Recorded: January 1969-April 1970
Released: 17 November 2003
Tracklisting:
Get Back
Dig A Pony
For You Blue
The Long And Winding Road
Two Of Us
I've Got A Feeling
One After 909
Don't Let Me Down
I Me Mine
Across The Universe
Let It Be
Related articles:
- Mixing, master compilation: Let It Be, Get Back LP
- Anthology 3
- Glyn Johns compiles the second Get Back LP
- Get Back/Let It Be sessions: day 18
- Get Back/Let It Be sessions: day 11
I think that Let It Be... Naked has the best ending combination of separate songs (Don't Let Me Down, I Me Mine, Across The Universe, and Let It Be). The only other Beatles' album with a comparable four-song span of perfection (well, all of their songs are perfect...) is on 1, with I Feel Fine, Eight Days A Week, Ticket To Ride, and Help!
As far as I'm concerned, this should be the standard version of the album. At the very least, these versions of the tracks should be the standard.
You can't listen to this and say Phil Spector didn't screw up royal.
I'd include Maggie May, the fragment Dig It and the full Can You Dig It? as bonus tracks.
Let It Be.. Naked is by far the best album, better than Phil Spector's Let It Be, he did it well, but the remaining beatles just made it better, plus its remixed, I would of added Dig It and Maggie Mae, I love those tracks
I think "Let It Be...Naked" is an excellent album, but I do prefer the original "Let It Be" - just as I believe John Lennon would have, were he still alive.
Actually, John has called Let it Be the "shitiest piece of shit" he's ever heard. Though he admits he felt Phil Spector did the best he could with what he was given. I don't know what John would have preferred, or for what reason, but I consider this the definitive version of Let it Be.
I deleted Spector's LIB after listening to LIBN. I think of LIBN as the official version.
Phil Spector's Let It Be was replaced while he was awaiting his first murder trial
Of course Lennon hated Let It Be (though I had not heard of the "shittiest piece of shit" comment). He checked out of The Beatles after The White Album. The Ballad of John and Yoko brought him back for a bit, back enough to at least go through the motions on Abbey Road ("Because" notwithstanding).
After The WHite Album, his solo stuff was better than what he contributed to The Beatles.
Songs like Don't Let Me Down, Across The Universe, Come Together, I Want You (She's So Heavy), Dig A Pony and Because
(and the other 3 songs from Abbey Road's B side),all from John indicate he hadn't quite left the Beatles.
Cold Turkey was rejected by Paul for inclusion on Abbey Road and Instant Karma came out months after Abbey Road was released.
John worked very hard on contributing to the Abbey Road album.
Across the Universe was A feb.68 recording
He released (in 69) or after only 4 songs he later stated he didn't hate; Don't let me down, Come together, Because, and The Ballad of John and Yoko
Yes we all know ATU was a Feb 1968 recording!
BUT it had not been released on a Beatles record.
Therefore, it still counts as part of Lennon's TOTAL song contribution after the White Album.
Fine
He released 5 songs he didn't later say he hated
Happy
I don't believe Paul would have, could have rejected anything John wanted on an album. You must have George confused with John, lol!
No I don't have George confused with John.
According to Peter Brown's book, The Love You Make (2002), Cold Turkey was rejected by McCartney as the next Beatle single.
Anyway, do you think Paul would have allowed John's song about heroin withdrawal to be placed on a Beatle album?
Peter Browns book was nothing but a gossip rag, And he obviously had an axe to grind regarding Paul. If Paul didn't like Cold Turkey, then George & Ringo also played an equal part in keeping it off the Album. Paul stopped getting his own way when the rest of the beatles finally started to pay attention to business.
I believe the other Beatles were united in not wanting "Cold Turkey" as a Beatles single. What is the evidence they voted it off Abbey Road? John had written songs about drugs before and delivered tracks that were far more questionable musically (Revolution No. 9), and these were not kept off Beatles albums. I believe it is far more likely that John, having had "Cold Turkey" rejected as a single, chose to keep it off the album, credit it to "Lennon," and release it as a single. After that, it was obviously out of contention for any future group releases, which, by this time, was only going to be Let It Be. By including the reworked World Wildlife Fund anthem "Across the Universe" to help beef up the Lennon contribution to Let It Be, the Beatles proved they were not going to be pure to the Get Back concept. It was, therefore, Lennon's choice to keep it from the Beatles.
