With The Beatles: Get Back making it onto Disney+ next month, I figured it'd be high time that I throw my hat into the ring over a recreation that many Beatles fans have done for years - what would Let It Be have been like had it been released as Get Back, as originally intended? I'm not the first to ponder this, nor will I be the last. I've done this a few times myself, but have never been satisfied with the results, so hopefully, this will be the recreation that sticks with me the most!
To those who may be wondering why Let It Be is a controversial album among fans, I'll try to explain as best as I can while keeping things succinct.
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| The Beatles performing their final concert on the rooftop of Savile Row, January 30, 1969. |
This was when Paul McCartney suggested that they write, rehearse and record an album as quickly as possible much like the old days, so they could recapture what they had lost over the past few years. All live with no overdubs was the mentality for what was going to be called Get Back. While it was a good idea in theory, unfortunately, it was not so great in practice as George Harrison did not want to do Paul's songs and vice-versa, while John Lennon wanted nothing to do with the project at all. Ringo Starr just played along for the miserable ride. The sessions throughout January 1969 ended with their final live performance on the 30th - "Get Back", "Don't Let Me Down", "I've Got a Feeling", "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony" - and definitive takes of "Two of Us", "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road" on the 31st.
Glyn Johns had been brought in to compile the album together, being given the simple task of presenting the Beatles with their pants down, as John Lennon put it. I'll present the track listings below, but as it turned out, Glyn Johns' first version of Get Back was the Beatles naked from the waist down! The project was temporarily halted so the Beatles could return to work on their superior work, Abbey Road, before another version of Get Back was compiled, dropping "Teddy Boy" and including "I Me Mine" and "Across the Universe". While it was marginally better, it didn't meet the Beatles' standard either, leaving everyone wondering if Get Back would ever get released at all.
This was where Phil Spector came in to finish what Glyn Johns could not, but he abandoned the notion of "no overdubs" and included orchestration overdubs over "Across the Universe", "I Me Mine", "Let It Be" and, most infamously, "The Long and Winding Road". Paul was furious over the treatment given to the latter, especially as it was without his consent, and announced the Beatles' breakup that April, one month before it finally came out as Let It Be and received harsh reviews from critics. Come 2003, Paul had commissioned a new version of the album subtitled Naked that stripped away Spector's orchestrations, and it was viewed as superior to the original Let It Be album, although not by a whole lot. Was it even possible to make the Beatles' final(ish) album coherent? Could anyone achieve what Glyn Johns could not?
As I'm about to explain, all four track listings were fatally flawed in some way or another.
Side A - "One After 909" / "Rocker" / "Save the Last Dance for Me" / "Don't Let Me Down" / "Dig a Pony" / "I've Got a Feeling" / "Get Back"
Side B - "For You Blue" / "Teddy Boy" / "Two of Us" / "Maggie Mae" / "Dig It" / "Let It Be" / "The Long and Winding Road" / "Get Back (reprise)"
Only "One After 909" is taken from the rooftop concert, while the rest of the tracks were studio versions. This was perhaps not what the Beatles had in mind about being shown with their pants down; "Two of Us" and "The Long and Winding Road" were far rougher compared to the polished performances recorded on January 31, and Glyn Johns even included an aimless jam called "Rocker" and a sloppy rendition of the Drifters' "Save the Last Dance for Me". It's a mess all around and it feels like there was no thought whatsoever into arranging the album.
Get Back, Version 2 (January 1970)
Side A - "One After 909" / "Rocker" / "Save the Last Dance for Me" / "Don't Let Me Down" / "Dig a Pony" / "I've Got a Feeling" / "Get Back" / "Let It Be"
Side B - "For You Blue" / "Two of Us" / "Maggie Mae" / "Dig It" / "The Long and Winding Road" / "I Me Mine" / "Across the Universe" / "Get Back (reprise)"
"Let It Be" is moved onto the end of Side A, and "Teddy Boy" is deleted in favor of "I Me Mine" and "Across the Universe", both featured in the movie while "Teddy Boy" was not. Some chatter was also removed to improve the pacing of the album. Although slightly better, clearly this album's weakness was inescapable, and one wonders why Glyn Johns insisted on keeping "Rocker/Save the Last Dance for Me" since it was never used for the final album.
