https://youtu.be/Cmqd6PYAvJ8
Here are some images and track lists of the upcoming “Let It Be audio” releases for 2021, due out October 15. Prematurely posted on the Spanish Amazon site, we now know the contents as well as what the box consists of. Later leaks have given us info about the 2 disc version and the vinyl boxed set. The image below lists the contents of the “Super DeLuxe” 5CD + 1Blu-ray edition. The blu-ray has no video content, but high resolution files of the new mix “Let It Be” tracks, in stereo and several surround sound options.
The “Let It Be” album has been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell in stereo, 5.1 surround DTS, and Dolby Atmos. All the new “Let It Be” releases feature the new stereo mix of the album as guided by the original “reproduced for disc” version by Phil Spector and sourced directly from the original session and rooftop performance eight-track tapes.
The Super Deluxe collections also feature 27 previously unreleased session recordings, a four-track “Let It Be” EP, and the never before released 14-track “Get Back” stereo LP mix compiled by engineer Glyn Johns in May 1969.
Additionally, the Super Deluxe editions feature a 100 page hard-back book with an introduction by Paul McCartney, extensive notes and track-by-track recording information and many previously unseen photos, personal notes, tape box images and more.
The book has the following chapters:
• Foreword by Paul McCartney
• Introduction by Giles Martin
• Glyn Johns remembers
• Everybody had a hard year/Everybody had a good time
The myth and reality of Let it be Sessions
• What do we want to know
• Track by track
• Rehearsals and Apple jams
• Get Back to Let It Be
The book is of course not identical to the new “Get Back”-book, which is available separately, nor is it identical to the old “Get Back” book from the 1970 “Let It Be” boxed set.
Let It Be - Special Edition - 5 CD + 1 Blu-Ray
Disc One – New Mix of the original album:
1. Two Of Us
2. Dig A Pony
3. Across The Universe
4. I Me Mine
5. Dig It
6. Let It Be
7. Maggie Mae
8. I’ve Got A Feeling
9. One After 909
10. The Long And Winding Road
11. For You Blue
12. Get Back
Disc Two – Get Back – Apple sessions
1. Morning Camera (Speech) / Two Of Us (Take 4)
2. Maggie Mae / Fancy My Chances With You *
3. Can You Dig It?
4. I Don’t Know Why I’m Moaning (Speech)*
5. For You Blue (Take 4)
6. Let It Be / Please Please Me / Let It Be (Take 10)
7. I’ve Got A Feeling (Take 10)
8. Dig A Pony (Take 14)
9. Get Back (Take 19)
10. Like Making An Album? (Speech)
11. One After 909 (Take 3)
12. Don’t Let Me Down (First Rooftop Performance)
13. The Long And Winding Road (Take 19)
14. Wake Up Little Susie / I Me Mine (Take 11)
Disc Three – Get Back – rehearsals and Apple jams
1. On The Day Shift Now (Speech)*/All Things Must Pass (Rehearsals)
2. Concentrate On The Sound *
3. Gimme Some Truth (Rehearsal) *
4. I Me Mine (Rehearsal) *
5. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Rehearsal) *
6. Polythene Pam (Rehearsal) *
7. Octopus’s Garden (Rehearsal) *
8. Oh! Darling (Jam)
9. Get Back (Take 8)
10. The Walk (Jam)
11. Without A Song (Jam – Billy Preston With John And Ringo)
12. Something (Rehearsal) *
13. Let It Be (Take 28)
Disc Four – Get Back LP – 1969 Glyn Johns mix
1. One After 909
2. Medley: I’m Ready (Aka Rocker) / Save The Last Dance For Me / Don’t Let Me Down
3. Don’t Let Me Down
4. Dig A Pony
5. I’ve Got A Feeling
6. Get Back
7. For You Blue
8. Teddy Boy
9. Two Of Us
10. Maggie Mae
11. Dig It
12. Let It Be
13. The Long And Winding Road
Let It Be: Special Edition is an expanded reissue of the original 1970 album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released by Apple Records on 15 October 2021 and includes a new stereo remix of the album, as well as a Dolby Atmos mix, by Giles Martin, the son of Beatles producer George Martin.
