Potential "Let It Be" DVD Details (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey]

First of all, please take all the information listed below with a grain of salt. It's information I got from the Steve Hoffman 'Music Corner' message board (Steve is a highly regarded audio engineer who's done remastering for the likes of Ray Charles among others).

It originates from a Beatles newsgroup, so it could be the biggest hoax this side of "Paul is Dead", but as dyed-in-the-wool fan for over 30 years, I believe the information to be highly probable...and if it turns out to be true, this is going to be one of the biggest DVD releases of 2005.

Beginning of post:

I was lucky enough last week to accompany my brother to a special editing session for a new Let It Be promo DVD he was assembling in a Los Angeles editing suite last week (he didn't actually work on the forthcoming DVD release).
Anyway, I was lucky enough to be able to spend several hours watching the nearly final product and combing through a bunch of production notes.

The film and features I watched were on a hard drive so I have no idea what the actual discs or the DVD packaging will look like, sorry. Some of the footage was still silent and not all of the options I clicked on worked, but here's a
very rough preview. It's apparently not due until March 2005 so it may still change.

Let It Be: SE

"3 disc 5.1 special edition" with extra features to be followed by a single "plain vanilla" disc 6 months later.

The special edition features all the original film footage that was used in the original 1970 theatrical release of Let It Be spread over the first 2 discs (Disc 1 is entitled Twickenham and Disc 2 Apple). Over 79 minutes in total of previously unseen footage has been added into both discs. An optional on-screen Apple logo is available that
pops up in the screen corner whenever "new" material appears, but there is no branching option that allows you to either select the new footage or the original footage.

I didn't have time to watch the entire 2 discs but from what I did see the Octopus's Garden sequence has been almost doubled. Entirely new rehearsal sequences have been added for Something, I Lost My Little Girl, All Things Must Pass, She Came In Thru The Bathroom Window, Plain Yoko Jam, Fancy My Chances With You, Rock'n'Roll Music, Blues Aren't For Ringo, Isn't It A Pity and more. There seems to be heaps more footage of George Harrison.

Both discs apparently feature an audio commentary by The Beatles with Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Yoko Ono and Linda Eastman (all culled from audio recordings made during the sessions). This didn't work yet on the demo I watched.

The third disc features even more bonus material including:

AS NATURE INTENDED: 34 minute documentary on the Let It Be sessions, includes new interviews with George Martin, Billy Preston and Michael Lindsay Hogg, as well as archive interviews with John Lennon and George, Paul and Ringo interviews from the Anthology series (including a few snippets not seen before).

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: A collection of rare footage of The Beatles recording in the studio (none of this is "Let It Be" era material). The footage listed includes And I Love Her, Paperback Writer, Rain, All You Need Is Love, Hey Bulldog, Lady Madonna, Helter Skelter, Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, Blackbird, Tutti Frutti, Hey Jude (this track alone went for 20 minutes), St Louis Blues.

ACROSS TO ABBEY ROAD: The Abbey Road album tracks of Oh Darling, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, Something and Maxwell's Silver Hammer all matched up to footage from the Let It Be rehearsals to create brand
new "video clips".

CHIMNEY SWEEP: Option didn't work - no details on notes.

BEHIND THE SHUTTERS: Option didn't work - no details on notes.

THE NAKED TRUTH: A featurette on the production of the Let it Be..Naked album including footage of Paul McCartney at a playback session. Ends with a new clip created for Across The Universe using Let It Be footage.

TRAILERS: Let It Be, The Beatles Anthology, Yellow Submarine, The First US Visit.

THE BALLAD OF JOHN AND YOKO: Option didn't work - no details on notes."

End of post...

Let the speculation begin....

Jeffrey

 

[Rob Lutter]

Hmmm... it's either real or a terrible plan to tease US Beatles fans!

 

[john mcfadden]

if it's real i'll burn my boot.....damn this lighter wont light .....'click.........click....click.

 

[Sam Favate]

Last report I read was in February at

Link Removed

which reported Apple DVD producer Jonathan Clyde said Let It Be is something that's in the works and is not something Apple "is dragging their feet on. It's just that there's a lot of work to do on it."

There was no time frame for release at the time.

This description sounds great, although I question whether there would really be non-Let It Be sessions included.

 

[Chris Brunner]

Yes, the "non-Let it Be" studio sessions raise a red flag for me too. If any filmed recording studio sessions existed, wouldn't we have seen at least small bits of one on Anthology"?

I also seem to remember some of the PR information, released during the Yellow Submarine blitz a few years ago, describing the new "Hey Bulldog" video being "the only time the Beatles allowed a session to be filmed.

Regardless, Let it Be will come out one day and Apple will do an incredible job of restoring and expanding on it's presentation. I will also pay whatever they want for it. Oops, did I type that or just think it?

C

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Yeah, while Let It Be is very probably in the works, this sounds like a wish list more than anything. I can't see ALL the unused footage being included by any stretch of the imagination. Didn't they film for weeks?

 

[Matt Hetzler]

Sounds amazing, but I doubt it is true.

 

[Chris Brunner]

They pretty much filmed weekdays for one month (January, 1969).

C

 

[Rob Gardiner]

If this is anything like the 5.1 "remix" on A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, they can keep it.

Of course, if the original track were also included, I would have no complaint.

Mono films should be presented in mono on DVD.

 

[Sam Favate]

The Beatles' DVDs have sought to impress with their sound. The Anthology musical segments are a good deal louder than the non-music segments.

(If this is true)I'm disappointed that the wait will be until 2005. I had hoped for a 4Q release.

 

[Jeffrey]

>If this is anything like the 5.1 "remix" on A HARD DAY'S >NIGHT, they can keep it.

That "remix" was done by the audio folks at Miramax; Apple had nothing to do with it.

Since all of the music, jams and much of the dialogue were recorded in multi-track, I'm sure it will be an amazing mix to such a point that if a mono track is not included, it won't be missed.

>Mono films should be presented in mono on DVD.

Since the mono track of Yellow Submarine was included on that DVD (a project the Beatles camp wholeheartedly supported and got involved with), I'm sure the original track of "Let It Be" will be included as well.

Jeffrey

 

[Sam Favate]

The folks over at

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are reporting today that the Let It BE DVD details that have been floating around lately are just a wish list. They say the project is not at the stage yet where those details would be worked out.

Their info is usually pretty good, and as many of us said here last week, it seemed like wishful thinking.

 

[Lino Reno]

Isn't Let it be a United Artists title, thus MGM?

Their other Beatle title (Yellow Submarine) came out pretty good - I hope this does too...

 

[Sam Favate]

The folks over at

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are now saying the Let It Be DVD is planned for Fall 2005.

FWIW.

 

[John Mansor]

Cool, thanks for the information. I will be glad to trade in my VHS of this.