Side A - "Two of Us" / "Dig a Pony" / "Across the Universe" / "I Me Mine" / "Dig It" / "Let It Be" / "Maggie Mae"
Side B - "I've Got a Feeling" / "One After 909" / "The Long and Winding Road" / "For You Blue" / "Get Back"
Phil Spector might have used better takes, but the album's cohesion is a mess all around. Not only do we alternate between acoustic and electric tracks, but he left off "Don't Let Me Down" altogether, which is just insanity. Not only that, both sides are unbalanced; Side A runs at 19 minutes and Side B almost 16 minutes! Even if we tacked on "Don't Let Me Down" towards the end of Side B to have evenly timed sides, it would still sound sloppy and all over the place. There doesn't seem to be any cohesion whatsoever.
"Get Back" / "Dig a Pony" / "For You Blue" / "The Long and Winding Road" / "Two of Us" / "I've Got a Feeling" / "One After 909" / "Don't Let Me Down" / "I Me Mine" / "Across the Universe" / "Let It Be"
This is perhaps the best sounding version of Get Back/Let It Be, but even then, we lost "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae", which were very much part of the original album's running as far back as the first Glyn Johns mix. Studio and live chatter were also removed, and some songs fade out too quickly, making them sound abrupt and unnatural.
And now, here's my reconstruction of Get Back, for which I've decided to keep the final Let It Be title.
Side A - "One After 909" / "Dig a Pony" / "I've Got a Feeling" / "Not Guilty" / "Don't Let Me Down" / "Get Back"
Side B - "Dig It" / "Let It Be" / "All Things Must Pass" / "Maggie Mae" / "Two of Us" / "For You Blue" / "The Long and Winding Road" / "Across the Universe"
I've taken some cues from all four track listings; both of the Glyn Johns mixes start with "One After 909", the oldest Beatles song recorded for the sessions, having been written some time between 1957 and 1960, and was even considered for a single release in 1963. This would be a good thing to set the tone for the "back to basics" approach of the album, so it's our opening track.
Also on both Glyn Johns mixes, "Dig a Pony" and "I've Got a Feeling" are played back to back. This is the same sequence used for the rooftop concert, although the latter was the second take rather than the first as heard on Let It Be, but whatever. Similarly, I've chosen to end Side A with "Get Back" per the first Glyn Johns mix, preceding that with "Don't Let Me Down", not dissimilar to the sequencing of "Ask Me Why" and the title track on their debut, Please Please Me.
So that's all of Side A completed... except we're one track short. I'm sure most people would include "I Me Mine" or "For You Blue" to flesh it out further, but I've made a decision that would probably baffle some people. I've decided to insert "Not Guilty" in between "I've Got a Feeling" and "Don't Let Me Down" for three reasons - one, to maintain the electric vibe of Side A; two, I wanted to keep all recordings pre-February 1969; and three, I think it would've fit in better than "I Me Mine", recorded January 1970. This may not seem believable, but they did include "Across the Universe", recorded February 1968, so why not include a track that was recorded in August 1968? Is this something any 60s band would've pulled on us? I think they would have.
So Side A is comprised of all five songs recorded on the rooftop concert - even "Not Guilty" was miraculously performed - but how do we begin Side B? Side A of Let It Be ended with "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae", with the title track inserted in between. Not a bad sequence, although the jokey performance of "Maggie Mae" seems to disregard the serious tone of "Let It Be", but is there a way around it?
Insert anachronism number two; "All Things Must Pass". Specifically, the demo version as found on Early Takes Volume 1, because neither the Anthology 3 nor bootlegged versions sound that great to begin with. I'd include either of them, but I want to make it sound as polished as I can. With some editing, it runs at a pretty similar length, and it fits right in between "Let It Be" and "Maggie Mae". I view "All Things Must Pass" as an amen response to "Let It Be" before jumping into "Maggie Mae". Think of it as being similar to the "Love You To"/"Here, There and Everywhere"/"Yellow Submarine" sequence on Revolver. And like Revolver, it gives George three vocal spots - "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" were considered the best songs on Abbey Road, so I think giving George a third song would've further proved that, showing that he deserved to stand alongside John and Paul as a songwriter.
