Listen to a rare cut of John Lennon singing ‘Let It Be’
Paul McCartney and John Lennon are widely considered to be the most important songwriting duo of all time, but most of their collaborative work took place in the early days of the Beatles. Throughout the years, their creative relationship wavered, and they began to prefer solo songwriting. As a result, the duo didn’t always like each other’s creations – as exemplified with ‘Let It Be’.
Released not long before the band’s break-up in 1970, the track was penned by McCartney as an ode to the soothing presence of his late mother. “I had a dream in the sixties where my mum who died came to me in a dream and was reassuring me, saying, ‘It’s going to be OK, just let it be,’” he once explained to James Corden on Carpool Karaoke.
That dream led him to pen one of the most beloved Beatles tracks of all time – one that would simultaneously earn him the admiration of their fans and the animosity of his songwriting partner. On a surface level, ‘Let It Be’ seems impossible to hate. The ballad paired McCartney’s calming repetitions of “let it be” with equally soothing piano and percussion, but Lennon struggled with the song’s biblical inferences.
“When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me,” McCartney sings in the song’s opening moments. Though the line seems to pay homage to his own mother, Mary Patricia, Lennon disliked that the song could be taken as a reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Lennon wasn’t shy about his hatred for the song. “That’s Paul,” he told David Sheff, “What can you say? Nothing to do with The Beatles. It could’ve been Wings.”
“I don’t know what he’s thinking when he writes ‘Let It Be’,” he continued, “I think it was inspired by ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters’. That’s my feeling, although I have nothing to go on. I know he wanted to write a ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters’.”
For those well-acquainted with Lennon’s dislike of the song, it seems ludicrous that the Beatle would ever entertain the idea of taking the lead on it. Though he provided backing vocals, the song was clearly McCartney’s. However, in a rehearsal in early 1969, Lennon put his dislike for the song aside and sang ‘Let It Be’.
Though the original recording is faint and muffled, it has since been edited and remixed by Almost Beatles Songs to restore Lennon’s take on the track. Uncontrolled and raw, Lennon’s vocals oscillate between high and low but never compromise on passion. It’s a special take on the track, a compliment to his songwriting partner, and a suggestion that, perhaps, he didn’t hate ‘Let It Be’ just as much as he proclaimed to.
Watch the clip below.
