Let It Be - The Making of the Beatles Final Album Book 2 -- a book review

 

In 2024, I read an amazing book about the Beatles' Get Back Sessions written by Terry Wilson.   If you are interested in my review of that book, click right here.  

The author stated that part 2 would be released in 2026, and, right on time, it was published a month or so ago; I just finished reading it this week.   Part 2 picks up where Part 1 ended and continues into the Apple Sessions of the Get Back sessions.   

Just like I said about the first book, I am amazed by the detail the author, Terry Wilson, researched to get the complete picture of these infamous sessions. Not only did he use all of the books available on the subject, but he also used the Nagra tapes and video documentation.  And he debunked the myth that George was unhappy throughout the session and that everyone was miserable.  He did show that the whole Allen Klein fiasco was going on at the same time and how it affected the group.  He also showed how Billy Preston did not come in to "save" the band, and that Magic Alex wasn't fired after not having Apple Studio ready in time.  

The big build-up in the book is, of course, to the rooftop concert, and Wilson goes into great detail about the concert and who was on the roof with the Beatles.  He also tells the story of the painting seen behind Ringo's drums during the rooftop performance and how Neil Aspinall ended up with it.  There is also a lot of research on the next day's performance at Apple, focusing on the slower number—something I feel gets totally overlooked—but those songs are performances as well. 

What I also enjoyed was that the story did not stop there.  While he no longer had the Nagra tapes and video to refer to, Wilson dug into the "mystery" sessions at Apple in February and all the other sessions up to January 1970 for the songs on the Let It Be album.   I really found the talk about how the Glyn Johns Get Back album was leaked to radio stations and bootlegged interesting.  He kept the story going through Disney+ and Anthology 4, which I think was the perfect way to tell the full story of Let It Be. 

With the announcement of the opening of 3 Savile Row in the near future, I feel like this volume of the book was very timely.   It was hard for me to put it down, although I did find volume 1 to be a little more interesting, but that was just personal preference.   I can't recommend this book enough for fans who want to read the minute details of the Get Back Sessions.   All the books from the past are now obsolete because Terry Wilson's two-volume set covers everything completely.  Check it out!  

Great George reaction

 

Two drummers

 

Fans Throng to See a Beatle Take Wings (Seattle 1976)

 Fans Throng to see a Beatle Take Wings 

By James Erikson

The News Tribune

June 11, 1976

    It wasn't Beatlemania. It certainly wasn't Wingsmania. Maybe it was a touch of Paul McCartneymania that lured more than 67,000 people to see him and his band in the Kingdome last night. 

    The Kingdome was filled with people and smoke, some smelling like stale perfume, long before the ex-Beatle and his group Wings made their entrance. 

    When the lights dimmed and the band members finally emerged on the stage, you didn't have to ask whom the people had come to see. "Oh my God! There he is!" shrieked one buxom blonde. "Oh, Paul! "EEEee OOOoo."

     Another girl just screamed. A patch on her jacket said it all. "I love Paul."

     What could have been a tragedy nearly occurred at that point, as skyrockets were set off in the Kingdome. One didn't go up, but instead fizzled, plunging as a molten fireball into the audience in front of the stage. People screamed and pushed against security guards on the other side of the rope. The guards pushed back, and some people fell down. Luckily, no one was trampled.

     The only screams reminiscent of the Beatlemania of more than 10 years ago came at the beginning of the concert, and for the few Beatles songs on the program. Emotional high points were the Beatles' songs "Lady Madonna" and "Yesterday", while the visual highlights came from "Live and Let Die", the song McCartney wrote for a James Bond film. A display of smoke, spotlights, and laser beams accompanied the latter. 

    Those who came expecting to capture a part of the Beatle past didn't. McCartney is trying to show where he is today. Those who came to hear rock and roll did.

Beatles in Interview Row (1966)

 Beatles in Interview Row

No writer Listed

Melody Maker

June 4, 1966

    The Beatles have stirred up a heated controversy in America's Midwest, all because of a mystery interview. The result, according to American reports, is that fans are threatening to boycott their records. A Pittsburgh disc jockey broadcast an alleged telephone interview last week in which the Beatles put down the Barry Sadler recording of "The Ballad of the Green Berets" as "rubbish".

     Following this, a wave of anti-Beatles protests broke. Several major disc retailers are reported to have contacted Capitol Records and asked them to have the Beatles "cool it with this kind of talk." The retailers reported that fans had threatened to boycott the stores unless the Beatles' discs were removed from the racks.

