I’ve been a huge Beatles fan for a long time, but this particular album never quite clicked with me for some reason. I don’t know why, exactly, but this recent (2003) “Naked” version did click with me recently, in a very big way.
I like the stripped-down sound better, which was the way the album was originally meant to be heard. Back in 1969, Paul McCartney had conceived of the project as a sort of “back to our roots” thing without a lot of heavy studio production, but his falling out with John Lennon in those later years resulted in the album’s being handed over to Phil Spector and mixed entirely out of sync with that original idea.
And while it doesn’t quite have the richness and complexity of their later George Martin-produced material (Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper and The Beatles, aka “the white album”), it does work as what it was meant to be: the greatest damn rock band that ever lived, just jamming to the old bluesy stuff that got them started in the first place.
John, Paul and George were clearly all writing individually at this point. And honestly, Paul’s stuff comes off as a bit schmaltzy and overly poppy (even for them) without the counterbalance of his famously cynical writing partner. John, for his part, is in solid form though, channelling his hostility for the band and his love for Yoko into some damned fine numbers.
But the real star of this era, in my opinion, is Mr. George Harrison — starting with the white album, continuing here and on through Abbey Road, he was really starting to step out from the shadow of the Lennon-McCartney behemoth and finding himself as a songwriter. His two entries, “For You Blue” and “I, Me, Mine” are just as solid as anything else on the record. Maybe he was never quite as good as John and Paul together, but with the pair barely speaking at this point and his own talents continuing to develop (as we were able to see from the previous decade or so of recorded material), he easily holds his own against them individually by this time.
You may argue that I have left out Ringo in my analysis. That’s quite an astute observation there.
It’s always exciting to get into a classic album from a favorite band for the first time — it’s almost like getting something new. And while it’s not quite Abbey Road or Sgt. Pepper, it’s still pretty damned good. Because let’s be honest here: bad Beatles is still better than good… just about anything else.
It’s nice that we finally got the opportunity to hear this album the way it was meant to be heard. Now, if only we could see the movie Let it Be, which hasn’t had a proper DVD release yet. (Sure, it’s up in a few pieces on the YouTube, but that’s hardly the same. Let’s see those final days in all their horribly awkward glory.)