Beatles' Let It Be (33 1/3) by Matteo Steve

Author:Matteo, Steve [Matteo, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Continuum US
Published: 2004-08-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

The Long and Winding Road

After all the weeks of filming, jamming, recording, arguing, joking, laughing, quitting, eating, smoking, posing, theorizing, analyzing, writing, hoping, freezing, dancing, smiling, frowning, clowning, and playing music at Twickenham and at Apple, the Beatles still had very little material in a finished state for an album. On the other hand, they did have a finale for the television show, or film, or whatever it was going to be, thanks to the 42 minutes on the roof of Apple. They also had some fairly complete studio takes of a number of new songs. Whether it all added up to a quality album, a finished film, or a television show was another story. At the same time, peeking through the dark cloud of uncertainty, doubt, and acrimony that had enveloped them for the whole month of January was a ray of sunshine: they were still together. Let It Be has always been portrayed as the end of the Beatles, a notion bolstered by its being released as the group’s last album. And yet after it, the Beatles would continue as a group and eventually record Abbey Road as well as release a handful of fine singles.

The Let It Be album would evolve slowly and with many detours along the way. On February 5, 1969, only a few days after the last day of recording, Glyn Johns and Alan Parsons went to Apple Studios and made stereo mixes of “I’ve Got a Feeling,” “Don’t Let Me Down,” “Get Back,” “The One After 909,” and “Dig a Pony.” They also did a tape compilation of the rooftop performances.

Two days later, it transpired that George Harrison required surgery on his tonsils. He stayed in the hospital until the 15th. In another twist of fate, the director of the film, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, contracted hepatitis.

It would be over a month before any further work would be done on the album. Sometime in early March, John and Paul approached Glyn Johns and, pointing to a pile of tapes, said, “Remember that idea you had about putting together an album? There are the tapes, go and do it.” That is what Johns presumably did over four days at Olympic Sound Studios, between March 10 and 13. Some accounts state he may have begun the task as early as March 4. Johns made stereo mixes of various tracks and sequenced the songs. It’s important to note that it would be the first time a Beatles album was being conceived in the mixing stage as first and foremost a stereo album. There have also been some accounts stating that some sort of recording related to the project was done at Abbey Road (perhaps on March 4), although of which songs and by which Beatles remains unknown. The mixes Johns did on March 10 and 13 were eventually used to cut acetates for the Beatles. Those acetates would become the basis of the first bootlegs ever heard of the Apple sessions and they resulted in parts of the aborted first and second Get Back albums prepared for the Beatles by Johns.

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