Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fab 4s Final one still sounds good 30 years later!, 28 April 2000
Reviewing the Beatles may seem like a waste of time as everything that could have been written about them has been - but the continuing interest with the anthologies, the tribute bands and the consistent sales still make them probably the most listened to band that will ever be. LET IT BE was first released in 1970, a patchwork album of material originally scheduled to be released as GET BACK a year earlier and recorded before the more famous ABBEY ROAD. Rejected by a disillusioned band and producer George Martin - it was put together by Phil Spector who under the circumstances does a pretty fair job. Although far from their finest, LET IT BE contains a few gems for fans and for the casual listener, after all any album that contains 3 (USA) number ones, Get Back, The Long And Winding Road and the title track can't be all bad. Add to that the simple "Two of Us", the irritatingly catchy "Dig A Pony", the basic "One After 909" - one of the first Lennon-McCartney compositions ever. The CD quality sounds better than the earlier albums like PLEASE PLEASE ME and this is an interesting historical document. Hard to believe that these guys could still make good music even when they were in turmoil. Rediscover this one now. Well worth a listen
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
JUST LET IT BE...IT IS WHAT IT IS!, 20 Sep 2001
"Let It Be", recorded before "Abbey Road" but released last, has been pilloried by the critics. While it lacks the finesse of George Martin's magic, it is still a very good album. It has two of Paul McCartney's best vocal efforts on it, in the title song, "Let It Be", which is beautiful and moving", as well as on the poignant "The Long And Winding Road". Pauls vocals are also notable in the rocking "Get Back" track.This album comes closest to making The Beatles sound as they did, when they first began recording. This is probably because they performed live for many of the tracks, which gave them the projected warmth of their earlier efforts. While Phil Spector was the producer who cobbled together this recording, he was heavily criticized for his handling of the material. Paul himself chastized him for the arrangement of "The Long And Winding Road". With The Beatles at odds among themselves, however, it was a miracle that this recording was put to bed in the first place. Old time fans of The Beatles are thankful that Phil was able to put this last release together. Notwithstanding all the brouhaha, it is still a CD well worth having.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's sprinkled in golddust, 26 Dec 2006
I know that McCartney wasn't impressed by Spector's treatment of The Long and Winding Road and I know that Dig a Pony is considered slight, but this is still a masterful album. I listened to Across the Universe for the first time here and also George's I Me Mine, an apparently throwaway song that most other artists of the 60's would have killed for.
Two of Us remains an unrequited, messy and poignant goodbye from Lennon and McCartney, while I've Got a Feeling shows them playing another trick as John and Paul reprise the daring collaboration that made the sixties smile.
As if that isn't enough, they wow us with the unearthed One After 909 where they've never sounded better and then prepare us for the elegiac Let Us Be, a song that Lennon appeared to dismiss in the moment, but which he surely respected in the way he admired the earlier and monumental Hey Jude.
Just before we get too maudlin, George gives us a delicious Elmore James nod with the vastly underrated For You Blue and then the boys come together to tie up the decade with Get Back, a track that never ages, always excites and demonstrates that the Fabs never ever lost it, that ability to make us stand up and embrace our futures with the belief that things would always be better.
Okay, so Naked has shown another side (and not a worse one), but for us 14 hear olds who wondered what the 70's would be about ( and we really weren't at first at all sure)then Let It Be was a closure we could understand.
Just embrace it as them, then (albeit enhanced with strings).But the songs were and remain real, real love.
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