Background and content
This was not the first time Let It Be was released as a box set. The original album came out in a limited edition box set in the UK on 8 May 1970, which went out of print by that December and was replaced in circulation with a standard issue LP. Aside from the LP, the original box set included a 164-page paperback book.[1]
Like the previous Beatles 50th anniversary box sets, Let It Be: Special Edition was originally going to be released the same month as the original album. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its release was delayed until October 2021 while the release of the Get Back documentary series was delayed until November 2021. Additionally, the release dates of the super deluxe editions of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and All Things Must Pass were delayed until April 2021 and August 2021 respectively.[2][3]
A trailer for Let It Be: Special Edition was released in August 2021, two months before its release. It was also revealed that a book containing essays, photos, session notes and a message from Paul McCartney on his thoughts on both the box set and the upcoming Get Back documentary will be included in the box set[4] Let It Be: Special Edition features a remix of the original Let It Be album by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell, along with session highlights, outtakes, an EP featuring four additional unreleased tracks and new mixes and a remaster of Glyn Johns' original 1969 Get Back mix.[5][6] Let It Be: Special Edition is available in both CD and Vinyl formats.[7][8][9][10]
The box set included the first official release of the 1969 Get Back mix, which was previously available in bootleg form.[11] However, some sources state that due to a mixup, the true 1969 mix is available only on the Japan Super High Material (SHM) CD release, and that the mix on all other releases combines elements from both the 1969 mix and the 1970 mix of the Get Back album.[12]
On 28 January 2022, the full audio recording of the rooftop concert was released to streaming services as The Beatles: Get Back — The Rooftop Performance.[13]
Reception
Let It Be: Special Edition received positive reviews.[14][15][16] In an online review, music critic David Quantick stated the box set "does wonders for the record" and that it gives the listener "a bird’s-eye view of the sessions".[17] Pitchfork gave it a 9.1 rating and said in their review that the box set shines a light on "the brilliant and tumultuous process" of the album, and called some of the outtakes "uncomfortable and fascinating".[18]
On Metacritic, Let It Be: Special Edition holds an aggregate score of 91 out of 100, based on seven reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[19]
Track listings
New stereo mix of original album
All tracks are written by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted.
No.Title Writer(s)Lead vocal(s)Length
1. "Two of Us" McCartney with Lennon 3:36
2. "Dig a Pony" Lennon 3:54
3. "Across the Universe" Lennon 3:48
4. "I Me Mine" George Harrison Harrison 2:26
5. "Dig It" Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Richard Starkey Lennon 0:50
6. "Let It Be" McCartney 4:03
7. "Maggie Mae" Traditional; arranged by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Starkey Lennon with McCartney 0:40
8. "I've Got a Feeling" McCartney and Lennon 3:37
9. "One After 909" Lennon with McCartney 2:54
10. "The Long and Winding Road" McCartney 3:38
11. "For You Blue" Harrison Harrison 2:32
12. "Get Back" McCartney 3:09
Super Deluxe edition tracks
Disc 2: Get Back – Apple Sessions No.Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Morning Camera" / "Two of Us" (Speech / Take 4) 3:42
2. "Maggie Mae" / "Fancy My Chances with You" Traditional / Lennon–McCartney 0:58
3. "Can You Dig It?" 2:02
4. "I Don't Know Why I'm Moaning" (Speech) 1:22
5. "For You Blue" (Take 4) Harrison 2:52
6. "Let It Be" / "Please Please Me" / "Let It Be" (Take 10) 4:32
