'Let It Be' 50th anniversary reissues | Page 13 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Have heard the first disc of outtakes as well as the first four tracks on the second (ending, for now, with the ‘I Me Mine ‘ rehearsal).

The main thought that came to mind over this was that of realising that I was wrong to be expecting a multi-disc set covering the full thirty days. The release is the same as with the other 50th anniversary releases where we get alternates of the released numbers along with a few other pieces recorded during the sessions and was never going to be any different. It’s why we get the ‘Dig It ‘ outtake that ends with John’s “Hark The Angels Comes” which led into ‘LIB ‘ on the album and the outtake of ‘Get Back ‘ with the coda that was edited onto the commercial single. That then runs into Ron’s hope and suggestion of some kind of soundtrack of the movie which would include a greater collection of the rehearsals and performances that were never going to be included here. Maybe it is denial and false hope but I also don’t believe Apple would announce a £100 anniversary ‘LIB ‘ set at the same time as a multi-disc soundtrack coming later down the line as it risks buyers opting for the latter over the former. After that thought I found it easier to sink into the set which led to the remembrance that this is NEW Beatles music, and no matter what, I should always be grateful for such things, even if it’s rubbish and buried in bullshit PR (see ‘LIBN’).

On that basis of that approach the dialogue tracks are almost pointless, especially when they are heavily shortened which removes a lot of the context and point, as well as being marred by random guitar noodling. I get that Giles thought that hearing a Beatle talk about getting an album together is of historical interest but one listen and who cares, especially when soon after it’s stopped so you hear nothing else? It reminds me of the spoken tracks on ‘Anthology 1 ‘ which were soon ditched and never seen again. Similarly, the rehearsals of ‘All Things Must Pass ‘ and ‘Give Me Some Truth’ are a waste of time. Listening to them rehearse the former only makes me want to hear one of the full performances they did later on, there was no complete band run-thru of ‘GMST’ so why here aside from it’s now an important John track and statement (did two Beatle wives have some heavy influence with these?). The rehearsal of ‘IMM’ is dreadful and I presume is only here to answer any wondering of why a 1970 recording appears on the previous disc.

For the alternates, I find John’s statement at the end of the ‘DAP’ outtake to be true, “I think the other one was much better’ as in there are better outtakes from the sessions. However, that is simply listener choice and on that Giles is screwed with no chance of success. Unlike with the ‘Pepper’, ‘TB’ and ‘AB’ selections, fans have heard many more alternates, have their favourites and wonder why those were overlooked for others. It was the same when George Martin compiled the ‘Anthology’ albums; who didn’t sit and wonder why an outtake or song wasn’t chose over ones that were?

I still have more to listen to, and that’s pleasing as it gets me walking with happiness. It’s new Beatles and it sounds wonderful. I’ve heard John sing ‘DLMD’ on the roof 100+ here but it sounds so clean here, like it’s a studio recording, and in this context that’s a positive as it doesn’t jar. 

The end of this rambling is that when listening I came back to the opinion that, aside from ‘ATU’ and ‘TLAWR’, Phil Spector did a fantastic job when putting together ‘LIB ‘. It’s impossible to listen to that without all the surrounding dramas coming to mind but as an album away from all that it is brilliant. Not the best Beatles album but that bar is so damn high considering all the others. So I’m (almost) with John when he said Spector “was given the shittiest load of badly-recorded s**t with a lousy feeling to it ever, and he made something of it.”.

