Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 25, 26, 31 January; 30 April 1969; 4 January 1970
Producers: George Martin, Chris Thomas
Engineers: Glyn Johns, Jeff Jarratt, Phil McDonald
Released: 6 March 1970 (UK), 11 March 1970 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, backing vocals, piano, maracas
John Lennon: backing vocals, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Billy Preston: organ, electric piano
Linda McCartney: backing vocals
Uncredited: two trumpets, two trombones, tenor saxophone, cellos
Available on:
Let It Be
1
Past Masters
Anthology 3
Let It Be... Naked
The Beatles' final single prior to the 1990s Anthology releases, Let It Be was also the title track of the last album of their career.
The song was written during the sessions for the White Album, at a time when Paul McCartney felt isolated as the only member of The Beatles still keen to keep the group together. His enthusiasm and belief had kept them going after the death of Brian Epstein, but increasingly he found the others at odds with his attempts to motivate them.
Although his public persona remained upbeat, privately McCartney was feeling in secure and wounded by the gradual disintegration of the group. During this period, his mother Mary - who had passed away in 1956 when McCartney was 14 - appeared to him in a dream.
One night during this tense time I had a dream I saw my mum, who'd been dead 10 years or so. And it was so great to see her because that's a wonderful ting about dreams: you actually are reunited with that person for a second; there they are and you appear to both be physically together again. It was so wonderful for me and she was very reassuring. In the dream she said, 'It'll be all right.' I'm not sure if she used the words 'Let it be' but that was the gist of her advice, it was, 'Don't worry too much, it will turn out OK.' It was such a sweet dream I woke up thinking, Oh, it was really great to visit with her again. I felt very blessed to have that dream. So that got me writing the song Let It Be. I literally started off 'Mother Mary', which was her name, 'When I find myself in times of trouble', which I certainly found myself in. The song was based on that dream.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
It was perhaps inevitable - even fortuitous for the group - that Let It Be took on religious overtones, with many listeners interpreting it as referring to the Virgin Mary.
Mother Mary makes it a quasi-religious thing, so you can take it that way. I don't mind. I'm quite happy if people want to use it to shore up their faith. I have no problem with that. I think it's a great thing to have faith of any sort, particularly in the world we live in.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
John Lennon felt little affection for the song, and was partly responsible for sandwiching it between the throwaway Dig It and Maggie Mae on the Let It Be album, which effectively sent up any perceived portentousness.
That's Paul. What can you say? Nothing to do with the Beatles. It could've been Wings. I don't know what he's thinking when he writes Let It Be. I think it was inspired by Bridge Over Troubled Water. That's my feeling, although I have nothing to go on. I know he wanted to write a Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Playboy, 1980
Chart success
Let It Be was the last single to be released by The Beatles before their split was announced to the press. A final US single, The Long And Winding Road, was issued two months later, and a month after Paul McCartney revealed to the press that the band were no more.
Let It Be was released in the UK on 6 March, billed as "an intimate bioscopic experience with THE BEATLES". Its b-side was You Know My Name (Look Up The Number).
The single reached number two in the charts. It fared better elsewhere, charting at number one in the US, Australia, Italy, Norway and Switzerland.
Related articles:
- UK single: Let It Be
- Recording, mixing: Run For Your Life, We Can Work It Out, The Word, I'm Looking Through You
- Old Brown Shoe
- One After 909
- Teddy Boy
Good Lawd! This is quite well-researched and instructive. Thanks a heap. I did a bit of writing on the biblical Mary today, and how the Beatles' disparate spiritual experiences can be linked to this song. This piece about Paul's dream was new information, though. The Great Spirit works in so many mysterious ways...
Preston played a Lowrey Heritage Deluxe, not a hammond on "Let it Be". The instrument is clearly visable in the move at Twinkingham, where Preston wasn't and at Apple, where he was. The instrument was also used in earlier sessions at Abbey Road.
To futher clarify, Naked is a different recording than the album or 45. It is slower, and the piano pedal phrasing is different than the other two, aside from the techno tricks.
It should be noted that Lennon was full of crap when he said Paul was trying to write "Bridge Over Troubled Water" ... "Let It Be" was written and recorded before "Bridge..." was released.
John Lennon's mistake in his placement of songs in the wrong chronological order doesn't merit this kind of derogatory remark.
You know how it goes Lennon at times was a hater especially on his comments on "Let It Be" and songs not written by him... Hey it still bares the Lennon/McCartney name... Why can't we just get along.
Well, he called a lot of his own songs "a piece of garbage" too. He basically didn't like much after he started his Plastic Ono Band thing.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters was recorded in 1969 - don't know when, perhaps it was before Let It Be.
Let It Be was originally recorded in January 1969, so it is highly unlikely that Bridge Over Troubled Waters was recorded before LIB.
