maggie may is pointless..

Sdldawn said:

most of the chatter on Let It Be is pointless. As it relates to the movie, it makes sense, but opening an album with "I DIG A PYGMY!!" makes no logical sense.

That stuff (& Maggie May & Dig It) should have been saved for the Anthology

i disagree, it gives the album a very raw, homemade kinda vibe. I like them as segues.

of course, since i grew up with the album (and all the beatles albums) it's just strange hearing it without those bits, so that's probably a huge part of it.

matt busby! dig it, dig it, dig it, dig it....

i like the chatter, but that maggie may... i dunno.. hearing the fly on the wall disk with let it be naked.. i just think there was more to choose from

Sdldawn said:

Well, John did the sequencing, and I suspect that he placed Maggie Mae after Let it Be to mock the sanctimoniousness of that track, and I imagine Maggie Mae's (a song about a dirty whore) inclusion was aimed as pissing off Paul (which no doubt it did.)

Just like the mocking "and now we'd like to do All The Angels Come" at the end of "Dig It" heading into "Let it Be".

So that mischievous aspect of the whole thing sorta adds additional tension to what was, after all, a very tense project from start to it's finish.
[Edited 10/2/09 7:38am]

NoVideo said:

Paul's humor was quite intact and wicked as well. It's not like Lennon could go and sequence up the album and put it out without consent and appreciation from the others, especially Paul. I think the Beatles as whole loved to make fun of their own twists and turns on albums to cover their asses and be more rounded... cool from every angle if possible. Kind of like how Lennon on his own song says "out...in." making fun of his own conviction - Revolution

ufoclub said:

I agree that Paul definitely has a sense of humor, but in this instance John sequenced the album himself w/ Phil Spector, and Paul had no idea what was going on and tried without success to block the release when he heard it.
[Edited 10/2/09 9:56am]

NoVideo said:

I thought that was reportedly because of Phil Spector's additions, right? Paul is all for the irrelevant ironic mood twists and fragments... like "Her Majesty" closing out the epic Abbey Road. I think they all are... were. Look at George Harrsion's involvment with Monty Python and his own silly video like "Got My Mind Set on You"... but I do love Ringo in "Caveman"

ufoclub said:

I think it was mainly because of Spector's additions that Paul tried to block it, yes. But my point was that he had nothing to do w/ the final sequencing that included "Let It Be" being sandwiched in between the "all the angels come" said by John in a kid's voice, and the snippet of "Maggie Mae."

And I think this sorta mischevious (or downright nasty) sequencing definitely adds some spice to the final product... This was at the time-period where things were the absolutely worst between the group members. John was publicly lashing out at Paul's solo album in the press and calling it crap, and there was alot of back and forth between them.

Also the version of The Long and Winding Road that Phil Spector covered up with strings was just a run-through, with John playing bass (and making tons of mistakes). John and Phil could have had Paul come in to correct the errors and re-record the part but they didn't (Ian Macdonald talks about all this in "Revolution in the Head", an incredibly awesome book on the Beatles' music that I highly recommend to any Beatles fan).

NoVideo said:

It's not so much that I dislike the chatter as I think it disrupts the flow of the music a bit. Somehow those little bits seemed better thought out on the White Album to transition between songs effectively.

I thought Naked was just a better flow of music, more what the album was intended to be, where the Phil Specter version was what the project really was--warts & all, so to speak.

Ironically, the Naked version is less raw.

NoVideo said:

I'm going to have to check this out

NDRU said:

IMHO, it's the best book written about the Beatles' music by a wide margin. He has a section on each song they recorded, and its incredibly insightful from a musical perspective. Great stuff.

I wish Ian Macdonald had lived to see hear these reissues (he died in 2003), and Let it Be... Naked, I would have been curious to read his take on them. He did put out an updated version of his book that talked about the BBC collection and the Anthologies that came out in the 90's.

http://www.amazon.com/Rev...1556527330

NoVideo said:

Great book. Read it with your ipod so you can listen along.

tecstar said:

that's exactly what I do


Listening to the Beatles while reading this book is a very cool experience for sure. Macdonald can hear things in the music that I never would have noticed and its like... oh hell yeah! Great stuff.