Observations on The Beatles - Let It Be (Super Deluxe)

Obviously have not see the Let It Be film that premieres next month on Disney+, but I've just finished listening to the Super Deluxe edition of the album and it presents the band in a FAR greater light than had been previously thought. George Harrison once called the sessions "the winter of discontent," but he was a frustrated songwriter at that time, and you can hear him working over Something and All Things Must Pass. Paul McCartney was a work-a-haulic, whose ridiculous ease at writing iconic songs must've provided Harrison with further frustration, and John Lennon was screwing around, having fun making nonsense songs (Dig It and Maggie Mae), jamming, mixing in some great songs, and contributing to to Paul's songs.

For Paul, he'd just released the year prior two tremendous songs, Lady Madonna and Hey Jude, recorded some great songs on the "white album," and was writing the iconic Let It Be and Get Back along with The Long and Winding Road. On top of that, these sessions also produced the cheery, bouncy Two of Us, which John obviously loved and for which he sang a great harmony vocal, and I've Got a Feeling, which John also loved and on which John also dueted. And Oh Darling was also in development.

Imagine a solo artist releasing an LP whose line-up features:

Side 1

Back in the USSSR

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Let It Be

Blackbird

Hey Jude

Get Back

Side 2

Birthday

Lady Madonna

I've Got a Feeling

Two of Us

Long and Winding Road

I Will

Helter Skelter

That's a helluva year of songwriting. We're talking incomparable here.

Anyway, as I stated before, John was just into jamming and was clearly having fun on these sessions. He's also heard giving advice to George, who was stuck on the lyrics for Something.

I've always thought the album Let It Be to be greatly underappreciated and underrated because there are some really great tracks on the album. It was lightly regarded because it sat on a shelf, was muddled by Phil Spector, and is perceived to have led to The Beatles splitting up. In a way, it did play a large role in the break-up, but it was more because three Beatles brought in Spector because they were mad at Paul for his failing to want to go with the other three on a new manager, so they completely saturated his songs with "wall of sound" courtesy of Spector.

This was the straw that broke the camel's back and it would be years before Paul spoke with John and George. But it really wasn't the recording sessions themselves that broke them up, a fact verified when they reconvened a few months later to record the epic Abbey Road album.

Anyhow, the new Let It Be album is outstanding both in terms of the content, the original Glynn Johns mixes and the outakes, as well as the spoken dialogue between tracks. I cannot wait to see the new film.