So it's going to be called "Let It Be Naked" ?????

[Xenu]

The attitude of a lot of people (esp. those at Abbeyrd, seemingly) is that we should gladly take what Apple gives us. I do not agree with this sentiment. Apple, thankfully, doesn't *need* to give us those takes, as we already have them. It could, but I'm not holding my breath.

I mean, honestly, do you think if Apple came out with their own version of Beware of ABKCO it'd be any good?

[Beatlesfan03]

The attitude of a lot of people (esp. those at Abbeyrd, seemingly) is that we should gladly take what Apple gives us. I do not agree with this sentiment. Apple, thankfully, doesn't *need* to give us those takes, as we already have them. It could, but I'm not holding my breath.

I mean, honestly, do you think if Apple came out with their own version of Beware of ABKCO it'd be any good?

Absolutely not.

To be honest, I was surprised that Apple hit a home run with the Anthology DVDs.

Perhaps we are seeing the end of releases from the Beatles' vault. After reading the track listing, it just seems boring and not really worth my time. To be honest, the only reason I ended up with "1" was simply because I got it for Christmas. Starting with "Anthology III," I got bored with what Apple was putting out (granted it's been those few things).

Apple (or whomever speaks for Apple) tends to shoot their mouth off and say one thing but then ends up doing something else. Maybe it's because there are four different opinions and they still can't agree. How many years have we been told about the remastered "Let It Be" movie. They've been sitting on that since at least 1995.

I worked at a record store during the original Anthology period and there were all these plans for remastered CDs, a deluxe Anthology set. The only thing to come out of all of it was the original video set.

[Xenu]

The Anthology DVDs were largely a fluke...had they tried marketing 'em at the original price (which I'm sure they considered), it would've fallen through the floor.

[mikenycLI]

What's interesting about this "Let It Be...Naked" 2cd release, is, I believe, under Soundscan rules, this 2 cd set will be counted as two sales, when totalled, so....

You can see, that just for a meesely 20 minutes of extra "stuff", he can actually, "fudge" the sales results, and get multi-platinum sales, at half the price and effort !

He is not a multi-billionaire for NOTHING, is he ????

[Beatlesfan03]

The Anthology DVDs were largely a fluke...had they tried marketing 'em at the original price (which I'm sure they considered), it would've fallen through the floor.

Indeed, I remember going into Wal-Mart shortly after the release and laughing at the $65.99 price sticker. A few days later it was down to $49.99 where its remained since.

[MK]

If disc one was the album they released in 1970, it would've had a better reputation, at the very least a minor classic, but coming 30+ years late after a slew of bootlegs, the package as a whole is a big tease. That or a big f-you to the fans, though not intentional.

[mikenycLI]

Here's the latest....UGH !....25 minues of excerpts, like those lame, "Elvis Talks and Has Fun on Stage" albums that Col. Parker scraped the barrell with. Class with a "K" ! All of this junk just to "rig" the Soundscan ratings.

Courtesy of musictap.net...

Here's a quick peek at the Beatle's Let It Be - Naked album expected on November 18. The album will have the Spector produced materials removed, as you all well know. What you may not know is that the album, a 2CD set, will remove "Dig It", and "Maggie Mae", along with the background dialogue from the album and insert a previously unreleased version of "Don't Let Me Down". Additionally, the bonus 2nd CD will contain "Fly on the Wall", a 25 minute taped set of conversation and music bits. It's all completed with a 32 page booklet that features photos from the session as well as conversational dialogue found only on the earliest releases of the LP when it first came out. Hell, sounds like a party to me

[mikenycLI]

Two pieces of news....1) Some more tracklisting and format details, for this release, and 2) Toshiba EMI is going to release all of the Beatle 60's albums on vinyl.....Eeeeeeeeeeesh, isn't this going to start some speculation on what mix they are going to use !

Anyway, here's the tracklisting....

Track by Track Details on "Let It Be... Naked" [ October 8, 2003 ]

Here are some details on the tracks...

Get Back
Same as the original release; without the dialogue and rooftop ending of album version, or the reprise ending of single version.

Dig A Pony
Rooftop performance, same as the original release; re-did the Phil Spector's edits.

For You Blue
Same as the original release; clean-up version.

The Long And Winding Road
Different take to the released versions on Let It Be and Anthology 3; Studio performance, the last day of recording; same as the one on the film; subtle lyrics alternation.

Two Of Us
Same as the original release; without the opening dialogue.

I’ve Got A Feeling
Mixture of the two rooftop performances; completely new edit.

One After 909
Rooftop performance, same as the original release; clean-up version.

Don't Let Me Down
Rooftop performance.

