The Beatles - Let It Be... Naked

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Free Music Notes for Let It Be... Naked

Free Music Review: The specter of Spector excorcised!
Hit: 5 Stars

First off, most of the 11 songs sound much like they did on the original, in terms of the underlying takes used by Phil Spector to build the monstrosity he eventually produced. A couple seem to be alternate takes, but, after only a couple of runs through, I'm not yet positive. One thing I will mention, before I get to the songs, is that I'm not entirely positive about the mix they arrived at...the vocals are far forward and some of the instruments (most noticeable in the little guitar riffs throughout the songs) get a little buried. The bass is a little on the muddy side as well. Don't get me wrong, it sounds great...much better than the original...and it actually sounds much better on headphones than in the car (perhaps I need to adjust the equalization in the car).

The lineup is also different, starting with "Get Back", which sounds much the same, though a little plainer. On this song, there seems to be something, well, missing. I'll have to listen to it back-to-back with the 'original'. The vocal is surprising, being a little more front and center it really shows how interesting a singer Paul could be (he's always PAUL, but he has always tried a little different elements here and there...accents, etc.). "Dig a Pony" is next and this one is much like "Get Back". I think the original versions of both had more 'background noise' going on, to give them that 'live' feel. That is absent here, so they sound a little sparse on occasion. This song holds up better, mainly because there is so much more going on (two separate guitars playing riffs all the way through PLUS the keyboard). The originals of these two had no orchestration added, so, again, not TOO different...

"For You Blue", one of my personal favorites, is VERY different. On headphones it sounds like 'the boys' are having a jam right there in my head...on speakers it sounds like you are in an intimate room with them and they're just playing a great blues jam. The song always sounded like a jam, but now it is much, much cleaner...another one to which Spector had artificial background added, I think. This version is just, well, it's just plain great. As you'll see later, Harrison seems to have made out the best on this disc.

Now we're getting to the songs that really had a lot of 'work' done to them by Spector. "The Long and Winding Road" sounds VERY different. If you recall, it was always a nice ballad, though somewhat weighed down by the comprehensive orchestration layered on top of it. Now it sounds like a you are in the smoky lounge of some fantastic club back in the days when such places were 'it'. The piano work is amazing, and the band is merely there for emphasis on occasion...the whole thing is almost 'cocktail jazz'. This is the way Billy Joel always heard this song when he listened to it, I bet, because he ripped it off big time. Oh, and again, Paul shows his range as a vocalist.

"Two of Us" just sounds great. On this one, Paul and John's voices ARE the centerpiece, so the mix is quite appropriate. The song sounds so, well, CLEAN. It really could be the Everly Brothers. They are both SO good, and the production shows them off well...the two guitars are separated to each channel but kept back enough that the voices are never overrun. The bass is in the center, as are the drums (with that great muffled thump that sounds like either a train on the old segmented tracks or a pair of trotting horses), the bass (or is it a low-tuned guitar?) providing the melodic counterpoint. It's just a great song...these guys could arrange a song better than anybody ever has, or probably ever will (they just constructed their songs so, so, 'right').

"I've Got a Feeling" is very stripped down compared to the 'original'. This one actually might be a different take than that one, as the vocals sound quite different in places...especially the backing vocals. But in other spots there are things that sound EXACTLY the same...could anybody have played that single bent note punctuating the bridge exactly the same way more than once? Maybe they just moved the backing vocals up in the mix. Oh, and they definitely lost the extraneous noise that Spector somehow felt substitued for layered instruments to build his "wall of sound".

"One After 909" was always a great blues-rock jam, and it's lost nothing here. It was pretty raw originally, and is so here. But it's even more fun as they've managed to pull some of the ad libbed comments up from the background...and, again, it's a bit cleaner. The solo guitar work really screams out at you...in fact, I don't remember the main solo being so long, and I don't remember Billy Preston doing extemporaneous keyboard work during it, but both those elements are here. Just some good rock and roll...