7. "I've Got a Feeling" (Take 10) 3:37
8. "Dig a Pony" (Take 14) 4:01
9. "Get Back" (Take 19) 3:57
10. "Like Making an Album?" (Speech) 0:42
11. "One After 909" (Take 3) 3:27
12. "Don't Let Me Down" (First Rooftop Performance) 3:28
13. "The Long and Winding Road" (Take 19) 3:47
14. "Wake Up Little Susie" / "I Me Mine" (Take 11) Felice Bryant, Boudleaux Bryant / Harrison 2:15
Total length: 40:42
Disc 3: Get Back – Rehearsals and Apple Jams No.Title Writer(s) Length
1. "On the Day Shift Now" / "All Things Must Pass" (Speech / Rehearsals) Harrison 4:22
2. "Concentrate on the Sound" 1:07
3. "Gimme Some Truth" (Rehearsals) Lennon 1:19
4. "I Me Mine" (Rehearsals) Harrison 1:35
5. "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (Rehearsals) 2:50
6. "Polythene Pam" (Rehearsals) 1:19
7. "Octopus's Garden" (Rehearsals) Starkey 1:50
8. "Oh! Darling" (Jam) 5:19
9. "Get Back" (Take 8) 3:52
10. "The Walk" (Jam) Jimmy McCracklin, Bob Garlic 0:55
11. "Without a Song" (Jam – Billy Preston with John and Ringo) Vincent Youmans, Billy Rose, Edward Eliscu 2:00
12. "Something" (Rehearsals) Harrison 1:24
13. "Let It Be" (Take 28) 4:42
Total length: 32:34
Disc 4: Get Back LP – Glyn Johns 1969 Mix No.Title Writer(s) Length
1. "One After 909" 3:06
2. "I'm Ready (Rocker)" / "Save the Last Dance for Me" / "Don't Let Me Down" (Medley) Fats Domino, Al Lewis, Sylvester Bradford / Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman / Lennon–McCartney 1:56
3. "Don't Let Me Down" 4:05
4. "Dig a Pony" 4:13
5. "I've Got a Feeling" 2:53
6. "Get Back" 3:13
7. "For You Blue" Harrison 2:53
8. "Teddy Boy" McCartney 3:41
9. "Two of Us" 3:29
10. "Maggie Mae" Traditional 0:38
11. "Dig It" Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Starkey 4:09
12. "Let It Be" 4:09
13. "The Long And Winding Road" 3:39
14. "Get Back" (Reprise) 0:40
Total length: 42:45
Disc 5: Let It Be EP No.Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Across The Universe" (Unreleased Glyn Johns 1970 Mix) 3:31
2. "I Me Mine" (Unreleased Glyn Johns 1970 Mix) Harrison 1:45
3. "Don't Let Me Down" (New Mix of Original Single Version) 4:08
4. "Let It Be" (New Mix of Original Single Version) 3:52
Total length: 13:16
Personnel[edit]
Giles Martin – mixing supervisor
Sam Okell – mixing co-engineer
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_It_Be:_Special_Edition
Disc Six – Blu-ray (Several formats of the same songs, including Dolby Atmos 48 kHz/24 bit – DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM)
1. Two Of Us
2. Dig A Pony
3. Across The Universe
4. I Me Mine
5. Dig It
6. Let It Be
7. Maggie Mae
8. I’ve Got A Feeling
9. One After 909
10. The Long And Winding Road
11. For You Blue
12. Get Back
* = Mono
Maggie Mae / Fancy My Chances With You, I Don’t Know Why I’m Moaning, On The Day Shift Now (Speech, Mono) / All Things Must Pass, Concentrate On The Sound, Concentrate On The Sound, I Me Mine, Polythene Pam, Octopus’s Garden and Something are all mixed by Kevin Howlett, and of course the Glyn Johns mixes haven’t been remixed.
Let It Be - 2 CD Set
CD 1 – the original “Let It Be” album in the new mix
CD 2 – Outtake highlights
1. Morning Camera (Speech) / Two Of Us (Take 4)
2. Maggie Mae / Fancy My Chances With You *
3. For You Blue (Take 4)
4. Let It Be / Please Please Me / Let It Be (Take 10)
5. I’ve Got A Feeling (Take 10)
6. Dig A Pony (Take 14)
7. Get Back (Take 8)
8. Like Making An Album? (Speech)
9. One After 909 (Take 3)
10. Don’t Let Me Down (First Rooftop Performance)
11. The Long And Winding Road (Take 19)
12. Wake Up Little Susie / I Me Mine (Take 11)
13. Across The Universe (Unreleased Glyn Johns mix 1970)
‘Let It Be’ Special Edition (Super Deluxe) [4LP + 12-inch EP]
LP One: Let It Be (new stereo mix of original album)
Side 1:
1. Two Of Us
2. Dig A Pony
3. Across The Universe
4. I Me Mine
5. Dig It
6. Let It Be
7. Maggie Mae
Side 2:
1. I’ve Got A Feeling
2. One After 909
3. The Long And Winding Road
4. For You Blue
5. Get Back
LP Two: Get Back – Apple Sessions
Side 1:
1. Morning Camera (Speech – mono) / Two Of Us (Take 4)
2. Maggie Mae / Fancy My Chances With You (Mono)
3. Can You Dig It?
4. Don’t Know Why I’m Moaning (Speech – mono)
5. For You Blue (Take 4)
6. Let It Be / Please Please Me / Let It Be (Take 10)
7. I’ve Got A Feeling (Take 10)
Side 2:
1. Dig A Pony (Take 14)
2. Get Back (Take 19)
3. Like Making An Album? (Speech)
4. One After 909 (Take 3)
5. Don’t Let Me Down (First rooftop performance)
6. The Long And Winding Road (Take 19)
7. Wake Up Little Susie / I Me Mine (Take 11)
LP Three: Get Back – Rehearsals and Apple Jams
Side 1:
1. On The Day Shift Now (Speech – mono) / All Things Must Pass (Rehearsals – mono)
2. Concentrate On The Sound (mono)
3. Gimme Some Truth (Rehearsal – mono)
4. I Me Mine (Rehearsal – mono)
5. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Rehearsal)
6. Polythene Pam (Rehearsal – mono)
7. Octopus’s Garden (Rehearsal – mono)
Side 2:
1. Oh! Darling (Jam)
2. Get Back (Take 8 )
3. The Walk (Jam)
4. Without A Song (Jam) – Billy Preston with John and Ringo
5. Something (Rehearsal – mono)
6. Let It Be (Take 28)
LP Four: Get Back LP – 1969 Glyn Johns Mix
Side 1:
1. One After 909
2. I’m Ready (aka Rocker) / Save The Last Dance For Me / Don’t Let Me Down
3. Don’t Let Me Down
4. Dig A Pony
5. I’ve Got A Feeling
6. Get Back
Side 2:
1. For You Blue
2. Teddy Boy
3. Two Of Us
4. Maggie Mae
5. Dig It
6. Let It Be
7. The Long And Winding Road
8. Get Back (Reprise)
12-Inch Let It Be EP
Side 1:
1. Across The Universe (unreleased Glyn Johns 1970 mix)
2. I Me Mine (unreleased Glyn Johns 1970 mix)
Side 2:
1. Don’t Let Me Down (new mix of original single version)
2. Let It Be (new mix of original single version)
No blu-ray with the surround etc mixes, we’re afraid – just like they were also missing on the vinyl editions of the recent George Harrison releases of “All Things Must Pass”. A shame that vinyl lovers will have to also get the SuperDeLuxe CD edition in order to enjoy the songs in surround sound.
Source: http://webgrafikk.com/blog/news/let-it-be-2021/
For more information & analysis these links are recommended:
https://audiophilereview.com/audiophile-music/the-beatles-let-it-be-super-deluxe-editions-part-1-the-stereo-and-surround-remixes/
https://audiophilereview.com/audiophile-music/the-beatles-let-it-be-super-deluxe-editions-part-2-glyn-johns-get-back-album/
https://audiophilereview.com/audiophile-music/the-beatles-let-it-be-super-deluxe-editions-part-3-the-session-outtakes-and-alternates/
From Rolling Stone:
The Unheard ‘Let It Be’: An Exclusive Guide to the Beatles’ New Expanded Classic
Of all the Beatles’ classic albums, Let It Be is the one with the most daunting reputation. We’re all used to hearing it as their break-up album. The one where the Fabs fall apart. The one they began as a back-to-basics rebirth, until it became their tombstone. The messy film soundtrack that arrived in May 1970, just as the band was breaking up. The one Phil Spector took over. Their darkest, most divisive music. But that’s never been the whole story. This is also the album with classics like “Let It Be,” “Across the Universe,” “Get Back,” and “Two of Us.” Let It Be always raises the question: How did John, Paul, George, and Ringo make such uplifting music in their hour of darkness?
That’s the fascinating mystery behind Let It Be — and it’s about to get more fascinating. Rolling Stone took a one-on-one exclusive tour of the new Special Edition of Let It Be, which drops on October 15th. It’s a crucial box set that finally places this wildly misunderstood music in the Beatles’ story.
“It’s an album of conflict,” says producer Giles Martin, son of the late George Martin. “Not, funnily enough, conflict within the band, despite what people think, but creative conflict. It’s the most creatively conflicted album the Beatles made, because they aren’t quite sure what they’re making.”
Let It Be follows the stunning sets for Sgt. Pepper, the White Album, and Abbey Road, opening up the vaults to shed new light on music you thought you already knew. There’s pain in the music, yet there are also undeniable moments of warmth, laughter, brotherhood. It’s rooted in friendship, whether it’s George helping Ringo write “Octopus’ Garden” or Paul and John writing “I’ve Got a Feeling.” There’s something so beautifully daft about the whole Get Back/Let It Be project, something that only could have occurred to the Beatles.