Edit #1. Have heard the rest of outtakes disc 2 and the Glyn Johns mixes. The rehearsals are a complete waste of time, reminiscent of the ‘Fly On The Wall’ disc; hear them once and skip them forever more. Yes, it’s fun to hear George talk about pomegranates and order vegetables for lunch and Ringo sing ‘Octopus’s Garden for the first time ever but surely they are better watched on the screen, and isn’t that why so many other tracks were left off? God knows the point of ‘SCITTBW’. The complete take is on ‘Anthology 3 ‘ in great quality so why on earth do we get it edited after 50-odd seconds so Giles (or someone else on the team) can create a rehearsal which then cuts back to the end of the take? I presume someone was bored, needed something to do to and their phone was dead so couldn’t play games or go on Facebook. ‘Oh! Darling ‘ is fun but, again, it’s on ‘Anthology 3 ‘. It surely is on here because of John’s announcement of Yoko’s divorce so ok, however, it still irks me. We now have the full ending (I think) so you can compare it to ‘Rocky Raccoon ‘ on ‘Anthology 2 ‘, but then that falls flat since the beginning was only ever on the Nagra tapes so can never be fully complete. Why are we getting rehearsals of ‘Abbey Road ‘ tracks anyway? And why only these few, what about ‘Mean Mister Mustard’ and ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer ‘ – did Olivia threaten to quit this time if that was included?
The rest of the disc picks up with the proper outtakes but there are only a few. So yeah Disc 2 is almost needless with about 10 minutes of worthwhile music.

That leaves the excitement of the bonus EP!! But out of the four, two are 2021 remixes of the commercial versions and one is the 1970 mix of ‘I Me Mine ‘ which I have heard a bit of and the sound quality is ghastly. No idea why Apple have made a worse quality mix than when they started. That leaves what I think is the most bestest version of ‘ATU’, I certainly hope so. One where the screaming out of tune warbling backing vocals are long gone. Fingers crossed.

The Glyn Johns mixes are fine, if you didn’t know any better you would have no issues. The sequencing sucks tho and some of the performances are massively inferior to what ended up on ‘LIB ‘ so I can see why it got ditched.

Oh. And going back to an early post. We got “Who the f**k’s Doris!!?” Thank you, Apple!!

Edit #2. Listened to the EP. ‘ATU’ is beautiful but the shrieking vocals remain if admittedly lower than before. It’s probably the best mix out there at the moment. ‘DLMD’ and ‘LIB ’ sound fine, tho for some reason there is dialogue at the beginning of the former. That leaves the new mix of Johns mix of ‘I Me Mine ’ and by god it’s far worse than I was prepared for; like expecting the doctor to use one of those small hammers to text your reflexes only for him to bring out a sledge hammer. It sounds crummy and behind a wall of sludge from the off but there is this horrible sounding artefact that can be heard whenever George is singing. Very offputting and annoying. I cannot see any reason for ever listening to this again when it’s far better on the bootlegs. 

For every release of these, be it Beatles or solo, I always go to the alternates first, so still the hear the remix of the album. 

Expert Textpert said
It could have all fit on 3 CDs instead of 5…and there would have been room to spare on each disk.

  

Yes but the fifth was a bonus so we should be grateful we only got ripped off for one extra disc. 

I’d love to have it explained to me why we have a 4 track EP. According to Giles he was given a specific number of CDs (call it a great coincidence but ‘Pepper’, ‘The Beatles’ and ‘Abbey Road ‘ all have two discs of outtakes on the Special Editions) and he then filled them (I presume the length is the standard Beatle CD length). So if that was the first four why was he given a bonus smaller one, or did he fight for it? If so why these four or was he told he could only put on four songs, we’re not harking back to 1963 here when the EP was popular? Why couldn’t these four songs go on the fourth disc and save god knows how much money and shiny plastic? 
Personally, my own theory, with zero evidence, is that there was a different fifth disc and all the packaging etc was organised. My bet is the Rooftop concert. Disney told Apple etc to leave it off as it would be in the documentary and so it was scrapped and we have been sold a nice story; concert looks better on film, here’s a special bonus EP, we all look bemused whilst handing our cash over.

Expert Textpert said
Yeah I can hear something amiss with that track on the EP…but I don’t know if I would have known otherwise. I don’t scrutinize the Get Back bootlegs that closely.

  

It doesn’t matter about the bootlegs when listening if it sounds good, the trouble is it sounds s**t. Whoever mixed it messed it up, whoever sanctioned it for release messed it up.

One of the most insane things I found out from all the anniversary sets is that there are people out there who can trace the bootleg source, compare and work out what was done to the track(s) used for the official product.