At last we can hear Let It Be the way it was meant to be, the original masters in their originally intended form, PLUS a bonus, "fly on the wall" disc that presents 25 minutes of music and conversation from the Beatles at work in rehearsal and in the studio.

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I was expecting this new version to retain at least that ravishing George guitar solo, but I was deflated instantly when I found out it does not.

For all the bad raps he's got, I also think Phil Spector's added orchestrations for "Long and Winding Road" actually helped make the song better. The version that comes with this re-release is supposed to sound as originally intended, but I don't see how it's better than the 1970 version. FWIW, nothing in Let It Be has come out as intended. Even its current position as the last of the Beatles album is a result of accident. "Abbey Road" was supposed to be the last, and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/In the End" was supposed to be the Beatles' swan song, not "Long and Winding Road". But after you've heard "Long and Winding Road", especially the soaring Spector version, would you say it was the wrong song for the part? I don't think so.

This is still a good record to have. It's not a justifiable buy, from a value for money POV. Nothing recent about the Beatles is, not even the ridiculously popular Anthology albums, with the exception perhaps of the "Live at the BBC" which IMO is a worthy addition. But for a diehard Beatle fan and collector, this is a must have. But don't throw out the 1970/Spector version out just yet. You might miss it someday.

Many years from now, I know I'll put the original on the player, crank the amps, switch to the title track, close my eyes, and listen to that rare, only-in-this-album-and-nowhere-else George Harrison guitar solo.

91 of 109 found the following review helpful:

Want a REAL alternate version? (Instructions included)Nov 25, 2003

By taking out the dialogue, this has been made into an antiseptic, somewhat ordinary work. The point was to strip away Spector's figerprints, but they removed the charm as well. Far from being "Naked," it actually sounds well-produced. These versions are for the most part ones we've heard before, so there's no great revelation. Many note that "Anthology Disc 3" provided better insights, and I agree; a good fifty percent of the "Let It Be" songs are on that disc! But the most egregious thing those in charge (and, contrary to many claims I've read in these reviews, I think Paul had less to do with this than many claim) did was to change the running order of the songs. Sorry -- once you're used to it, it doesn't pay to change the formula; you can't act as if the original never existed.
SO -- if you really want a cool, alternate "Let It Be," get the ORIGINAL "Let It Be," the ANTHOLOGY 3 disc, and "Let it Be NAKED," and then burn the following songs onto a CD in this order:

1. Two Of Us (Anthology 3)
2. Dig A Pony (Anthology 3)
3. Across the Universe (Naked)
4. I Me Mine (Anthology 3)
5. Dig It (Original)
6. Let It Be (Anthology 3)
7. Maggie Mae (Original)
8. Medley: Rip It Up/Blue Suede Shoes (Anthology 3)
9. Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues (Anthology 3)
10. Old Brown Shoe (Anthology 3)
11. I've Got a Feeling (Anthology 3)
12. One After 909 (Naked or Original)
13. Long and Winding Road (Anthology 3)
14. For You Blue (Anthology 3)
15. Don't Let Me Down (Naked)
16. Get Back (Anthology 3)

Try it... it's very cool, and you won't feel as disappointed!

384 of 475 found the following review helpful:

Great marketing campaign, disappointing albumNov 18, 2003
By David Goodwin
With the release of "Let It Be...Naked," I think it's finally clear that Apple has lost it. They have no idea what Beatles fans--let alone the general public--might want. To Apple, all Beatles releases are events, and all must therefore be marketed to the be-all and end-all.

Let's look at what "Let It Be...Naked" purports to be. The old "Let It Be" album is certainly one of the most controversial entities in the Beatles' catalogue. Recorded largely before "Abbey Road" but released afterwards, the sessions for what would become Let It Be were extraordinarily contentious, plagued by conflicting egos, drug use, apathy, and all sorts of negativity. The original plan--which was to film rehearsals for an eventual live concert--was largely scrapped; the live concert idea, originally posited as taking place before a huge audience in a famous location, ended up being given on the roof of Apple studios.

Yet music for the project *was* recorded, after all, so the band set out trying to make an album out of the mess. A few sample compilations of the album were created (and, indeed, were played on radio stations at the time), but barring the Get Back/Don't Let Me Down and Let It Be singles, nothing was used at that time. Eventually, however, the project was passed off to Phil Spector, who set about creating an album from the mess, but who also overdubbed something approximating his legendary "wall of sound" onto a few cuts. It is for this reason, ostensibly, that "Let It Be...Naked" exists.

