Episode 262: Long and Winding Road - McCartney Mix
BDJ's Cellar Full of Remixes
English - November 28, 2022 00:00 - 3 minutes - 4.93 MB - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsMusic beatles remixes lennon mccartney harrison mash-up Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
The Long and Winding Road is a McCartney song that was mixed and produced by Phil Spector. McCartney did not like the mix, as is abundantly clear from the letter that he wrote to Allen Klein and Phil Spector. McCartney explains how he would like the Long and Winding Road to sound:
- Less orchestra, and more Beatles (guitars, piano etc.)
- absolutely no harp in the mix
- bring back the piano at the end
For the 2022 SuperDeLuxe Box of Let It Be, we would have expected Giles Martin to comply with McCartney's wishes, and produce such a mix. However, Giles didn't do that; the orchestra is a bit lower in volume in the 2022 mix, but still overwhelming, and - worst of all - the harp is still there!.
In an interview, Giles explained that it was technically impossible to remove the harp from the mix.
Now there's a challenge for the BDJ engineers, and they set to work. So here it is, the mix as Sir Paul wished it to be! Also, they left intact the few piano notes at the very end of the song. Returning to the beginning of the song may well have been a deliberate move from McCartney, to make the end sounding less definitive. After all, the road goes on and on!