Last Album: Let It Be or Abbey Road? | Page 5 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

‘Abbey Road ‘ is their last album that they recorded together as a group…  Even then, the word “group” is being used loosely…  ‘Let It Be ‘ is a compilation of, up until then, unreleased recordings, remixes & some new material stretching out over a long period of time (unlike ‘Abbey Road ‘ although, John’s ‘I Want You’ I believe was recorded before the album was planned), not much different than the ‘Anthology’ really…  And before some of you point out that John wasn’t consulted on the final mixes of the “reunion” tracks, well… neither was Paul on much of the ‘Let It Be ‘ album apparently…  Yes, Paul had the opportunity to criticise the final product whereas John couldn’t, but the ‘Let It Be ‘ album is a compilation album released after they stopped recording together and even contains a “new” Threetles track…:-)

meanmistermustard said
Paul agreed to the release of ‘Let It Be ‘ and heard Spector’s work before the album was out, it’s not true to say he had no idea until it was too late

There’s a lot of different takes on what actually happened during the Spring of 1970, but one thing that no one seems to disagree on is that Paul McCartney all but disappeared into seclusion after the January sessions were finished…  Members of The Beatles’ tight inner circle even had difficulty getting a hold of him and when he finally surfaced with the ‘McCartney’ L.P. in hand, it was literally weeks before the ‘Let It Be ‘ album release date…  Yes, Paul “heard Spector’s work before the album was out” but was not involved much, if at all, in the finishing touches put to it beyond the January sessions…

‘Let It Be ‘s release was all about Allen Klein turning an Unused Asset into a Capital Gain…  Again, not much unlike the ‘Anthology’ situation where Yoko, Paul, George & Ringo did the same…  Paul threw himself into the ‘McCartney’ project in earnest after the January sessions for it was now clearer than ever before that John had left the group and wasn’t returning…  Paul left the group, right then and there (but didn’t announce it), and spent about as much time on ‘Let It Be ‘ afterwards as John did…  By the time Paul had heard the finished product it was “too late” to do anything about changing anything…  The release date had been set…  A date that he tried even harder to change than the final mix of ‘The Long And Winding Road’ for he didn’t want it released in direct competition with his own album…

meanmistermustard said 

‘I Me Mine ‘ as as much a full Beatles track as ‘Yesterday ‘ or ‘The Ballad Of John And Yoko ‘ are. John could have attended the session and fully agreed to its release so to refer to it as “The Threatles” misses the fundamentals of both ‘Beatles’ and ‘Threatles’.   

The “fundamentals of Threatles” is that it’s a name coined by the press…  It just stuck more than, say, ‘Fab Three’ etc….  Its “fundamentals” are that it’s Paul, George & Ringo without John…  We’ve gone down this road before and what prevents us from agreement is that I value Yoko Ono’s input apparently much more than you do…  John Lennon gave complete control over his music/business affairs, in the unfortunate event of his death, to Yoko Ono while he was still alive…  That means something to me…:-)
 

meanmistermustard said
Paul sent a letter basically saying “don’t do it again” but giving his approval

The only “letter” that I read about, probably in Peter Brown’s book (somebody who was there), demanded that the strings/choir in ‘The Long And Winding Road ‘ and overdubs during ‘Let It Be ‘ be removed…  He also wanted the release date pushed back to make way for ‘McCartney’s release…  Hardly “approval”…  Insider’s described Paul’s reaction upon first hearing the album to be something like “angry as hell”…

meanmistermustard said 

Yoko is not John. John gave Yoko his vote but Yoko has approved a whole load of crap John would never have agreed to, milking John’s catalogue and legacy for every penny she can get.  

I dunno…  If John approved of Yoko Ono coming into the studio while The Beatles were recording, something that no one save for Neil & Mal were privy to, then he likely would’ve gave her the seal of approval on just about anything I believe…  It’s hard for some people to understand, but they essentially became one person after getting together…  To deny her voice is to deny John’s…  She IS the voice of John Lennon , whether we like it, or not…:-)

meanmistermustard said 

So John would approve of his image being used to sell ice cream or Citroen cars? 

Yes, I believe that he would’ve…  He certainly participated in many other “silly” (for lack of a better word) antics to promote their message of peace, why not extend the billboards to ice cream labels on a brand found in just about every grocery store here in North America?  As far as the “Citroen cars” go, I’m not sure what exactly you’re talking about there…  I do remember a car commercial in the 80’s featuring “something in the way she moves” to the tune of a George Harrison song so I don’t see any reason why John wouldn’t follow suit…

meanmistermustard said 

Not once in all of his arguments for splitting up the Beatles did he say ‘Let It Be ‘ was issued without his consent. He’s bitched and moaned for years about what Spector did yet 47 years later he hasn’t said he tried to stop it coming out, only that Spector ruined the material – hence ‘Let It Be … Naked’.
 

Of course he hasn’t…  There’s many things that Paul conveniently doesn’t comment on publicly because he’s worried too much about his squeaky clean public image…  I believe that you yourself commented on this notion in another ‘Let It Be ‘ thread recently…  I’d love to see this letter that you claim he gave his “approval” of the final mixes on the ‘Let It Be ‘ album, do you have a source for this?  He didn’t stop the album from coming out simply because he couldn’t…  It was the inspiration for the lawsuit that soon followed, now NOTHING could go out under The Beatles’ name unless all four were in agreement…  Had Paul “approved” of the final product, there wouldn’t be a ‘Naked’ album in all likelihood…:-)