"Let It Be...Naked" purports to be the Let It Be album as the Beatles originally intended, stripped of its Phil Spector excess...and...uh, well, reordered, I suppose. Paul McCartney has been complaining for *years* about Spector's treatment of his "The Long and Winding Road" (and indeed cited that as "sabotague" in some of his earlier breaking-up-the-band lawsuits).

So is "Let It Be...Naked" the album that was originally intended? Probably not. The Beatles didn't *know* what they wanted, which is precisely why they kept farming the material out. "Let It Be...Naked" is revisionism, which is hardly a bad thing, but it'd be nice to be up front about it.

But that's the thing: "Let It Be...Naked" is barely revisionism at all, because it simply *isn't very different* from Let It Be. Spector's overindulgence was limited to exactly three tracks: I Me Mine, The Long and Winding Road, and Across the Universe. Sparse versions of the first two were made available on Anthology 3. Granted, the versions available here are different, but hardly to a revelatory extent.

The album has been reordered, with two of the slighter tracks ("Maggie Mae" and "Dig It") being dumped in favor of "Don't Let Me Down." Additionally, the between-song chatter that marked the original has been eliminated as well. And despite the kicking-him-when-he's-down denigration of Spector's treatment of the album (does anybody else think the timing of this, what with Spector's legal problems, is particularly unpleasant?), his template of the album is clearly still fresh, as "I Me Mine" retains its edit-for-length and "Dig a Pony" removes the same music.

What does this mean? Sure, it presents a few alternate takes, but "Let It Be...Naked" really doesn't sound all that different. It isn't revelatory in the slightest--thanks largely to Anthology 3--and its use of alternate takes for some tracks feels like a "why bother?" endeavor; they simply aren't changed enough to feel like anything new. Even worse, the "Naked" and "as nature intended" implications are flat out false, as many of the new takes are glorified "out-fakes" created by editing together and creatively remixing takes (the title track is an excellent example, with parts of several versions composited into a whole).

The back of "Let It Be...Naked" mentions that the bonus CD (which, thankfully, doesn't seem to add to the cost) provides a "unique insight into the recording of the album." This is untrue to a hilarious extent, unless quickly-edited snippets of dialogue and music appeal to you. Folks, this stuff has been bootlegged for *thirty years* now, something that Apple seems to be in denial about. Disc 2 could've been a sparkling version of the rooftop concert, or some of the better performances from the rehearsals; instead, it's a focusless, single-track mess that I doubt anybody will listen to more than once.

All of this could be forgiven, I guess, if "Let It Be...Naked" sounded stellar. It had the chance to, after all; it was remixed from the multitracks. Unfortunately, "Let It Be...Naked" just sounds *different*. The use of no-noise processing leaves several tracks feeling very artificial, with Ringo's drums sounding particularly anemic on several cuts. Not terrible, but certainly not what it could have been.

My verdict: "Let It Be...Naked" is a cheap buy, but is hardly what could have been, and is almost definitely not "naked" or "the album the Beatles intended." It feels at its core like an inconsequential throwaway, a quick lark of revisionism being marketed as a major artistic reclamation of a lost work...a lost work which, it should be noted, rarely ranks as a fan favorite. To hear Apple's marketing campaign, "Let It Be...Naked" is unprecedented and revelatory, a great artistic statement worthy of a celebrity roundtable discussion (I mean...what's next? "Beatles for Sale...Naked?" With Leave My Kitten Alone instead of Mr. Moonlight and Honey Don't deleted because Ringo never liked it? With comments from Fiona Apple about how it's really her favorite album?). It isn't.

Is it worth buying? I guess. It's cheap (currently), and it provides an interesting alternative to an album that most Beatles fans are undoubtedly fairly familiar with. Just set your expectations accordingly, and try to ignore the fact that Apple decided that *this* was more relevant than a well-transferred, mono/stereo hybrid reissue program to replace those mediocre 1987 Beatles discs we've been stuck with for so long.

16 of 17 found the following review helpful:

Let it Be - The way it should be.Nov 20, 2003
By Peter Dillman
The original "Let it Be" was always dismissed as a haphazard collection of uneven songs, either over or under-produced. Although I liked Phil Spector's work with George's album, I never realized what a hatchet job he did with the songs on "Let it Be" until I heard this clean, crisp and strikingly intimate re-issue. The studio versions of the "rooftop" songs are tighter and better recorded. The songs cleared of the Spector over-production have a pulse and showcase the group's intrumental abilities (especially Billy Preston). John's "Across the Universe" is hauntingly touching and Paul's "Long and Winding Road" conveys the spirit of gentle longing that it was meant to originally. I wish they could have included some other tracks on the bonus CD, but this is well worth having.

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