I Me Mine
Same as the original release; with the same overdubs.

Across The Universe
Same as the original release; without Phil Spector's overdubs.

Let It Be
Same as the original release; with George's original guitar solo.

The Beatles "Let It Be... Naked" Formats [ October 7, 2003 ]

As we all know that the Beatles' Let It Be... Naked will be released on 2-CD set, for vinyl version, it will be a double album containing a 12" (disc 1 of CD) and a 7" (disc 2).

http://www.thebeatles.com.hk/news/index.asp


Also.....

Toshiba EMI Releasing Beatles Back Catalogue on Vinyl [ October 17, 2003 ]

Toshiba EMI (Beatles' Japan label) will be releasing all the Beatles 60's albums onto vinyl along with Yellow Submarine Songtrack, 1 and the forthcoming Let It Be... Naked on December 10, 2003. More details on their website.

http://www.toshiba-emi.co.jp/beatles/analog2003/

[mikenycLI]

The first review...courtesy of abbeyard....

Update (10/17/03)
From Vitor Suman:

Hello, Steve,
I'm writing you to let you know that a friend in EMI has heard the album again, and here's what he had to say about it.

The biggest difference between the new and the 'old' version of LIB is the complete removal of Spector's 'wall of sound', but everyone already knew that... but to the casual listener, these differences can pass without being noticed. Experts will se that the biggest ones are present in "Let It Be" and "The Long And Winding Road".

"Naked" really sounds more like a "rock and roll album made by the Beatles", in a time they were trying to "get back to where they once belonged". We also been told that altought this is a McCartney project (well... he's more into it than the others, we can't deny it) it's Harrison's guitar that will come up, and also John's backing vocals.

EMI folks says: "Although 'Naked' is out, Phil's original version of Let It Be will still be in the market. There's no censorship concerning his work."

Three engineers worked on it, Allan Rouse (from John's "Imagine" and "Mind Games" remasters, plus "Gimme Some Thruth" DVD), Paul Hicks (from "Run Devil Run", "Flaming Pie", "Liverpool Sound Collage" and "Driving Rain") and Guy Massey (who worked with Alan Parsons and The Hollies). They went through 33 reels of tape, and reduced it to 8, in the last 18 months (!). The project was approved by Harrison while he was still alive and Yoko Ono also authorized it.

It all began when Paul bumped into Michael Lindsay-Hogg in a plane way back in February, 2002 (so that story he's been telling since the "Driving USA" tour is true). There will be two new promo videos to promote the disc, but we don't know which songs were chosen.

Disc 2 wasn't heard, and nobody knows for sure (except EMI England and probably Capitol U.S.) what *EXACTLY* is on the disc. New rumours began to pop up, about Beatle versions of solo songs like "All Things Must Pass", "Jealous Guy", "Imagine" and "Maybe I'm Amazed" (from which we know that the Beatles only performed the first two).

Also, there's no news about the package and booklet.

http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/news/403letitbeagain.html

[lukpac]

Better than we're expecting?

The Beatles, Let it Be... Naked

5 stars EMI It could have been another McCartney vanity project. But, says John Harris, stripping away Spector's production and ditching a couple of tracks has let the final album shine at last

John Harris
Sunday October 19, 2003
The Observer

We'll begin with a nauseating name-drop. I first heard official word about Let it Be... Naked back in February, when I was interviewing Ringo Starr in a South Kensington restaurant. He was making his way through a dressing-free salad, sipping mineral water and attempting to promote a solo album entitled Ringo Rama ; I, of course, was set on gently nudging the conversation towards The Beatles. With commendable grace, he soon resigned himself to the inevitable: we talked about the DVD release of the Anthology series, and then he tipped me the wink about his and Paul McCartney's next enterprise: the release of a new version of the Beatles album that was salvaged from miles of abandoned tape by Phil Spector and released as their last(ish) word in May 1970.

'It's the de-Spectorised version,' said Ringo. 'Cleaned up a little. Same tracks, same people.' He emitted a confident, though slightly forced laugh. 'I've been listening to it, and it's really great. It fills my heart with joy to hear that band that I was a member of. They were just great.'

At this point, I think I nodded vigorously, keen to make it clear that I too thought The Beatles were quite a tidy act. 'Paul was always totally opposed to Phil,' he went on, 'and I told him on the phone, "You're bloody right again: it sounds great without Phil." Which it does. Now we'll have to put up with him telling us over and over again, "I told you."'

