Worst Beatles song on Let It Be

What a bag of wank this record is.

"The Long and Winding Road" on here is absolutely horrible. It's decent on Naked. "Across the Universe" is also rotting dung.

I actually really like this album. It's much better like this than the Naked version, too. Voted for Dig It because it's just a bit pointless really.

The two oldest songs are also the worst. "One After 909" does at least give the impression of being an attempt at an OK rock song, so my vote for "Maggie Mae" then.

And this is obviously one of the worst Beatles albums, but "Let It Be", "The Long And Winding Road", "Across The Universe" and "I Me Mine" are all great songs.

What a bag of wank this record is.

― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 25 September 2009

^^^^^^^

Wouldn't it have been great if they'd just shelved the fucking thing and have left Abbey Road to end a pretty much perfect legacy.

I'm voting for "Get Back" - I never could get around any of the excuses for the dubious lyrical content, plus it's musically uninspiring. I could have easily voted for any of the others. I Don't hate Across the Universe nor The Long And Winding Road though, and reckon they should have scrapepd the album but put those out as a twin A-sider to cap off the end of the Beatles.

Get Back I can tolerate for the groove. Just about.

I like this album. Always have. The Long and Winding Road sucks ass, though.

You know what I hope nobody votes? I've Got a Feeling.

I've never actually listened to this in its entirety. I voted for the awful Across the Universe anyway.

Wouldn't it have been great if they'd just shelved the fucking thing and have left Abbey Road to end a pretty much perfect legacy.

If nothing else, it would have made the entire "Anthology" project a much more interesting thing. :)

I own both versions and have never managed to get through either, so am in no position to vote. I think that's most fitting. 'Maggie May' is good though.

'Maggie May' is good though.

Yeah. Possibly one of Rod Stewarts better moments. :)
"Maggie Mae", on the other hand, is crap. :)

Jeez, pwned by Geir...

I lol'd

I like the version of "I Me Mine" in the movie far more than this one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eD2sU8ocA8

voting Long and Winding Yawn

"long and winding road" and the version of "across the universe" on here (love the one on past masters) are suckage.

I was tempted by Long and Winding... That and ATU are both mawkish dirges, but the latter is a more pretentious mawkish dirge.

LAWR is going to be by a fucking space-sector the best of the losers

Sticking to Lennon/McCartney originals here, I'll vote for "Dig It."

Wouldn't it have been great if they'd just shelved the fucking thing and have left Abbey Road to end a pretty much perfect legacy.

― dog latin, Friday, 25 September 2009 11:39 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I disagree: Always leave them wanting less...

Apart from all the shit-smelling dross on this record, Phil Spector's fuckorisation of half the tracks turn it into a clinical abortion. Fucking horrible. Listen to, oh I don't know, I Me Mine off the brilliant Naked album, then listen to this Specthole version and TELL ME those revolting orchestrations belong within a billion light years of that song.

Voted for Across the Universe because it wasn't a fucking Beatles song in the first place AND it was already two years old AND Spector anally raped it with his stupid fucking 90-piece comedy wig orchestra AND slowed it down. One giant zone of get fucked.

Voted for Across the Universe because it wasn't a fucking Beatles song in the first place

It was written / recorded for some TV program or film, wasn't it?

was it? It *was* recorded for a charity LP, but ...

.. (I always thought he was singing "Kangaroo Dayyyys")

Yes, charity LP, that's what I meant.

yeah, but what was AutAl meaning?

You know, this week I played all the Naked tracks directly before all the Spectorised tracks (which I'd not heard in about 15 years), and wow. Just wow. There are 12-year-olds creating more effective mash-ups with Garage Band than anything that fright-wigged twat could manage with 600 cellists and the world's best engineering resources. Sloppy, cynical rubbish.

Yeah, I was meaning Lennon did it for another project and it was bunged on this LP to pad it out. It wasn't for this album.

Well the 1969 rehearsal was, but they didn't use that.

Laibach version of Across the Universe is lovely.

Okay so me calling it out as not a Beatles song was probably a stretch, but I'm still angry.

Yeah the actual Get Back sessions version of Across the Universe with full band is pretty awesome, as evidenced in the Let It Be movie. Wish they had polished that up a bit instead.

can't stand long and winding road. It's a whole song of the orchestral intros to academy award winning producer speeches

There's something infinitely lonely about Across The Universe/The Long And Winding Road. When I used to listen to them as a youngster (in the context of the Blue Greatest Hits) I remember feeling overwhelmed with melancholia by these two.

