Let it Be, the last studio album released (though not recorded) by the Beatles, is one of the most maligned albums in history. Yet it retains an aura, an enigmatic curiosity because of the circumstances in which it was made. To anyone who watched the Let It Be movie, it was a sad end to one of the greatest success stories in modern times. The 80-minute film provided a skewed view of the Beatles and how they worked; it’s been challenged and reinterpreted for years because it didn’t tell the full story. That will change when Peter Jackson’s three-part docuseries The Beatles: Get Back finally comes to Disney +. In the meantime, we have Let It Be Special Edition, which includes a host of extras and embellishments that Beatles fans can savor before they spend six hours in front of the tube to see what else happened.
Get Back / Let It Be bootlegs have been floating around for decades, though a good chunk of the material is fragmented bits of freeform jamming, oldies and multiple versions of new songs, unreleased songs — and then some. In contrast, Let It Be Special Edition features six discs, including the original album, in a far more structured format. Modeled after expanded anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (2017), The BEATLES (aka The White Album) (2018), and Abbey Road (2019) the set includes multiple versions of “Let It Be,” Don’t Let Me Down,” “Get Back,” and all the other songs on the original Let It Be. The 15-minute “Dig It” jam didn’t make the cut, but there’s a four-minute version. There’s also rough run-throughs of “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” “Polythene Pam,” “Oh! Darling,” “Octopus’s Garden,” and “Something,” which all landed on Abbey Road, as well songs later recorded for solo albums like “All Things Must Pass,” “Gimme Some Truth” and “Teddy Boy” (complete with John Lennon’s incessant “do-si-do” call). Even Billy Preston gets to strut his stuff, vocally and on the piano on the 1929 standard “Without A Song.”
The real attraction, however, are the mixes — a new stereo mix in hi-res 96kHz/24-bit, plus new 5.1 surround DTS and Dolby Atmos mixes, as well as the elusive 1969 Glyn Johns mix. Hardcore collectors claim they have it all — which may be true — but the sound quality of the boots is typically inferior. They should want his set for that reason alone. The same goes for everyone else. The remixed Let It Be, stripped naked in 2003, is back to its old self, flush with Phil Spector’s overproduction, though pumped and filtered with sonic steroids. The guitars have more bark on “I Dig A Pony,” “I’ve Got A Feeling” and “One After 909.” The strings, the choir, and the harp drift to the fore in “Across The Universe.” Paul McCartney’s “tack” piano has more snap on “For You Blue.” The surround and Atmos mixes by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell simply up the ante for those looking for a deeper, more immersive experience. The crème de la crème may very well be the 14-track Get Back mix by engineer Glyn Johns in May 1969.
Tracking through the Get Back mix, you really get a feel for how tight a band the Beatles were. “One After 909,” an early Lennon and McCartney song, really cooks — George Harrison’s crinkly little guitar fills slip in and out of the verses as Preston chugs along on the electric piano to the rhythm of Lennon’s guitar, McCartney’s bass and Ringo Starr’s drums. On “Don’t Let Me Down,” Lennon’s vocals are rougher and Preston’s solo much looser. It’s all easy enough to grasp onto and appreciate, though understandable that its rough edges weren’t up to the polish of released Beatles music. Which is pretty much the case with some of the other numbers from the sessions — a starker “I Dig A Pony,” a more laid-back “I’ve Got A Feeling,” and an ominous take of “The Long And Winding Road” without the strings — similar to what McCartney put on Let It Be …Naked. Even so, the Beatles rejected Get Back and turned their attention to crafting the more accessible Let It Be.
Studious Beatles aficionadas claim much of the Glyn Johns mix was likely sourced from any number of bootleg recordings (apparently this was common practice with previous expanded titles). And they’re not happy about the absence of the complete Apple Corps rooftop performance — which may or may not be intended as a future separate release. You may take a pause at the four-song EP, which includes 1970 Glyn Johns mixes of “Across The Universe” and “I Me Mine” along with new mixes for the single releases of ‘Don’t Let Me Down” and “Let It Be.” After a dozen playbacks, you’ll never want to be without it. Seriously, if the packaging and mixes aren’t enough to win you over, well…the books surely will.
Yes, there are actually two Beatle books to be had. The 105-page edition that’s part of Let It Be Special Edition is plump full of commentaries by Paul McCartney, Giles Martin and Glyn Johns, essays, a track-by-track analysis, and lots of photos. The 204-page The Beatles: Get Back companion book to the docuseries comprises an extensive introduction by British playwright and novelist Hanif Kureishi, followed by a detailed, frame-by-frame narrative of the 21 days the band were together working on Get Back and Let It Be. Inquisitive types can get a jumpstart on the docuseries, and learn how the band planned and plotted a live concert at various locales around the world, as they rehearsed new songs, jammed on old ones, ditched Twickenham Film Studios for the warmth of Apple Studios, and settled on playing an impromptu (and final) 42-minute gig on the roof of their Savile Row facility in London’s West End.
The numerous Ethan Russell and Linda McCartney photos combined with revelatory dialog from Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Starr, Let It Be director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and various associates and anyone else who managed to be in the same room, will have any and all Beatles fans and historians swooning for more. And who knows, once The Beatles: Get Back makes its long-awaited premiere, followed by the inevitable DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases, we could see a soundtrack with more previously unreleased music, additional books by those who were there, maybe even that complete rooftop performance. Let It Be Special Edition — available as a single CD or vinyl LP, a double-CD set, and, as discussed here, a six-CD and five-LP set — and the The Beatles: Get Back book are only the beginning of what could become yet another banner year for the Beatles. Fifty years later, and they’re still “the toppermost of the poppermost!”
~ Shawn Perry
