51: A “Cardboard Tombstone”? – The Beatles’ Epitaph

SATB 51 rev

In this episode, Robert and Richard discuss the various iterations of the album produced from the fractious “Get Back/Let It Be sessions. Featuring an exclusive interview with Glyn Johns, songs include “One After 909,” “Two of Us” and “Across The Universe.”

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0 thoughts on “51: A “Cardboard Tombstone”? – The Beatles’ Epitaph”

  1. Ok, so Let It Be isn’t the greatest Beatles’ album and the film is pretty poor for the most part. But like most of their output, it still takes me back to a specific time in my life. And it contains some great songs. I don’t play the album every week. But whenever I do, I really enjoy it. Perfect? No. Should it have included “Don’t Let Me Down”? Of course. But it is what it is and it won’t change now (Let It Be Naked?…bah, humbug). I love it for what it is (including the cover). And I don’t (now) consider it a cardboard tombstone. It’s sad that the Beatles finished as they did, but they had to finish sometime. I don’t hold it against this album for it being the last. When I take the record out of the sleeve, I still feel a sense of excitement about it. But that’s just me. Great show. Keep up the wonderful work. Cheers

  2. Chris McGovern

    Guys, just so you know, The Beatles did play “Across The Universe” during the Twickenham sessions, it’s in Let It Be.

  3. I’ll spare you the ‘good job’ accolades, because you two always make for fascinating listening. January 1969 was such a dismal time and, with all due respect, are the toughest of your podcasts to listen to because of it. You made it bearable.

  4. Interesting to hear about the leak in 1969. It brings back a clear memory for me of San Francisco AM station KFRC playing Let It Be and For You Blue ONCE EACH one afternoon around December 1969, after which the songs were never heard again until next year. For months, I wondered if I had imagined these new Beatles songs that didn’t exist.

    1. I’m sure you’re correct. I’ve lived in San Francisco and the Bay Area for forty six years. It’s the ONLY city in the world that I’ve ever known that never understood the Beatles. This place is the most musically bankrupt place you’ll ever visit. San Francisans idea of creative,inventive ,melodic,harmonic,witty and rhythmic music is the Grateful Dead, and Carlos Santana ( who plays the same fills in other people’s songs, and is hailed as great. With that said, as a person I understand he is very nice and giving ) .
      Go to Chicago ( Midwest ) Buffalo, Rochester,Syracuse ( upstate New York ) NYC and Boston ( East coast ) Toronto ( just over the border,fifty miles from Rochester across Lake Ontario ) and the musicality difference is astounding .
      I still visit Rochester,Toronto, Boston often . As I’m in the music business, I know quite a few great players that have been around. Regardless of the genre of music, primarily jazz and fusion pop , there is a commonality, even in the orchestra pits . We all cut out teeth on the Beatles. Huge respect for the idea of how far the bar could go in contemporary popular music. We all know how to play all the parts and solos etc.note for note. For many they were our ear training classes.
      Out here in this overpriced tech haven they don’t have a clue.
      To get back to your comment. You mentioned Let It Be played on AM KFRC early on, and it got no traction. Look at the difference of any other city in the world upon hearing a new Beatles album . It was a major event. In this city 95% of the people are tone deaf, and the other 5% living on the pavement …

  5. Great look at an album difficult to fully love. Once you said it’s neither fish nor foul, a light went off in my brain. I do wish they had done more of a fly-on-the-wall, cinema verite style. The humor of their banter is one of the highlights of the Anthology series. But the loose atmosphere of the White Album didn’t carry over to Let It Be. They were burnt-out Beatles.

    Had “Don’t Let Me Down” been swapped out for “Across the Universe”, I think it would have made it more of a stand-out, go-to album. That leaves the problem child of “The Long and Winding Road”. I’ve always liked the orchestrations and feel without it, the record’s flat. I’m surprised they didn’t go with live harmonies from John and George. Maybe they couldn’t care.

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