I think it's the only song on here that actually benefitted from Spector's treatment. If you want melodrama and a big sounds, he's the guy, I'm quite fond of the song actually (personal emotions forever tied to it, granted).

xp that was.

Agree with Dog Latin though, had the same experience

Worst: "The Long and Winding Song"
Best: "Two of Us"

Yes, 'Two of us' is nice.

surprised about all the hate for ATU, which I think is beautiful. I was trying to think of some way to mount a critical reappraisal of this album, as I think it (and Spector's work on it) is really unfairly maligned but I haven't thought it all through yet...

(fwiw Spector's indignation about the negative reception of Let it Be is fucking high-larious -"but its YOUR Beatles! Your precious Beatles! If my name wasn't on it, everyone would have loved it...")

He's sort of right about that, but maybe not in the way he'd intended.

There might be worse songs on this album than "Get Back," but I'm not inundated with any of those by all the local classic rock stations like I am with "Get Back."

Can someone talk more about why Across The Universe is bad? Sorry to be naive, but this really surprises me. As mentioned upthread, I've found this song to be so beautiful and sad...Is the hate for what Spector did to it, or the song itself? This is definitely some 'through-the-looking glass' subjectmatter for me...

The Anthology 2 version is the definitive Across The Universe take.

(fwiw Spector's indignation about the negative reception of Let it Be is fucking high-larious -"but its YOUR Beatles! Your precious Beatles! If my name wasn't on it, everyone would have loved it...")

― man, motherfuck a paddington bear (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, 26 September 2009 01:38 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That's interesting, because Let it Be is the reason I don't like Phil Spector.

I think it's the only song on here that actually benefitted from Spector's treatment. If you want melodrama and a big sounds, he's the guy, I'm quite fond of the song actually (personal emotions forever tied to it, granted).

― young depardieu looming out of void in hour of profound triumph (Le Bateau Ivre), Saturday, 26 September 2009 00:37 (10 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

But the non-orcherstral version of LAWR is gorgeous.

The Anthology 2 version is the definitive Across The Universe take.

OTM. Love that version, then the World Wildlife one, and then a few steps down is the Let It Be one.

Glancing at the tracklist, this isn't half as much of a drag of an album as I sometimes think of it being - some pretty solid songs there! I'd happily take the un-Spectored title track and "Long and Winding Road" but the rest is basically fine.

"I've Got A Feeling" is kind of a snooze though, and I think "Dig A Pony" has the worst, most off-key performing. In their prime that could have been a fantastic track, but they're all strung out, sick of each other, and not reading each other's cues anymore. The Beatles For Sale through Revolver Beatles could have done great things with that.

Always seemed odd that there weren't more covers/standards on this thing. I know they recorded tons along the way, although probably lots aren't really full/usable takes. The "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues" on Anthology was okay if a bit slow. I guess I'm asking for Get Back rather than Let It Be at that point though. But for my money the best stuff here is "Two Of Us," "For You Blue," and "One After 909," where they seem actually invested in playing some ordinary, fun, slight songs.

Actually, so long as I'm rewriting Beatle history, I kinda wish they'd dug up "One After 909" way earlier - could see it on Help! in place of "Dizzy Miss Lizzie."

There's something infinitely lonely about Across The Universe/The Long And Winding Road. When I used to listen to them as a youngster (in the context of the Blue Greatest Hits) I remember feeling overwhelmed with melancholia by these two.

My experience precisely, as well.

Voted "For You Blue," utterly wretched to my ears and I have no idea what people like about it.

Fuck a Long & Winding Road.

I still don't understand why Paul McCartney hates Phil Spector's additional production for "The Long And Winding Road" so much. After all, he would use basically the same kind of arrangement for "Maybe I'm Amazed", "My Love", "Love In Song", "Tug Of War", "Through Our Love", "No More Lonely Nights", "Only Love Remains", "Once Upon a Long Ago", "C'Mon People", "Beautiful Night" and "Anyway". Not to mention the 1984 re-recording of "The Long And Winding Road" itself.

So if Phil Spector was wrong for adding a full orchestra to a typical melodic Paul ballad, then why did Paul himself do the same thing 11 times (not counting the re-recording) for similar songs later on?

prolly my least fav beatles alb

I don't remember most of these, but I voted LAWR just to counter the AtU votes.

i me mine is annoying

the original get back album >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> let it be

prolly my least fav beatles alb

Yours and everybody's. Replacing a few of the crap tracks with "Don't Let Me Down", "Ballad of John & Yoko" and "Old Brown Shoe" would've elevated it to "pretty good" status. I don't hate the two little throwaways, they're kinda amusing. "Long-Winded Road" it is.

