Beatles' Let It Be (33 1/3) by Steve Matteo Read Free Book Online Page A

fantastic,” I said. “Lesley (my wife) would love that.” He said it was just an idea and then he motioned to the controlroom for them to run the tape. He ran through the song and then we said our farewells. Monday afternoon and Paul walks into my office. He hands an acetate record to me. “Present for Lesley,” he said. It was the recording from Friday. He then took the tape from his pocket and cut it into pieces before lobbing them into the waste bin. “Now you’ve got the only recording.” he said. “What’s it called?” I asked. “The Long and Winding Road,” he said.
    The group next performed “Get Back,” and then the focus shifted to George with “For You Blue” and two songs that appeared on the Band’s
Music From Big Pink:
“To Kingdom Come,” written by Robbie Robertson, and Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.” It’s hard to say if the group kept returning to certain covers as an indication that they intended them to be part of the still unplanned live concerts. Next came “Oh! Darling” and many attempts at “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”; then there was a run of oldies broken up by “Across the Universe.” The group worked through the song a good deal on that day. George Harrison was encouraging John to do it, but John kept forgetting the words and felt the song was too slow. To help John, Apple was contacted and told to send the lyrics of the song over to Twickenham. Further attempts at the song were more complete, yet equally unsuccessful. The oldies encompassed such familiar terrain as “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music,” “Lucille,” and yet another Carl Perkins cover. Aftergoing over more new songs, such as “Dig a Pony” and “Don’t Let Me Down,” the Beatles pulled out “The Devil In Her Heart” and followed it with “Be Bop A Lula” and “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.” They also had another go at “One After 909.”
    On January 8, the group followed a similar pattern of working through new songs. They took many stabs at playing “I Me Mine,” and then tackled “Two of Us,” “Don’t Let Me Down,” “I’ve Got a Feeling,” “All Things Must Pass,” and “Mean Mr. Mustard.” A morning run-through of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” and “One After 909” gave way to a return to the oldies hit-parade and a more recent song, Jimmy Webb’s “MacArthur Park.” Interspersed throughout the oldies were “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and “Oh! Darling.” The group then ran through many versions of “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road” before coming back to “To Kingdom Come.”
    The next day was dominated by Paul, particularly during its first half. “Another Day,” yet another song destined for a non-Beatles project, was one of the first songs done nearly all the way through, followed by many versions of “Let It Be.” “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” “The Long and Winding Road,” and “Oh! Darling” finally gave way to George’s “For You Blue,” before Paul and John launched into “Two of Us.”
    Of the songs performed that day, two were never released and have generated considerable excitement over the years for collectors of unreleased Beatles songs. One of them was “Suzy’s Parlour.” Seemingly improvised on the spot, it has a 50s pop-rock feel. Lennon’s sly wit and adult lyrical content in the song dispel the commonly held notion that the Twickenham sessions were all gloom and doom. Also, John sang the song, which appeared briefly in the “Let It Be” film, in a hillbilly, old mountain-man style. The song was originally entitled “Suzy Parker” but its name was changed for copyright reasons.
    More run-throughs of “I’ve Got a Feeling,” “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” “Get Back,” and “Across the Universe” were followed by yet another Carl Perkins number. Among covers of “House of the Rising Sun,” Dylan’s “I Threw It All Away” and “Mama You’ve