"Don't Let Me Down" is another one that is much cleaner and far more crisp. Again, it's hard to enumerate exactly what is different, but it pops much more. One thing is that Billy Preston's keyboard has become a centerpiece of the song...it ranges throughout the entire length and is more emphasized in the mix. The bridge is really emphasized in this mix, and sounds very different....Lennon screams "It's a love that lasts forever" in an amazing, plaintive wail that just reminds you that, with all his amazing talents, he could have been 'merely' a rock singer and he would STILL be a legend. Preston also has a fabulous keyboard solo over the last 20 seconds that I have no memory of hearing, at least not so crystal clear...great work, too, so I am very glad they decided to enhance it in this mix.

Ah, the other Harrison song..."I Me Mine". This song shocked me. I always loved this song, and wished I could hear it without the lavish orchestration that drowned it. It's better than I ever imagined it. George wrote the best stripped-down-4-piece songs of anyone in the band, and it shows here. You WILL listen to this one over and over and over...listen to the 'big picture', then just the rythym acoustic guitar in the left channel, the counterpoint bass notes on the guitar in the right channel, the sparse organ riffs and chords sprinkled throughout, the low electric guitar buried way deep playing occasional riffs and exploding out for the chorus and, finally, Harrison's pure, soulfull voice bewailing the fall of the world's humanity (OK, he was mostly talking about his bandmates, but it works). It is just an amazing, incredible song...listen to it on a really good set of headphones, as loud as you can handle it.

"Across the Universe" is another song which benefits greatly from this new treatment (compared to Spector's mistreatment). One would think that it would be TOO plain without the orchestration, but it is wonderful...there is sparse and subtle sitar work throughout that complements the melody perfectly. This song remains the floaty dream that it was, but here it is far more interesting and rewarding. Lennon's vocal is astounding in its warble-free journey through the upper registers. His vocal style on this song is so different from some of his other signature songs, like "Twist and Shout", "Imagine", "Julia", etc., that it is hard to accept that it is him...it's almost childlike in its innocence.

Finally, "Let it Be". Another clean and crisp recording. The first verse is the same, for the most part, and when the chorus comes in during the first, well, chorus, it is far more subdued...it sounds like it's just 'the boys'. The song still builds up as it goes verse by verse, but without the muddiness of the original (actually, each instrument receives its due here). Ringo's work is front and center on this song, and it is pin perfect. Paul's voice is brought forward in the mix and overrides all else, as it should because it is yet another stunning vocal performance from him (his vocal range always astounds me). This song is one that, once it is over, makes you go "Yup, that's the way it should be."

One more thing I should mention and haven't yet is the drum work of Ringo. The more I revisit my Beatles collection, the more I appreciate his talent. Perhaps the ultimate compliment to a drummer is that you don't notice him, but I feel it's safe to say most other drummers WOULD be noticed in this band, and not in a good way. His playing on this album is fantastic, perfectly matched to each song and interesting enough that you could listen to just the drum tracks on most of the songs and be quite satisfied. I think he's an underrated drummer, perhaps because people forget to put him in the perspective of his time and are wowed by the later exploits of Bonham, Moon, etc.

As with all 'single track' (live) recordings, there are a couple of rough edges. These would have been removed with multi-tracking but they hadn't wanted to do that on this record originally. As a result, there are a couple of half-sung words and a little bit of continuity issues with vocal styling...and it's great. It's so intimate.

So, why is it that this is SO much better than the Spector-defiled version? I think much of it has to do with all the little touches that the Beatles added within their songs...and how Spector somehow buried them in his mix of these songs. It's hard to identify all the things he added to the songs, but all he did was create a "wall of mud" that buried, what turns out to be, great songs. Actually, Beatles fans the world over have known they were great songs all along, it was just too frustrating (and a bit depressing) to think about what they could have been. Now we know.

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