Song of The Day. Let It Be is the twelfth and final studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 8 May 1970 by the bands Apple Records label shortly after the group announced their break-up. Most of Let It Be was recorded in January 1969, before the recording and release of the album Abbey Road. For this reason, some critics and fans, such as Mark Lewisohn, argue that Abbey Road should be considered the groups final album and Let It Be the penultimate. Let It Be was originally intended to be released before Abbey Road during mid-1969 as Get Back, but the Beatles were unhappy with this version, which was mixed and compiled by Glyn Johns, and it was temporarily shelved. A new version of the album was created by Phil Spector in 1970 and finally released as Let It Be, serving as the album for the 1970 motion picture of the same name. While three songs from the sessions were released as singles before the albums release, Get Back/Dont Let Me Down and Let It Be, the songs were remixed by Spector for the album and Dont Let Me Down was not included. Despite a mixed review from Rolling Stone magazine at the time of its release, the album was ranked number 86 in the magazines list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003. This was, however, adjusted to #392 in the 2012 version. Let It Be... Naked was released in 2003, an alternative version of the album stripping much of Phil Spectors production work and using some different versions of songs. The rehearsals and recording sessions for the album did not run smoothly. The acrimony that began during the recording of the previous years The Beatles album, resumed soon after the rehearsals began. The Beatles were not getting along, and Lennon and McCartney werent working together as before. McCartney assumed the role of the leader, while a laid back Lennon was more interested in spending time/making music with his soon-to-be wife Yoko Ono, who was now present in the studio with him at all times. All of the factors led to friction within the band. At one point, Harrison walked out and quit the group after several arguments with McCartney and a severe fall-out with Lennon, due to the formers perfectionism and the latters increasing lack of interest in the band. Harrison was eventually coaxed back a few days later. The film version is famous for showcasing a number of conflicts between the group members and has frequently been referred to as a documentary intended to show the making of an album but instead showing the break-up of a band. Since all the rehearsals were to be filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg and his film crew, the decision was made to use a film studio for rehearsals and the sound stage at Twickenham Studios was chosen. The group began rehearsals there on 2 January 1969. Sound recordings were made on Nagra mono recorders solely for the purpose of the film sound track; no professional multi-track recordings were made of these sessions as the Beatles were simply rehearsing for a proposed live performance. Phil Spector later used a snippet of dialogue from one of these rehearsals (Lennon announcing Queen says no to pot-smoking FBI members) to introduce For You Blue on the finished album. Numerous bootleg records taken from the many hours of these soundtrack recordings are in wide circulation and various bits of music and dialogue from the same source were eventually used on the second disc of the 2003 release Let It Be... Naked. The rehearsals quickly disintegrated into acrimony. Unable to generate much enthusiasm or focus their attention, the Beatles playing was largely ragged and unprofessional, not helped by the fact that they were severely out of practice at playing as a live ensemble. McCartney tried to organise and encourage his bandmates, but his attempts to hold the band together and rally spirits were seen by the others as controlling and patronising. Matters came to a head on 6 January, when Harrison had a heated argument with McCartney during a rehearsal of Two of Us, which later became one of the most famous sequences in the Let It Be film. What is not shown in the film is another, allegedly much more severe argument Harrison had with Lennon on 10 January. Harrison had become fed up with Lennons creative and communicative disengagement from the band and the two had a blazing row. According to journalist Michael Housego of The Daily Sketch, this descended into violence with Harrison and Lennon allegedly throwing punches at each other, though in a 16 January interview for the Daily Express, Harrison said, There was no punch-up. We just fell out. After lunch, Harrison announced that he was leaving the band now and told the others see you round the clubs. He promptly walked out, getting in his car and instead of returning home to his wife Pattie at his Esher home Kinfauns, he drove straight to his parents home in Warrington near Liverpool After Harrisons departure that afternoon, the three remaining Beatles attempted to continue the rehearsal. As a practical solution to the problem of Harrisons absence, Lennon suggested hiring Eric Clapton to replace Harrison, possibly as a full-time member of the Beatles if Harrison stuck with his decision to quit the band permanently. McCartney and Starr vetoed this suggestion, with the former arguing that the group could not truly be considered as the Beatles without all four original members of the band. A week later the band agreed to Harrisons terms for returning to the group, which included abandoning the cold and cavernous soundstage at Twickenham. Sessions resumed on 22 January when the Beatles moved to Apple Studios. Multi-track recording began on that date[6] and continued until 31 January. Harrison brought in keyboardist Billy Preston to ease tensions and supplement the band for the live performances. Preston worked with the Beatles throughout their stay at Apple Studios.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 22:51:20 +0000
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