Let It Be... Naked: Beatles: Amazon.ca: Music

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Re-recorded, remixed, overdubbed and repackaged--all before its 1970 American release, mind you--Let It Be has long been the most second-guessed album in the Beatles otherwise sterling catalog. This curious, three-decade-late, stripped-down rethink offers up yet another spin on what started as a back-to-the-roots album/documentary project called Get Back in January, 1969, but ended up as the band's de facto swan song 18 months later. Paul McCartney in particular has long been irked by producer Phil Spector's grandiose orchestra and choir overdubs to the title track and "The Long and Winding Road," and indeed the "bare" versions here have a distinct, plaintive charm lacking in Spector's typical pomp. All the various snippets of studio and live chatter that seasoned the original have been removed, leaving the recordings to be judged on their essentially live-in-the-studio merits. If the intent was to "de-Spectorize" the album, the inclusion of John Lennon's 1968 benefit track "Across the Universe" and George Harrison's "I Me Mine" (which marked the last-ever Beatles session in January, 1970) in their original versions seems equally odd, the legendary producer having appended them to the album's original track listing in the first place. The rambling "bonus disc" of conversation and song snippets culled from hundreds of hours of session and film tapes may fascinate diehard fans, but it also underscores the murky, often unfocused state of affairs the Fabs found themselves in during the last year of their remarkable career. --Jerry McCulley

Product Description

THE BEATLES Let It Be... Naked (2003 issue UK/European 2-CD set including remastered and re-edited 11-track CD album [with Phil Spector production removed] plus bonus disc featuring 21 minute Fly On The Wall material with The Beatles at work inrehearsal and in the studio during January 1969 includes deluxe booklet. Housed in picture sleeve)

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews

5 star:		(8)
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3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

3.6 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Paul's "Naked" aggression . . ., Nov 22 2003

By

John_W_Nennol (Toronto, ON) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Let It Be... Naked (Audio CD)

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the Beatles . . . but there is nothing all that revelatory on "Naked". Phil Spector added additional instrumentation to just four songs on the original album. And stripped down versions ALREADY exist on Anthology 2 and 3 and other releases, some, in fact, even prior to the release of the original LIB album. (Regarding Spector's production: he went too far on John's ATU and George's IMM, but his work on Paul's LWR and LIB was actually not bad at all.) Aside from that, the "Naked" title is ATROCIOUS and extremely inappropriate in the context of the sober sentiment of the title track. The cover art is vapid. But the worst part is removing John Lennon material from a Beatles album. ("Naked" sounds sterile and it loses the orginal's fun loving character without the Monty Python-esque intro bits. And Lennon's "Thank you on behalf of the group . . . " comment has been removed!) Paul also removed "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae". That is a very classless act on his part. Those songs aren't musical masterpieces. Fine. But it would have been VERY classy of him to have taken the high road and have put LONGER versions of them on the album. For the love of heaven, I want MORE Beatles material, not LESS! How would Paul like "Abbey Road" re-released without "Her Majesty"? The Fly on the Wall disc does provide some "new" musical bits, but mixed in with chatter and discussion. You're not going to listen to it more than once. If you're into bootlegs, then you know there is a tremendous amount of Let it Be material that could be used, with some editing, to scrape together a few "new" Beatles songs. No masterpieces for sure, but that would still be of more interest to this fan than Paul's self-aggrandizing "Naked" rehash.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good but.........., Nov 25 2003

By

Karve (Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Let It Be... Naked (Audio CD)

I approached this CD with a bit of skepticism to begin with. I love the Beatles and have everything they ever did.
Hearing some of the new mixes was good. I do like the new 'Long and Winding Road' mix as well as 'For You Blue'. Most of them, however, aren't that much different. 'Dig A Pony', 'One After 909', and 'I Me Mine' more or less sound the same, except the sound is crisper.
Part of my problem with this project is the fact that the 'Let it Be' album was FAR from their best work. It's hard to take a mediocre song and remix it to make a great song. Unfortunately, except for the three hits on the album, the rest is not up to the Beatles usual standards of greatness.
If, by some chance, anyone at EMI should read this, once you get busy remixing and remastering such Beatles masterpieces like 'Abbey Road', 'Sgt Pepper', or "A Hard Day's Night', then you'll hear Beatles fans everywhere start to cheer!

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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars I doubt McCartney's ego needed another boost!, Nov 29 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Let It Be... Naked (Audio CD)

As if switching "Lennon/McCartney" to "McCartney/Lennon" wasn't bad enough (of an insult to John Lennon's memory) on the "Back In The USA" album, now we have literally a reissue of what most people consider The Beatles' weakest album to begin with, made altogether weaker by wimpy sound (the guitars are buried in the mix, and all the rooftop ambience of "I've Got A Feeling" and "One After 909" is GONE.) So, who cares if "The Long And Winding Road" was smothered in orchestration? One, it needed it (according to many Beatles books, including Lewisohn's "Recording Sessions", John Lennon made so many mistakes on the bass it had to be covered up!) and, besides, people have heard the song like that for 33 years already. Heck, the whole album...no, "Let It Be...Naked" is simply more of Paul McCartney trying to singlehandedly take credit for The Beatles' accomplishments. He's nothing as a solo artist anymore, so all Sir Paul can do is go on, "Hi, remember me!!!I'm a former Beatle!" He's worse than Jagger or Bowie or any of those guys for living off of his past (at least they manage to pull of something new that's actually good once in a while!.) I doubt very highly, if Lennon or Harrison were still around, this revamped "Let It Be" would exist (after all, L & H were the ones who commissioned Phil Spector to make something out of the original in the first place!) Yes, good or bad, McCartney more or less made the whole "Let It Be/Get Back" project happen back in 1969. But two versions of the same album are not necessary. A better idea (what I was expecting, truth be told) would have been to issue the original "Get Back" album with the original Glyn Johns mixes in the original sleeve design (what became the front cover of "1967-1970" (Blue Album)) All "Let It Be...Naked" is is more of McCartney's ego-stroking...and I doubt very highly that he needs the money.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Let it be, they way it should have been.
Paul McCartney put it best, Let It Be Naked shows the way this album should have been before Phil Spector puked all over it. Read more

Published on Dec 15 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars A Collectors' Item
I find this an interesting collector's item.Though I can't hear any differences in most of the songs. Read more

Published on Jun 14 2004 by John Profetto