I’m two-thirds of the way through The Beatles: Get Back, the 8-hour documentary on Disney+. It inspired me to add another installment of my Better The Beatles series, wherein I trim the fat from their discography to create super albums of only their best stuff. (Previously: Sgt. Pepper’s Magical Mystery Tour, The (Single) White Album, and Ram McCartney.)
Since both Abbey Road and Let It Be contain songs created during the same period, here’s my track listing for a hypothetical Let It AbBey Road:
- Get Back
- Come Together
- Two Of Us
- Something
- Dig A Pony
- Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
- Oh! Darling
- I’ve Got A Feeling
- Octopus’s Garden
- Let It Be
- Here Comes The Sun
- Because
- For You Blue
- You Never Give Me Your Money
- Polythene Pam
- She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
- Golden Slumbers
- Carry That Weight
- The End
The omissions from Abbey Road weren’t terribly tough: “Sun King”, “Mean Mr. Mustard”, and “Her Majesty” are slights, and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” is too long.
Similarly, it was pretty easy to remove “One After 909”, “I Me Mine”, “Dig It”, and “Maggie Mae” from Let It Be because they aren’t good. “Across The Universe” and “The Long And Winding Road” are good, I guess, but also tonal outliers from the rest.
You’re welcome.