MovieChat Forums > Let It Be (2024) Discussion > Let It Be vs. Let It Be... Naked

Let It Be vs. Let It Be... Naked

posted 19 years ago by FinnurE
17 replies | jump to latest

I listened to both, the same day back to back for the first time, and what do you know..? I didn't think Let it Be... Naked was an improvement at all. Shuffling the trackorder, cutting the chat, remastering the songs with modern day technology and removing the orchestration cut out the original album's character, the only improvement is the inclusion of Don't Let Me Down, but we have hasd access to it for years on the Blue Album, and the only benefit of listening to it is not having to hear Dig It before Let it Be (Dig It is not too bad but the line "That was can you dig it by georgie Wood" is horrible enoough to make you vomit and to think it was deliberately added later to the track!) or Maggie Mae (stupid track) afterwards, but everyone had probably burned their versions of it with those tracks cut or replaced and the anthology 3 versions of the overdubbed songs so it comes to me as just a rip-off. Anyone agree / disagree?

reply

[–] McGonigle 19 years ago

Ian MacDonald wrote a great defense of the "Let it Be" album in his book "Revolution in the Head". He says that Phil Spector was handed a pile of unusable, half-finished tapes and produced a reasonable album out of them. It's not the Beatles' best by a long shot but it's perfectly enjoyable (with many sublime moments) from start to finish.

I've thought for a long time that the original "Let it Be" album doesn't deserve most of the guff it gets. Most of it seems to be due to McCartney's after-the-fact complaints about how he first heard the string overdubs on "Long & Winding Road" on the radio. If the song was that important to him, he should have stuck around and finished it, instead of leaving it in John's and George's hands as he went off to make his first solo album.

As I say, I enjoy the album start to finish and have for a long time, ever since I started ignoring the conventional wisdom and just listening to the music. I even like the "Georgie Wood" line, and don't find the strings on "Long & Winding Road" to be inappropriate at all, considering that it was apparently McCartney's stated intention to write a "standard" with that number.

Hey, I'm trying to eat my lunch!

reply

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] FinnurE 19 years ago

Well, the original Dig a Pony and I've Got a Feeling were also rooftop performances, you must be mixing it up with the unreleased Glyn Johns mixes where One after 909 was indeed the only rooftop recording. Another thing I forgot to mention that annoyed me about LIB... Naked was the bonus CD. A 20 minute long edit of unremarkable chat from the dozens of hours recorded during the sessions, instead of the complete rooftop performance remastered in sound similar to the album for instance, or alternate takes of songs, it makes one want to get bootleg versions of the complete takes more than anything.

reply

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Freddie-B 19 years ago

I must say, I think the Naked version is better on almost all counts.

The only one I don't think is better is "I've Got A Feeling" which I think is ace on the original, and sounds great on the rooftop. Also, Long and Winding road doesn't end well, and it could have been done better (could do without the organ solo) but all in all, it's a better album.

I hate Maggie Mae and Dig It, they both make the album sound so amateur. People say that Spector only had crap to work with, but the actual quality of the songs is pretty damn good, I mean there's a lot of great songs on the album.

Let It Be, Two Of Us, I've Got A Feeling, Don't Let Me Down, Long and Winding, Get Back are all brilliant, I think, and the others are all pretty damn good too.

I agree about the bonus disc on Naked, it's not much to write home about!

It's no Abbey Road, but I think the Naked version makes it sound like a good album, rather than the mish-mosh slack effort that first came out.

www.soundclick.com/paulstaveley
www.myspace.com/paulstaveley

reply

[–] busenlilly-1 19 years ago

Er... I don't get the Georgie Wood line. Is it a joke with dig/dick and wood or what?

reply

[–] patbrien 19 years ago

Personally

(although I hope to be besieged by actual quotes... I ain't in this for my ego...

I think John Lennon's last word(s) on this (and "Naked"), would have been something along the lines of...

It was the best of a bad *beep* situation... Phil did a good job with what he had. Listen to it or forget it. Let it be.

For me, it was the first Beatles album I heard.

I love the chat and jokes between the tracks. It was just more originality from The Beatles. I love the opening few tracks and the jam session feeling throughout. (I haven't heard "Naked" and I'm in no rush.)

There was more genuine feeling there (for whatever reason), than anywhere else in The Beatles catalogue (in my humpled onion).

