The Beatles intended the album that became Let It Be as a back-to-basics move, deciding to hunker down with a bunch of rockers they could play live -- to get back where they once belonged, as it were. Things didn't go so easily. The group decided that they'd document the entire process of recording and rehearsing on film, culminating in a live performance at the end of the proceedings. They headed to Twickenham Film Studios in January 1969, finding their new accommodations not nearly as hospitable as their home at Abbey ...
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The Beatles intended the album that became Let It Be as a back-to-basics move, deciding to hunker down with a bunch of rockers they could play live -- to get back where they once belonged, as it were. Things didn't go so easily. The group decided that they'd document the entire process of recording and rehearsing on film, culminating in a live performance at the end of the proceedings. They headed to Twickenham Film Studios in January 1969, finding their new accommodations not nearly as hospitable as their home at Abbey Road. The loose nature of the sessions combined with inner-band tensions made for a rocky road, one that got a little smoother once they decided to move to the fledgling Apple Studio and abandon their plans for a public performance. The Beatles did wind up giving a concert, but it was a surprise gig held on the rooftop of Apple at the end of the sessions, an event that gave the film a dramatic conclusion. Drama is the keyword for Let It Be. There was drama in the sessions, drama in the post-production, drama in the film, and drama in its afterlife. Paul McCartney was never fond of the production Phil Spector added to the tapes, particularly on "The Long and Winding Road," so he spearheaded the odd Let It Be...Naked project, a 2003 album that was a hybrid of the relatively polished 1970 Let It Be LP and the scrapped Glyn Johns mix of Get Back from 1969. Let It Be...Naked isn't on Let It Be [Super Deluxe Edition], a six-disc box set released alongside Peter Jackson's The Beatles: Get Back -- a docuseries that revisits the original film footage shot by Michael Lindsay-Hogg in 1969 -- but a remixed version of Let It Be is, alongside the first official release of the heavily bootlegged Get Back, plus two discs of outtakes and a disc of remixes (the sixth disc is a BluRay). It's a weighty set but not nearly as hefty as the bootlegs containing upwards of 17 CDs of Twickenham sessions, so it initially seems a bit underwhelming, especially considering how the fifth disc contains four remixes that add up to a 13-minute run time. There would've been plenty of space to contain the full rooftop concert, but perhaps that was saved as a main attraction for The Beatles: Get Back , as Peter Jackson did include it in his film. Leaving aside this complaint, the set has a number of riches, chief among them the official release of Get Back, which sounds so casual it's easy to see why the Beatles didn't want to release this mix. Nevertheless, this mix has its ragged charms: "The Long and Winding Road" never sounded better than it does here. The two discs of outtakes are roughly grouped into a collection of Get Back/Let It Be material (including covers) and a collection of songs that would surface on All Things Must Pass, Imagine, and Abbey Road. The latter provides the highlights of the outtakes: the slow crawl through "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" is fascinating, as is a long, languid jam on "Oh! Darling" and Ringo Starr testing out "Octopus's Garden" on piano. As a whole, the two discs of outtakes amount to about 73 minutes of music, which isn't much considering how many hours of bootlegs have circulated. Hardcore fans will note how many Beatles oldies, covers, and nascent Beatles solo material are absent, but save from McCartney taking a stab at tunes that wound up on Ram (plus his digs at Enoch Powell), there isn't much that should've made the cut. What's here can justifiably be called the highlights of the long, winding sessions, and they act as a good supplement to both Let It Be and Get Back. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
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Add this copy of Let It Be (Super Deluxe) to cart. $119.71, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2021 by Beatles.
Add this copy of Let It Be Special Edition [Super Deluxe 5 Cd/Blu-Ray to cart. $129.37, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Capitol.
Add this copy of Let It Be Special Edition [Super Deluxe 5 Cd/Blu-Ray to cart. $132.85, new condition, Sold by Salzer's Records rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from ventura, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Capitol.
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