::Let It Be...Naked

[Paperback Writer]

WoW

I respectfully disagree 100%

I am so glad we have this album, my only minor complaint is leaving off the couple dittys and John's asides, comments.

WoW

[theDingle]

I like it, I like both. Hell, I'd probably go for slightly nuanced versions of the whole catalog, hopeless beatlefreako that I am, lol

[Bluebird]

WoW

I respectfully disagree 100%

I am so glad we have this album, my only minor complaint is leaving off the couple dittys and John's asides, comments.

WoW

Definately agree here. The whole arrangement of let it be the original was against the whole way of recording the beatles did. Spectors cruel mistake on TLAWR, the frustrating dig it, and the unfinished maggie mae. Further it was too much like an anthology album, too much talk before "get back" and "dig a pony". Everything was very bad. Paul did the only right to release let it be naked to show people how the real Let it be album should have looked like.

[BruceMirken]

I am eternally grateful we have LIBN. It's not The Final Word, but it's a valuable addition to the catalogue. And because it exists, I never have to listen to the Spector wall-of-sludge on The Long and Winding Road and the title tune again. I actually don't think the Beatles ever quite nailed TLAWR. Spector was right that it needed something, but the something he added was just screamingly wrong. For me, the definitive version remains the Wings Over America arrangement.

Across the Universe was a tune I always liked but never loved, knowing only the Spectorized version. The LIBN version, without the Wall of Sludge, is a revelation. Even if the rest of the album consisted of Ringo reading the phone book, this makes it worth buying.

As for Let It Be, I still think the original Glyn Johns mix released as a single is the definitive version, but the LIBN version is a respectable second.

[Bluebird]

Spector was right that it needed something, but the something he added was just screamingly wrong. For me, the definitive version remains the Wings Over America arrangement.
.

I like the Wings arrangement but the definitive version in my opinion is on let it be naked or on GMRTBS.

[Ian Iachimo]

Lets get this clear!. Let it be was a complete cock-up from the word go. It did not transpire into what everybody in the band thought it would be so it got dumped on the shelf. Paul had tried to produce a 'back to basics' album but it was apparent that some members were just not playing in the 'Beatle vibe'. Having pretty much fallen out with each other, the lads were then coaxed back by Paul, who grovelled to George Martin to produce the next album, just like old times. And so Abbey Road was born.
Later, John got hold of Phil Spector and let him loose on Let it be. He made Paul's sond Let it Be into a rather nasty Hymn-type arrangement, and The Long and Winding Road was given the Mantavani treatment which of course Paul Hated. It was all rather nasty stuff going on which many of us were unaware of until years later.
Let it Be naked, is pretty much a re-visit to Glen John's original engineering and production of the original takes, with all the crap removed. It has been well re-engineered by the lads at Abbey Road (Paul Hicks?) and obviously got the thumbs up for release. I've been a fan since I was Five, I'm now 43 and I must say, as a musician, in the later years, the Beatles as a four-piece, had lost their way. We all know that. But taking up to 60 takes to get one song!!!? Paul had the right idea to get back the basics but as we all know...the souffle' had the gas turned down on it!
Love and Peace (Who said there ain't no hair on a seagle's chest-I've seen them!)
Ian Iachimo (Sussex-UK)

[jules]

Here is my most sincere wish: please leave the Beatles back catalogue alone. I own LIBN and I quite enjoy it. However, I was most perturbed and disturbed when I learned that the songs have been messed with. This was apparently in order to neccessitate a perfect performance. So, "unwanted" noises have been edited out and different performances have been combined on one track. This is sacrelage. Just leave it. As JL said: "We were just a band who made it very big...you have all your old albums to listen to..." (slightly paraphrased). Yes, we do have all the old albums and they're great. Fiddling with them and bringing out supposedly "new" stuff is messing around with history and it's revisionism and I hate it. I feel even more strongly about the "new" Circe de Soleil Love album too.

[EwaldK]

Here is my most sincere wish: please leave the Beatles back catalogue alone. I own LIBN and I quite enjoy it. However, I was most perturbed and disturbed when I learned that the songs have been messed with. This was apparently in order to neccessitate a perfect performance. So, "unwanted" noises have been edited out and different performances have been combined on one track. This is sacrelage. Just leave it. As JL said: "We were just a band who made it very big...you have all your old albums to listen to..." (slightly paraphrased). Yes, we do have all the old albums and they're great. Fiddling with them and bringing out supposedly "new" stuff is messing around with history and it's revisionism and I hate it. I feel even more strongly about the "new" Circe de Soleil Love album too.

As long as the original instrumentation is left in place, I don't care so much for updates of original recordings. Sound technology is still evolving and don't really mind if that makes Beatles productions sound better.

I disliked LITBN because it sounds so unfinished; just as if they had taken 2nd rate tracks and put that out on the album.
I also am against the idea of "Love" alone because of the fact that 50% of the original band members are not alive today: it shouldn't carry the Beatles label. Call me suspicious, but I think it's a way to easily cash for a lot of people involved..they really should have stopped after Anthology.

[jules]

Totally agree with you. If Paul, Ringo, Olivia H, Yoko, George Martin, Neil Aspinall or anyone else with any weight is reading this, my message to them is: please stop, you're ruining the perfect back catalogue, and I mean THE perfect back catalogue. Beatles at the BBC was great, so was Anthology, now stop.

[Steve-o]

Love is a soundtrack album to the show..period. It's not messing with anything. We all know what the originals sound like.....we all have them. I see nothing wrong with releasing it. I was lucky enough to see the show and I can't wait to hear it again.