Let it Be -Naked

[howdyjeff]

I agree with you Javier, The Long and Winding Road sounds empty to me too.

One thought that occurred to me as I first heard this new CD was that The Long and Winding Road seemed more like a Wings song than a Beatles' song. It just didn't fit to me. I had never thought of it this way before now.

[mclennon]

Sure thing, Jeff! The Long and Winding Road reminds me now Wings songs as Warm and Beautiful (from Wings at Speed of Sound, 1976), Treat her Gently -Lonely old people(from Venus and Mars, 1975) or After the ball (from Back to the Egg, 1979)even though those song have some string arrangement. It’s amazing.

[howdyjeff]

I'll have to listen again to those tracks. I haven't heard them in years.

I think Spector's overdubs helped TLAWR fit with the rest of the album. Now it really sticks out to me.

I've been thinking about the Beatles' songwriting lately and how much it changed in 1968. John and Paul (or the competition between them) IMO really brought out the best in each other.

[shamustwin]

IMHO, TLAWR, if it were to utilize strings, needed the George Martin touch, for I feel he was always on the same wave length as they. I like it without strings and with strings, but the Spectorized version is just a little over the top.

[howdyjeff]

Good point, Jerry.

I agree. It would have been really nice with George Martin's arrangement.

[mclennon]

Yes,you are completely right: Lennon & McCartney songs + Martin string arrangements (as in Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby or All you need is love, to name a few) is the perfect combination. By the way,is true the rumour about George Martin is getting deaf?

[shamustwin]

What I've heard is basically he's stopped producing because of a progressive loss of hearing.

[simer4001]

Maybe because I have heard the Get Back bootlegs so many times that this album seems boring to me. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I wasn't very inspired at all. I think that the original versions of I've Got a Feeling and The One after 909 are just as good. I will admit that the version of Across the Universe is very good, but not enough to keep me listening. Sorry.

[rictified]

I heard (what I think) were four songs from it today for the first time (they just said something about The Beatles on the radio). It is not available in Lima yet that I know of, at least where I buy my CD's haha!. I thought "I Me Mine" was excellent.
Was "Don't let me Down" on that album? If so I liked the original version better than the one I heard today, although it was very intersting to hear it like that. "Let it be" was good. Everytime I hear a different version of a Beatle song, it's like hearing a new song for me it's magic all over again, so I don't really know which album I like better, and probably never will. I did like the crisp sound of it though. And I haven't heard the whole thing yet either.

[philco]

I have a lot of the old Beatle LP's, Bob, and what I notice is an incredible improvement in sound quality over the years. The early albums tend to have lightweight bass, and of course they are in mono. The Beatles DID seem to get into stereo sooner than the Beach Boys, but I haven't done any deep research on that one. That's a bummer, because the Beach Boys were an incredible vocal group and stereo always brings out the richness in vocals and a lot of inner detail lost in mono, like studio ambience. BTW, The Very Best of The Beach Boys, Sounds of Summer, that's available in Wal-Mart for only $9.72 is a great compilation of 30 of their best tunes. More variety than 20 Good Vibrations and more depth than that other summer theme favorite, Endless Summer, that was released on 2 LP's back in '73. I have them all, and Sounds of Summer is hands down the best with several new stereo mixes.

But back to the Beatles. One of the reasons for the lightweight bass was complaints that the bass track was making cheap compact record players of the day have problems with the stylus hopping out of the groove. I had one of those ****** fold down suitcase stereos with about 3 tubes in it up until '73, which couldn't play much below 100 Hz to save its life. So we had to hear Paul's bass playing in the background, which is a bummer because it was very good for its day. It seems to have improved around '65 by the time of Rubber Soul, but it's only later that I knew it. I didn't get a stereo turntable with a good magnetic cartridge until December 1974. I had previously been buying 8-track tapes. I gave my old 8-track tape collection to my brother, and he sold them for beer and cigarettes in '83 when he wanted to party just before going into the Air Force (way to go , Doug!).

So I think I'll pass on 'Let It Be -Naked' until Paul and Ringo decide to upgrade the entire original album catalog like The Rolling Stones did. I would hope for better pricing, like they gave on their '1' album, but I'm not holding my breath. The Beach Boys seem to have released their entire back catalog of albums in '2-fer' format, 2 albums on 1 CD ('Pet Sounds' NOT included in the deal). No such luck with The Beatles, I suppose. Both groups were long past their heydays before I could afford to buy albums (my sister would buy a few singles along), so their music that wasn't played on the radio much was brand new to me years after release when I finally could afford albums in the 70's. I liked 'I Can Hear Music' by The Beach Boys very much, but never heard it but a few times until I got this Sounds of Summer compilation, and GUESS WHAT? IT'S A PHIL SPECTOR SONG! Phil Spector ain't all that bad after all. My name is Phil, and I own a Spector, but I'm sure it would NEVER influence my opinion. Just make sure you refer to me as Spector Phil from here on out, though.

[doctorwho]

I still remember the first time I heard Nowhere Man; it was at school (junior high) being played on a small phonograph, but the bass line came out clearly. It knocked my socks off!

The first 45 I bought that was in stereo was Pinball Wizard.

[shamustwin]

I thought from day one the Beatles' recordings had more bass than most. Brian Wilson is deaf in one ear, perhaps contributing to later stereo mixes. I hear the Beatles (John & Paul) would stick around for the mono mixing of their records, but were unconcerned with the stereo (perhaps until the psychedelic era)

[rictified]

Yeah I read that when Wilson was doing the mixing, obviously everything was mono, then they went to "duophonic" haha! The early stereo mixes were not really stereo anyway, they just stuck some tracks on one side and the other ones on the other side, hence, all vocals on the right, all the bass on the left, etc. A lot of the early Beatles stuff is like that.
The first real stereo 45 I remember seeing and hearing was a Doors tune "Wishful Sinful", "Who scared you" was the B side (and one of the best Doors tune ever IMHO) It was in a juke box.