1970 and all that....

[GazzaBTFC]

I've been playing Let It Be this week on my Walkman and I have to say, it's a great little album considering all that was out in that year.

 

On reflection, 1970 wasn't a great year for music. The World was holding it's breath over the speculation of wether The Beatles would break up and then when they did, appeared to suffer from a hang over. Okay, we had Deep Purple's "In Rock", Led Zeppelin's "III", Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and Simon & Garfunkle's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" but overall, nothing else of note...Which brings me to this little gem buy that "small little rock 'n' roll band" The Beatles.

 

I was going to record a mini disc with both the original album and "Let It Be...Naked" but I found a mini disc I recorded sometime ago of the original album with the alternate version of "Across The Universe", the single version of "Let It Be" and it's 'B' side "You Know My Name" included.

 

So, what about "Let It Be". Well strip away all the post album hype and refl;ective reviews, approach with a fresh pair of ears and I found it a joy to listen to. I will freely admit it's not an "Abbey Road" or a "Revolver" but it was never intended to be and that is what people forget. It came out of a mess of ashes of a project to show The Beatles, warts and all, at work. Okay, there is the Phil Spector "Wall Of Sound" treatment to "Across The Universe" and "The Long And Winding Road" but they are still great songs which were far better than anything that was out at the time (and lets face it, if you're going to take your hands off a project and give it to a record company to produce, what do you expect to happen? If Paul McCartney didn't wish his "masterpiece" to be complete with strings, he should've bloody well finished the project that he instigated). Even the "live" tracks are good. "One After 909", "I've Got A Feeling", complete with Paul and John's call and return over the chorus ("Everybody had a good year, everybody let their hair down"). And let's not forget the "folksy", "Two Of Us". Maybe not the best opener but hey, something different.

 

For me, the tracks that stand out on this listen are both Geroge's tracks "I Me Mine" (the first appearence of the "Threetles" - John had no hand in any of the recording process), "For You Blue" (apparently John on slide guitar) - a delightful blues track and Paul's "Let It Be" - a much better guitar solo than on the single. But the beauty of a Beatles album is, I'll go back to it and consider one of the other tracks as "stand out". For the time being, I'll go with those three.

 

Yep, the album is a mess but a glorious mess and on the live tracks quite a heavy mess, with all things considered.

 

As I said, on the mini disc I included the alternative "Across The Universe", recorded for the Wildlife Fund album, complete with two fans providing backing vocals, the single version of "Let It Be" and it's 'B' side "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)". Not the best track to close a disc of the last of The Beatles "official" recording legacy but it never fails to makes me smile. And that is all right because that is what The Beatles music was meant to do, make us smile and be happy.