I would agree with this. Although I can't see how in hell Cold Turkey would have fit on Abbey Road. Perfect fit for the White Album. The original idea and the final product are rarely if ever the same. Pauls original idea for Get Back" was a 4 piece band playing together, Live. Yet he brought to the project Let it Be & The Long & Winding Road. They are ballads. Concept out the window!
I respect your opinion, but it may not be fair to judge "Cold Turkey" solely on the released version. I expect that, had "Come Together" been released by John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, it would have had a different sound than the Abbey Road version, and had "Cold Turkey" been turned over to George Martin and the other Beatles, a quite different product would have emerged. George Harrison commented that listening to Abbey Road was like "listening to someone else." Abbey Road has a bit of a range musically and thematically. There is perhaps nothing as jarring as "Revolution No. 9" followed by "Good Night," but "Octopus's Garden" followed by "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" indicates to me that "Cold Turkey" would not have seemed completely out of place.
Thanks for your thoughts. Can we please keep this discussion to Let It Be... Naked?
In my opinion Cold Turkey should have been a Beatle song. The lyrics weren't so explicit or graphic unless the word hell counts as being too explicit when John sings, "get me out of this hell." This song could have been a classic rock ballad for The Beatles like Revolution, Yer Blues, and Helter Skelter.
Cold Turkey was banned by many radio stations in North America and only reached number 30 on Billboard.
Lyrics such as ("I'm in at the deep freeze") and the actual song title itself, would have been a public relations disaster for the Beatles in America (especially in the Bible Belt).
Many people blamed the Beatles for the ever increasing drug scene in 1969.
The fact that it was pretty harsh and fairly tuneless would've been a further factor in its commercial failure.
Interesting comments. But I remember Cold Turkey being played a lot. Then again knee-jerk owned radio stations would ban most anything, including Melanie's BRAND NEW KEY because they claimed it contained sexual overtones (a simple song about roller skating.) It nevertheless shot to No. 1.
"Many people blamed the Beatles for the ever increasing drug scene in 1969"
What I mainly remember was a political campaign by Nixon, with Spiro Agnew attacking the Beatles for "spreading drugs." It was nonsense, of course and likely meant to counter John's anti war influence. The Beatles never promoted drug use even though some of Lennon's song may have been so influenced. Agnew though cited unsubstantiated rumors encircling "intentional drug songs" like Lucy in the Sky, etc., which of course wasn't. Lying hypocrite that he was, Agnew was later charged with extortion, tax fraud, bribery and conspiracy, and was disbarred and resigned in disgrace. Far as I know it never affected Beatle record sales. If anything sales increased (Abbey road and Let It Be out sold earlier albums.)
Actually, there undoubtedly WERE people who began doing drugs mostly because of the Beatles, just as surely as there were people who took up the guitar because they loved George Harrison's playing. The stupidity involved is the assumption that people don't have free will or the ability to make such decisions on their own, and that the Beatles are therefore somehow to "blame".
(But yeah, Agnew was a world-class all-around crook - he & Nixon really deserved each other)
OK, here are my preferred versions for each Let It Be track.
Get Back - Original A-Side "Hi-heel shoes & Low Neck Sweater" version
Dig A Pony - Naked
For You Blue - Naked (I'll never understand why Spector cut the acoustic guitar completely out after the intro on the original Let It Be version - bizzarre).
The Long And Winding Road - Anthology 3 (same take as LIB & single but without all the added syruppy crap - The Naked version is very nice, too, though).
Two Of Us - Naked (same as the original but way better sounding - crisper)
I've Got A Feeling - LIB (the original is simply more spirited and energetic than the Naked version. I don't get why they felt they needed a different take here.)
