The Beatles

The Beatles

(5CD+Blu-ray Apple Records, 2021)

“We don't want any of your production shit on this record” were the words that John Lennon hurled at George Martin, the Beatles' longtime producer, when Martin, during a recording session, pointed out that his guitar was out of tune. “Let It Be”, the band's supposed swan song, was conceived under just such inauspicious circumstances. It's worth going back a few years, though, to understand how things got to this point.

The summer of '67 marked one of the most intense moments in the history of the Liverpool quartet: the Beatles had stopped performing live less than a year earlier to focus on developing new musical ideas, making use of the cutting-edge technology available to them at EMI's London studios. The results were nothing short of encouraging, and the Fab Four embarked on a new artistic phase, in which the songwriting process was effectively bolstered by heavy studio production work. “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” was released in early June and met with immediate critical and commercial success.

For the band, however, the “Summer of Love” wasn't all positive: on August 27th, Brian Epstein died at just 32 from a drug overdose. The legendary manager had marketing instincts that amplified the Beatles' genius on a global scale (the Philippines aside). Epstein was more than just a mere impresario, and his authority often served as the glue holding the group together; they learned of his death with dismay while in Bangor, Wales, attending a seminar led by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Their association with the Indian philosopher, creator of the transcendental meditation technique, would go on to define the Beatles' mystical turn: starting in February '68, they planned to retreat for several months of meditation at his ashram in Rishikesh, India, along with their partners (Cynthia Powell Lennon, Jane Asher, Pattie Boyd Harrison, Maureen Cox Starkey) and other figures from the entertainment world (Donovan, Mike Love, Paul Horn, Mia, Prudence and John Farrow, Nancy Cooke de Herrera, Tim Simcox, Jenny Boyd, Lewis Lapham, Alexis “Magic Alex” Mardas). Ringo held out for a month before heading back to London. Paul lasted two. John and George nearly three: the latter two stormed out of the ashram in disgust after learning that their guru had, in those very days, taken a particular interest in a young female guest. The episode inspired Lennon's scornful original lyrics — later replaced for obvious reasons — for “Sexy Sadie” (1968), one of his finest compositions.

Once back to “normal” life in London, the Beatles paradoxically began to fall apart. With Epstein's guidance gone, McCartney took full control of the band's direction, yet without ever handling its administrative affairs: this soon led to a financial collapse that would deliver the group into the hungry jaws of the ruthless New York lawyer Allen Klein, the controversial manager of Sam Cooke and the Rolling Stones.

On May 30, 1968, the recording sessions began that would, within a few months, lead to the release of the “White Album” (November '68). Lennon separated from Cynthia, began seeing Yoko Ono steadily, and started using heroin. Harrison matured as a songwriter and, rightly, began demanding more space on the records. Starr felt sidelined by the group's dynamics and, on two occasions, threatened to quit the band. All of this, combined with a string of ill-advised associations (Magic Alex) and failed investments (the Apple Boutique), pushed the Beatles to breaking point.

To salvage what could be salvaged and, at least outwardly, force a lid on the resentment, the four decided to commission director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (rumoured to be the illegitimate son of Orson Welles) to make a documentary filming them as they wrote the new album on a soundstage. Filming began in the first days of January '69 and took place daily at Twickenham Studios, in the London suburb of Richmond upon Thames. After a few weeks, George, worn out from the trek to the studio from his estate in Esher, Surrey, threatened to abandon the project unless the set was immediately moved to London, to 3 Savile Row, the headquarters of Apple Corps Ltd., a stone's throw from Piccadilly Circus.

The group thus returned to a setting far more familiar than the sterile, faintly hostile film studio, and once again relied on outside factors to ease the internal friction. An old acquaintance, Billy Preston, formerly Little Richard's organist, whom the band had first met on tour back in 1962, was brought in to take part in the sessions. Filming for the documentary then wrapped, its finale intended from the start to be an epic concert. Having discarded various absurd and costly ideas, the four decided to perform live, on the roof of their company's building, a short selection of songs old and new. On January 30, 1969, around lunchtime, deafening music rang out from the top of an elegant building in central London: anyone who happened to be passing through Savile Row during those 42 minutes witnessed the Beatles' last live performance as a group.

There's a curious anecdote that Roag Best, Pete's half-brother and son of Neil Aspinall (the Beatles' road manager) and Mona Best (owner of Liverpool's Casbah Club and the Beatles' first manager), likes to tell visitors to the Casbah and the Liverpool Beatles Museum, both of which he runs: at the end of the “rooftop concert,” just before Lennon utters the famous line “I would like to say 'thank you' on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition,” McCartney can be heard calling out “thanks Mo'!” Roag claims that, in an interview he did with Paul, Paul stated that the thanks weren't directed at Maureen, Ringo's wife, who was standing right in front of them applauding at that moment, but at Mona Best instead — a tribute, delivered at the last possible moment, to the woman who had believed in them from the very start, offered with the awareness that this would be their final public appearance.

