In some pretty great, and somewhat unexpected news (to me), Let it Be … Naked has been sprung into the iTunes store. It’s nice to know I’m not the only person thinking about the January 1969 sessions at this moment in history.
Better news: That means the “Fly on the Wall” disc (well, digital music file) and all the random studio chatter and song clips within is also now on iTunes, albeit as part of the iTunes LP experience (ie., you can’t buy it as an individual track).
Yet better news: The iTunes LP, which includes all the songs, plus “Fly on the Wall,” appears to have the Get Back book in its entirety, legitimately available for the first time in the United Sates. Furthermore, videos for”Get Back” and “Don’t Let Me Down,” with beautiful remastered footage in the Naked edits, are now on sale, too.
The best news? There’s more to come.
Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be celebrating Let It Be… Naked in a few ways. We are launching a series of five special podcasts featuring tracks from the album, original archive sound from the making of Let It Be, and interviews with Paul, George and Ringo reflecting on that period in The Beatles’ career.
The podcasts will be featured on the Let It Be… Naked site, or alternatively catch them on Facebook and Twitter. The complete version should be available for download on the iTunes podcast store shortly. It will be annnounced at thebeatles.com
Renewed attention to Let it Be and the sessions? This can only be a good thing.
But what does it all mean?
It could just be they’re filling in the gaps with their apocryphal material. The Anthology compilations weren’t in the first wave of albums to reach iTunes, and after this, Live at the BBC could be next to go digital.
Maybe they’re just marking 10 years since LIBN. The footage for the videos, for instance, was already remastered long ago for Anthology and perhaps more recently for LIBN.
But a big promotional push for The Beatles “as nature intended”? Maybe, just maybe, that Let it Be DVD/BluRay isn’t too far behind.
They May Be Parted 