I still don't understand why Paul McCartney hates Phil Spector's additional production for "The Long And Winding Road" so much.

Geir, i believe that Paul exaggerated his LAWR hatred as an excuse to finally leave the band himself - after persuading George & John not to leave.

Replacing a few of the crap tracks with "Don't Let Me Down", "Ballad of John & Yoko" and "Old Brown Shoe" would've elevated it to "pretty good" status

Wouldn't have helped much, really. Because those tracks were all pretty weak. "Old Brown Shoe" would have improved it somewhat, but not the two others.

Since when is there an orchestra on "Maybe I'm Amazed?"

And this: So if Phil Spector was wrong for adding a full orchestra to a typical melodic Paul ballad, then why did Paul himself do the same thing 11 times (not counting the re-recording) for similar songs later on? . . . is just full-on dumb, and I think you know why.

"Two of Us" is my latest Beatles crush, there's such an odd vibe to it. sounds more like Tall Dwarfs really. don't get the "Across the Universe" hate, but won't get into it. the album overall is certainly kinda poor, still hard to pick the worst though, like "For You Blue" is obviously a useless throwaway track which in a way bothers me more than the schmaltzfest that is LAWR

there are some gems on here, 'two of us' especially.'

btw 'old brown shoe' is terrible, song is so grating & one of harrison's worst in the late-beatle period imo

'Don't Let Me Down' isn't on this?! Where does it come in?

On the "Past Masters" compilation, as the non-album b-side to "Get Back."

Listening to the Naked version of LAWR right now -- it's amazing and, thus, can't be the "worst" thing on LIB, even w/ the OTT arrangement.

Also, "I've Got a Feeling" is a "snooze"? Seriously?

Problem with the Spector strings is that they are full-on 101 Strings/Disney sap territory with a full orchestra and choir. But yeah who knows cos Paul was in break-up mode and when you are breaking up with someone you can say some pretty spiteful stuff.

"Get Back" is rubbish innit? especially for a single (think I even prefer "Love Me Do"!) and project name/concept! anyone care to defend it?

"Dig a Pony" is lame.

Get Back isn't one of faves or anything, but it's got a pleasant groove.

wtf, Get Back is a classic

"Get Back" is rubbish innit? especially for a single (think I even prefer "Love Me Do"!) and project name/concept! anyone care to defend it?

"Get Back" is boring but still >>>> "The Ballad Of John and Yoko"

i really hope "the long and winding road" wins this poll and the final one.

I'm not a big one for the "If you don't like x then you you'll never be a friend of mine" approach to life, but there's something about people who go on about loathing The Long and Winding Road that provokes a particularly resilient brand of contempt from me.

It's a whole song of the orchestral intros to academy award winning producer speeches

I can sort of see this, but I just hear Paul singing, not all that.

There's something infinitely lonely about Across The Universe/The Long And Winding Road. When I used to listen to them as a youngster (in the context of the Blue Greatest Hits) I remember feeling overwhelmed with melancholia by these two.

Yep, I think it's the imagery in them both, at the end of the Beatles.

Voted for Maggie Mae, just for its throwaway quality, though perhaps I should have voted for Let it Be, which really does bug me in a way TLAWR seems to bug others.

It's a whole song of the orchestral intros to academy award winning producer speeches

Sometimes that can be nice too. I mean, sure, if you want to just write off Handel, Wagner and Mahler, then fine. But really, sometimes the huge and grandiose and pompous is what really works.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

well that's pretty determinative.

lol alba hates all of us.

:'-(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEuWmn3387w&feature=related

I actually prefer the (2009 remaster) original solo on Let it be, rather than the ...Naked version.

nick, you gonna do the final poll?

I didn't vote in this poll, but I heard 'Dig A Pony' today for the first time in years. My thoughts included: this sucks. They sound bored. The only thing that stands out are Paul's interesting harmonies. Is this song still going on, and on? Why is it so slow? Maybe if they worked on it longer it would be better (or worse?). The music is plodding and dull, but the lyrics are actually stupid. Drugs are nice for awhile, but then they result in this kind of shit. This whole song is ill-conceived. It would be fine if they were just playing around, but it shouldn't have been released. I wonder how many times I've actually paid for this song (not many, it turns out; I think the last time was when I bought the 'Let It Be' album from a cutout bin at Joe Nardone's Gallery of Sound in Wilkes Barre PA in 1976).

Anyway, I probably would have voted for "I Me Mine." I like 'The Long And Winding Road,' it can still make me cry when I'm on the male equivalent of my period.

