September 20, 2003
Let It Be ... Naked
Apple Corp. announced earlier this week that The Beatles will re-release their 1970 Let It Be album, this time stripped of the schamltzy orchestration added by producer Phil Spector after the band's break-up. [rollingstone.com]. Originally conceived as a "reality" album to be titled "Get Back," the project was eventually shelved when the guys (and Yoko) started getting on each others' nerves, big time. Paul McCartney says he has waited 30 years to do the album like the group wanted the music to sound.
Most Beatles fans hated Let It Be. Personally, I like it, but think that anything taking Phil Spector out of The Beatles has got to be a positive development. I mean, The Ronettes, The Crystals and the other early 60s girl groups on which Spector made his reputation may have needed his "Wall of Sound," but The Beatles didn't. If you wany Beatles with orchestration listen to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, it defines the genre. Nothing Spector did -- legend or not -- even comes close.
Posted by glenn
Re-releasing the Let It Be album stripped to the bone and cleaned up as Let It Be...Naked is, I think, an opportunity gone begging when you consider that it would have been much more interesting to release the original format named Get Back.
It could have been promoted as "The Album That Never Was" or "The Lost Album", which would have created a greater sense of curiosity and, also, it would have included a rarely-if-ever-heard track called "Rocker".
Posted by: Richard at November 9, 2003 11:55 AM
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