I’d been waiting about 30 years to hear “The Long and Winding Road” and “Across the Universe” without all the syrupy schmaltz. I had tried to picture in my mind’s ear the sound of a band playing these songs on just basic rock-‘n’-roll guitar, bass, piano, drums. It was hard to imagine the raw band under all the overlay. So I had to get this album, if only out of a fan’s curiosity.
My favorite song of all, (except that it ties with “Across the Universe”) is “Don’t Let Me Down.” I felt that “Don’t Let Me Down” really captured the loose, open, horny, sexy, down-to-earth feel of that particular moment in the culture, the end of the '60s and the early '70s. John Lennon made that song out of the erotic sweat and passion that he was getting into with his woman. The same feel came through in Gato Barbieri’s passionate Latin jazz from the same time.
I am puzzled by a customer review I read about Let It Be… Naked at the amazon.com site. He said he was glad that “Don’t Let Me Down” was finally included on Let It Be. What does that mean? I bought Let It Be on 12-inch vinyl back in the 1970s. When it was on the original Apple label. The only record that had a red apple on the label instead of a green apple. I can tell you for certain that “Don’t Let Me Down” was right there on the original Apple release of Let It Be.
I hated the Spector produced “Across the Universe” and “Long and Winding Road”. In fact I thought those songs were crap until I heard the version of “Across the Universe” on the charity album (Wildlife?), and “Long and Winding Road” with just piano on the Anthology album. I like the Anthology version better than the newer version on Let it Be… Naked.
But I am not sure what I think of it. I have all the official releases, and as such more versions of many of those songs than to really care about. It’s like Black Sabbath’s album Paranoid in the sense that, yes, those are fantastic songs, but dammit I’ve heard them too many times.
Oh my gosh, I think you’re right. :o My excuse is that the '70s were so long ago, and things start to merge together in my-my-my-my mind.
I have this vivid memory of watching the Let It Be movie with the Beatles performing “Don’t Let Me Down” on the rooftop. That movie scene, plus song, stayed so much more vividly in my memory than the Hey Jude album, I guess it seemed natural to think that DLMD had always been included on the LIB record. Well, anyway, it sure belongs there now.
The song “Let It Be” was a prime example of why Paul needed John around.
John would rag Paul about his sometimes overly done compositions. While John was having a good smirk, Paul would come up with something like “Let It Be” and John would be stunned. Even though I’ve heard it hundreds of times, it still sends a shiver.
Had John not been killed, I would be willing to bet big money that Paul would never have made “The Girl Is Mine” or “Ebony and Ivory”.
I bought Let It Be on 12-inch vinyl back in the 1970s. When it was on the original Apple label. The only record that had a red apple on the label instead of a green apple. I can tell you for certain that “Don’t Let Me Down” was right there on the original Apple release of Let It Be.