The Beatles, Let it Be (1970) A Look Back

The Beatles – Let it Be
Capital Records – May 8, 1970
by Trent McMartin

Lets get this straight: Let it Be it technically not even a Beatles studio album, let alone their last official release - most the songs had been recorded in early '69, even months before their true last LP Abbey Road hit shelves. "Get Back" and its b-side "Don't Let Me Down" were released as a stand alone single in the spring of '69, while the "Across the Universe" recording dated back even further to the previous year. The Beatles themselves had essentially called it quits by the summer of '69 and the band gave the abandoned Get Back tapes, as which the project was originally called, to 'Wall of Sound' master, pre-nutcase/convicted murderer super-producer Phil Spector. Leaving the tapes relatively untouched, Spector dabbled with a few of the tunes, most notably, and later most infuriatingly to Paul McCartney, " The Long and Winding Road" and "Across the Universe, " both of which Macca cleaned up for the 2003 release Let it Be...Naked.

Regardless, Let it Be is still a fantastic record, despite the negative reception it garnered at the time of its release. These are essentially demos and it's hard to imagine their next best and biggest rival, The Rolling Stones, trying to come up with something as majestic as "Let it Be," the title track, half assed and unmotivated. But that's what they did.

It's not all peaches and crème; the lack of fluidity makes this albumfeel more like an odds and sods collection, which technically it is, as each track seems to carry an individual essence separate from one another. Two of the cuts, "Maggie Mae," and "Dig It," are nothing more than minute long filler, while so-called lesser material - " Dig a Pony," "I Me Mine," "I've Got a Feeling," "One After 909," suffer somewhat without proper production, although all the 'Wall of Sound' in the world cannot dress up what is fundamentally unfinished. Let it Be is a bumpy collective, an expected result since the sessions were abruptly halted due to infighting and disinterest (see the documentary Let it Be for further details). Nevertheless, the album is a fine send off, proving that The Beatles, even in their sleep, were hands down better songwriters than any pop band at the time.



-Read the full story at UnRatedMagazine.com