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Although technically the last Beatles album released, it was recorded before Abbey Road so I always think of this as coming out before Abbey Road and in my CD collection (which I arrange chronologically by group) I always place it before Abbey Road. Of the post-1967 albums, this one is the worst, just because the circumstances surrounding the record make it pretty depressing and they were clearly not having fun anymore, and it showed. The original idea was the Beatles would “get back” to their roots and record live without overdubs, but after they had rehearsed and recorded everything (on film, too) the project was put on the shelf until the new manager came in, and on a day when Paul was absent, added orchestration to many songs.
The Album
1) Two of Us
This is a nice acoustic number and one of the few times they start off an album on a slow song. It has a nice chord structure and the song flows well, from the opening acoustic guitars to the splendid bass line. The middle is always enjoyable when they modulate to a different key. This song it does seem they are enjoying themselves, and it makes for a good listen.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
2) Dig A Pony
This song has a pretty good opening riff, but not much else. The song really drags along and it just seems disjointed at times, and I don’t know if this was recorded on top of the rooftop or not, but it just seems like a mess at some points. The perils of recording live I guess.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
3) Across The Universe
This, on the other hand, is a great Lennon song. He was always great on these sort of soul-searching songs. It’s very profound if you listen to it, and the melody is sometimes haunting. It fits the song to a T and you don’t know if you’re dreaming or not. You really feel like you’re floating around the universe.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
4) I Me Mine
This was once one of my favorite songs (as my screen name can attest too) and I always loved George songs. He had such a great ability and took these great phrases and had great lines in songs. He was criminally underrated as a songwriter in the Beatles but that wouldn’t last in 1969 when he whipped out “Something,” and “Here Comes the Sun” to the world, and then his massive triple disc debut album. This song is a moderate rocker with a great chorus. I love the sound of the guitars and the mixture of acoustic and electric on this song. George would later overdub the vocals on the last ever Beatles session and the song was actually a lot shorter. They repeated the last verse twice to make it longer for this release.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
5) Dig It
Total throw-away song that has the odd writing credits of Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey. Just a simple four chord song with John’s vocal riffing. Just a way to get to Let It Be I guess.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
6) Let It Be
One of Paul’s greatest songs and most people don’t know it’s written to his mother, whose name was Mary, and not the religious song many believe it to be. There’s actually three versions of this song floating around. There’s this one, with an awesome guitar solo and some overdubs. There’s the single version which overdubbed another guitar solo, and finally the one released on the Let It Be Naked CD, with no orchestration and another different (though not as good) guitar solo. This is my preferred version simply because the solo is better and fits with the song a lot more. But any version of this song is great because of the sensational lyrics and one of the most beautiful melodies in history.
Yeah Count: 6
Love Count: 0
7) Maggie Mae
Used to break the mood of the last song, it’s a minute or so long and about Maggie Mae, a traditional song I guess arranged by the four Beatles. Throw-away material again, just a way to transition out of Let It Be.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
8) I’ve Got A Feeling
I’ve always like this song, as it appears to be a Lennon song and a McCartney song merged together to make one song. It works well and it’s got a great riff. The lyrics are pretty good too, and it’s just a great tune that many don’t know about.
Yeah Count: 30
Love Count: 0
9) One After 909
This was an early song that they recorded many times back in 63-4 but never could quite get right. They play it here and usually at Twickenham, during filming, they’d break into many jam sessions and probably someone mentioned this one. It’s a simple song and guitar driven. I don’t think they considered this a serious contender on the album, but it’s here.
Yeah Count: 1
Love Count: 0
10) The Long and Winding Road
Another beautiful McCartney song that seems fitting on the state of the Beatles at this time. It’s the last singe (and last number one) they ever had so it’s kind of sad listening to it, and the melancholy timbre of the song doesn’t help! It’s a tremendously powerful song though, as McCartney was becoming extremely capable of banging out great piano-driven songs now.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
11) For You Blue
A nice Harrison blues song. He plays the intro guitar part and really that’s it. John plays the slide part which is decent and it’s a song that George isn’t really known for. As a blues song, you’ll find better elsewhere, but a Beatles blues song is a rarity.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 6
12) Get Back
The final song they ever played live. Pretty decent song that has been heard tons of times since on popular radio. It has a good chord structure and dig Lennon’s soloing. He plays all the lead lines on the record and Billy Preston (who was brought to the session to cool the tension) does a great job. It’s a light-hearted song and this version has the spoken ending with Lennon thanking the audience and saying they (the Beatles) hoped they passed the audition. This would be the last song heard on a Beatles record (according to release date) so it was kind of funny, about the 8 year audition in the public eye.
Yeah Count: 2
Love Count: 0
The Liner Notes
This one is only 4 pages long. The front is the cover, the back is the track listing and the inside has the track listing with songwriter credits on one page and the same four pictures from the album cover on the other.
The Sound
This was recorded WAY back in 1969 using analog tapes and only 8 track tapes to boot. It sounds really good for its age. Nowhere near the standards of today, but the Beatles sounding like this is better than anything released now, in my totally unbiased opinion!
The Final Review
This is generally considered one of the worse Beatles albums but that’s probably tainted since the seriously bad mood under which it was recorded. There’s some great songs in between some of the filler material. It’s one of the really only post-67 discs with obvious filler material which is why it’s not looked upon as up to the standards of anything past Pepper. The album does include 4 instantly recongnizable songs (Across the Universe, Let It Be, Get Back and Long and Winding Road) and those songs really save the album. Other great songs like I’ve Got a Feeling, I Me Mine and Two of Us make up a good listening experience, and at least the filler songs aren’t too long! Thankfully, they didn’t end their careers this way and they would reconvene one last time in the studio to record their swan song.
Final Rating:
8.5
8th out of 13
Final Yeah Count: 39
Final Love Count: 6
Cumulative Yeah Count: 231
Cumalative Love Count: 294
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