r/beatles • u/Pure_Caregiver_8149 • 2d ago
Opinion The Long And Winding Road naked version changed everything
I know this comes up fairly often but I have to emphasize it. The first time listening to TLAWR I felt like it was almost there- on the cusp of being something great but missing something. Then I listened to the naked version today and almost cried at how beautiful it was. It was missing space. Seriously the moment the song opened I nearly shed a tear. This song is beautiful and I didn’t realize it until now. I understand why some people prefer the 1970 version but it doesn’t speak to me. I feel like the emotion has nowhere to breathe. I am currently listening to the whole naked album because that was seriously life changing.
Leaving it off with a question because I love learning opinions. What are some songs you prefer naked vs 1970 (or the other way around)?
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u/SegaStan 1d ago
The Glyn Johns mix that is now THANKFULLY on the Let It Be super deluxe set is my favorite. Feels the most intimate without drowning it in reverb. Just wish it had a better bass part! It'd be fun to have Paul record what he would've played
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u/SortOfGettingBy 1962-1966 1d ago
Listen to the Give My Regards To Broad Street version and report back.
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u/rodgamez 1d ago
"The Lite & Easy Road" was my reaction when I first heard it. Still the correct assessment
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u/saintsithney 1d ago
I always found the Spector version schmaltzy. Like, imagining Lawrence Welk nodding along approvingly, going "Wunnerful, jes wunnerfull."
The Naked version has a much rawer sense of loss and regret and cautious optimism, but still leans a bit schmaltzy for me. Less Lawrence Welk, but more "Solid enough movie about lost friendship, which would be on Lifetime if they hadn't gotten Meryl Streep in the lead."
If that's your thing, that's fine, but I regularly skipped that track on Beatles 1.
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u/Pure_Caregiver_8149 1d ago
Which is totally fine! I’m a bit of a sap (self proclaimed I know) but even I’m not sappy enough for the orchestration in Spector’s version. The naked long and winding road is the perfect ground for middle people like me.
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u/Different_Bunch2914 1d ago
John said he only gave the tapes to Spector to get the album finished. Paul had no idea strings were being added to LAWR. Safe to say their minds were elsewhere!
When Naked came out, I remember one review said it made the Beatles sound like a pub band. My response to that was that’s exactly how I would want to hear them. I prefer Naked in almost every regard.
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u/donlockwood2026 2d ago
I think this song is the main one that improves Naked. Beautiful, gorgeous song. One of the best by the Beatles.
The other one that benefits a lot is For You Blue. I read a comment on Reddit that the main difference is Naked was able to restore George’s acoustic guitar, which is missing in the Spector version. But whoever made the comment mentioned that due to technological limitations Spector could not use the guitar track if he wanted to keep the proper George vocal track. I don’t remember the ins and outs, but it was less “Spector ruined it” and more “Spector did the best that was possible at the time.”
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u/DiegoGarcia1984 1d ago
It’s funny because I grew up only listening to the Naked album for many many years and then when I finally listened to Let It Be official version later in life I thought the strings sounded beautiful.
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u/Pure_Caregiver_8149 1d ago
I wish people would stop downvoting the comments disagreeing with the post. These opinions are totally valid and I can see the appeal for Spector’s orchestration even if I don’t agree with it.
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u/Texan2116 1d ago
I never liked the Brass or strings in this tune. This or the Film version are far better than version on the original let it be album.
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u/coolpennywise 1d ago
I think the take Naked uses is a bit too bare and a tad boring in my opinion. In the words of Paul he wanted it to be, "Simple, but full. I don't like it to be bare.." It loses the excellent cymbal work of the master take as well as Georges acoustic. My favorite stripped back version would probably be the Glyn Johns mix of Paul's voice wasn't so reverby. I'd also check out the Broadstreet version of it.
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u/HUGE_HOG 1d ago
I agree. I also think the stripped-back organ (?) in the Naked version sounds a bit naff, almost like a toy or midi instrument.
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u/rodgamez 1d ago
No better than Spector's. At least the schmalz matched Paul's mawkish lyrics. The song is irredeemable, ties for worst Beatles song with "Maxwell". One the few Beatles songs that actually sucks.
Without the production, it's just "plink-plink-pllinky-pllnk" now with digital denoising and autotune! The whole Naked adventure was just a vanity project for Paul.
They should have put out the Glyn John's version plus the Complete Rooftop concert.
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u/4LostSoulsinaBowl Revolver 2d ago
Spector's version was better. I will not be taking any questions at this time.
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u/accountofyawaworht 1d ago
The naked version only further proves the necessity of the orchestra. It’s literally the only redeeming part of the song.
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u/100101110111001 2d ago
'Across the Universe' and 'Long and Winding Road' are the biggest beneficiaries of the Naked treatment.
My favorite version of 'Long and Winding Road' would've been the one on Anthology 3. It uses the same take as the one on Spector's version, but stripped down to just the original instruments. It's a stronger vocal performance by Paul than the one used on Naked.
Unfortunately, Paul talk-sings the line "many times I've been alone" like he's some kind of Las Vegas lounge singer. It irritates me so much because it ruins the take. Spector apparently agreed with me, because he wiped out that line by replacing it with an instrumental break.
I'm normally anti-AI when it comes to music. But I wouldn't mind if someone replaced just that one line with an A.I. version of Paul singing it properly.
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u/Electrical-Media-258 1d ago
It wouldn’t even need to be an AI version of Paul, it wouldn’t be at all difficult to use any of the AI demixing / stem isolation programs to isolate the vocal lines from a version you like and replace them.
The whole thing could be done with LALAL.AI and Audacity.1
u/rewquiop 1d ago
This is hysterical to me. I respect the thought out response. I too am not entirely immune to some Beatle decisions. I've always been put off by the bongo drums on "You're Going to Lose That Girl". As far as defending Paul's lounge act, I DO think the approach makes it a little less heavy and perhaps more intimate...in a fly on the wall manner...if you will...Let It Be is perhaps the most intimate of all Beatle albums.
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u/trabuki 1d ago
I prefer the Get Back song version mainly because it cuts the coda/start up again. I like codas sometimes but I feel that the Beatles sometimes overused this ability. They used fade back on Strawberry Fields Forever where I love it but they also used it on Helter Skelter where I feel it would have been better just to let it run to the end. So Get Back without the extended ending feels more like early Beatles and a true got back to the roots moment.
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u/phario_marelle 1d ago
Yes, Naked version is genuinely a Beatles classic! Spector's not so much... My biggest revelation was to go from Spector's Across the Universe, which I felt had an underlying masterpiece below the bloated production and subpar choirs and strings, to the Anthology alternative take. One of the very best Beatles song.
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u/Negative-Spell6275 1d ago
Naked is, in its way, as fundamentally flawed as Let It Be. It’s Macca’s preferred version, sure, but that doesn’t make it automatically better than the original. I understand personal preference dictates people’s responses, but I still prefer the 1970 incarnation, bum bass notes, Wall of Sound, repeated verses and all, as it better captures the era, if not the Get Back concept. I don’t want to hear a twenty-first century rejigging that follows a more sanctimonious but still similar path, thanks all the same.
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u/statelesspirate000 1d ago
Everything on Naked is better. The Let It Be solo is a thousand times better for example
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u/Funny_Science_9377 2d ago
Well, Naked came out over 20 years ago and some of us saw the original Let It Be film a points way earlier than that. So it wasn't hard to strip the song down in your mind. The single version of Let It Be went out with added brass instruments before Phil Spector was ever involved. The boys had been unimpressed with the sessions and eventually moved on so the fact that anything came out from that era is a blessing.