Beatlemaniacs: New "Let It Be" On The Way!

(Culled from different sources in and around the 'net and thanks to forrestina for bringing it to my attention!)

The surviving Beatles are planning to re-release "Let It Be" the way they intended: stripped down. The album will have the same track listing, but it will not have the orchestration that producer Phil Spector added to it after the band broke up.

The "Let It Be" movie will also be released on DVD, and this summer the originally 1996 "Beatles Anthology" documentary will also be released on DVD.

Ringo Starr has announced that a "stripped down" version of Let It Be is being prepared for release.

In 1969, when most of the Let It Be tracks were recorded for an
album and film entitled Get Back, The Beatles were at odds on how to release the material.

Paul wanted an album with the Beatles returning to their roots as a
four-piece band plying rock and roll. He also had hopes of getting back on the road as such, hence the title Get Back. Early releases of the album came with a lavish book 'Get Back'. These are now highly collectible.

The film showed the group going through bad times and the project was temporarily abandoned. Meanwhile the group got themselves back together to some extent and recorded their final and one of their best albums, Abbey Road, with George Martin keeping order. The film, retitled Let It Be, was released the following year.

Then John insisted that Phil Spector, the legendary "Wall of Sound" producer be brought in to compile an album from the tapes although
Glynn Johns had already produced an album more or less ready for release.

Spector's work has always been a bone of contention with Paul, particularly the addition of strings to The Long and Winding Road.

Ringo told Rolling Stone that the new CD was "the de-Spectorised
version". He said: "Paul was always totally opposed to Phil. I told
him on the phone recently, 'Your're bloody right again, it sounds
great without Phil'. Which it does. Now we'll have to put up with him
telling us over and over again, 'I told you so!'"

He said: "It fills my heart with joy to hear the band that I was a
member of. They were just great. And also, the quietness of the
tracks. It's a beautiful CD. "

He added that George had approved the release of the new version before his death. He said that the project, under way for at least two years, instigated the recovery of the stolen Get Back tapes.

George has already had All Things Must Pass de-Spectorised so his approval is quite plausible.