My early influences on
writing are Charles Dickens, Rod Serling, Simon and Garfunkel lyrics, and this
description on the back cover of the Beatles “Let It Be” album.
Here with this description,
I learned that much impression can be influenced by a few well-chosen words.
I shall provide comment
for each part of the description:
This is a new phase
Beatles album…
I think each and every
Beatles album that followed a previous one was a “new phase” in their recording
career. Beatles For Sale, Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, and
on, each of those were new phase in recording technique.
But what I learned from
this statement on the back of the album was that merely saying so explicitly gave
it a compelling air of uniqueness.
Essential to the content
of the film, LET IT BE was that they performed live for many of the tracks;
Perhaps what is referred to
here is the roof-top performance which took place on January 30, 1969. But, for
anyone who has watched the Let it Be/ Get Back sessions documentaries, one
could describe all of the tracks as “live”. I consider the experiment a series
of jam sessions which lack the precision of production under true recording
studio conditions.
In comes the warmth and
the freshness of a live performance;
I suppose I can concur as
it relates to the roof top concert. But the “working” sessions, as viewed in
the documentaries, left me with an “ok, let’s get on with it” impatience.
As reproduced for disk by
Phil Spector
The most conspicuous and
relevant statement in the description identifies the legendary Phil Spector as having,
not produced, rather, reproduced the material for disk,
rather than film.
Phil Spector had acquired such fame and
acclaim as a producer that when a new album was released by Ronnie and the Ronettes,
or other Spector-produced groups or material, it was often referred to as “the
latest Phil Spector album”.
That is how I see “Let it
Be”, as a Spector album with abandoned experimental Beatles material as his project.
By the time the album was released it had
become publicly known that the Beatles had broken up. The description on the back
cover helped to sell the album by using words such as new phase, fresh,
live.
But most effectively by invoking the
name of Phil Spector.
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| at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio |
