Home > Beatles > Beatles Reunited: Let It See (1980)

Beatles Reunited: Let It See (1980)

On 10 April it’ll be 50 years ago since Paul McCartney announced that The Beatles had split up. In our alternative Beatleverse, the Fabs never split.

They did their solo things, but released LPs throughout the 1970s: Everest in 1971, Live ’72 the following year, Smile Away in 1972, the classic double-album Photographs in 1974, and the lazily-titled 77 in 1977.

Now it’s 1980 — three years after the last album — and after a hiatus (remember, John contributed only two tracks to 77), John was raring to go again. By now Linda and Yoko were welcome guests in the studio. Occasionally they were even allowed to pitch in; it did keep the peace.

Those three years were fertile, with enough music to fill a double-album. Yoko suggested calling the set “Double Fantasy”, but our four friends thought it would be more amusing to riff on the tenth anniversary of the Let It Be album, a dark time when the group was on the verge of splitting up, with its black cover serving as a metaphor for those dark times. Punster John has come up with the lame title “Let It See”, Paul proposes “Back To The Egg”. Harrison wants the album to have no title at all and simply sport a symbol of some kind (maybe even renaming the group The Band Formerly Known As The Beatles), and Ringo doesn’t care either way.

With the marketing department nixing George’s bizarre proposal, and everybody thinking that “Back To The Egg” is the most rubbish title ever conceived, John’s shockingly bad title wins out. Even the cover is a lazy reference to the Let It Be cover.

John got his stupid title through, but Paul got more songs on to the double-album, though it’s likely John held some tracks back for his upcoming collaboration with Yoko (maybe that album will be called “Double Fantasy”, possibly featuring a hit titled Woman, whhich doesn’t feature on this set).

Paul has been experimenting with disco, on Goodnight Tonight, Coming Up and the soulish Arrow Through Me. On Old Siam Sir, Paul rocks out a bit, on Deliver Your Children he goes folk, and his retro vibes are still evident on Baby’s Request.

George Harrison is at his melodious best, especially with catchy tunes like Blow Away and Here Comes The Moon.

But it’s John’s material that catches the eye (and perhaps also the ear). The set starts with the theme song for middle-age marriage, (Just Like) Starting Over and closes with his love song to his little son, Beautiful Boy. In between, Watching The Wheels extols the virtues of getting out of the rat race just as presidential candidate Ronald Reagan proposes a free market agenda that will intensify that very rat race.

John Lennon as the spokesman for domesticity and tuning-out; “Strange days indeed”, as he notes on another song. The political spokesman has retired.

For innovation, you’ll be better better look elsewhere, but this is well-crafted pop for the people who have grown older with The Beatles. Who knows how long the Fab Four will continue…

Side 1
1. (Just Like) Starting Over (John)
2. Old Siam, Sir (Paul)
3. Here Comes The Moon (George)
4. With A Little Luck (Paul)
5. Nobody Told Me (John)
Side 2
6. Blow Away (George)
7. Watching The Wheels (John)
8. Getting Closer (Paul)
9. Old Time Relovin’ (Ringo)
10. Deliver Your Children (Paul)
Side 3
11. I’m Losing You (John)
12. Not Guilty (George)
13. Arrow Through Me (Paul)
14. Goodnight Tonight (Paul)
15. Real Love (John)
Side 4
16. Coming Up (Paul)
17. Love Comes To Everyone (George)
18. I Don’t Wanna Face It (John)
19. Baby’s Request (Paul)
20. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) (John)

GET IT! or HERE!

Previous Beatles Reunited albums:
Everest (1971)
Live ’72 (1972)
Smile Away (1972)
Photographs (1974)
77 (1977)

More Beatles stuff
More Mix-CD-Rs

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  1. halfhearteddude
    April 9th, 2020 at 10:03 | #1

    PW = amdwhah

  2. JJWombat
    April 9th, 2020 at 17:56 | #2

    Thanks for this Beatles Reunited album
    I tried to download earlier ones but most were ‘404 File not found’ on rgator

  3. Dave
    April 10th, 2020 at 16:00 | #3

    Thank you so much for this! Any chance you would re-up your previous Beatles Reunited albums? I am a connoisseur of such things and not sure how I managed to miss them the first time!

  4. halfhearteddude
    April 10th, 2020 at 23:28 | #4

    I’ll up them to RG again tomorrow.

  5. Dave
    April 11th, 2020 at 01:46 | #5

    @halfhearteddude
    Wonderful! Thanks so much! Looking forward to it!

  6. halfhearteddude
    April 11th, 2020 at 12:17 | #6

    All are back up now.

  7. JJWombat
    April 11th, 2020 at 16:43 | #7

    Many thanks for the re-ups

  8. iamjethro
    April 13th, 2020 at 04:31 | #8

    Was Denny Laine a special guest on this album? He sings lead on “Deliver Your Children”?

  9. halfhearteddude
    April 15th, 2020 at 13:10 | #9

    Well, then we’ll just have to imagine he was the latest Fifth Beatle.

  10. ecnokaoi
    March 18th, 2023 at 06:52 | #10

    Oh no! File doesnt exist! And error 404!
    Can you reup please?

  11. amdwhah
    March 25th, 2023 at 14:22 | #11

    It’s up again.

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