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Restored and Rereleased, the Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ Is Revealed to Be the Joyful Documentary It Always Was
In 1970, it looked like a portrait of the Beatles breaking up. Restored and rereleased, it now looks like a vision of them coming together.
During the miles of driving, we listened to Top 40 radio, which meant that several times a day I got to hear “The Long and Winding Road,” which I thought was the most beautiful song I’d ever heard. And yes, they recorded the seamless and sublime “Abbey Road” after the raw and unfinished “Let It Be.” Yet in “Let It Be,” the faces of the Beatles now loomed up on screen as if they were ex-gods starring in the first rock ‘n’ roll reality show. Or the way the final rooftop concert, and the London bobbies’ attempt to shut it down, plays as a compressed 15-minute parody of the entire counterculture ’60s — the hippies vs. the squares, except that in the Beatles’ version there are no bad guys.
Or read this on Variety