- Audio CD (27 Aug 2004)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Musicrama/Koch
- ASIN: B000A2GLYW
- Other Editions: Audio CD | Audio Cassette | Vinyl
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
Jubilee Offer: Patriot Classics for £2.50 |
Product details |
Track Listings
| 1. Get Back |
| 2. Dig a Pony |
| 3. For You Blue |
| 4. Long and Winding Road |
| 5. Two of Us |
| 6. I've Got a Feeling |
| 7. One After 909 |
| 8. Don't Let Me Down |
| 9. I Me Mine |
| 10. Across the Universe |
| 11. Let It Be |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
How much better, you could be forgiven for wondering, could Let It Be be? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is "a bit". Let It Be, while obviously better than almost everything ever recorded by anyone else, was compromised by the fact that the Beatles were disintegrating as a unit during the recording sessions, the rancour most famously illustrated by John Lennon calling in Phil Spector behind Paul McCartney's back to rework "The Long and Winding Road". Let It Be... Naked, then, is the album as the Beatles would have heard it while they were making it.
The tracklisting on this version of Let It Be differs slightly from the original--there's no "Maggie Mae" or "Dig It", while "Don't Let Me Down" has been added. The rest of the songs, shorn of Spector's decorative flourishes, confirm that although the Beatles were having occasional difficulty speaking to each other during these sessions, there was no problem about playing together. The only two minor quibbles are that "The Long and Winding Road" is still McCartney at his most saccharine, and that any Beatles version of "Across the Universe" is never going to hold a candle to that by Laibach. --Andrew Mueller
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I cannot stress how sceptical and reticent I was when this was released. I thought "Why bother?" In my opinion, "Let it Be" was always something of a B-grade Beatles album, a mish-mash of doodles with some faulted gems within the Phil Spectorised structure and production. Having heard "Cum Back" and various other bootlegs too, I could only think that this was Paul McCartney tinkering with something that to all intents and purposes should be left alone, let go of.
How wrong can a person be?
I have to admit that this is an amazing piece of work, not only in terms of the albums track order and restoration, but it is the quality of the writing, the stripped-down,unadorned beauty that this release has in spades. I am quite amazed at how for the first time in thirty odd years I can listen to these songs and hear how great they really are. make no mistake, we've all heard "Winding Road" and "Let it Be " to death but not like this. mcCartney's vocals are so surprising in that they are quite perfect and magnificent, something I'd never quite heard before. The fact that these are as recorded in the studio, untampered with and without overdubbing simply confirms that this is nothing short of a near masterpiece. If you are a fan, I urge you to buy it and you will not be disappointed. It's like hearing a whole new thing, like a veil of mush and clutter has been lifted away from something so beautiful that it is shocking to realise what a butcher job Phil Spector did on this in 1969/70.If you are not a fan I am sure you will be after this. Oh, and by the way, "Across the Universe" is breathtaking and moving. Buy it today!
How wrong can a person be?
I have to admit that this is an amazing piece of work, not only in terms of the albums track order and restoration, but it is the quality of the writing, the stripped-down,unadorned beauty that this release has in spades. I am quite amazed at how for the first time in thirty odd years I can listen to these songs and hear how great they really are. make no mistake, we've all heard "Winding Road" and "Let it Be " to death but not like this. mcCartney's vocals are so surprising in that they are quite perfect and magnificent, something I'd never quite heard before. The fact that these are as recorded in the studio, untampered with and without overdubbing simply confirms that this is nothing short of a near masterpiece. If you are a fan, I urge you to buy it and you will not be disappointed. It's like hearing a whole new thing, like a veil of mush and clutter has been lifted away from something so beautiful that it is shocking to realise what a butcher job Phil Spector did on this in 1969/70.If you are not a fan I am sure you will be after this. Oh, and by the way, "Across the Universe" is breathtaking and moving. Buy it today!
48 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Whether you love or hate the original "Let It Be" ...personally I found it a good album but by no means one of their best...this release is a product of McCartney's determination to set the record straight on how the album should have sounded.
Whilst he was absolutely right to remove the 2 Lennon abherrations ("Dig It" and "Maggie Mae")replacing them with the vastly superior Lennon song "Don't Let Me Down" listeners will not necessarily prefer the simpler versions of the other songs.
Ultimately its a matter of taste - the orchestrated original v the McCartney alternative is for you to choose. For myself I'm a Beatles fan so I'll take both as they are both good & serve a purpose!!!
*The extra CD of the Beatles rehearsing is great by the way!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I really can't understand the negative reception this album has received since its release because in my opinion it is the best presentation of the Jan 69 sessions currently available; take it from someone who has the original Let It Be and both Glynn Johns Get Back mixes.
Whatever McCartney's motivation for revisiting these sessions after 30 years it is certainly more honourable than Lennon's decision to give them to Phil Spector behind his back in 1970. At least what we have now is closer to the spirit of the original concept of 'Honest Recordings with no overdubs' than the 1970 version. Lennons behaviour in relation to this album was neglectful and you only need to listen to his Rolling Stone interview of the same time for proof of how little he regarded both the Beatles legacy and his former partner. He did soften his view on both in retrospect before his death but only the most blinkered of Lennon fans could think he was right to give these sessions to Spector, and allow them to be released as a finished work complete with his awful bass playing on Long and Winding Road. At least McCartney can't be accused of releasing sub standard work complete with technical blemishes.
