November was not a good month for Phil Spector. First the
legendary producer was charged with the murder of a B-movie
actress. Then his legacy took a hit — his work was stripped from
perhaps the most famous album he produced, The Beatles’ Let It
Be.
Let It Be… Naked advertises itself as “Let It
Be… as it was meant to be.” Well, not quite. Abbey
Road was the Beatles’ last-recorded album, but Let It
Be was released last, in May 1970. Originally titled Get
Back, the project was meant to herald the return of the
Beatles as a live act (they had given up touring in 1966) and a
back-to-basics roll ‘n’ roll band. None of that Sgt.
Pepper experimental stuff. The result? A famous rooftop
concert, an overproduced album, and bickering that led to the end
of the greatest band ever.
Engineer Glyn Johns offered multiple versions of Get
Back, but the group rejected them all. John Lennon finally
brought in Phil Spector, then producing Lennon solo projects. And
despite the objections of Paul McCartney, Spector’s version is the
one we’ve been listening to for over 30 years.
On the goal of the sessions, at least, the band was united. John
Lennon frankly told longtime producer George Martin, “I don’t want
any of your production rubbish on this one, I don’t want any
overdubbing of voices, I don’t want any editing; everything has to
be performed live like it used to be. It’s got to be real, man,
it’s got to be honest.” George Harrison, heard on the “fly on the
wall” bonus disc included with the re-release, also declared no
overdubs — knowing you can “fix” things later lessens your work:
“You never get the most out of that moment, really.”
So it seems odd that they brought in Spector, a man known
chiefly for his Wall of Sound, who, rather pompously, called his
songs “teenage symphonies.” George Martin (who received no credit
for his work on the album) said the credits should have read,
“Produced by George Martin. Over-produced by Phil Spector.” Glyn
Johns was less charitable. Referring to “Let It Be,” he proclaimed,
“Phil Spector puked all over it.”
Now engineers have assembled a new version from the original
tapes. Columns and columns of print have accompanied the
re-release. But in fact the album is almost universally considered
the Beatles’ worst. So why does anyone care?
Because it’s a Beatles album. The Fab Four may have disbanded in
1970, but they’ve been releasing plenty of new product lately —
the Anthology CDs and DVDs, A Hard Day’s Night
and Ed Sullivan Presents the Beatles on DVD, yet another
greatest hits package. Let It Be… Naked is clearly a
nostalgia release. And that’s one reason why it can’t really
replace the original. Everyone who loves the Beatles has fond
memories of listening to each and every album. Let It Be…
Naked is a different album.
One of the biggest — and most unfortunate — changes is the
removal of studio chatter between the tracks. The music on this
album is so special, tinged with sadness because of the backstory
of the break-up. The cutesy comments, made mainly by John, gave the
impression these guys were still having fun.
But there are impossible to deny improvements, too. The sound
quality is better, warmer — but that’s to be expected with
technological advancements. The album is by no means a live album.
But some songs were drowned in Spector’s production and they sound
crisp and new. The work of the fantastic keyboardist Billy Preston
is finally allowed to shine, adding more groove to songs like “I,
Me, Mine.” George’s dulcet voice on that surprisingly catchy song
was also lost in the original. And John’s magical “Across the
Universe” is even more so without all the orchestration. It is even
more obvious that this really is a strangely sweet album.
The same nostalgia that has made the re-release so successful —
it debuted at number five on the Billboard chart — is also why
many don’t like it. Lots of people simple abhor change. And in this
case, they blame Paul McCartney. Remember how everyone had his
favorite Beatle? The reaction to Let It Be… Naked
seems directly correlated with whether or not yours was Paul.
True, McCartney never liked Spector’s work on Let It
Be, and was particularly incensed by the strings added to his
“Long and Winding Road.” But those who insist this is a McCartney
vanity project ignore the evidence. George Harrison approved the
new version before his death two years ago. Ringo Starr told
McCartney, “You’re bloody right again: It sounds great without
Phil.” Three Abbey Road engineers created Let It Be…
Naked, not McCartney.
Washington Post classical music critic Tim Page even
claimed the new album had too many Paul songs. “If you’re a Paul
McCartney fan, you’ll be happy, but for the rest of us, it’s a
little like going to a Three Stooges festival and finding nothing
but Shemp episodes,” he said. But Lennon has actually been done a
favor here. Two of his not-even-half songs have been removed (“Dig
It” and “Maggie Mae”) in favor of the gem, “Don’t Let Me Down.”
Perhaps the hubbub over the re-release will remind us that
Let It Be is actually an underrated album. People seem to
forget it contains a number of classic songs — “Get Back,” “The
Long and Winding Road,” and the eponymous track. Certainly more
than the second disc of The White Album. (“Revolution 9,”
anyone?) The Beatles were the best and even at their worst, they
were better than almost anyone else. They are impossible to escape.
Which is why people will continue to be obsessed with the band.
In an interview discussing his latest book, Human
Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences,
800 B.C. to 1950, Charles Murray pronounced, “I think that the
number of novels, songs, and paintings done since 1950 that anyone
will still care about 200 years from now is somewhere in the
vicinity of zero.” Though he may disagree with the judgment of
critics, fanatics, and plain old music lovers, it is clear that
everything the Beatles did will be listened to for years to
come.