“I see Let It Be as a married couple whose relationship has become stale,” Martin says. “They say, what we need to do is go back to the old place and go on those dates we used to go on. But doing that, they realize that the place was just old, and they didn’t have anything to talk about anyway. ‘We need to get our sex life back, let’s go to that club again,’ but then realizing the music’s too loud. And what they need to do is move on to something like Abbey Road.”
Martin and engineer Sam Okell have remixed the album in stereo, 5.1 surround DTS, and Dolby Atmos. The Special Deluxe Edition comes with a four-disc treasure trove of outtakes, demos, and previously unheard gems, including Glyn Johns’ original version of the never-released Get Back. Three of the new tracks are available for the first time today: the new stereo mix of “Let It Be,” the first rooftop performance of “Don’t Let Me Down,” and the original Get Back version of “For You Blue.”
But the real surprise is the way the music is suffused with warmth and humor. When all four Beatles jam on “Oh Darling,” reveling in the doo-wop beauty of it, they make it sound like they’re telling the whole story of their friendship. When John is about to sing “Don’t Let Me Down” on the rooftop, he touchingly asks Ringo for moral support on the drum intro: “Do a nice big kssssh for me, you know. To give me the courage to come screaming in.”
Let It Be has always been haunted by the movie that went with it, even though hardly anyone has actually seen it. Most fans only know the Anthology scene of George and Paul bickering over a guitar part, with George sneering, “Whatever it is that will please you, I’ll do it.” It was scandalous because in 1970, the world was shocked, shocked to find out that musicians argue. But viewed today, this fight is absurdly tame by rock-star standards. For a band like Aerosmith, this would be the friendliest conversation they had all day. Martin laughs at that notion. “I was working with Aerosmith producing their Vegas show, God bless them,” he says. “Even arguing about their flights to Boston was worse than that.”
The new Let It Be accompanies a very different movie: Get Back, the documentary series directed by Peter Jackson. It’s six hours over three nights on Disney+, starting on November 25th. Both projects are part of a jubilant wave of recent Beatles activity: Paul’s hit albums McCartney III and III Imagined, Ringo’s Change the World EP, the astounding box set of George’s All Things Must Pass. Not to mention Paul’s documentary with Rick Rubin, McCartney 3,2,1.
Peter Jackson wasn’t sure about the Get Back idea at first. “As a longtime Beatle fan, I really wasn’t looking forward to it,” he told Rolling Stone last year. “I thought, if what we’ve seen is the stuff they allowed people to see, what are the other 55 hours going to be? When I went to Apple, my feet were heavy. I thought, ‘I should be excited, but I just dread what I’m about to see.’” But as he saw the footage, as he said, “Everything I thought I knew changed.”
The same applies to the album. The mythology is definitely out of whack with the music. As Martin says, “Get Back, the original concept, was the Beatles saying, okay, we’re going to do a live album. We’re going to play a gig, which we haven’t planned yet. We’ve got to have songs, which we actually haven’t written yet, and we’re going to do it in three weeks’ time, and we’re going to film it. That was that concept. And even for the Beatles, that’s brave.”
On the Super Deluxe edition, you can hear the band laugh about how much they hate the cameras, or how much they hate getting up in the morning. (George cracks, “We’re on the day shift now.”) You can hear Ringo walk in and say, “Morning, everybody — another bright day. Morning, camera.” They complain about the food, with George requesting cheese sauce for his cauliflower. They work on songs that ended up on Abbey Road, like “Polythene Pam” and “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window.” Paul helps John write “Gimme Some Truth.” There’s a lead-vocal showcase for guest keyboardist Billy Preston, doing the 1920s standard “Without a Song.”
But you can also hear the anger that spilled over when George walked out and quit the band for a week. “You can see why he’s pissed off,” Martin says. “He’s mates with Eric Clapton, he’s hanging around with the Band and Ravi Shankar, he’s married to a supermodel. There’s a much happier world outside of the Beatles for him. But here he is stuck in Twickenham, where his songs aren’t being listened to, really.”
One of the most beautiful moments comes when George coaxes the band to play “All Things Must Pass.” Yet he’s still dismissed as a pesky kid brother. “You see George and Ringo sitting together a lot,” Martin says. “George still wasn’t being taken seriously. He wrote songs, but he wasn’t the main meal provider. His songs were dessert, not the main course. John refers to George as ‘Harrisongs’ — ‘Where is Harrisongs?’ George has his own publishing company. They’re Lennon-McCartney and he’s not. He’s Harrisongs… That’s the dynamic on Let It Be. He’s definitely still an outlier.”