It was at this point that I decided to bring up Spector's syrupy treatment of 'The Long and Winding Road' - which caused McCartney no end of annoyance - and remind Ringo that one of the alleged reasons he had so smothered the song was to cover up the fact that John Lennon's bass part was a plunky, out-of-tune disgrace. Ringo put his cheery bonhomie on temporary hold and looked rather irritated. 'Well, people say a lot of things,' he said. 'And even playing out of tune, he played better than most.'

This is not strictly true. If you go back to Spector's arrangement, which grafts strings, horns and a choir on to what sounds like a demo, you hear Lennon indulging in something close to musical sabotage. How could stripping it all back do anything other than blow the gaff? Moreover, wasn't this the ultimate Paul McCartney vanity project - thumbs-aloft's belated attempt to pull off what his colleagues had long denied him? That lunchtime, however, was not the best setting for such harumphing.

The other week, I went to Abbey Road to hear what had been done to Let it Be . The idea that McCartney had neurotically piloted the new version from start to finish was rather scotched by my introduction to Allan Rouse, one of three studio employees who had been handed 32 reels of tape, told to come up with a new album and then left to get on with it. Much to their amazement, when he heard the final version, McCartney requested no changes whatsoever.

The running order is completely different: among other changes, this album begins with the original Let it Be's closing track, 'Get Back', and ends with the title song, which used to be track six. There is none of the dialogue that peppered the original, and a version of Lennon's sexed-up Yoko tribute 'Don't Let Me Down' has been included, thus righting the wrong whereby it was relegated to the B-side of 'Get Back'. Two songs have been placed in the wastebasket: there is no 'Maggie Mae', nor Lennon's pretty rubbishy 'Dig It'. What remains is a 35-minute, 11-track album that a) sounds like a coherent work rather than a patched-up postscript, and b) stays true to McCartney's original idea of abandoning the studio alchemy that had so defined the psychedelic Beatles and re-emphasising the fact that they were a four-piece rock group (often augmented here by Billy Preston on keyboards). By way of hammering the point home, everything has been remixed and remastered, so that the music is wrapped in both a new brightness and an added sense of intimacy. You find yourself charmed by songs that hitherto had sounded like mere makeweights. 'One after 909', written soon after John met Paul in 1957 and revived as something of a band in-joke, does not exactly represent The Beatles' greatest work, but it manages to ooze the sense of the band tapping back into the rambunctious teenage spirit of The Quarrymen. Similarly, Harrison's 'For You Blue' might be a flimsy 12-bar, but here you hear it anew, as an endearingly cute stab at the bucolic simplicity that Harrison's idol Bob Dylan had minted during the time he spent secluded in Woodstock.

Most striking of all is a new mix of 'Across the Universe', put to tape in early 1968 and included on Let it Be on account of a brief rendition in the accompanying film. The new treatment features only Lennon's voice and guitar, a smattering of tamboura from Harrison, and Starr gingerly keeping time on a bass drum. This minimalism suddenly places it in rarefied territory indeed; here, it sounds like a stargazing companion to 'Julia', Lennon's heart-stopping acoustic piece from The Beatles . As for the chief source of McCartney's three-decade heartache, Rouse and co. went for the hitherto unreleased version of 'The Long and Winding Road' used in the Let it Be movie. On the whole, Lennon's dreaded bass-playing is eerily on-the-money. Better still, the jettisoning of the schmaltz results in the squashing of the song's old air of piety; instead, it sounds like McCartney trying to soothe the anxiety that came from the keen sense that his group's bond was becoming irrevocably frayed.

The upshot of all this is clear enough. Even with George Harrison rapidly turning into a seething ball of anti-McCartney resentment, John Lennon momentarily lost to heroin, Yoko Ono sitting threateningly next to him and a film crew recording their every argument and belch, The Beatles were brilliant. Oh, and one other thought: this is the last thing Phil Spector needs, eh?

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

[Rspaight]

Who am I kidding? I'm probably gonna get it if it's cheap the first week. I have no willpower at all.

Ryan

[thomh]

We might be in for a nice surprise here. Let's hope that they let the music breathe naturally.

[mikenycLI]

This a report from a listening party.

I find it VERY hard to believe these, socalled, Beatle experts, have NOT heard, ANY of the bootlegs of this material. Their reactions are a little bit, TOO hard to believe, here!

Please note the reactions, to the sound of the songs. To me, the bootlegs were in very good shape, soundwise to begin with. I could just imagine all the tweaking (read: sucking the life out of the sound) they did with these recordings ! Eeee God !

Note, also, they didnt listen to the second cd, because "The second disc hasn't been completed even at this late date, so it wasn't previewed.".
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Imagine what they have up their sleeves on that one !

Another interesting quote..."The rooftop recordings are so well mixed and clean that it's impossible to tell that any of them are rooftop vs. studio".

