The Long and Winding Road

[beefandbones]

This song has always been a little mysterious to me. It's one of Paul's best late period Beatles songs, and certainly he must have recognized that he had a good one on his hands when he wrote it. And of course, Phil Spector's treatment of it for the Let it Be album was cited in Paul's decision to leave the band.

Yet none of the performances of the song from the Get Back sessions seem to have been fully realized. They don't seem to have spent as much time on the arrangement as they did on, say, the song Let it Be. Ian MacDonald, for one, calls them little more than piano demos, and justifies Phil Spector's treatment to some extent saying that they had to use something - anything - to cover up Lennon's poor bass playing. Does anyone know, was Paul really happy with the performance of LWR that Glyn Johns used on his Get Back compilations? It just seems weird to me that Paul would leave such a good song in that state. And... if they hadn't left it like that, Phil Spector might not have had to cover anything up!

Considering how much the other three seemed to hate Maxwell's Silver Hammer, I'm surprised nobody brought up the idea of doing right by the Long and Winding Road during the Abbey Road sessions. It would have been interesting to hear what they did with the song, how it would have sounded, if they'd attempted it back at the studio at Abbey Road, with George Martin more involved. Even if it didn't make the album (it has a much different tone than the rest of Abbey Road) it could have made a good non-album single.

Anybody have any thoughts or insights about why the Long and Winding Road received such duff treatment by the boys?

[antipodean]

I always thought the best realisation of this great song was on "Wings Over America".

I think the chaotic nature of the Beatles during the Get Back/Let It Be period meant that some material was not given the perfectionist treatment it deserved.

[nattiep]

The long and boring song... that goes on and on.

[kiramdear]

George Martin got his chance to work with L+WR on the "Give My Regards to Broad Street" soundtrack. This is the best-produced version in my book.

[RobRick]

One of McCartney's greatest ballads EVER.

[simer4001]

George Martin got his chance to work with L+WR on the "Give My Regards to Broad Street" soundtrack. This is the best-produced version in my book.

It really was disappointing to me. The sax solo made it sound to much like a lounge act song. In fact, I thought that only the original songs for the soundtrack were worth listening to. There is a rehersal version from the 1989/90 tour that I think was a b side that I like best.

[Zurdo]

when they parted with George Martin, the discipline was left behind too. Martin would not have permitted the quarrels, calling it a day, but the quarrels probably wouldn't have happened at Abbey Road anyway, where they were treated like royalty. I think they brought it upon themselves, John with his "I don't care" attitude, George with his "I don't have to take this" attitude. It looks to me that Paul and Ringo were the only ones trying.

having said that, I think the Let it Be arrangement to Long & Winding Road is elegant, don't see what's so bad about it, although I never liked the crude sound of Let it Be, but it is what it is, and Phil Spector was a million-dollar hit producer in his own right, certainly not a George Martin, but hey, they traded Martin for Spector, so they got what was coming!

[congerz83]

The long and boring song... that goes on and on.

This was an interesting post to me. Up until a couple years ago, I agreed with Nate. This song always brought tears to my father's eyes, while I found it .... lacking. Not until I went through a horrendous break-up did I really relate to it. To me It's about trying to find you're own path to better youself, just to fail and "go back to the begining". This can mean many things, a refusal to let someone out of your mind and heart (ME), a substance abuse problem, any destructive habits, Brett Favre refusing to retire, ... etc....etc.

Like I said though, there was a time when I was with Nate 1000%. Horses for courses.