One After 909 - Naked (very nice remix)
Don't Let Me Down - original B-side (the vocal interplay at the end is better here between J&P)
I Me Mine - LIB (I like it better with the horns - definitely the best of the "Spectorized" tracks)
Across The Universe - Naked (though I really love the Athology 2 version as well)
Let It Be - Naked (George's solo is best here - plus the mix is very nice)
Yeah, I'll agree with those choices.
I have to disagree with the choice of I've Got a Feeling from LIB over Naked. I like the cleaner sound of the Naked version over the LIB version. IMHO, I don't feel like any of the energy is missing from the Naked version.
I agree with everything you say except for Let it Be - Naked version. I think Georges guitar solo is awful! I feel it's much better (and re-done) on LIB.
My 2 cents...If it was so important to try to erease Phil Spector from History, then they should've called it; GET BACK! THE BOOTLEG. Lastly I'll never understand why Dont Let me Down was left off the original album???
Agree with Elsewhere on everything, except One After 909. I prefer the energy and sloppiness of the Anthology version from 1963.
Why didn't "Naked" retain "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae" and John's ad-libs about pygmies and pot-smoking FBI agents? I liked that stuff!
(Nice to be living in the CD-R age when anybody can assemble their own ideal version of LIB/GB)
Because they were trying to make Let It Be... Naked sound like a real album so they cut out the talking and didn't include Dig It and Maggie Mae which were just jams and were considered "too weak" for inclusion.
OK, I can see your point. But if that's Paul McCartney's reasoning (which I assume it is), it's still not necessarily logical. I mean, The White Album included bits of studio chatter and unfinished song-scraps, and that's certainly a "real album"! And LIB was INTENDED to have a documentary aspect.
I liked LIBN. We needed to hear that original-untouched songs. But I always wondered why McCartney didn't think in reissuing the original "Get Back" album, which was the first idea and contained simmilar tracklist. The LIB concept was to show The Beatles creating music, and that´s why Spector's version is so frustrating. Instead of NAKED, i would have loved to, finally, get the Get Back album...
I bought a bootleg of Get Back entitled Kum Back in 1970 or 1971 which features Teddy Boy.
Individual tracks were played on the radio around Xmas 1969 and some of the tracks received an unfavourable response.
As for myself, I prefer LIBN.
I remember Teddy Boy being played on radio as a Beatle song, then being confused when it later showed up on McCartney's solo album.
Get Back though was Beatle project, and as it was never completed it would seem (to me anyway) inappropriate for Paul to rewrite history and release such an album minus collaboration from the now deceased John and George. Let it be is what it is: the raw and unfinished Get Back recordings.
I wish the album would have been released as originaly intended! Produced by Glyn Johns and titled Get Back with an album cover that mimiced their first release Please Please me it featured the songs "Teddy Boy", a jam called "Rocker", "Save the Last Dance" (by the Drifters), a 5 min. version of "Dig It" and "Don't Let Me Down". The best part about LITN is that it includes "Don't Let Me Down" which was Lennon's best composition for the sessions!
I also wish that The Beatles themselves would have included more of George’s songs on ever album possible. I mean for this one we missed out on hearing “Hear Me Lord” and “All Things Must Pass” as done by The Beatles…
(two tracks off of another fine album over-produced by Spector!)
Again, I say: How lucky are we to be living in the MP3/CD-R age, where we can all easily assemble our own ideal version of "Get Back"/"Let It Be" as we wish it existed all along!
I think it's clear the Let It Be Naked is far superior to LIB. Forgetting the Spector junk, the LIBN mix is way better.
And although I've complained about it on other pages, In LIBN the mix does not separate the singer from his instrument - for instance on many of the LIB trax Lennon's voice is on one side and his guitar is panned onto the other - which kills the sense of a live performance.
Paul's mix puts the vocals in the middle - which is closer to how a live performance actually sounds - guitars coming out of the amps - voices centered from a main PA.
Some disagree that this matters - but apparently it meant enough to Paul to change it.
LIBN actually sounds like the Beatles just playing their songs. Which I think was part of the intent overall.