Looks like Beatles bootleggers once again doing the job Apple just can't seem to pull off:

http://wogew.blogspot.com/2011/03/widescreen-let-it-be-dvd.html

great stuff! we'll never see a DVD while McCartney's alive so this is the next best thing.
these Beatles boots of late have been amazing. that Unsurpassed Masters 4 x DVD thing was outfuckingstanding.

Where from, avoiding the bit-torrent?

et voila
http://theultimatebootlegexperience2.blogspot.com/2010/12/beatles-unsurpassed-promos-tour-years.html

I'm with Lennon on this one: as much as I like the versions on ...Naked, I think Phil Spector actually made improvements to portions of this album.

if only they'd done a beefed up Two Of Us on the actual record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSF17tLD4po

Yeah, I prefer that arrangement too!

always used to get irritated when beatles dweebs would complain about spector 'ruining' this album -- apart from the fact that half or more of these songs are mediocre, spector's production is fairly unobtrusive on everything except "long and winding road" and "across the universe" (though i like the spectorization of that one).

do love 'two of us' and 'i me mine,' and 'dig a pony' is sort of likably silly.

Wow, yeah, that amped-up Two Of Us is groovy (Ringo in particular really changing the game), aside from Paul's vocal mugging and the general roughness. Could have been a great woolly-rock single.

(haven't seen the film, obviously - even as a teenage beatle fan contemplating things to rent from the store it just looked like a total drag)

the movie is sad but it does have the rooftop concert (which is great obv) and george trying very very hard not to scream at paul. and, if i recall, a LOT of shots of john sitting around looking high.

It's not sad it's a bunch of average band rehearsal. The shocker was that they didn laff and joke all the time like people thought.

I only really like Two of Us and Get Back.

The long and winding road is awesome

Dig A Pony is also awesome, so is I Me Mine, fuck te haters.

And for all it's ubiquity and misappropriation over the last 40 years Let It Be (the song) is undeniable. So many bands aspire to that kind of anthemic-ness and not hit "mawkish."

ONLY hit mawkish, stupid iPhone

surprised by the affection for "I Me Mine" since it's not a song so much as a fragment and not a particularly compelling one. It only works because Paul decides to awaken the somnolent, sanctimonious proceedings.

Ringo is also jamming pretty hard on the four-four part.

oh that's true: that roll?

prefer the spector version of this album these days too. naked was fun when it first came out but the weird, lifeless no-noised mix is hard to take, and like it or not, spector let it be is what I grew up with. I think I had my first "wtf" moment with headphones listening to Across the Universe.

'kangaroo dave...'

Actually, I heard the 'first' version on the radio so much, it was a genuine surprise that it was the 'rare' version. The "Let it be" version isn't as good (to me).

I don't know why people hate "The Long And Winding Road" so much - well I do, but I think they're wrong. Anyway, I learned a cool piano chord from it, so it's OK by me.

surprised by the affection for "I Me Mine" since it's not a song so much as a fragment and not a particularly compelling one. It only works because Paul decides to awaken the somnolent, sanctimonious proceedings.

― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, October 20, 2013 7:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

kind of a week song imo

dig a pony is great, i don't know, it feels like it's struggling and fighting along to work as a song, but it does

always used to get irritated when beatles dweebs would complain about spector 'ruining' this album

no kidding. as far as i can tell, he saved it from being complete crap. yeah, it's heavily orchestrated, but you know what? it sounds better that way. For so long, people (like Paul McCartney) were moaning about how Spector ruined the Long and Winding Road. But take a listen to it without the orchestration, and it's barely a song at all.

the only album Spector couldn't save was "Sometime in New York City". His touch on this was unerring imho, Paul was wrong to fault him for Long and Winding Road being dreck ("physician heal thyself" etc.)

And of course, McCartney has played it with the Spector arrangement for years.

Let It Pee is more like it

as atrocious as spectorizationated "long and winding road" is, i would have to say "i me mine" is the worst song on this bad album.

'long and winding road' also features awful, borderline incompetent bass from john -- ian macdonald even speculated (probably wrongly) that he did it so badly on purpose out of spite. i actually think it's a rather nice song in its stripped-down version -- certainly prefer it to 'let it be' which i've always hated.

in general spector did wonderful things with solo beatles -- 'instant karma!' holds its own with anything he did in the '60s.

https://youtu.be/5_xJuRT2Tdk

“John, you’re on mute. John. Mute. You have to unmute.” pic.twitter.com/4N6kd0816m

— SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN🗽🤘🏽 (@sivavaid) May 3, 2020