As a musical statement, Let It Be was a decidedly clumsy affair. Ad-libs, false starts, jokes, tracks that tailed off into muso-noodling–proof conclusive The Beatles were not the infallible geniuses hailed in the wake of Sgt. Pepper’s. Let it Be...Naked is surely MaccaStalinist revisionism then.
But do you miss ‘Maggie Mae’ and ‘Dig It’? Only if you try really hard. On the other hand ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’, one note jazz woodbine bass groove turned right up, now has a soulful ‘Helter Skelter’ chorus. ‘Two Of Us’ benefits from clarity, guitar tones shimmer more, and Lennon’s countrified harmonies are rescued from the murk of the original. While ‘I Me Mine’ loses a little of the Fall of the Roman Empire grandeur the Spector treatment gave it, and the endings feel a little clipped, this is a more Beatle-y Beatles album. Production values on a par with Abbey Road or The Beatles give an organic unity to the whole album. ‘The Long And Winding Road’s melodrama is transformed – bouncing single note bass and chorused guitars seem circa 1967 rather than 1970.
Sitars running through Leslie speakers ebb behind a heavily reverbed vocal on the stripped-down ‘Across The Universe’ (some psycho-acoustical process means you still hear the choirs and strings that aren’t there). ‘Let it Be’ itself has been through the de-schmaltz-ifier, vintage harmonies and Billy Preston’s gospel organ fills remain, but like ‘Hey Jude’ – enough is allowed to be as good as a feast. A little revisionism goes a long way.