Beatles - Let It Be (1990)
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Free Music Notes for Let It Be (1990)
Free Music Review: Brilliant Beatles
Hit: 5 Stars
This is the final album issued before the Beatles disbanded in 1970. Being the true great legendry band they were, they went out on a top note. This album is a great document.
My favorite songs here include "Two Of Us", "The One After 909" and "Let It Be".
"Two Of Us" is a duo sung by Paul and John and it is often falsely claimed Paul wrote this about his friendship with John, he didn't. It was written about Paul and his wife, Linda.
It's a nice country song about going for a drive, but can also imply a relationship with a very close friend, hence the assumption he wrote it about him and Lennon ("You and I have memories, longer than the road that stretches out ahead").
"I Me Mine" is a George Harrison song, about greed and selfishness, although it is such a fun rocker, you won't be listening to the words most the time, just singing along with them, but still, it's a great Beatles number.
"Let It Be" is Paul at his best. This piano written ballad (in the vein of "Hey Jude" and "Yesterday") is regarded as one of the Beatles finest moments. It was written about Paul's dream of meeting once again with his late Mother (Mary) and has no religious meaning as some might think. The guitar solo here, played by Harrison, is much better than the one that ended up on the single (played by Lennon).
"I Dig A Pony", sung by John and Paul, is a rocker than would have fit just as easily onto the white album a couple of years previous, but is welcome here too.
"One After 909" is a top notch rocker, that was, ironically, written for their first album but let off. They intended to out it out on other albums after, but it always ended up being left out, until "Let It Be", after which the group split up.
Other highlights include "Across The Universe", "Long and Winding Road", "For You Blue" and "Dig It" (a jam session).
Also included is studio talk from the Beatles, which I find nice as it adds to the "live" feel and also John and Paul singing the old time "Maggie May".
Free Music Review: Good and Raw
Hit: 5 Stars
I hated it as a youngster cuz it was so country-western. Now I love it cuz it's so raw. Like a good hamburger. Sounds more like The Band than the Beatles, but The Band were never anywhere near this good. It's got Billy Preston playing lots of piano on it, and it's a real rhythm-and-bluesy 70's-sounding album (much of it recorded live!). Even though The Beatles themselves claim to not like this album, I think it's great - for once, it sounds like they didn't re-record every song until it was just right (and of course, they didn't; Phil Spector just picked out the stuff he liked best, and added stupid strings and choruses as he saw fit for no good reason). Instead, it's a really cool dichotomy between overproduced slick anthems ("Across The Universe," "Let It Be," and "The Long And Winding Road") and incomplete little himmy-jimmies (most of the rest of the album, especially the uproarious "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae"). This stuff was originally recorded for a movie, see. Bright old Paul thought it would be a good idea to film a Beatles album session for a movie because it would force them to all work together as a band again, instead of doing everything alone like on the White Album. Welllll, apparently all they did was fight, and this album is the result of that fighting. FINE WITH ME! I wish every fighting band could record an album this good! This is probably the least liked album in the Beatles catalog, but I don't subscribe to that point of view. It'd be such an ignorant thing to do if the Russians love The Beatles too. How can I save my little boy from Oppenheimer's deadly toy? There's not even an ounce of psychedelia on Let It Be, but it's not a return to their early guitar sound either. It's something new. Something scuzzy and raw and long-haired and pot-smoking and dirty - again, more like The Band than The Beatles, except that I really don't like The Band at all. There's beauty here. Good songwriting, too! Come on, buy it.
Buy it! 9/10 Mark Prindle
Free Music Review: the very last beatle album.
