Will Let It Be come to hirez soon? (1 Viewer)

[Lee Scoggins]

There was also the recent reissue of A Hard Day's Night on DVD. It's just released The Beatles Anthology on DVD for the first time. In the fall, Apple Records will issue Let it Be on DVD and on a remixed CD without Phil Spector's much-discussed overblown production. It should be a bonanza.

I saw this on the Fox News site. If they issue Let It be in a remix, perhaps it will be a good time to go hirez.

Does any Beatle fan on the Forum have more detail on this upcoming remix?

Without Phil Spector's hacking, it might be really good.

 

[Brian L]

Without Phil Spector's hacking, it might be really good.

Oh great, I can see a protracted thread titled "Phil Spector is Pissed....." where we debate ad nausuem the virtues or evils of having or not having the original engineer invloved in a re-release.

For reference, please see Floyd, Pink - DOSTM

BGL

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I've been Phil Spector'ed, been resurected....

Folk rock. I lost my harmonica, Albert.....

 

[Larry Geller]

Does any Beatle fan on the Forum have more detail on this upcoming remix?

According to Ringo, it's the same tracks, just de-Spectorized, NOT the Get Back LP that was put together in 1969.

 

[LarryDavenport]

The 1969 Get Back (Glyn Johns mix) was never intended to come out. It was a rough mix for the Beatles to decide on and obviously they decided against it. What will probably come out is roughfly the same album that came out minus symphonic overdubs. But I wish that they would release at least a two disc set with the whole rooftop concert and more bonus tracks like the complete take of Dig It, Besame Mucho, and All Thing's Must Pass.

 

[Larry Geller]

The 1969 Get Back (Glyn Johns mix) was never intended to come out.

It WAS intended to come out. Rolling Stone & The Beatle Book had contemporary articles, at the time, showing the Glyn Johns track listing as final and reviewing the cuts. That's why acetates escaped to many US radio stations, which immediately started playing it & were hit with cease & desist orders. Packaging was prepared (like the Get Back book included in the early UK pressings of the Let It Be box set--that's why it's called Get Back & not Let It Be)(I don't think that the wooden box & coloring book that were also supposed to be included were ever made). The Beatle Book was just about the closest thing to hearing it from the horse's mouth, and THEY weren't regarding it as a rough mix. They considered it to be the next Beatles LP.

 

[Larry Geller]

Double post--sorry

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Oh great, I can see a protracted thread titled "Phil Spector is Pissed....."

Geez, I hope not the Parsons thread was lame enough.

 

[Steve Meskell]

From same Fox news story

Geez, I hope not the Parsons thread was lame enough.

Lee, It was soooo lame you just had to post 10 messages to it :rolleyes

 

[Lee Scoggins]

A Bronx cheer to start the day?

 

[LarryDavenport]

(Liner notes to a grey-area release.)

"We had a meeting in Apple, and I said I think it's time we did something. And everybody at that time was very happy to not really work, because they were enjoying the rewards of their success. The guys were all rich, living in nice country homes out in Weybridge and Esher, they were all married, I wasn't. So it was like: Hey guys ! C'mon ! We can't sit around, we've got to do something, we're The Beatles !"

-- Paul McCartney, 1989

Beatles collectors are quite familiar with The Beatles' Get Back album and film project. The unrleased album culled from the very tense, uncomfortable sessions in January, 1969 was assembled in the spring of 1969 but was ultimately shelved in favor of the overblown Phil Spector-produced version issued as "Let It Be" in May, 1970. The original Get Back album has been an unauthorized perennial since 1969, and can be heard in its best quality as part of Vigotone's CD "As Nature Intended" (VT-122). Also, an otherwise undocumented-by-studio-paperwork assembly was played on several US readio stations in late 1969, which included a track, "The Walk" that didn't appear in the earlier sequence. This lineup was featured, along with contemporary commercials and DJ commentary from a WBCN-FM/Boston broadcast in September, 1969, on Vigotone's "Posters, Incense and Strobe Candles" (VT-109). What many collectors may not be familiar with, and certainly have not heard, is the final version of "Get Back", compiled (as was the original) in 1970 by noted British recording engineer Glyn Johns.

By early January 1970, a full year after the initial recording sessions for the project, no album had yet been issued from the chaotic mess of tapes that had been laid down at the Beatles' new Apple studios. In fact, The Beatles issued another album in the interim, "Abbey Road", in september 1969 while deciding the fate of the "Get Back" album. Earlier that year, in March, Glyn Johns had been given the piles of eight-track tapes from the January 1969 recording sessions at 3 Savile Row, and was told by John and Paul: "Remember that idea you had about putting together an album ? There are the tapes, go and do it." A finished master tape of "Get Back" was assembled and completed by Johns in May of 1969. However, delays in the preparation of the packaging for the LP (which was to include a book of pictures and text), and in the completion of what now was to be a feature film instead of a television special were cited as reasons for the lack of any forthcoming album. In truth, the reasons were a little more involved and the album was still in limbo at the end of 1969.

At this stage of the much-delayed project, the Beatles couldn't quite reach an agreement on what they wanted where "Get Back" was concerned, particularly whether or not the liked Glyn Johns' album. Having at this point no real love for the project or each other, yet finding themselves contractually bound with film and album commitments, they instructed Glyn Johns to yet again come up with an album. The stipulation, however, was that it must now tie in musically with the as-yet unreleased film's tune lineup. Essentially Johns kept the majority of the already assembled album, altering it only in order to more accurately reflect the songs soon to be seen performed in the "Let It Be" film. He dropped "Teddy Boy" because it would not be seen in the film and possibly because Paul had told Johns that he was going to re-record it for his first solo album. But he added the songs "I Me Mine" and "Across The Universe" for the opposite reason: they WOULD be seen in the film (in rough versions filmed at Twickenham Studios). However, these additions to the LP were not actually recorded during the "Get Back" sessions (see tracks details).

In the end, it was all for naught. After all the effort and work put into the project, even this second version of the "Get Back" album would not see official release, as the Beatles still couldn't decide if they liked it. In the end, famed producer Phil Spector, who had just worked with John on "Instant Karma!" was given the ball to run with. Spector turned the once raw, unardorned performances into the album "Let It Be", which has been criticized for his heavy treatment of many of the songs, particularly the lushy orchestrated "The Long And Winding Road", which to this day causes Paul McCartney an itchy bum.

While it can't be argued that this version of the "Get Back" album is a lost treasure, this final Glyn Johns assembly does have seome importance in the annals of Fabs history. It exclusively features a couple of tracks in forms that would be soon altered considerably ("I Me Mine", "Across The Universe"). Also this was the last time the original "warts and all" concept if "Get Back" was adhered to, which in the end was (ironically) perhaps its downfall in the eyes of the Beatles. It has never seen circulation amongst the vast regions of Beatles' fandom and we at Vigotone are pleased to have had the opportunity of presenting this last version of "Get Back". Now you have to decide for yourself which "Get Back" album is the one for you. But you really have to have them all, don't you ?


"I cannot bring myself to listen to the Phil spector version of the album - I heard a few bars of it once, and was totally disgusted, and think it's an absolute load of garbage"

-- Glyn Johns