<\/p>\n
Let It Be <\/i>is a well known and well understood as the sonic documentation of the breakup of the greatest rock band ever.\u00a0 By 1969, when the album was recorded, the ship was coming apart.\u00a0 The business of The Beatles was causing tension.\u00a0 Artistic and personal divergences from the various member\u2019s individual interests, as well as aborted and half-hearted attempts to complete a live show, album, and movie, all conspired to bring down the whole enterprise.<\/p>\n
Given all of the problems facing the group at this time, it is actually pretty amazing that Let It Be<\/i> is as good as it is.\u00a0 Admittedly, the album is a bit schizophrenic, with the sound and pace jolting from one number to the next and throwaways like \u201cDig It\u201d and \u201cMaggie Mae\u201d added for unknown reasons.\u00a0 \u201cAcross The Universe\u201d also hangs out there oddly, a sad and nearly forgotten leftover from the pre-India excursion and White Album<\/i> days.\u00a0 The album was intended to follow the Beatles\u2019 live rehearsals that were filmed in the Let It Be<\/i> documentary.\u00a0 But Phil Spector\u2019s treatment of the songs \u2013 splicing, dicing, adding strings, and vocals, etc. \u2013 adds to this lurching, inconsistent feel.\u00a0 Even so, the quality of the some of the songs is able to shine through overmuch production or their placement on the album.<\/p>\n
For example, \u201cTwo Of Us\u201d is a quiet, reflective acoustic track that sounds like as much of a swan song to the Beatles and the Lennon\/McCartney partnership as critics say that \u201cLet It Be\u201d is.\u00a0 And despite Spector\u2019s addition of strings and harp on \u201cThe Long And Winding Road\u201d that McCartney despised so much, it really is a beautiful ballad.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cGet Back\u201d is just about the best tune on the disc, and its live band sound stays true to the format that was intended for the Let It Be\/Get Back<\/i> sessions.\u00a0 Billy Preston\u2019s organ adds an element of depth that was needed at this point in the Beatles arc as well.\u00a0 \u201cI’ve Got A Feeling\u201d is a grinding blues song that combines McCartney\u2019s song along with Lennon\u2019s unfinished \u201cEverybody Had A Hard Year.\u201d\u00a0 And, while \u201cFeeling\u201d shows that the Lennon\/McCartney duo could still make good songs out of scraps, \u201cThe One After 909\u201d recalls the early years of the pair\u2019s ability to churn out rockers.<\/p>\n
This album is regarded more lowly mostly because it is compared to the Beatles\u2019 other releases.\u00a0 By this measure it falls short.\u00a0 It could be argued that the album could have been better, but then again, it could have been worse.\u00a0 The alternate versions of this album included the Lennon B-side \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Down,\u201d which would have been an excellent inclusion on the album (and was included on the stripped down 2003 version, Let It Be…Naked<\/i>).\u00a0 But thankfully, we are not subjected to a five-minute version of \u201cDig It,\u201d which was also an option.\u00a0 \u201cYou Know My Name (Look Up the Number),\u201d another oldie like \u201cAcross The Universe\u201d and the B-side to \u201cLet It Be\u201d could have been added, too, but thankfully wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 In all, you have to hand it to Spector, who did what he could with what he had to work with and the skills he possessed.\u00a0 Likewise, the ability for the group to land several solid punches before checking out is also something to be admired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":25026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5675],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-42834","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-beatles","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42834"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}