It's also not impossible that Lennon's meaning was something like "That was Paul's attempt to write a kind of gospel-influenced song, as Paul Simon later did so, with his own 'Bridge Over Troubled Waters'"
I also believe Lennon said something akin to ' I'm Not sure but that's my guess' at the end
Why can't I believe that the solo on LET IT BE, from the LET IT BE album, was done by a Beatle member? It seems like the same person who did the solo on LET IT BE is the same person who performed the solo on DIG A PONY. It sounds outside of the range of any Beatle member because no Beatle album prior to the LET IT BE album had a solo in that style and no post Beatle member ever had any solo remotely close the those two solos.
I bought the remastered Let It Be album for the LIB lead break alone.
Outside the range? Most discerning listeners who compare the leads in, say, I Me Mine and Let It Be would have no doubt that both are by the same player—George.
No Beatle or post-Beatle solo is remotely similar? Even allowing for the difference in techniques of slide-style and finger-style leads, many of GH's lead breaks share the same melodic approach and similar note-bending. Compare, for instance, the leads of Isn't It a Pity and Free as a Bird and the aforementioned IMM and LIB. Listen also to George's last mini-lead in The End.
I'd say that the lead breaks of Something and the album version of Let It Be are (a) two of the finest lead breaks in rock and (b) demonstrably and indisputably, by George Harrison.
On Let It Be I've read that there were two different lead guitars both played by George. The second one is my favorite. It's been called a STINGING LEAD, and I just love that one, the one on the album. George had the respect of people like Clapton and Alvin Lee, two great lead guitar players. His lead on the end of The End is classic! I've never heard playing like that by anyone else.
I also love his lead work on the song Basketball Jones which he played for Cheech and Chong. Some of the licks are similiar to the lead on The End.
I guess you can see who my favorite Beatle was. Thank you for the great insight you showed on George.
On the album GH played a straight lead while on the file and 45 version it was through a Leslie (sp?).
Dig A Pony and Let It Be guitar solos were performed by the same person--a Beatle by the name of George Harrison.
Maybe you can't believe a Beatle played that well because they never studied at a conservatorium like real musicians. Surely, trained studio musicians must have recorded all the Beatles' music which real, properly trained composers must have composed.
Similarly, I can't believe that Shakespeare, who never studied at university, could have written such fine plays; an Oxford or Cambridge scholar must have written them. Agatha Christie, a woman who never went to school apart from a year or so at a finishing school, obviously never wrote all those popular novels; a man must have written them. The Egyptians could not have designed and built the pyramids: it must have been done by aliens.
He makes a great point. And besides, look at how much George improved over the years. Listen to his stuff from 1963, then 1966, then 1969, and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Not only did George improve his guitar playing, John and Paul did also. They were all very good guitar players and could all play lead.
In the early years George knew more chords and played better than Paul or John so he became the lead guitar player. He loved Carl Perkins and played like Carl on quite a few of the Beatle songs. These early recordings are so pure and beautiful. I'ts easy to see why he was the lead guitar player. He also taught John how to really play.It's my guess that George and Paul were truly guitar players while John became better later. Of course they all became better later, John later than the other two.
All three played lead, bass, and rhythm on the records. GH was also surpressed (sp?). His only 4 songs on White album?
It was amazing he got three on Revolver, but Paul sounds somewhat like him when he played lead on Taxman.
In my opinion the album version was much better than the single version. The guitar solo changes the entire makeup of the song; I feel a much greater emotional connection to the album version.
Non one recognized untill today, that on the LP/single-Version there's a bass-overdub. So it's not John playing. It must have been from 4th January 1970. So I think Paul played a new bass track. An the naked-version, John's bass and the overdub bass are combined.
You are right: Lennon bass and vocals were wiped. Paul overdub his bass and sang back-up vocals with George.
I don't know is these takes were combined for "Naked".
In this album, at least on rock songs like "Don't let me down", "Dig a Pony", "I've got a feeling", "Get back" and "one after 909", John was lead guitarist. "Get back" for sure, so it´s muck likely that he plays lead on his own songs.
Some say (not me) it's because Paul felt guilty about taking control over the group, so he encouraged John to play lead guitar.
I don't believe John played lead on the first three songs you mentioned but of course he did on Get Back (and For You Blue) as well on LIB.
I am pretty sure John is NOT lead guitar on Dig A Pony or One After 909 it's George. Get Back yes - and I don't recall a lead guitar solo on Don't Let Me Down.
There is a Don't Let Me Down version with a Billy Preston keyboard solo ("Hit it Bill!" Lennon yells). It's on the bootlegs.
I'm pretty sure there are three different guitar solo versions of LIB - all by George of course.
By the time the album came out my friends and I had had the single and the bootlegs for quite some time.
Hearing George's new solo on the album was a shocker.