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The Beatles – Let it Be (Easy Piano solo arr. with sheet music) Album: Let it Be (1970)
Lit It Be (by The Beatles)
Let It Be is the twelfth and final studio album by English rock band The Beatles. It premiered on May 8, 1970, almost a month after the group’s dissolution, along with the documentary of the same name. Concerned about recent friction within the band, Paul McCartney had conceived of the project as an attempt to reinvigorate the group by returning to simpler rock ‘n’ roll configurations.
The album topped the charts in many countries, including the UK and US, but critical response was generally unfavorable, and Let It Be came to be regarded as one of the most controversial rock albums of the time history.
Paul McCartney wrote this song. It was inspired by his mother, Mary, who died when he was 14. Many people thought “Mother Mary” was a biblical reference when they heard it.
Since Let It Be was The Beatles’ last album, it made a fitting statement about putting problems behind you and moving on in life. The album was supposed to convey a completely different message. It was going to be called ‘Get Back’ and they were going to record it in front of a live TV audience, with another TV special showing them practicing the songs in the studio.
It was going to be The Beatles going back to their roots and playing unadorned live music instead of struggling in the studio like they did with The White Album. As they began to put the album together, it became clear that the project would not work, and George Harrison walked out of the sessions.
When he came back, they dropped the live idea and decided to use the television footage as his last film. While the film was being edited, The Beatles recorded and released Abbey Road, then split up. Eventually, Phil Spector received the tapes and was asked to produce the album, which was released months after The Beatles had disbanded. By then, it was clear that ‘Let It Be’ would be a better name than ‘Get Back’.
According to McCartney, this is a very positive song, owing to its inspiration. One night when he was paranoid and anxious, he had a dream where he saw his mother, who had been dead for ten years or so – she came to him in his time of trouble, speaking words of wisdom that brought him much peace when he needed it. It was this sweet dream that got him to begin writing the song.
The Beatles weren’t the first to release this song – Aretha Franklin was. The Queen of Soul recorded it in December 1969, and it was released on her album This Girl’s In Love With You in January 1970, two months before The Beatles released their version (she also covered The Beatles ‘Eleanor Rigby’ on that album).
This was the first Beatles’ song released in The Soviet Union. The single made it there in 1972.
In a time marked by wars and international conflicts, as well as by the hippie counterculture and its ideals of peace and love, The Beatles appealed to a position of collective and even global harmony. In this sense, in the second stanza, they leave a message of hope for the future.
The period of production and release of the song (1969-1970) was a time marked by numerous political conflicts and was the scene of various social transformations. It is a time of great confrontations between the conservative mentality and the new cultural currents that made freedom their greatest flag.
In 1968, the year before the song was written, the civil war began in Ireland as a result of religious differences between Catholics and Protestants.
The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union had been going on since 1945 through indirect conflicts, such as the Vietnam War (1955-1975).
The battle between North Vietnam and South Vietnam was actually a battle between the USSR, its communist allies, and the US, South Korea, and the anti-communist countries. In the name of political interests, the US government sent young soldiers from its ranks to their deaths.
This was also a highly revolutionary time regarding civil rights and especially minority rights. The words of Martin Luther King and the Black Panthers fighting for the end of racial discrimination, the Stonewall riots that gave rise to the LGBT struggle, and the feminist marches began to attract more and more attention.
Despite the violent confrontations that they went through at that time, the young people fought for pacifism, forgiveness and harmony among all people.
The Beatles identified with this message and helped spread it, thus becoming a symbol for thousands of admirers.
In 1969, The Beatles gave their last show, and the following year they released their final album Let It Be, accompanied by a self-titled film documenting the recording process. Even though the partnership was only legally disbanded in 1975, the members never played or recorded together again.
The title track of the band’s latest album, Let It Be, can be interpreted as a farewell song from The Beatles for their fans, but leaving them with a message of hope.
Let It Be topped the album charts in both the US and UK, with the single ‘Let It Be’ and ‘The Long and Winding Road’ also reaching number one in the US despite of its commercial success, according to The Beatles Diary author Keith Badman, ‘the reviews [were] not good’.
NME reviewer Alan Smith wrote: ‘If the new Beatles soundtrack is to be the last, it will stand as a stingy epitaph, a cardboard tombstone, a sad, seedy ending to a musical fusion that erased and returned. to draw the face of pop’. .’ Smith added that the album showed ‘contempt for the intelligence of today’s record buyers’ and that the Beatles had ‘sold every principle they ever stood for’.
In a review for Rolling Stone, John Mendelsohn also criticized the album, citing Spector’s production trappings as a weakness: ‘Musically, guys, you passed the audition.’ In terms of having the judgment to avoid overproducing or throwing the statement’s fate back from him to the most notorious of all overproducers, they didn’t.’
John Legend and Alicia Keys performed this song on the tribute special The Beatles: The Night That Changed America, which aired in 2014 exactly 50 years after the group made their famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Legend introduced it as “a song that has comforted generations with its beauty and its message.”
In November 2021, The Beatles: Get Back, a new Peter Jackson-directed documentary featuring footage captured for the film Let It Be, premiered on Disney+ as a three-part miniseries. It was originally going to be released in theaters in 2020 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Let It Be album, but was pushed back to November 2021 and moved to Disney+. A book also titled The Beatles: Get Back was released in October 2021, prior to the documentary.
A super deluxe version of the album was released on October 15, 2021.
Best Sheet Music download from our Library.
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be[Chorus]
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be[Verse 2]
When all the broken-hearted people
Living in the world agree
There will be an answer
Let it be
For though they may be parted
There is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer
Let it be[Chorus]
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
There will be an answer,, let it be[Verse 3]
And when the night is cloudy
There is still a light that shines on me
Shine until tomorrow
Let it be
I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary comes to me
There will be no sorrow
Let it be[Chorus]
Rhythm
The rhythm plays right along with the calming and soothing sound of the rest of the song. It starts nice and slow with the piano to set the tone for the rest of the song. It remains fairly slow throughout, even after the addition of the guitar and drums. The drums are played lightly as to only give off a small sound rather than a loud sound that overpowers, even the symbols are only lightly tapped. All the instruments seem to flow together to keep the calming pace the whole song.
Tempo
This song has a tempo of 66 beats per minute, and it is this slow tempo that gives the song its feeling. It makes it seem like there is calming music in the background while Paul McCartney is telling you how things are going to turn out fine.
Let It Be (Remastered 2009) · The Beatles
Producer: Phil Spector Composer Lyricist: John Lennon Composer Lyricist: Paul McCartney