Why do I like the Beatles? Why "Let it Be"?

I really like to listen to classic rock 'n roll: Eric Clapton, the Beatles, some Dylan. Actually, I don't listen to a whole lot of "band music" even in this genre. I don't listen to much anymore except National Public Radio, but in high school I put in a good many hours learning the Beatles catalogue in minute detail. I knew their music down to it's bass lines, drum licks, guitar solos, and harmonies.

My reasons for liking the Beatles? If someone were to ask me this outright, I would guess that they "just don't understand," maybe that's the way most people feel when asked to justify their music preference. But, let me try to justify my preference for the Beatles.

It's about the quality of the songwriting, the words, the way these four guys fit their instrumentation together, the George Martin orchestrations, the harmony, tensions between individual Beatles, the willingness to play many different styles and moods, the creativity, the reckless waste (witness "Revolution Number 9" from the White Album, "Hey Bulldog" from the Yellow Submarine--I have to throw up my hands and say, "They could do whatever they wanted, they didn't care what anybody thought, they just did whatever came into their minds and shared it with everyone.) I'm going to have to pull some of that out of parenthesis and examine it.

Maybe it was about the polished work of "Let it Be" (the song/not the album) as much as it was about their willingness to show the creative missteps. Listening to the Beatles is like listening to the whole creative process--it seems like the remaining Beatles have become more aware of this aspect of their appeal over time, what with the release of their Anthology which includes many raw recordings of songs they later polished.

There's a moment in the recording of "Let it Be" included in the Anthology that draws out this tension between what I might call the raw and the polished in the work of the Beatles. The story of the Let it Be album is that the Beatles set out to record a live album--no manipulation of the sound, no after the fact mixing. The version of "Let it Be" in the Anthology is the first time that John Lennon hears the song. After the final chord, Lennon laughs and shouts to Paul, "You cheat! You scoundrel!... Let's track it." Apparently, this songs too good to leave as is, to leave raw.

I still seem to be a bit too close to the subject on this. I think I'll just let it be.