul rang him up and asked if he wanted to produce their next album. He was hesitating, but finally agreed. The result would be Abbey Road. Then John Lennon gave the Get Back-tapes to Phil Spector without telling the others about it. George Harrison and Ringo Starr didn’t mind, but Paul was furious. The group was probably already dead, but Lennon’s move made them realize it themselves. Some thirty years later, Paul is finally seeing ‘his’ version of the album being released to the public. People may call him greedy and selfish, but remember the bitterness and dissatisfaction he has felt during all the years. I think it has more to do with artistic reasons than with money. And it’s not like Paul is getting all the money himself. Olivia Harrison, Yoko Ono/Lennon and Ringo are all getting their share as well. You don’t have to worry about them, I assure you. Cynical voices speaks of McCartney milking the Beatles-legacy now when both Lennon and Harrison are gone, but some romurs (different tabloids) says that George Harrison approved of Let It Be... Naked before he passed away, and Ringo thought it was a good idea as well. I tell you, if Yoko would have been the slightest suspicious against the album, she would have stopped it. You should also remember that neither Paul or Ringo was present during the mixing and remastering progress, nor did they suggest which versions that was going to be used or the running order. There was no chance for McCartney to put down Lennon in favor of himself. And I don’t think he would have wanted to do that anyway. Let It Be... Naked is a Beatles release and not a McCartney release. There’s one thing I can’t help but thinking about. What if Lennon never had given the tapes to Spector? The group would probably have disbanded anyway, but... just the very thought of all these songs gathering dust in some vault somewhere is giddying. What if Paul and Ringo released the Let It Be album today? What would the reactions have been to songs such as “Let It Be”, “The Long And Winding Road” and “Get Back”? The greatest outtakes of all time, I'd say.
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