They have hundreds of hours of video and audio from these sessions. They could have given us an hour of rehearsing a song, seeing how it went from original demo to recorded performance. They could have given us video of the group running through a couple of Little Richard or Buddy Holly songs. Instead they pretend like they're giving us a DVD, but really just gave us nothing.
Not to be a curmudgeon, but the packaging of Let It Be... Naked sucks. The photo negatives on the cover are just ugly, not artistically effective at all. The original album cover was nothing fancy, but it at least gave a good snap shot of each Beatle's look at the time. The naked album has pages and pages of transcriptions of mostly uninteresting random studio chatter, but no lyrics.
One good thing- the old and new versions together add up to about 70 minutes, which means you can burn them together on one cd for continuous listening. That works out pretty nice.
In the end, there's really not that much difference between the two versions. If you're less than a high level Beatle freak, you don't really need to worry about buying the album yet again.
If you don't have any version of the album, definitely get the classic version. More than anything, this just serves as a reminder of what a straight up indispensable classic album Let It Be was in the first place.
Article comments
1 - BB
Just another cash grab by Sir Paul. If anything he has proven a talent for staying in the spotlight and keeping the legend alive and the dollars flowing. Imagine how much Bethoven would have made if he could have remixed his old tunes every few years.
"Instead they pretend like they're giving us a DVD, but really just gave us nothing."
It would have been a nice gesture for Paul to give it FREE as fan appreciation, or to donate the proceeds to charity instead of his pocket. I suppose that didn't jibe with his portfolio plans.
Rock on Paul.
2 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Al, I have heard about half the new versions now and as far as I can tell, my review would be about exactly like yours: I like the Spector versions, ESPECIALLY "The Long and Winding Road," and thank goodness now Paul can shut up, but I'll keep listening to the original and digging it hard.
3 - Sandra Smallson
I think the purpose this Let it be..Naked Album has served is as an advertisement for music producers. The work producers do (even for the Beatles) to raw material will be better appreciated I'm sure. But for Phil Spector I might not have liked The Long and Winding Road, being a strings gal. I thank God he saved the song.
I was delighted Mcartney chose to do this. Not that I am a Beatles fan but I live with a mad Beatles fan and we are at loggerheads almost all the time. Like most Beatles fans he has deluded himself into thinking that the fab 4 just woke up sang and that's what we got untouched in the Albums. Spending time arguing with me about producers today like the Beatles never had producers. I have bought him a copy and I think now he will show much appreciation for Spector and come out of the clouds and realise that even the Beatles worked with producers.
4 - Eric Olsen
that is sensible Sandra
5 - Natalie Davis
"I think the purpose this Let it be..Naked Album has served is as an advertisement for music producers."
Yup. Paul can shut up now and I can listen to the original.
6 - Al Barger
Which leads me to realize my oversight in this write up: Not putting the Spector box set in the Amazon listings.
Oversight corrected. If'n you all don't have this set, it is SWEET. It's a bit pricey, granted, but it is ALL that and a bag of chips. Note that it specifically includes the entire Spector Christmas album, the best holiday album in rock music.
7 - BB
Let it Bleed - the bloodsuckers are at it again.
At the tender age of 12 I bought my first Beatle 45 single, then the album, then the Euro-mastered version, then the 8-track, then the cassette tape, then the CD, then the MP3 (well.. perhaps not the MP3). Last I counted I must have bought the same bloody song at least 6 times over thanks to technological advancements just so I could hear if John really buried Paul. I bought all their books and ventured out to the theatre to see their movies - a Hard Days Night, Help, Yellow Submarine, Magical Mystery Tour and Let It Be. It's no wonder Sir Paul is a billionaire and half of it is my money.
Now they expect me to pay for the un-produced version too? So what will be next? Abby Road Raw? No-Frills Sgt. Pepper? A Hard Days Night Out-Takes? I can hear Sir Paul now. "Yes, Sir George Martin butchered our songs with his bloody over-production so I want the world to hear us as it should be."
Don't get me wrong. As a fan I would love to hear this stuff just to hear how they sounded in the buff. BUT pay for it? Give me a frigging break. Haven't they ever heard of PBS.Org? Why couldn't they have donated it to charity or show some fan appreciation and just give it to us? What was that Paul? Your stock broker said no?
Now that 2 of the Beatles have passed over to the other side, by proxy Sir Paul is for all intents and purposes THE Beatles now (does Ringo even count?) Spinmeister Paul, never short on gimmicks to stay in the limelight and keep the cash flowing, will keep us entertained for years to come regardless if he ever records another tune.
I for one will NOT buy Naked. I am disgusted with this blatant cash-grab. Sorry Paul but you have gleaned all the money from my pocket that you are going to get.
8 - SKEETER
I don't think I would buy the new release of Let It Be, but, I kind of understand why it was done. It sounds as if the Beatles really did not have a lot of control over how Let It Be was produced and marketed. I think it is likely that if the two deceased members were involved, they would have been part of the decision to do it. Paul did it for the cash? I gotta question that thought, lets face it, this will generate chump change compared to his financial accompishments. I never liked the original album because I thought the production was rather poor, It sounded a little overproduced in that it had a lot of added instrumentation, and underproduced in that it sounded dry and sterile, as opposed to the Abbey Road album, which sounded very airy and musical. I also think that, other than the obvious hits on it, the rest was weak filler material, put together as an afterthought as a last attempt to make money from the Beatles.
Perhaps it would have been a better Idea to take the best material from Let IT Be, add other things like Don't Let ME Down and Ballad Of John And Yoko, things like that from perhaps the Beatles Again album that were kind of homeless songs.
Even better, this is something that should have been done long ago by George Martin and maybe even Alan Parsons. Had they let him do the whole shot years ago, it would have been a true Beatles album again, instead of the Beatles featuring Phil Spector, which is how everyone that knows about the album views it.
9 - BB
Now there's an idea! George Martin producing with Alan Parsons as head engineer. That is exciting and I would definitely buy that!!!
10 - Geoff
i may be one of the few who like the naked album. i do think they should have kept the original solo for "let it be". and yeah they main songs like get back and for you blue are still the same. but i prefer across the universe the way it is on naked.
11 - geoff
a follow up. this is the way the album was supposed to sound. it was supposed to be an album with no overdubs. a back to basics album.
12 - Al Barger
It started out to be supposed to sound approximately this way, with no overdubs. They weren't satisfied with it at the time, thus recruiting Spector. Now we can see why. They in fact used good judgment in the first place.
13 - SulfurFury
It's as if some people who think they know about rock music, try to judge the "Let It Be...Naked" album, and they just get confused! The 2003 digital production of this album is not something that will be done to other albums. Anyone who has an inkling about the Beatles in their current subconscious should know that "Let It Be" / "Get Back", the albums, were the only albums really qualified for any re-production. This is the only Beatles album that no one was satisfied with or knew what to do with, and Paul, leading the band again, has done something to set things right. The Beatles, gaining some control back, also set the record straight with the "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" album in 1999. So now the two albums considered the most weakest Beatles, have been authoritavely redone in a manner that is most pleasing to the most hardcore fans! Has this ever happened before? No. It might have happened in 1985 if it weren't for Jackson, but, I'm just as happy it is happening now, later into the digital age, when the sound can really be done well. "Let It Be" is going to be the one Beatles album that can be remixed and redone - and has several finished versions including this latest one - and so the band has released the definitive version of their lifetime - by sort of going back to the original intention at the start of the sessions. I've been a dedicated Beatles and music fan ever since I bought "I'm Losing You" by John Lennon in 1981.