Since September 2010, this blog has recorded the journey of this music junkie as I attempt to listen to all the music in my CD collection. CDs revisited in their entirety from start to finish - no skipping tracks, no shuffle. Compact Discs only - no vinyl, no tapes, no files.

Friday, April 12, 2013

The Beatles - Let It Be... Naked (2003)


I can never decide which Beatles' album is my favorite, but I know Let It Be isn't in that discussion. Since most of the band members themselves didn't like it, I don't feel bad about that. I've never bothered to pick up a CD of the original album, produced by "Wall of Sound" pioneer (and convicted murderer) Phil Spector. I picked up this newer version of the album as a curiosity when it was released 10 years ago. Here's the wikipedia breakdown of this reissue's history:
It is a remixed and remastered version of their 1970 album Let It Be. The project was overseen by Paul McCartney, who felt that Phil Spector's production did not accurately represent the group's "stripped-down" intentions for the original album. Let It Be... Naked presents the songs "naked"—without Spector's overdubs and without the incidental studio chatter featured between most cuts of the original album. Let It Be... Naked also replaces "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae" with "Don't Let Me Down", originally featured as the B-side of the "Get Back" single.
Far from being naked, these tracks are all very well produced.  I'm not familiar enough with most of the original album to tell the difference between the Spector originals and these tunes.  The only exception are the McCartney ballads, The Long And Winding Road and Let It Be, which I think are much better in these stripped-down versions opposed to the over the top orchestrations of the familiar original releases.  Not surprisingly, this reissue got mixed reviews (the album rated at 68 over at Metacritic). That 68 may be a little high. There's nothing absolutely essential here. Will I lose my music blogging license for not gushing over a Beatles album?

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #5  (the original Let It Be album spent 4 weeks at #1 in the summer of 1970)

Tracks: of the 11 tracks here, only 4 have been ripped to my iTunes: Get Back (w/Billy Preston FTW), Two Of Us, I've Got A Feeling, and the title track. Worst songs here are Don't Let Me Down and I Me Mine.

There's a one track bonus disc which received its own title, Fly On The Wall, which contains song excerpts and dialogue from the many hours of tape which accumulated during the Let It Be sessions. Some of the removed dialogue that had appeared on the original album appears on this disc. The liner notes claim this track is "A unique insight into the Beatles at work in rehearsal and in the studio during January 1969." To me, it sounds like 22 minutes of unnecessary mess very similar to the Anthology series. And about as exciting.
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