     In London, however, it was strenuously denied that the Beatles had given an interview to any American disc jockey. Recently, Brian Matthews interviewed the Beatles, and the tapes will be broadcast by over 50 U.S. DJs, but the question of Barry Sadler's record was never discussed in this interview. At press time the mystery was still unsolved. 

    This week, Brian Epstein flew from Madrid to New York to finalize the Beatles tour and discuss the screening of a color TV film Cilla Black, made at London's Savoy Hotel. The Beatles performed their new single, "Paperback Writer", due for release on June 10, in the film Today for Top of the Pops, Granada Scene at 630, Thank Your Lucky Stars, and Ready, Steady, Go. They also filmed a segment for the Ed Sullivan American TV show in color,

On the radio

 June 9, 1971 

Celebrating Beatles Love

 June 9, 2011 

Guitar Case

 June 9, 2001 

Ringo Ashamed of Album (1991)

Chip Moman and Ringo recording a song from the unreleased album 

 Who has heard the unreleased Ringo album from 1987?  I have it on a bootleg, and I have never thought it was THAT bad.  I like his cover of the song "I Can Help."    It isn't the best album of all time, and I don't think Ringo is playing drums on it (which seems strange), but really, it could have been released, and it wouldn't have been an embarrassment -- but Ringo didn't think so.  Perhaps he was embarrassed by his memories of the sessions with everyone being drunk and whatnot more than the actual music that was made. 

Ringo Ashamed of Album

No writer listed

June 9, 1991

        Ringo Starr was taken to court last week by a record producer over an "embarrassing" album the ex-Beatle recorded when he was high on drink and drugs. 

    Record producer Chips  Moman was last year awarded $74,000 for the collapse of an album deal after Starr blocked the release of the record, but last week Moman went back to the Georgia Supreme Court to fight for more money. 

    Starr's lawyers said Moman had already received a fair settlement, and the case was adjourned. Starr recorded the solo album in 1987 when he was addicted to alcohol and drugs. He said other musicians used on the album were often drunk in the studio. 

    In 1989, a court judge permanently barred the release of the album, which Starr said would be a "professional embarrassment to him." Starr was given custody of the tapes.

     Star, 50, and his wife, Barbara Bach, 40, spent five weeks in an alcohol treatment center in Arizona in 1988, and the following year, he made a successful comeback tour of the US.

No Invite for Beatle John (1966)

John's father, Alf, is such an interesting character.   We know that Alf married a young woman named Pauline, and they had a child named David.  However, it appears that Alf was engaged to be married to this woman, Trudie Harris.  Photos online incorrectly label these photos as being of Alf and Julia (which is way off!) or Alf and Pauline.   However, they seem to go along with this story from 1966.  From just reading the article, it appears that Trudie was trying to get to the Beatles through Alf Lennon to help her son's recording career, but I could be reading too much into tings.  

No Invite for Beatle John

No Writer Listed

Daily Record

June 9, 1966

    The £8-a-week barman, father of millionaire Beatle John Lennon, announced last night that he is to remarry and that John will not be invited to the wedding.

     As he hugged his future bride and talked of his plans, Frederick Lennon, 52, said, "We've only met once since he became famous and started making millions. I shan't invite him to the wedding, but he is welcome to come if he wants."

     His wife-to-be is the mother of six, Miss Trudie Harris, 41, a part-time barmaid at the Toby Jug Hotel, Tolworth, Surrey, where Mr. Lennon lives and works. 

    They met behind the bar when Mr. Lennon began working there three weeks ago after his effort to follow his son, John, into showbiz as a recording star fell flat. "I made a recording, but it all went for a burton," he said. "I was never billed as the father of John. That's an image I wanted to get away from, and I think I could have made it on my own."

     Mr. Lennon, dressed in a black leather waistcoat and a Beatle-style jacket, said of the wedding, " We haven't fixed a date yet. It all depends on money. We haven't got much between us."

     Mr. Lennon's first wife died in a road accident two years ago [sic]. Mrs. Harris is divorced.

     Attractive, dark-haired Trudie of York Way, Chessington said, "Fred is a wonderful man, and I really hope John will come to our wedding."

     Two of her six children are married and are all Beatles fans. Her eldest son, Shaun, is a pop group singer under contract to a record company. "All of them, right down to my youngest daughter, who is four, are thrilled to bits with the prospect of becoming stepsisters and brothers to John," she said. "They are all dying to meet him."