The album then in the works, provisionally titled “Get Back,” was conceived as a kind of return to the band's roots. The tracklist was meant to alternate new songs with older compositions recorded during the filming of the documentary. The Beatles even chose to echo the cover of their debut album, “Please Please Me” (1963), asking the same photographer, Angus McBean, to shoot them in the same spot and in the exact same pose as the original photo — leaning over the staircase railing at EMI's London offices in Manchester Square. On May 13, 1969, despite only six years having passed, the four looked profoundly changed: the trademark “mop top” haircuts of their early days had given way to beards, moustaches and long hair; the sharp tailored suits from Beno Dorn of Birkenhead had been swapped for casual clothing (though not entirely: Lennon and Harrison wore the light pinstriped suits made for the '66 tour). George Martin was not involved in producing the album, and at the mixing desk instead was sound engineer Glyn Johns (who had already worked with, among others, Georgie Fame, the Rolling Stones, the Pretty Things, Small Faces, Procol Harum and Traffic). The project, however, was temporarily shelved.

By that point, the Beatles were more or less aware that the end had come. Now absorbed in solo projects, they opted for an exit worthy of the greatest rock band there ever was or ever will be: together with George Martin, they set to work on their final, wonderful album which, released in September '69, was named after the street where the studios that had witnessed the creation of nearly all their hits were located.

On Friday, August 8, McCartney, busy working on “Oh! Darling,” and the other three, in the next studio putting the finishing touches on “I Want You (She's So Heavy)” and “The End,” took a break and stepped out of the EMI building to cross the zebra crossing just outside, being photographed by Iain Macmillan in the iconic shot chosen for the cover of “Abbey Road” (1969).

August 20, 1969 was the last time the Beatles met in a studio (Abbey Road), for overdubs on “I Want You (She's So Heavy).” It's curious to think that this occasion was spent finishing off a fervent love song dedicated to Yoko Ono.

Two days later, on August 22, they met up at John's estate, Tittenhurst Park, in Berkshire, for their last official photo shoot. The photographers were Ethan A. Russell and Monte Fresco, aided by the trusty Mal Evans.

On an unspecified day between September 15 and 19 of that same year, a business meeting was held at Apple's Savile Row studios: it was the last time the four of them were ever in a room together.

Meanwhile, it was decided that the “Get Back” tapes would be revisited. Allen Klein pushed to have the mixes Glyn Johns had made in May '69 and January '70 scrapped, and convinced Lennon, Harrison and Starr to hand the material over to Phil Spector, who was to piece together the recording fragments and give the record a finished shape. The American producer worked with admirable dedication on the poor-quality recordings made at Twickenham Studios and Apple. What resulted, however, proved to be the last straw, since McCartney was thoroughly unimpressed with the orchestration Spector applied to some of his songs (especially “The Long And Winding Road”). But the die was cast, and on March 11, 1970, Harrison announced to the BBC the imminent release of a new Beatles album titled “Let It Be.”

The LP was released on May 8, 1970, a month after McCartney circulated a self-interview in which he implicitly let it be known that he had left the Beatles. It immediately topped the British and American charts, and two singles were drawn from it: the title track and “The Long And Winding Road,” which reached number one in the US chart. Despite the encouraging sales figures, “Let It Be” was not well received by critics and, perhaps owing to its structural inconsistency, remains one of the most debated works in the Fab Four's discography.

In 2003, “Let It Be... Naked” was released, one of the first, questionable attempts by McCartney to rewrite history. The basic idea was to “fix the mistakes” found on the original LP, entrusting the remix to Allan Rouse and including the very Lennon-esque “Don't Let Me Down,” which, objectively, would have added undeniable quality to the album. “Let It Be... Naked” is nonetheless regarded as a “novelty,” a minor gadget aimed solely at die-hard fans, and it is not included in the box set we are about to discuss.

On October 15, 2021, a year late due to the pandemic, the fiftieth-anniversary celebratory edition of “Let It Be” hit shelves. Available in no fewer than five formats (SuperDeluxe 5CD+Blu-ray, SuperDeluxe 5LP, DeLuxe 2CD, Standard 1CD and Standard 1LP), we'll be looking at the SuperDeluxe CD version (€107.00 on Amazon).

The box includes a CD with new stereo mixes of the original album by Giles Martin; a CD of alternate versions from the “Get Back/Apple Sessions”; a CD of rehearsals and jam sessions; a CD featuring Glyn Johns' 1969 mix of “Get Back”; a CD containing two more of Johns' mixes from 1970 along with new mixes of the singles “Let It Be” and “Don't Let Me Down”; and a Blu-ray featuring high-resolution stereo versions of the new mixes in Dolby Atmos and 5.1.