Hit: 5 Stars
this was released in 1970.it symbolized the death of the hippie era because they od'd right after this album went out or they just butnt out and started making the 1980s[it took them the whole 70s ].they even put out thier 5th movie entitled let it be at this time.its really just them making the album."on our way home" was all about great memories and things.it was just like saying we are getting ready to disband.oooohhhhhh,so tragic!then "i dig a pony".it was different but cool in typical lennon fashion.my 2nd favorite beatle song "across the universe" was up next.definately drug related.a chick does a version of it at the end of the movie "pleasentville"."i me mine" was all about the greedy way people were."dig it" was a short little thing in between spaces.then "let it be" came on.in between hey jude and let it be there were 2 more albums called the white album and abbey road.there were 2 more #1s on abbey road which were "something" -georges 2nd self done song .it was for his wife patti.in the 70s when she was with eric clapton,he wrote layla and wonderful tonight for her also.the other #1 was "come together".that was thier 24th #1 song."let it be" the song was thier 25th #1.it is abselutely beautiful.he says its for his mom.how sweet!then a dirty little limerick called "maggie mae"."ive got a feeling" came up.pearl jam covered that one.even though they normaly suck,pearl jam pulled off this cover.it was a really good song too.then paul digs deep for an old school beatles song and plays "one after 909".2 more to go!the last 2 songs were thier 26th and 27th #1s.this set a world record for a band having the most #1s of all time.the songs were "the long and winding road" which is exsquisite and "get back"-another throwback song.they eventualy got over 1 billion record sales for thier albums.the only band to exceed 1 billion.that makes them the band with more sales than other band or soloist or any other conglomeration in the history of time!that makes them the best!the dream was indeed over!Free Music Review: Hidden beneath Spector's overproduction are some great songs
Hit: 5 Stars
If for no other reason, buy the Beatles Anthology Volume 3 for the original "Long and Winding Road", before Phil Spector tacked on the Orchestra and Choir. The whole idea behind the Get Back/Let it Be project was to hear the Beatles live, all the magic is lost when you give it the "Wall of Sound" treatment.Some of the tracks though, ("Two of Us", "Dig a Pony", "Dig it", "Maggie May", "I've Got a Feeling", "One After 909", "For You Blue", and "Get Back") remain unaltered, in their original raw splendor.
Getting past the unnatural and irritating overproduction, this album has some great songs on it. "Two of Us" is a great duet and "Dig a Pony" is just cool. "Across the Universe" is a beautiful song, but I just can't stand the backing vocals.
The one thing that Phil Spector did that was at least excusable was extend "I Me Mine" to a full 2:25 minutes. Of course he just had to add the orchestra and horns. He just had to.
"Dig It" and "Maggie May" are forgettable jams. "Let It Be" is the best song on the album, ten times better than "Yesterday", but of course it's got brass and stuff added to it.
"I've Got a Feeling" is another great Lennon-McCartney collaboration (well, if you call sticking a John song into the middle Paul song a collaboration). I just can't stand the album version of "The Long and Winding Road" ever since I heard the Anthology version. Note: "For You Blue" has an overdubbed lead vocal.
The final track, "Get Back", is just another cool track.
The final verdict: no matter what kind of junk you add to it, it's still the Beatles, and they're still great songs. Why not just release the original George Martin produced version of the album? An essential until the originals are released.
Free Music Review: The Beatles let loose
Hit: 5 Stars
I've always thought that the "Get Back" sessions were one of the most fascinating periods of the Beatles' history. The back-to-basics concept; the infighting; the iconic rooftop concert; the multiple attempts to create a finished album from dozens of songs and hours of aimless tapes; the treasure trove of bootleg material that surfaced years later. The album that finally did emerge from the sessions, "Let It Be," is as intriguing a document as any other produced by the band. The Beatles have such a reputation for perfectionism that it's refreshing to hear them let loose and bash out a few jams. And despite the palpable strain of the sessions (captured in the "Let It Be" film), their musical partnership was still strong and capable of producing amazing collaborative efforts.
The first two efforts at constructing a "Get Back" album (which are available as bootlegs but should really be released officially) are more faithful to the initial goal of the sessions: to capture the band's live sound and reduce their dependence on overdubs and retakes. Phil Spector's finished product retains the dialogue, jokes, and technical blemishes. It also edits, lengthens, and adds orchestral overdubs to several songs (but by that point, the Beatles had largely abandoned the back-to-basics idea anyway). The result is a unique hybrid of studio sheen and rough edges, meticulous craft and fluid spontaneity.
It also contains some of the Beatles' very best songs. George's dryly humorous "For You Blue" is a personal favorite. Universally acknowledged classics like "Two of Us," "Get Back," "Let It Be," and "Across the Universe" speak for themselves-- how any album containing these songs could be branded a disappointment, I may never understand.
When discussing "Let It Be," it's common to hear the cliche that a bad Beatles album is still better than most bands' best material. Forget that. "Let It Be" is a great album in its own right.