Let It Be--Naked

    The music industry is always changing things around, to get your money.  They re-package songs into “Greatest Hits” or “The Best of” albums, usually throwing in a previously unheard recording, to entice you to buy music you already have.  Since the onset of iTunes, at least now, you can buy just one song off of an album, instead of buying a bunch of songs you already have, a second time.
    Over the years, I have bought the same songs over and over again, as the listening-media changes. First, I bought the record, then, eight-track, cassette tape, cd, and currently digital.  I realize no one is forcing me to buy anything, but if I love a song, and want to continue to hear it now and then, the fact that I have the song on a record, doesn’t mean I can listen to it, because I no longer have a turntable.
    I don’t follow music closely, like I used to do, but occasionally, I think of a song I would like to have and I go to iTunes, and then, while I am there, I am confronted with all the new music that is now available.  That is what happened to me last night.
    I was thinking about  a couple of the old Kink’s tunes, that I really like, so I went  to iTunes.  When I got there, I saw that they were featuring a Beatles’ album, “Let It Be--Naked”.  My first impressions were negative; “Great, they’ve repackaged an old Beatle album, with the word ‘naked’, to make more money”, but then out of curiosity, I started listening to the song samples.  I was really impressed.
    As you can see from the photo, I still have the old “Let It Be” LP.  I have listened to the songs hundreds of times since I bought it way back in the carboniferous epoch.  What really struck me about the “Naked” album was its simplicity and clarity of sound.
    When The Beatles originally recorded the album, they were in the midst of breaking up.  They had the songs recorded, but rather than finishing the album themselves, they turned it over to Mr. “Wall of Sound”, Phil Spector, who played around with all his reverb, and blurred the sounds all together.  Now, someone has taken those original Beatle recordings, and made it into an album, where just the four Beatles and their instruments can be heard.  I found the results, so amazingly fresh and the sounds so clean and distinct, that I once again, laid down my money and downloaded the songs.  It’s too bad I had to wait 40 something years to hear how really great those songs really were.

To see my paintings or to read blogs from 2011-12, go to:  www.davidmarchant.ca