Anyway, courtesy of abbeyard....


Update (10/23/03)

Matt Hurwitz attended the listening session for LIBN Wednesday night at the Capitol Tower in Studio A, where they also held the "Beatles 1" launch and the George Harrison "Brainwashed" listening party. Only about 10 people were there. (One of them was "Breakfast With The Beatles" host Chris Carter.) Here's what Matt had to say:

"Let It Be ... Naked" is the finished album. It's the album we would have heard had they finished it like any other Beatle album with George Martin producing. No chatter, no flubs, no count-ins. It's just the songs, like you hear on any other record. It's the band as it sounded at that time. The mix is very dry with very little reverb.

Everybody's jaw dropped on "The Long and Winding Road." I really discovered what a beautiful song that really is when I finally heard the Beatles playing it. The few of us that were there clapped afterwards. Wows were heard. "Long and Winding Road" is the take that appears in the film, whereas the one that appears on the record is not. You can hear John playing the Fender Bass VI on it; he also plays it on "Let It Be."

"Let It Be" has George's original lead, not the one on the single, nor the one on the album. It's the one in the movie. The rooftop recordings are so well mixed and clean that it's impossible to tell that any of them are rooftop vs. studio. The second disc hasn't been completed even at this late date, so it wasn't previewed.

"Across the Universe is quite interesting: It's simply John's acoustic guitar and vocal, Ringo's tom-tom and George tamboura. "I Me Mine" is much like the released version, minus the orchestra. George's acoustic guitar is quite a bit more forward. George's other entry, "For You Blue," also makes his acoustic guitar quite a bit more apparent.

To tell you the truth, I think the original album should be called "Let It Be Naked," as it's more a fly on the wall. This is more of the finished record that they were working towards completing. This album sounds more sonically like George Martin's "Get Back"/"Don't Let Me Down" single in that it sounds more like the finished recording it was supposed to be. The original album is the sound track to the movie; this is the finished album. The Beatles didn't make records to leave them unfinished. The other 12 albums are completed records. And now, so is the 13th.

http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/news/403letitbeagain.html

[lukpac]

I find it VERY hard to believe these, socalled, Beatle experts, have NOT heard, ANY of the bootlegs of this material. Their reactions are a little bit, TOO hard to believe, here!

First of all, what do you mean? The report you posted makes no mention of bootlegs.

Second, I can honestly say I've never heard any Get Back bootlegs. Does that make me (or anyone else) less of a fan? Or less of an "expert" (on things other than Get Back, obviously)?

"Let It Be" has George's original lead, not the one on the single, nor the one on the album. It's the one in the movie. The rooftop recordings are so well mixed and clean that it's impossible to tell that any of them are rooftop vs. studio. The second disc hasn't been completed even at this late date, so it wasn't previewed.

The note on Let It Be sounds promising, although I don't know why the live/studio comment would be a *good* thing.

Honestly, the more I hear about this, the more interesting it sounds. We'll see.

[mikenycLI]

I find it VERY hard to believe these, socalled, Beatle experts, have NOT heard, ANY of the bootlegs of this material. Their reactions are a little bit, TOO hard to believe, here!

First of all, what do you mean? The report you posted makes no mention of bootlegs.

Second, I can honestly say I've never heard any Get Back bootlegs. Does that make me (or anyone else) less of a fan? Or less of an "expert" (on things other than Get Back, obviously)?

"Let It Be" has George's original lead, not the one on the single, nor the one on the album. It's the one in the movie. The rooftop recordings are so well mixed and clean that it's impossible to tell that any of them are rooftop vs. studio. The second disc hasn't been completed even at this late date, so it wasn't previewed.

The note on Let It Be sounds promising, although I don't know why the live/studio comment would be a *good* thing.

Honestly, the more I hear about this, the more interesting it sounds. We'll see.

Yes, the report didn't mention "bootlegs", but when you read their "Gosh, Golly" comments, I guess we have to expect, they have to put on a front, and sound like they are listening to these "Let It Be" outtakes for the first time, don't we ? The between the lines message is very clear. That's ok.

NOTE TO SELF: When you get invites to ALL of the EXCLUSIVE, Beatle "listening parties" at the Capitol Tower in LA, you don't let them know you buy and listen to Beatle bootlegs. Just act like a rabid Beatle Fan, and lap up the "specialness" of it all...and write a very good review too ! OR YOU WILL BE CUT OFF, BANISHED, if you "diss" them !!!!

Luke, it's hard to believe ANYONE, these days, hasn't heard these songs, sourced from bootlegs, or unmarked fan produced CDR's, but that's ok.

You are still TOPS in my book !!!