Better just to Let It Be

Let It Be was the last album the Beatles released as a group. Marred by internal conflicts, a change of producers, and substandard songs, the record was poorly received by critics and fans alike. It was a less than brilliant swansong for an otherwise brilliant band. (To be fair, Abbey Road, which was recorded after Let It Be but released before the much-maligned record, is the Beatles's true swansong and a more fitting one at that.)

For decades, the blame for Let It Be's failure rested squarely on the shoulders of the album's producer, Phil Spector. Critics of the producer accused Spector of ruining the Beatles's songs with his distinctive "Wall of Sound" production style, for creating a sound that choked Let It Be in dense, sweeping orchestral overdubs. The anti-Spector camp has been led most vocally and vociferously by McCartney himself, who never forgave Spector for adding string arrangements to his ballad, "The Long and Winding Road." These detractors managed to turn the producer into the villain of the Beatles mythology, casting him as misguided outsider who dirtied the band's immaculate music.

The newly released Let It Be...Naked is McCartney's attempt to set the record straight. By stripping the album of Spector's production work and replacing it with McCartney's mix, the goal of Naked is to wipe away whatever harm Spector had done to the record and finally release Let It Be the way it was meant to be heard, proving once and for all that Spector was incorrect and that, musically at least, the Beatles could do no wrong.

Unfortunately for McCartney, Naked doesn't exactly achieve its goals. In fact, more than anything else, McCartney's version of Let It Be ends up proving that the former Beatles's allegations against Spector were false all along. Even with this new mix, better sound quality, and a new tracklist, listeners will immediately be able to tell that Spector's production isn't the only thing wrong with Let It Be.

After comparing the two versions, most will be surprised how little of an effect Spector actually had on Let It Be in the long run. The overwhelming string and vocal arrangements indicative of Spector's "Wall of Sound" are really only present on four tracks: two McCartney songs, the aforementioned "Long and Winding Road," and "Let it Be," Harrison's "I Me Mine," and Lennon's "Across the Universe." Granted, these are the best songs on the album and Let It Be's success hinges on them, but the other tracks haven't really been improved upon or markedly changed for McCartney's version; the mix is simply clearer, louder.

In fact, when it comes to the most radically changed songs on Let It Be...Naked -- the songs which actually had large parts altered or edited out -- listeners will be hard-pressed to say whether these improvements have made the songs better or worse. The stripped-down versions of "Across the Universe," "Let it Be," and "I Me Mine" aren't necessarily superior or inferior to the versions Spector recorded, but are simply different. The one and only song that benefits from the new mix is "The Long and Winding Road." Turns out McCartney was right about that one after all.

Let It Be...Naked is ultimately a failure in its revisionism because the original album's errors aren't skin-deep; they cannot simply be erased from the mix. Let It Be might not be the most flattering portrait of the Beatles, but it is a Beatles album nonetheless, which puts it head and shoulders above most musical releases.

What will end up being more embarrassing for Paul and his legacy is a slew of poorly executed remixes that seek to tweak their source material to some imagined state of perfection. When it comes to changing his past, McCartney should take the advice of his title song.