Get Back To Where It Should Have Belonged
Billy is well versed in everything Bob Dylan, Beatles, and US-Canadian Relations. — Aaron
I was recently cruising in my car, one of those fantastic summer night drives, tunes blaring with all the windows down. I’d like to say I was living life in the fast lane, but since my 2000 Ford Explorer hit 120,000 miles, when I push it to the limit I don’t usually hit the speed limit. The other major flaw with my car right now is that the tape deck doesn’t work, meaning that I rock out to a CD collection that has been stagnant since Smashmouth, Everclear, and the fat substitute Olestra were the hippest elements in my life.
One of the few albums that has stood the test of time from my younger days is The Beatles 1, which I was making my way through on 128 as minivan after minivan zoomed past me. The single version of Let It Be came on, with its heavy gospel organ and its piercing vocals from Paul. As the final piano chord fades out, I reflected on how complete of a Paul song Let It Be is, from its infectious chorus to its stunningly powerful and direct lyrics, an aspect of Paul’s writing that is often lacking. Before I could elevate Paul from his number four ranking on my favorite Beatle list, however, my speakers were overcome by the saccharin bombardment that is The Long and Winding Road. I slumped back in the driver’s seat, fighting with full resolve the desire to skip to Let It Be one more time.
What is Paul saying in The Long and Winding Road that he hasn’t said with more precision already in Let It Be? Melodically, The Long and Winding Road sits in dead last among its epic-ballad cohorts of Let It Be and Maybe I’m Amazed (you could even add Hey Jude if you widen the time frame and Golden Slumbers if you envision its full length potential). Yet the song’s most central flaw cannot be blamed on Paul. Its absurd orchestration transforms what would be a mediocre to acceptable Paul piano ballad (of a slightly higher quality than The Back Seat Of My Car) into a piece of music appropriate only for the climatic reunion scene of a Lifetime original movie. Phil Spector needs to be given a great deal of the blame in the creation of this kitsch tragedy.
Phil Spector is the centrally dividing figure surrounding the entire Let It Be album. On the one hand, he was able to salvage what was basically weeks of arguably the greatest pop musicians of the twentieth century yelling at each other into an album considered by many to still be an entirely adequate Beatles album (translation: one of the top 100 albums of all time). This was John’s point of view, who claimed that just by creating “something” Spector had done an unbelievable job. On the other side, the “something” Spector had created was not a true Beatles album. Spector, in his tacking on of random studio conversations and pulling out all of the stops in his outlandish arrangments, destroyed any possible thematic continuity that existed in the session tapes.
Remember, these were the Get Back sessions for a reason; it was the Beatles’ attempt at going back to where they had started, writing and revisiting songs like One After 909, Two Of Us, and Don’t Let Me Down, songs that would have seamlessly fit on Please Please Me. No one is going to argue that the sessions were not a failure in achieving this goal across an entire album, however, Spector made sure that any lingering hopes of creating an album that could have the same cover art as Please Please Me were dashed.
So after bashing Spector, I have to leave you with my own attempt at making a cohesive album that could truthfully don the title Get Back. I have spent countless hours reworking this mix, but I hope I inspire any Beatles fan that reads this to give it a try themselves. There is something special about putting your own mark on the music of the greatest band that ever lived.
The Beatles - The Walk (Get Back Acetate)
Get Back: The Billy Clark Mix
1. Get Back (Single Version) - Past Masters Vol. 2
2. Dig A Pony - Let It Be
3. For You Blue - Anthology 3
4. I’ve Got A Feeling - Let It Be…Naked
5. One After 909 - Let It Be
6. Two Of Us - Let It Be…Naked
7. The Walk - Get Back Acetate
8. Don’t Let Me Down - Past Masters Vol. 2
9. Old Brown Shoe - Past Masters Vol. 2
10. I Me Mine - Let It Be…Naked
11. Across The Universe - Let It Be…Naked
12. Get Back (Rooftop Version) - Anthology 3
13. Let It Be - Let It Be
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