The Beatles – ‘Let It Be’
Towards the end of 1968, The Beatles were approaching an impasse. After recording for The White Album led to several arguments, the Fab Four thought it was best to step back and make something that tapped into their roots as a scrappy bar band who could play for hours on end in The Cavern Club. Although the project would later be shelved to work on Abbey Road instead, the later release of Let It Be offers fans a decent look at what the back-to-basics approach of The Beatles could have sounded like.
Opening with a bit of cheeky humour from John Lennon, ‘Two of Us’ sets everything up for a rootsy album, with Paul McCartney on acoustic guitar and George Harrison playing “bass” on the lowest strings of his electric guitar. Considering that Lennon and McCartney were becoming songwriting tour de forces on their own, this is a nice look at what the “eyeball-to-eyeball” kind of songs they were best at, each singing into one microphone.
The song is also fairly topical, with McCartney singing about having memories longer than the road that stretches ahead, as if he knows that these good times weren’t meant to last. Throughout the rest of the record, the Liverpudlians also toy with different sounds in roots rock music, borrowing from artists like The Band and Bob Dylan on songs like ‘Dig a Pony’, which has Lennon at his most weathered and humorous.
As much as they might be a powerhouse together, some of the best moments on the record are when Lennon and McCartney work apart. Being a stickler for lyrics, ‘Across the Universe’ might be one of the best pieces of prose that Lennon would ever write, talking about words falling like rain and watching these words make their way out of his mind and into the world. Although this album has no spiritual agenda, Lennon sounds like he’s reached inner peace with this tune, as he chants the mantra ‘Jai Guru Deva’ in the choruses.
On the other side of the creative coin is McCartney, who came into his own as a ballad writer on the title track. Stemming from a dream he had when he was visited by his mother, McCartney’s plea for human tolerance is as universal as a church hymn, looking to find some light in everyone’s collective hour of darkness. And while ‘The Long and Winding Road’ might have a bit too much schmaltz thanks to Phil Spector’s production, the core tune at the centre is still breathtaking, as McCartney talks about the road that leads back home to the one he loves.
Granted, there is more than just Lennon and McCartney on this team. As George Harrison came into his own as a songwriter, ‘I Me Mine’ is a short snippet of what he was getting up to in the future, talking about the pieces of philosophy where he expounds upon the idea that the only one worth pleasing is himself.
Set to a waltz time, the tune starts as a languid piece of melancholy before giving way to a rock and roll chorus with Harrison playing some of the best lead guitar on the record. Outside of his songs, Harrison also finds time to weave pieces of magic into his fellow Beatles’ compositions, creating a melodic masterpiece on ‘Let It Be’ and the slightest nudges to ‘Dig a Pony’.
Since this album was unfinished, there are a few signs of wear between the songs, such as the song fragments ‘Dig It’ and ‘Maggie Mae’, each lasting for a handful of seconds before fading out. Despite adding little to nothing music-wise, these serve the purpose of putting the listener in the mindset of the band in the studio, being a virtual fly on the wall as they jam.
There are more bright spots than just the simple ballads as well. Combing through the back half of the project, some of the group’s more charming songs come when they are playing their old rockers like ‘One After 909’. Written when Lennon and McCartney were still teenagers, this tune feels like the band in their natural habitat back in The Carvern, playing to anyone who will listen.
McCartney’s glorified theme song for the album ‘Get Back’ is also a massive highlight. It features a certain swagger missing from the rest of the project and Lennon making an appearance on lead guitar, with bends so tasty most would wonder why he didn’t play lead on another handful of Beatles cuts.
While a handful of great ideas exist on this project, does the album hold up as a definitive statement? Well… yes and no. While it’s easy to see the chopped-up portions that The Beatles intended to leave on the shelf, hearing them trying to put something together during the final phase of their career still yielded some of the last masterpieces of their time together as well.
For the frayed ends behind this project, the song that says it all for the record is ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’. Taken from fragments of a Lennon and McCartney original, both tunes are thrown together without rhyme or reason and then turned into something magical. Without really thinking about it, that’s the Beatles in a nutshell. Even when they were at their creative lowest, it’s easy to hear these creative brothers from Liverpool turning the most opposing ideas into something no one could imagine apart.
Abbey Road might have been the true masterpiece that was supposed to send The Beatles off properly. However, Let It Be is still a pivotal piece of their catalogue that deserves to be listened to just as much as Revolver or Rubber Soul.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.