By Steve Marinucci
Published on November 18, 2003, San Jose Mercury News (CA)
• The Beatles, ``Let It Be . . . Naked,'' (Capitol) **
The year is 1970. The group: the Beatles. The album: ``Let
It Be,'' the last the Fab Four released before the breakup.
But the Beatles couldn't. Let it be, that is.
Which brings us to 2003 and ``Let It Be . . . Naked,'' a
name coined by Ringo Starr for the streamlined, revamped
version of the ``Let It Be'' album released today. (Also new
today are packages on the two deceased Beatles: ``Lennon Legend,'' a DVD
collection of John Lennon videos put together by Yoko Ono; and ``Concert For
George,'' a DVD and CD soundtrack of the 2002 tribute concert to George
Harrison.)
The surviving Beatles' intent was to remove the ``wall of sound'' excess wrought
by producer Phil Spector and let the original music shine through.
But the result isn't nearly as revealing as it should be. There are significant
differences on only a couple of songs. It may be that listening to all those bootlegs
of ``Get Back,'' as ``Let It Be'' was known in its early stages, makes this
album dispensable for all but the most die-hard Beatle fans.
``Let It Be'' was conceived as a movie and an album designed to give an inside
look at the Beatles in the studio. In January 1969, a camera crew headed by
director Michael Lindsay-Hogg recorded every note the Beatles played, with
no overdubs or special effects. Additional sessions, produced by Glyn Johns
and with Billy Preston on keyboards, also took place that month. The eventual
album and film were intended to show the Beatles ``warts and all,'' as John
Lennon loved to say.
But what was supposed to be a series of friendly musical moments to show the
band ``as nature intended,'' as a press release of the day proclaimed, became a
claustrophobic nightmare. So much bitterness crept into the sessions that George
Harrison walked out at one point.
The Beatles wanted nothing to do with the finished tapes, and handed them off
to Johns to make the ``Get Back'' album. Johns' attempts -- raw and unpolished
-- were ultimately rejected, although they later surfaced on bootlegs. Desperate,
the Beatles turned over the tapes to Spector, the eccentric producer of the
Ronettes, Darlene Love and the Crystals.
``They just gave the tapes to him, and so he did what Phil Spector does and overdubbed
and put orchestras on and all the rest of it,'' says longtime Beatles associate
Neil Aspinall in the press kit of the new album. ``In a sense, he did a really good
job. It's a great album, but it wasn't what the concept was in the first place.''
Spector made ``Let It Be'' his own, overwhelming the sound with echo, strings
and a choir. Given the simple concept of ``Get Back,'' it was the most overdone
and most unlikely album that could have emerged. But it was released, despite
the group's dissatisfaction.
``Let It Be . . . Naked'' came about after Paul McCartney and Lindsay-Hogg
discussed a DVD release of ``Let It Be.'' Although that appealed to McCartney,
he was more enthusiastic about the idea of a revised ``Let It Be'' album.
``I had been listening to the original mixes without any of the overdubs thinking,
`Wow! These are almost scary! It's so bare.' I really liked it!'' McCartney
says in the press kit for the new album, which he calls ``pure.'' ``It's the energy
that was in the studio and the great thing about the remixed version is that with
today's technology, it sounds better than ever.''
However, anyone who hoped for a radically different album than the original
``Let It Be'' will be disappointed. Even with the cleaner versions, many of the
songs closely resemble the original versions, minus the between-song chatter.
The new album does feature a new running order and is missing two songs from the
original: ``Maggie Mae'' and ``Dig It.'' ``Don't Let Me Down'' is added.
Unlike the extensive remixing that took place for the release of ``Yellow Submarine
Soundtrack,'' many of the differences here are more subtle.
The differences are most noticeable on ``The Long and Winding Road'' and
``Across the Universe,'' the most overblown songs on the original. In its new
version, ``Road'' sounds more tender and heartfelt; ``Universe'' has been stripped
to the bare bones. ``Get Back'' here is missing its original coda.
So how will ``Naked'' be received? Some Beatle fans certainly will wish they'd
gone further with the remixing. And as cleaned up as it is, ``Let It Be . . Naked''
is not going to satisfy fans who had hoped the wonderful ``Get Back'' albums
available for years on bootlegs would surface officially.
But, at least Paul McCartney now has the version of ``The Long and Winding
Road'' he's always wanted.
© 2003 Mercury News and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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