The tale of the two guitar solos in The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’
The fact that The Beatles managed to finish their final album, 1970’s Let It Be, at all is a major miracle. The album came out in May of 1970, only a month after a press release from Paul McCartney was widely interpreted as an announcement of The Beatles’ break up. In that shadow, Let It Be was surrounded by sadness and bitterness from the very beginning.
What fans and listeners might not have known was the discord was baked into the album’s DNA. Recording for the LP began just a few short weeks after The Beatles, better known as The White Album, was released. Burnt out and largely disconnected as both musicians and friends, The Beatles were largely being cajoled by McCartney into carrying on as they normally had.
But things were different – John Lennon was in the throes of a heroin addiction and was entirely co-dependent on his new partner, Yoko Ono, for stability. George Harrison had grown enormously as a songwriter and had just returned from a heartening trip to America where he jammed with Bob Dylan and The Band. Upon his return, Harrison was dismayed to see that he was still a second-class citizen compared to the authority of McCartney and Lennon. Ringo Starr was about to begin filming for The Magic Christian, putting a strict time crunch on the already-delicate recording process.
There were moments of levity throughout the recording, including a triumphant rooftop performance and the warm presence of keyboardist Billy Preston, but there was also plenty of strife. Harrison was so frustrated by the initial process that he quit the group during the first week of rehearsals, only agreeing to come back if some of the more grandiose ideas surrounding the album were scrapped. The tensions that surrounded the making of Let It Be would quickly become rock and roll legend, and after a month of work, it seemed likely for most of 1969 that the album would remain on the shelf permanently.
Then a surprise came in early 1970: Michael Lindsay-Hogg had finished his documentary covering the album’s recording. In the time between the initial recording and the final cut of the film, The Beatles had recorded another full-length album (1969’s Abbey Road), and John Lennon had quietly quit the group. The Beatles were disjointed and barely hanging on when Lindsay-Hogg delivered his finished product, but it was decided that a companion album to the film had to be completed.
With that came American record producer Phil Spector. Spector was tasked with assembling the recordings from the Get Back sessions into the final album version of Let It Be, with an emphasis on lining up recordings with scenes presented in the documentary. ‘Let It Be’ had been earmarked as one of two ballads from McCartney that would be included, with the other being ‘The Long and Winding Road’. Spector then began going through takes of the song in order to determine which version would appear on the album.
Spector chose the version known as “Take 27-A” as the basic track, recorded by the band on the final day of recording and shooting for the project, January 31st, 1969. The other full recording of the song from that day, known as “Take 27-B” and later “Take 28” on the deluxe reissue of Let It Be, was featured in the film.
On April 30th, 1969, George Harrison overdubbed a guitar solo onto the basic track, likely because ‘Let It Be’ was being eyed as a potential single. The solo was heavily treated with a Leslie speaker effect, giving it a pronounced “underwater” sound. That effect would later be used on ‘Octopus’s Garden’, which had been recorded the day prior to Harrison’s overdub on ‘Let It Be’.
When Spector came on board to finish Let It Be, Harrison opted to re-record the guitar solo on January 4th, 1970, almost a full year after the initial track was recorded. This time, Harrison’s solo was more biting and had less-prominent effects added to the tone of his guitar. There were now two guitar solos to choose from – the lighter Leslie-infused one and the more impassioned rock one.
It was ultimately decided that both solos would be used. The Leslie-infused solo wound up on the single version of ‘Let It Be’, while the more hard-rock solo was included on the album version of the track. If you heard ‘Let It Be’ on the radio, you heard Harrison’s lighter solo, while if you listened to the Let It Be album, you heard his more biting take on the solo.
Check out both versions of ‘Let It Be’ down below and determine which of the guitar solos is your own personal favourite.
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