I want to hear the original Get Back Glen Johns mix period!!!
I've been comparing the songs on LIB with the Naked versions and the rumors of the superiority of Naked are greatly exaggerated. The albums are just different.
The clean version of "Across the Universe" is lovely, a gem. But the heavily processed AtU is emotionally powerful in a different way. Lennon's voice mixed with those strings, maybe run through a synth, is other-worldy and beautiful.
It's nice to hear Paul's vocals out front on "Let it Be", but they took out the best part of the song - Harrison's edgy guitar break in the middle. Plus the gospel organ is mostly gone.
I don't like "The Long and Winding Road" sung by anybody, but I don't find the Naked version at all pleasing. Again, it's nice to hear the vocal more distinct. But listen to some of those cheesy electric piano fills. Give me back the strings. Naked "Long and Winding" sounds like an early demo.
If you listen to "Two of Us" side by side, they are both pleasing. The old version with the vocals mixed more in the back gives the song a more haunting quality. Both versions are beautiful in slightly different ways.
Spector only made huge alterations to 3 songs
You're the only one whose made any sense. The Long and Winding Road sounds terrible, John sings off key on Don't Let me Down. George's guitar playing on Let it Be is... lousy! It is far superior on the Spector version.
Not to be argumentative, but for purposes of discussion, by my count Phil Spector made huge changes to four songs
Let It Be
The Long and Winding Road
Across the Universe
I, Me, Mine
But what he really altered, to me, was the whole concept of the album - which was that it represent The Beatles playing live and together.
While admittedly they strayed from that themselves (somewhat), to me Let It Be Naked comes much closer to capturing that original concept.
Spector retained the live feeling by keeping the Danny Boy ending to One after 909, cutting the coda off Get Back, and including two jams
Also Robert I did forget Let it Be in the list of Super Spectored songs
Perhaps you are right about the "original concept." Yet Phil Spector's concept is just as effective to my ears. If I had to choose, I would take the original LIB to the desert island. The idea of including the chatter and throw-away ditties gave the orignal album life and spontanaity.
Its great to have both mixes. I am nerdy and had to splice my own "Let it Be" song together. The first half of the Naked version is clearly superior to my ears. But then the Spector instrumental mix starting halfway through the song gives the song its punch.
Yes, but the Phil Spector album ISN'T WHAT THEY WANT, what they planed, isn't a Beatles' album... Is just Phil Spector soloist.
Who sings, by themselves, on 9 of 12 songs? Who wrote all 12 songs? Is Sgt. Pepper a George Martin Solo album?
I adore LIBN. It's not just the sound quality or the simpler song arrangements, it's also the song sequence which makes it far superior to LIB, in my opinion. It's a complete album, whereas LIB sounds overdone, yet unfinished.
I agree with the suggestion the songs left off LIBN could have been included as bonus tracks, but we have what we have, and I love it.
I'm a Paul fan. I thought it was unnecessary. Phil Spector only really over indulged with 1 song, The Long and Winding Road. And, it was well done. So what it had a harp and a choir singers. Also, he was very democratic about the job. 1 George, 1 John & 2 Paul. Let It Be, TLWR & Don't Let Me Down sound "AWFUL" on LIBN. Those are the 3 biggest songs on the album.
So... I'm the only one who finds the Spector version of TLWR a lot better than the LIBN version? Yes? ...I thought so... :<
I agree with you. The Spector version is far superior that the "Naked" version.
I read somewhere that the idea for "naked" was it would be released along with a re-edited Let it Be Movie. But that fell through for what ever reason. I'm guessing the remaining principals, Paul, Ringo, Yoko & Olivia don't really like each other much.
No, Brian Wilson loves the Spector version of TLWR.
The Long and winding Road on Naked is painfully boring. Sounds like a demo.
Billy Preston on piano would have greatly improved this track.
While I enjoy the sonic improvements of Naked, I agree with this review: it "stripped the original album of both John's sense of humor and Phil Spector's wacky, and at least slightly tongue-in-cheek, grandiosity."