Phil Spector’s production on this album has always been infamous. Martin says, “My father wanted the production credit to be ‘Produced by George Martin, Overproduced by Phil Spector.’” Most notoriously, Mr. Wall of Sound overdubbed cheesy strings and harp and a choir on to “The Long and Winding Road.” Paul tried to right these wrongs when he oversaw the de-Spectorized Let It Be…Naked in 2003. “I said to Paul at Abbey Road, ‘I know you were never happy with the overdubs. But it doesn’t make sense not to mix the album as people know it. We can’t really change history,’” Martin says. “He said, ‘Yeah — but can you take the harp down on ‘The Long and Winding Road?’ So yeah, there’s a little nudge, we did take the harp down a little bit, but there’s only so much you can do.”
Glyn Johns assembled the original Get Back LP, unveiled here for the first time. He gave the Beatles what they asked for: a raw fly-on-the-wall document of those sessions. But to their horror, it sounded dull and shabby. That’s one of the weird achievements of this edition — some fans might be shocked to find themselves noticing all the things Phil Spector actually got right. But still, the decision to leave “Don’t Let Me Down” off a 35-minute album, instead of “I Me Mine” or “Dig It,” remains a “Silver Springs”-level crime against history.
The late Brian Epstein, who died less than two years before sessions began at Twickenham, is an unseen presence in the music, as he is in the film, where Paul says, “Daddy’s gone,” adding, “We’ve been very negative since Mr. Epstein passed away.” It’s part of the album’s downbeat tone. “There was a lot of loss going on,” Martin says. “I mean, they lost Brian and they lost each other.”
There’s pathos in the way the Beatles strive to recapture their early days. “Let It Be is the only time they Beatles ever tried to go back to where they were before — that’s why they got frustrated,” Martin says. “In the old days of Rubber Soul and Revolver, John and Paul didn’t go home. They were locked up together all the time, writing songs. In Let It Be, you see them go home, then they come back in the morning and they haven’t got any songs. They were watching television. The whole idea of ‘Let’s write a concert and then perform it’ is a really flawed idea to begin with.” They rebounded later that year with George Martin on Abbey Road. “What makes Abbey Road successful is it’s not going back to anything,” Giles Martin says.
The Super Deluxe Let It Be comes with a hardcover book featuring an intro from Paul McCartney, as well as words from Giles Martin, Glyn Johns, and Beatle historians Kevin Howlett and John Harris, plus photos from Ethan Russell and Linda McCartney. There’s also a separate (but essential) book called The Beatles: Get Back, which comes out October 12th from Apple/Callaway. The book has Russell and McCartney photos, text from Peter Jackson and Hanif Kureishi, but best of all, verbatim transcripts from the sessions, which read on the page almost like Samuel Beckett dialogue.
Like the Get Back film, Let It Be is full of disarming warmth. Everyone trades “Happy New Year” wishes in the first week of January 1969, as George Harrison asks after Mr. Martin’s wife Judy. “It’s funny for me,” Giles Martin says. “I was born on October 9th, 1969. So one of these days, I was conceived. I realized, “Oh my God — what day was it? Is that why my dad’s got a smile on his face?”
Listening to Martin and Okell’s Atmos mix is a revelation in itself: “Two of Us” becomes the sound of Paul singing in one ear, John in the other, and Ringo thumping your chest, proving as always he’s the heartbeat driving the music.
Paul McCartney, for one, totally gets why people still crave more Beatles details. “That’s what’s nice about this upcoming Get Back film by Peter Jackson,” Paul told Rolling Stone last month. “He’s very carefully left in a lot of that. And so you see the thing in its entirety. You see the little quiet moments. It did mean that he ended up with an 80-hour edit, because he’s just very respectfully kept all these little moments. But I’m sure there’ll be some fans who will want the 80-hour.” The truth is, he enjoys it as much as any other Beatles fan: “I mean, it’s great to hear who we were.”
All these years later, he’s not alone in that. Let it be.
Here are 10 of the most revelatory moments from the new Special Edition of Let It Be.
