The Beatles - Let It Be... Naked
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Free Music Notes for Let It Be... Naked
Free Music Review: The "King Lear" of Beatles records
Hit: 5 Stars
I bought the original "Let It Be--Naked" as a teenager in 1969: a vinyl LP bootlegged from the "Let It Be" sessions, in a plain white sleeve with the words "Kum Back" stamped in smudgy blue ink aslant the cover. No masses of sobbing violins, no plaintive French horns.
And what struck me with increasing happy force across the years and dozens of listens was what a wonderful, wondrous live band the Beatles were: by this time, they truly were the other side of each others' heartbeat. Each had certainly become virtuosic in his own right-- Ringo on drums, McCartney on bass (one can't praise enough), Lennon on rhythm and Harrison (usually) on lead guitar, but virtuosos together, grown of what it took to make Beatles music together through all those years and changes. They're recorded here as a live ensemble, just like up on on that fabled Savile Row rooftop, and God, they play with a brilliant loose-but-so-tight jostling grooviness that can just take the breath away. There never was before and never again will be a rock band quite this good.
One has to tip the hat to Billy Preston, whose tasty chops on organ are just about a match for the Fab Four's.
I know all about Lennon's sniping about the decay of the Beatles' group playing in the post-touring years, and of course they often quarreled during these sessions.
Just listen.
It helps that the band went into this project looking for a groove; everybody, especially Lennon and McCartney in their best numbers, seems to be after a sort of Zen-simple deep-groove soulfuness. 'Get Back,'
'Dig a Pony,' 'I've Got a Feeling.' Yes, the "Let It Be" project was (as McCartney has said) a return to roots after all the high '60s psychedelic ambitiousness, but it's an old masters' return: deep, simple, moving (and funky!) in the best numbers. And as for the less than best ones ('Long and Winding Road', indeed)--well, Zen attainment is not about always hitting the target.
There are many different great Beatles records, and "Let It Be--Naked" is one of them.
Free Music Review: The Beatles
Hit: 5 Stars
I throughly enjoy this music. It's much better without all the stuff Phil Specter added.Free Music Review: Let it be
Hit: 4 Stars
I like this cd, and I like the old one to, but if I have to choose I'll pick the old over the new. just because I like all the strings and things wish the new don't have. but naked has a raw fill to it and thats good to.Free Music Review: Never heard Let It Be like this before
Hit: 5 Stars
A must for Beatles fans. This was recommended by an audiophile during a discussion of high quality recordings. Cleanest Beatles CD I have ever heard. The more you turn it up the better it gets. Just no distortion at all. GREAT BUY!Free Music Review: The music is 5 stars - the nakedness is not.
Hit: 2 Stars
I really can't help but wonder why this album was made. They say it is "as the Beatles intended," but did the Beatles really even know what they intended? The whole concept of this album was muddy and never fully realized (recording a live album of entirely new songs). And while it's interesting to hear a few of these remixes, this album is so similar to the original (while stripping away the impromptu songs like "Dig It" and the speaking in between, which gave the album its live and loose feel) that there really is no point in buying it if you own the original.
Nobody wanted to touch these recordings in 1969 once the Beatles washed their hands of it. The only man who did was Phil Spector, who - while fudging the original live "concept" of the album - really took a lot of sketchy performances and turned Let It Be into something worth listening to. It's worth pointing out that this "de-Spectorized" Let It Be...Naked has almost all of the same takes and edits that Spector used. A few alternate takes are found on ...Naked, and the strings and horns are all gone, but so what? I heard this already on Anthology 3. A majority of the songs on here sound untouched. And personally, I think the album version of "Let It Be" with its bombastic horns and ascerbic guitar solo is vastly superior to both the single version and the ...Naked version. "The Long and Winding Road" (which is really the biggest reason this album was re-done - thanks, Paul) is stripped down too, but again, I heard this on Anthology 3.
And I really do miss the talking in between songs. It made the album feel more fun, more impromptu, more like the listener is in the room with the Beatles. By eschewing these short interludes, ...Naked just sounds like another studio album, which actually takes us further away from what the Beatles supposedly "intended."
I think the original is superior. ...Naked really doesn't offer anything new. If you don't own Let It Be, you will probably like this album because, hey, the music is great no matter how you slice it. But if you've already got Let It Be, this album won't be much of a revelation for you.