Published Dec. 5, 2003, in the Kansas State Collegian

Review by Matthew Webber

My friend with a thousand CDs tried to save me.

"I'll burn you the Russian import, dude," he said.

He didn't want me to waste my money on the Beatles' remastered "Let It Be" album that I needed to review.

"I should probably review the real product," I said. "Plus, it will be a collector's item."

So I wasted $10 on an album I already had.

The Beatles' original idea for "Let It Be" was to capture "the warmth and freshness of a live performance," according to oral history and the back of the original album. The band recorded "Let It Be" as they were in the midst of breaking up, and John Lennon gave the unfinished tapes to famed "wall of sound" maestro and alleged murderer Phil Spector to produce.

For years, Paul McCartney compared Spector's production to vomit. He especially hated the baroque orchestration on "The Long and Winding Road."

So "Let It Be ... Naked" is the attempt of the living Beatles -- especially Paul -- to strip away the string sections and overdubs and release the album as it originally was intended.

As Paul says in the liner notes, "That was the noise we made in the studio. It's all exactly as it was in the room, but you're in a clearer room with the guys."

It also is, of course, an attempt to cash in.

"The dedicated Abbey Road team" removed two songs, "Maggie Mae" and "Dig It," as well as the annoying between-take patter. They added "Don't Let Me Down" and changed the album's sequencing.

As a raucous rock record, "Naked" suffers from the same shortcomings as its predecessor. Because of the band's turmoil, many of the songs seem incomplete or rushed, and no amount of repackaging can salvage them.

"One After 909" still sounds tossed off. "The Long and Winding Road" now sounds like a demo.

Some of the songs are classics, however. John's "Across the Universe" sounds even prettier when stripped down to its bare acoustics. The harmonies in "Two of Us" sound as warm and fresh as anything the Beatles ever recorded.

But since I -- and millions of others -- already owned these songs, "Naked" is completely unessential.

Worse, the re-release of a spotty and unpopular album reeks of revisionist history. I half expected to see John clipped out of the photographs, replaced by the newest smiling Russian leaders.