Speaking of which, the "For You Blue"/"The Long and Winding Road" sequence is taken directly from Let It Be... Naked, with "Two of Us" being the link between "Maggie Mae" and "For You Blue". The first Glyn Johns mix ends with "The Long and Winding Road" while the second mix ends with "Across the Universe" - in both cases, we exclude the reprise of "Get Back".
Here's the tracks I've chosen to exclude:
- "Rocker/Save the Last Dance for Me" - They're superfluous and would have added nothing of value to the album.
- "Teddy Boy" - It was dropped after the first version of Get Back, and not to mention that I wanted to avoid having too many McCartney-penned tracks.
- "I Me Mine" - As mentioned, I preferred "Not Guilty" to it. Plus, it was recorded in January 1970, a year since the project was first started. Yes, I know it was included for the final album because rehearsals were in the original film, but again, I am sticking to 1968-69 recordings. Maybe "I Me Mine" could be included for a theoretical follow-up to Abbey Road?
Overall, my version of Let It Be runs at about 44 and a half minutes with Side B a bit longer than Side A, but to me, it feels coherent with one side giving us a final taste of the Beatles as a live band, and the other being a studio performance. Maybe it's not quite what the Beatles were envisioning back in 1969, but I did try to maintain George Martin's mentality when it comes to sequencing the albums as best as I could, and I think it came out very nicely.
How to Assemble Get Back/Let It Be
"One After 909" - Primarily sourced from Let It Be... Naked with opening ambience taken from the 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition and the closing ambience from Let It Be.
"Dig a Pony" - Naked version with opening and closing ambience from Let It Be.
"I've Got a Feeling" - Let It Be version with no edits. This is whole first take on the rooftop while the Naked version is a composite edit of both performances.
"Not Guilty" - Take 102 from the 2018 deluxe edition of The White Album, with opening ambience taken from the bootleg As Nature Intended to create a faux live performance. I've cut about thirty seconds' worth of the ending guitar to keep it a similar length to the rest of the live tracks, around three to four minutes.
"Don't Let Me Down" - Naked version with opening and closing ambience from the 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition.
"Get Back" - I've utilized the Anthology 3 version because I feel it sounds different enough from the single version, especially the coda. I've included opening and closing ambience from Let It Be, which restores John's "I hope we passed the audition" quip at the end. All six tracks are crossfaded together to make one continuous live performance.
"Dig It" - A unique mix that starts off with the "Morning Camera" dialogue from an alternate take of "Two of Us" before jumping into the album version - with John's "dig it" outro made twice the length - that crossfades into "Can You Dig It", being cut down so it's just under two minutes. Like the original Let It Be, the closing dialogue leads right into...
"Let It Be" - Naked version with closing dialogue from the first take found on Anthology 3 - "I think that was rather grand. I'd take one home with me."
"All Things Must Pass" - Early Takes Volume 1 version cut down to 3:30 so it could run at a similar length to several rehearsals; the 2021 re-release of All Things Must Pass cuts it short for some reason. As stated before, the 1969 versions are not that great sounding, so let's pretend that it was recorded during on January 31, with John sitting it out. The quiet laughter at the end leads right into...
"Maggie Mae" - Let It Be version with no edits.
"Two of Us" - Naked version with extended outro sourced from Let It Be. Closing dialogue is sourced from the 1969 Glyn Johns mix found on the 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition.
"For You Blue" - Take 4 with opening dialogue sourced from the 1969 Glyn John mix, both from the 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition. I'm sure most would choose the Naked mix, but I wanted as few overdubs as possible. The opening dialogue from the first take of "Let It Be" from Anthology 3 is added onto the end - "Are we supposed to giggle in the solo?" "Yeah." "Okay." "This'll... this is gonna knock you out, boy."
"The Long and Winding Road" - Naked version with no edits.
"Across the Universe" - The 1970 Glyn Johns mix with the opening dialogue cut, sourced from the 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition. This version includes Lizzie Bravo and Gayleen Pease's backing vocals, otherwise mixed down, to make it sound less sparse.
Sources
The Beatles - Anthology 3 (1996)
The Beatles - As Nature Intended (1994; bootleg)
The Beatles - Let It Be 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition (2021 remaster)
The Beatles - Let It Be... Naked (2013 remaster)
The Beatles - The White Album 50th Anniversary Edition (2018 remaster)
George Harrison - Early Takes Volume 1 (2012)
Good call with Not Guilty.
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