What we have here is a far more listenable album than the original, the team of Abbey Road engineers have really done a great job. We have the definitive version of Across the Universe, which is just simply gorgeous. Don't Let Me Down replaces Maggie Mae and Dig It and being a composite of the two Rooftop performances the version is more robust and soulful than the version that was released as the b side of the Get Back single. The version of I Got a Feeling presented here is again a composite of both the Rooftop performances and the improved mix really highlights Billy Prestons electric piano. The remastering job is ok with maybe just a little too much noise reduction for my ears, would have been nice to let it breath a bit more but that's remastering post year 2000 Abbey Road style for you. My only real Gripe is with bonus disc which I feel was a missed opportunity, it really should have been a bit longer and contained a few more snipits of tracks that were tried out but eventually appeared on the bands subsequent solo albums, Lennons Gimme some Truth, Harrisons Isn't It a Pity and McCartneys Maybe I'm Amazed were all tried out during these sessions. I'm not convinced that the full Rooftop performance would have been a better option unless you particularly want to listen to 3 different versions of Get Back and 2 of I Got a Feeling to name but a few.
4 stars because the material is clearly not of the same standard as Rubber Soul, Abbey Road etc but I certainly have listened to this more in the last few years than I ever did the 1970 version.
Whatever McCartney's motivation for revisiting these sessions after 30 years it is certainly more honourable than Lennon's decision to give them to Phil Spector behind his back in 1970. At least what we have now is closer to the spirit of the original concept of 'Honest Recordings with no overdubs' than the 1970 version. Lennons behaviour in relation to this album was neglectful and you only need to listen to his Rolling Stone interview of the same time for proof of how little he regarded both the Beatles legacy and his former partner. He did soften his view on both in retrospect before his death but only the most blinkered of Lennon fans could think he was right to give these sessions to Spector, and allow them to be released as a finished work complete with his awful bass playing on Long and Winding Road. At least McCartney can't be accused of releasing sub standard work complete with technical blemishes.
What we have here is a far more listenable album than the original, the team of Abbey Road engineers have really done a great job. We have the definitive version of Across the Universe, which is just simply gorgeous. Don't Let Me Down replaces Maggie Mae and Dig It and being a composite of the two Rooftop performances the version is more robust and soulful than the version that was released as the b side of the Get Back single. The version of I Got a Feeling presented here is again a composite of both the Rooftop performances and the improved mix really highlights Billy Prestons electric piano. The remastering job is ok with maybe just a little too much noise reduction for my ears, would have been nice to let it breath a bit more but that's remastering post year 2000 Abbey Road style for you. My only real Gripe is with bonus disc which I feel was a missed opportunity, it really should have been a bit longer and contained a few more snipits of tracks that were tried out but eventually appeared on the bands subsequent solo albums, Lennons Gimme some Truth, Harrisons Isn't It a Pity and McCartneys Maybe I'm Amazed were all tried out during these sessions. I'm not convinced that the full Rooftop performance would have been a better option unless you particularly want to listen to 3 different versions of Get Back and 2 of I Got a Feeling to name but a few.
4 stars because the material is clearly not of the same standard as Rubber Soul, Abbey Road etc but I certainly have listened to this more in the last few years than I ever did the 1970 version.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
McCartney strikes back
If you have ever been fortunate enough to watch The Beatles Anthology, then it should be easy enough to assess that Paul McCartney, for all his wonderful talent, is an absolute... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Tom Cat
If only................................
I am 56, lifelong Beatles fan, so, totally biased, never heard this until now (not that much of a fan I hear you thinking? Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ian
Vital Transformation
First of all let me scotch the idea that this is Paul McCartney's work, though it was his idea to attempt a re-launch of the album. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Terry Starr
Album in general
My first Beatles album. I played it everyday til I got my second which was a mono box. (My third will be an Apple USB). Read more
Published 4 months ago by wo00osh -
A disappointment and a waste of money
If, in 1969, the Beatles intended to make a back-to-roots album, then Let It Be is closer to the truth than Let It Be... Naked. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Brewster
It's The Beatles... What more can i say
A wonderful little album with a new arrangement and great sounding pieces. A really and truly beautiful collection of songs, as they had intended them, before fiddly viols and... Read more
Published 15 months ago by The Researcher
Let it be... Redux
This is an interesting variation on the original Let It Be album stripping the orchestrations added by Phil Spector into the raw, rocky, back to basic's approach The Beatles wanted... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Andrew Whitby
Not perfect but this is the superior Let It Be.
Having listened extensively to both the Let It Be 2009 re-master and Let It Be... Naked, Naked is clearly the superior album. Now let me tell you why. Read more
Published on 18 April 2010 by Mr. L. Kellet
Let it Suck
Phil Spector,beside being a murderer was a genius
This "naked" version lacks the humor and vitality of the original. Read more
This "naked" version lacks the humor and vitality of the original. Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2010 by Mj Elton
live - the real deal
in brief - the great thing about this is the live nature of the sound - even after the remasters, the sheer intensity which burns off these recordings just goes to remind us of... Read more
Published on 8 Oct 2009 by D'Arcy
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