Chords for The Mysterious Beatles Ghost Guitar Solo in Let It Be

[C] Let it be.
[G] It's one of the most well [Am]-known Beatles songs.
You've likely heard it countless [F] times before, [C] but there's an odd anomaly in it [G] that you might not have noticed.
[F] And as a fair [Dm] warning, once I point [C] it out, you can't unhear this. _
The anomaly has to do with the guitar solo that begins about halfway through the [Dm] song.
If you listen very closely,
you can hear the faint remnants of an earlier erased guitar solo in the background.
It's easier to hear on the single version,
so [G] let's use that first.
[F] _ _ [C] _ _ [Gm] _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ Now I'm [C] gonna isolate the left channel so you can hear it even [F] better. _
[C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ Did you hear it?
Now let's listen to the same section of the song,
but this time from the version that appears on [G] the album Let it be, [F] which features [C] a different guitar solo. _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ Although the two versions have completely different [G] guitar solos, for reasons that I'll [Am] get into later,
you can hear the same [F] faint ghost guitar solo [C] in the background. _
So [G] what's going on?
Well, to [F] explain, we need to do a little digging into the [C] song's rather complicated [N] recording history.
_ Paul McCartney wrote Let it be during the tail end of the White Album sessions in late 1968,
but the song wasn't recorded by the full band until early 1969, at the start of the ill-fated Get Back Project,
which, true to its name, was meant to be a return to roots for the band, forgoing the more complex,
experimental approach of Sgt.
Pepper's or the White Album, and instead performing songs live together as a group,
without tape loops, sound effects, or overdubs.
_ And so on January 31st,
1969, the group convened to record the master take of Let it be, with Paul on piano, John on a rare bass guitar performance,
George Harrison on electric guitar, Ringo on drums, and special guest Billy Preston on organ.
_ _ Unfortunately, the Get Back Project soon became mired in drama, and so Let it be, along with a bunch of other songs, were basically shelved
for almost a year.
_ In early 1970, the band revisited the Get Back Project, and finally finished off the songs that they had started a year earlier.
As for Let it be, however, they ended up releasing two strikingly different versions of the song.
The first, released on March 6th, was the single, produced and [F] mixed by longtime Beatles producer George [C] Martin. _ _
[G] _ _ _ [F] Two _ [C] _ [G] _
[C] _ months _ later, a second version of the song was released on the Let it be album,
[Abm] which was released after the Beatles had announced their breakup.
_ This version was mixed by legendary producer Phil Spector, who was brought in at the last minute to assemble the album.
_ [F] In keeping with his trademark wall-of-sound style, he added a noticeable echo, which can be heard best on Ringo's hi [C]-hat. _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [F] But [C] _ [G] _
[C] _ the most [F] striking difference between the two versions are the guitar solos.
So that you can hear the difference more clearly,
I've put the single version in the left channel, and the album version in the right channel.
[C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
[F] They line up perfectly, because both [C] versions of the song actually use the same backing track, the [G] one recorded back in 1969.
[N] _ Oddly enough, though, despite the original Get Back spirit of avoiding overdubbed instruments,
both solos were recorded on later dates.
Three months after they recorded the January 1969 backing track,
George returned to the studio to record a new guitar solo, which was overdubbed onto the backing track,
replacing his original solo from that session.
_ Jumping ahead about nine months later, to January 4th, 1970,
George Harrison recorded yet another version of his guitar solo, still over the same backing track from January 1969.
_ _ So to recap, at this point George had recorded at least three different guitar solos.
When it came time to mix the single, George Martin preferred George Harrison's more restrained April 1969 solo,
while Phil Spector took Harrison's raunchier, grittier solo from January 1970.
_ And so that's how he ended up with the two versions. _
[C] But what about that [G] ghost solo I mentioned earlier?
_ [Am] _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ What you're hearing [C] are the remnants of the [G] original solo,
likely picked [F] up by the other microphones in the [C] studio used during the recording of the backing track.
_ [G] Despite efforts to erase it,
[Am] the louder portions of the solo [F] still bleed through. _
[N] If this all wasn't crazy enough, there was yet another version of the song mixed by a third producer, Glenn Johns,
who was hired early on to assemble the Get Back project.
His multiple attempts to finish the album, though, were all rejected by the Beatles and have never been officially released.
_ In 2003, Paul McCartney produced a stripped-down version of the album called Let It Be Naked,
which features alternate takes of the original songs and a few songs that didn't make it onto the original [C] album.
_ Believe it or not, the Naked version of Let It Be features yet another guitar solo from a previously unreleased alternate take in [G] January 1969.
_ [Am] _ You really start to wonder, I mean, [F] couldn't they just, I don't know, let [C] it be?
_ _ _ [N] All messiness aside, Let It Be still stands the test of time as one of the Beatles' greatest hits,
despite the irony of it being released just days before Paul announced his departure from the Beatles,
in one of the most acrimonious breakups in music history.
I hope this episode has shed some light onto the mystery of the many guitar solos and the reasons for so many versions of the song.
_ Which version do you prefer best?
Let me know in the comments.
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And check the links in the description below to purchase the track and help support my channel.
Thanks for listening. _ _ _ _
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