Great Magazine Reads: How Let It Be really finished off The Beatles

Classic Rock Magazine digs deep into history, and the cover story for Issue 276 puts all of the The Beatles’ final album, Let It Be (even though it was recorded before Abbey Road), into perspective. Here are some of the doozy need-to-knows:

• John Lennon was at the height of his heroin addiction and the others didn’t know how to help him.
• John wanted little to no production from George Martin, hoping for a raw recording of the band jamming in the studio, which is what happened to a degree, not that one can tell in the Phil Spector-produced version of the album.
• John suggested replacing George Harrison with Eric Clapton at one point. And the two of them were probably the chummiest of the four during the sessions!
• Nobody even introduced George Martin and Yoko Ono to each other.
• Being constantly filmed at early-morning sessions didn’t help anything either.
• Midway through, they made Billy Preston an honorable member of the band and everything calmed down. They hit their old stride and made great songs with Preston, like “Get Back.”
• “Two of Us” is about Paul and Linda McCartney but it can be interpreted as about Paul and John.
• “I’ve Got a Feeling” is probably the last genuine collaboration between Paul and John.
• The band didn’t bother to help produce the album, for the first time since Please Please Me.
• George Martin and Paul really disliked Spector’s production, agreeing he made The Beatles try to sound like other bands instead of themselves.

My take: I definitely love the album Let It Be, but it’s because of the songwriting, not because of Spector’s production.