Tuesday, November 18, 2003

By Ed Masley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Knocking down the wall of sound Phil Spector brought to "Let It Be" is a bit like putting new arms on the Venus de Milo. Yes, the album as we've come to know it is flawed. And no, it isn't what the artists -- least of all Paul McCartney -- had in mind. But for 33 years, those strings, that choir, those flaws have all been part of what remains a masterpiece.

	THE BEATLES: "Let It Be ... Naked."

So has the dialogue they've done away with here for no apparent reason, stripping the album of much of the character and offbeat charm that made the Beatles so much more than just another brilliant rock band. This new version also does away with "Maggie Mae" and "Dig It," two inspired throwaways that embodied the album's original premise -- capturing the Beatles live and naked, getting back to basics and being a band again. They were screwing around. That's what bands do.

But not on "Naked." John Lennon either has been muzzled or sent to the principal's office. Everybody knows McCartney had to do away with Lennon making light of "Let It Be," but why lose him hoping they passed the audition at the end of "Get Back," an innocent comment that famously ended the album and the era?

"Get Back" doesn't even end the album anymore. It's first here, bumping "Two of Us," a better opener, to No. 5. Only "Dig a Pony" remains where it was. And "Don't Let Me Down" is a nice addition, but would have been nicer if they hadn't subbed it in for "Maggie Mae" and "Dig It," unaware, it seems, that CDs often run longer than 35 minutes.

Of the songs they strip of Spector's orchestration, only one -- "Across the Universe" -- sounds better here, making the most of a haunting tamboura. "I Me Mine" holds up, but feels a little thin. The guitar lead on the title track was worlds more inspired on the Spector version, where the orchestration only helped it soar. And then, you've got "The Long and Winding Road," the ballad at the heart of this whole renovation. It's certainly emptier here, but McCartney was better off when he could blame the schmaltz on Spector's strings and choir.

As much as "Let It Be" was better, "Naked," which includes a bonus disc of chatter and rehearsing, is fine, 11 classics by a band most people old enough to have a frame of reference consider the best of all time.

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