'Imagine The Clouds Dripping..." Y.O.!

www.thebreakingnews.piczo.com ;-)

reply

[–] TheRowdyMan 19 years ago

There isn't any TRUE version of the "Get Back" album the Beatles originaly planed to make.

Glynn Johns' 'Get Back' was just a rough mix and was incomplete. Phil Spector's 'Let It Be' was a rescue job crammed with the overdubbs that were meant to be forbidden on the origanal concept and the Apple approved 'Let It Be...Naked" has been Pro Tools to death. Drum tracks edited, Guitar notes bent and different takes being "frankenstiened" together. The closest you'll get is the Anthology 3 outakes (many John's used is his rough version). But even their edited.

Check out the making of 'Let It Be...Naked' http://mixonline.com/recording/interviews/audio_naked_truth_beatles/

"Goddamn motherf..ker got blood all over my best clown suit."

reply

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] svenmasseur 19 years ago

Naked is what Let It Be would have sounded like with George Martin in charge and the original concpet intact. I actually think it's the better of the two. Yes, Let It Be had more off-the-cuff banter and goofy tracks like "Dig It" (which I've always enjoyed), but Spector's overblown overdubs on (especially) "The Long & Winding Road" are just cringeworthy. It's the kind of cocaine excess that made '70s rock boring as *beep* The Naked versions of this and "Across The Universe" (which, when stripped bare, sounds less like hippy idealism and more like the fragile state of mind of a man in the depths of acid abuse) are far superior.

One thing: I'd really be interested in hearing the "other" side of the Get Back sessions. If Naked is coservative as hell (and it is), I want to hear the bizzarro bollocks the band were capable of in 67-69. Yep, the only thing left for the Beatles to do is to release the jam sessions. Things like the twelve-minute "Dig It" and 20-minute "Helter Skelter" would be fascinating listening.

reply

[–] Tashtago 19 years ago

Yes I agree with svenmasseur ,the 20 minute Helter Skelter, bring it on. The original Let it Be trumps the naked version in so many ways. Imagine Sgt. Pepper 's track order changed? I love Two of Us as the kick off track to the album, in fact it's one of their best songs. The chatter gives the album a casual feel that is extinct in todays controlled , overproduced , over polished,
(White Stripes notwithstanding) recording world. Long live Beatles and long live the original Let it Be.

reply

[–] MidnightBlond 19 years ago

I totally agree with rongurr that two of us is the kick off to the album,
plus I love the strings orchestra choir that are on Long and Winding Road,
Across The Universe,I me mine.

reply

[–] raaesquire 19 years ago

the original let it be album is better. it sounded, believe it or not, more gritty. instead of getting naked, get the "get back" bootleg. itll blow your mind.

reply

[–] jefgg 10 years ago

A group or a solo artist gets only one chance to make an album. That is what makes albums special. "Let It Be Naked" was a reboot. Movies get rebooted all the time. And most of them suck.

reply

[–] Troll_Dahl 10 years ago

I generally have a lot more time for the original album. I just don't find myself reaching for "Naked" very often at all. You could make it a ten song album, minus "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae", and I'd barely notice but apart from that, the sequence on the original album is excellent in my opinion and as for Spector's production, he actually barely seems to have touched most of the songs and I think he gets way too much flack. To be honest, "The Long and Winding Road" is a song I don't especially like in any form, so I have no strong preference about it. And "Get Back", at least to me, seems like an average rocker with some nice organ from Billy Preston and juicy guitar (I believe played by John), but it's been overplayed. Apart from that, it's brimming with strong material and, as I say, the production doesn't detract at all for me. I prefer the album version of "Let it Be" to the single. My favorite song is "Across the Universe". There are a different versions/mixes of it around and I've never heard one that I dislike. I think those two songs would have been a killer double A-side single; they're both beautiful and, I've come to realize, they're conveying remarkably similar messages. It could have been another "Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane".

So basically, I'm quite happy with the original album and don't really have need for a redux.

Om Shanti

reply

[–] wordsatplaytoday 8 years ago

I'm a big Beatles fan and I thought Naked was going to be better than the original.
Nope.
I prefer the original with all the ad libs, jokes etc over Naked.

Let me know if I'm on your ignore list.
Thanx!

reply