'Let It Be Special Edition' by the Beatles Review: Burnishing an Album's Tarnished Image

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Review: "Let It Be" has always been the Beatles’ problem child. Now the record, whose creation caused deep rifts in the band, has been reissued in a remixed version that includes extras, outtakes and more.

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BOOKS & ARTS | MUSIC REVIEW

‘Let It Be Special Edition’ by the Beatles Review: Burnishing an Album’s Tarnished Image

The record, whose creation caused deep rifts in the band, has been reissued in a remixed version that includes extras, outtakes and more

By Allan Kozinn
Oct. 26, 2021 5:18 pm ET

‘Let It Be” has always been the Beatles’ problem child. It began as a multimedia back-to-the-roots project, the plan was that the band would rehearse an album’s worth of new material that could be played live, without the electronic wizardry and orchestral sweetening that had become part of their toolbox. They would then perform these new songs in a single concert, perhaps in an exotic setting, which would be filmed and recorded for a television special and an LP. The director Michael Lindsay-Hogg was engaged to capture it all, in sessions that running from Jan. 2 through Jan. 31, 1969.

There were problems from the start. Having grown accustomed to developing their songs in the recording studio, often during all-night sessions, the Beatles were never entirely comfortable with the daytime rehearsals they had scheduled or the persistent filming of their working process, and they disliked the rehearsal venue, Twickenham Film Studios. Squabbles over arrangements led George Harrison to quit the band on Jan. 10, and in negotiating his return he demanded that they abandon Twickenham and all talk of a concert. The sessions continued in the basement studio at the Beatles’ Apple headquarters and on Apple’s rooftop, where on Jan. 30 they held an outdoor session as a concession to the original concert idea.

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[Fiendish Thingy]

1. A supreme rip off of Beatles fans by the Beatles

2 cds worth of music spread over 5 cd’s; one disc has only four songs.

Only 3 minutes of previously unreleased/unbootlegged material (previous box sets have included lots of music even hardcore collectors like myself had never heard).

So much music left off this set- they could have filled the extra space on the five cds with any of the following:

A disc of dozens of oldies the Beatles jammed on during these sessions

The entire rooftop concert from January 30 1969

A disc of all of George Harrison’s performances (George tried out numerous songs that would later appear on his first solo LP, All Things Must Pass, only one of which appear here. He also played a bunch of Dylan songs); there are at least two cds worth of performances floating around on bootlegs.

Add to all the above another disastrous remix by George Martin’s son Giles.

As a lifelong Beatle fan and hardcore collector, I cannot recommend this set.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. I Buy That

My only point of difference is that I would prefer the remix, because by 1969 nearly everybody got better sound than Phil Spector.
IMO, Spector ruined that album.

[msongs]

3. first beatles album I didnt buy when it first came out (US version_) nt