The mix by Giles Martin, George's son and artistic heir, is as surprising as ever: as with the previous SuperDeluxe editions of the Beatles catalogue ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in 2017, the extraordinary box set devoted to "The Beatles" — aka the "White Album" — in 2018, and "Abbey Road" in 2019), "Let It Be" too has been given a thorough overall clean-up and a boost to the low frequencies (Starr's kick drum has gained body and presence on "Two Of Us", as has McCartney's bass on "Dig A Pony", "I've Got A Feeling", "One After 909" and "Get Back"). Aware that an overreliance on new technology can quickly date a remix, Martin was careful not to make the sound too bright or digital. The result is excellent, and the material on this new edition of "Let It Be" has never sounded so clear, crisp and direct.

"I Me Mine", "Across The Universe", "Let It Be", "The Long And Winding Road" and "For You Blue" are presented here in all their glory, as is Glyn Johns's work and the outtakes. It's genuinely thrilling to hear the early sketches of "All Things Must Pass" (Harrison) and "Gimme Some Truth" (Lennon) with McCartney's vocalizing, as well as songs that would later take shape on "Abbey Road".

As for the choice of extras, a selection was made from the fifty-two hours of available recordings. Martin says he favoured the quality of the performances and carried out a meticulous edit to avoid tedious repetition. Rather than including multiple takes of the same song, preference was given to versions that show the various stages of the work taking shape — and although this might sound like a hard blow for completists, it's a point in the production's favour. That said, the omission of the entire rooftop concert and the inclusion of outtakes already available in previous official releases makes the whole operation rather disappointing to this writer's eyes.

Included in the box set is a book of over a hundred pages featuring a foreword by McCartney, an introduction by Giles Martin, two pages of fascinating memories from Glyn Johns, five pages written by John Harris on the history of the "Let It Be Sessions" and, above all, a lengthy study by Kevin Howlett on the making of every track on the album (including the outtakes "Don't Let Me Down", "Teddy Boy" and "All Things Must Pass") and on the events that led the Beatles to abandon the "Get Back" project in favour of "Let It Be". The book is packed with previously unseen photos, reproductions of original manuscripts, and valuable captions that finally shed light on some questions that have long troubled the most hardcore Beatles fans about who played what, where and when.

The five CDs and the Blu-ray come in cardboard protective sleeves housed inside a slim book-style casing, whose cover features four individual photos of the band members and, on the inside, the famous second group portrait taken by Angus McBean.

A few days before the box set's release, "Get Back" hit shops worldwide — a book of almost 240 pages accompanying the documentary of the same name edited by New Zealand director Peter Jackson, drawn from a selection of fifty-six hours of previously unseen footage and one hundred and fifty hours of never-before-heard audio. The book, distributed in Italy and translated into Italian by Mondadori (€37.05 on Amazon), contains photos by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney, stills from the film, and transcriptions of the musicians' and staff's dialogue. All the material comes from the making of "Let It Be" and dates back to the sessions held at Twickenham Studios and Apple. The film, running six hours long (!), will be available on the subscription streaming platform Disney+ starting November 25th.

There's also room for criticism when it comes to the film, in terms of blatant revisionism. "Let It Be", directed and edited by Michael Lindsay-Hogg and never reissued on VHS or DVD, offered a bitter but realistic glimpse into the band's demise and remained an essential document for anyone wanting to understand their internal dynamics. This new project will consign it permanently to oblivion. After all, it's McCartney himself, in the book's foreword included in the box set, who reveals the intent to revisit what really happened in order to leave posterity with a different image of himself and the band: "The constant filming began as a minor irritation, but we aventually forgot the cameras were there, and the footage that was gathered turned out to be be the film 'Let It Be'. Now the material has been looked at carefully by the film director Peter Jackson and he has restored its quality to look like it was filmed yesterday and edited it into a new film called 'Get Back'. I had always thought the original film 'Let It Be' was pretty sad as it dealt with the break-up of our band, but the new film shows the camaraderie and love the four of us had between us. It also shows the wonderful times we had together and, combined with the newly remastered 'Let It Be' album, stands as a powerful reminder of this time. It is how I want to remember the Beatles" ("The continuous filming started to become a bit irritating, but eventually we managed to forget the cameras were there, and the footage, put together, became the film 'Let It Be'. That material has now been carefully selected by director Peter Jackson, who has restored its quality as if it had been filmed yesterday, and turned it into a new film called 'Get Back'. I always thought the original film, 'Let It Be', was rather sad since it documented the break-up of our band, but the new film shows the camaraderie and the love that flowed between the four of us. It also captures the wonderful time we spent together and, combined with the newly remastered 'Let It Be' album, stands as a powerful reminder of that era. That's how I want to remember the Beatles").

We, on the other hand, would like to remember the Beatles for what they truly were, with all the strengths and flaws that made a supernatural body of work human — one for which any form of revisionism is entirely superfluous.

(October 24, 2021)

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29/04/2026