1. “All Things Must Pass”
“The emotion of it is very, you know, Band-y,” George Harrison explains, referring to his recent time in Woodstock hanging with the Band and Bob Dylan. He’s humble with his mates, saying, “If there’s people joining in, I’d appreciate it.” This version is astoundingly beautiful, with everyone singing together over Ringo’s dramatic drum fills, as John adds lines about macrobiotic pills. But John’s derision got so insulting, George quit. The song got saved for his 1971 solo epic. As Giles Martin says, “‘All Things Must Pass’ — it’s just bizarre that it’s not on either Abbey Road or Let It Be.”
2. “Two of Us” (Take 4)
A country-style version, with John and Paul adding bluesy bent notes for the “we’re going hoooome” hook. John milks the Dylan-style inflections of lines like “in the sun.” You can hear why they realized the song was even more powerful with a drier, more stoic vocal touch, yet it’s a beauty. Although “Two of Us” was a love song to Linda, Paul wrote on his lyric sheet, “A Quarrymen Original.”
3. “Oh Darling”
This jam on “Oh Darling” is a knockout — the box’s emotional highlight. John and Paul sing it together, doing call and response. (Paul: “Believe me when I tell you!” John: “Oh, I do!”) John starts freestyling: “Just heard that Yoko’s divorce has just gone through! Free at last!” A brief snippet was on Anthology 3, but that version barely hinted at this one. It’s a running theme with John and Paul — they kept going back to these old-school rock & roll ballads to have the conversations they couldn’t have any other way.
4. “Gimme Some Truth”
John made it a solo classic on Imagine, but at this stage, it’s a song he and Paul are working on together. (“Should we do ‘Hypocrites’ and write that bit?’) But they quit too soon, spooked by the cameras. “That’s why they didn’t have the songwriting discipline they used to have,” Giles Martin says. “They start it, but there’s a film crew there and it’s an uncomfortable situation for them to be writing a song. Now, had that been 1965, they’d have been locked in a hotel room, and they’d have finished the song. That’s the difference.”
5. “Octopus’ Garden”
Ringo asks the others, “Have you heard the octopus one?” He plays a two-finger piano part (George quips, “Oh, he’s learned A minor”), sings the first few lines, then says, “That’s all I’ve got.” Everyone laughs merrily. If the moment ended here, it would still be a lovely tribute to the Beatles’ bond. But George grabs his guitar and helps him turn it into a classic, just out of generosity and friendship. So who will play drums? John says, “I think Paul will want to do drums, won’t he? With his strong left arm. I’m not getting on that kit without a ciggie in me hand!”
6. “Something” (Rehearsal)
George comes to the others with an idea he’s been working on for six months, beginning, “Something in the way she moves.” But he’s stuck on the second line. John suggests, “Just say whatever comes into your mind. ‘Attracts me like a cauliflower.’” He gives George a pep talk on songcraft. “You just go on and on and on and then you go back over it. Or don’t.”
7. “Don’t Let Me Down/Dig A Pony/I’ve Got a Feeling” (Glyn Johns Mix)
The highlight of the long-lost Glyn Johns Get Back: the 11-minute suite of “Don’t Let Me Down,” “Dig a Pony,” and “I’ve Got a Feeling,” stitched together as one long song.
8. “Maggie Mae/Fancy Me Chances With You”
One of the unlikeliest highlights: a high-spirited romp through the Celtic-style Liverpool folk tune about a Lime Street cut-purse, “Maggie May.” (The Let It Be cover spelled it as “Maggie Mae.”) Paul yells, “Take it, Maggie!” He and John segue into an early skiffle ditty they wrote in their teens, “Fancy Me Chances With You.” It’s only a minute, but you can hear why it hit them like a breath of fresh air.
9. “Let It Be”/“Please Please Me”
Paul gives the stately piano-hymn treatment to “Please Please Me,” one of the Fabs’ earliest hits. But it isn’t an ironic joke — he shows how the two songs come from the same sense of emotional urgency, even six years apart. John cracks, “Come on, I only get two notes in this song.”
10. “For You Blue” (Take 4)
George showed up for the sessions with complex, introspective songs
like “Isn’t It A Pity” and “Hear Me Lord” — but they didn’t fit the
back-to-basics roughness. “For You Blue” became a highlight thanks to
George’s spontaneous blues swing on acoustic guitar, while John follows
on lap-steel slide guitar, Paul on piano, Ringo on drums. The whole band
is in sync. “That sounded lovely!” George raves at the end. “Does this
guitar sound in tune, Glyn?”
Source: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/beatles-let-it-be-special-edition-super-deluxe-1214774/