Alright, I’ve finally made it to the last Beatles album in my “Most Valuable Beatle” series for each album. And as a pre-emptive strike against the comments I’ll get if I don’t mention this; I know that Abbey Road was recorded after Let It Be (with the exception of “I Me Mine” and Phil Spector’s overdubbed strings, anyway.) I’m going by release dates. Before I get going with a song by song look at The Beatles 1970 album, here’s a recap of the first 12 albums:

Please Please Me (John), With The Beatles (John), A Hard Day’s Night (John), Beatles For Sale (John), Help! (John), Rubber Soul (John), Revolver (Paul), Sgt. Pepper (Paul), Magical Mystery Tour (Paul), The White Album (John), Yellow Submarine (George), & Abbey Road (Paul.)

As you can see; John has won seven “MVB” titles, Paul has won four, and George has won one.

01. “Two of Us” - Paul

This has long been one of my favorites and I think it’s too often overlooked. The way Paul & John sing this one together always gives me a bit of a smile and the “You and I have memories…” part really kills it. Beautiful stuff. Paul said the lyrics were about him & Linda but that lyric makes much more sense directed at John.

02. “Dig a Pony” - John

This is a strange tune. One of the more inscrutable Beatles songs. I used to think it was a real mess, but it has grown on me over the years. It’s somewhat endearing in it’s raggedness. I like all of the sly lyrical references (”roll a stoney, where you can imitate everyone you know.”) But still, I definitely do not think it’s among The Beatles finest moments.

03. “Across The Universe” - John

I’ve always loved this song but I’ve also always felt (especially in this overly orchestrated version) that it doesn’t really fit with the feel of the rest of the album. I think it works better as a part of the Past Masters compilation. The Get Back project (which became Let It Be) was supposed to be about “getting back to basics” and while the rest of the album pretty well fits with that mood (except for the over the top orchestration that Phil Spector added to some of the songs) but this one clearly does not.

04. “I Me Mine” - George

The final recording session The Beatles ever did before they officially broke up was for this track were on January 3, 1970 (only George, Paul, & Ringo were there - John had already left the band.) This is a great example of the over the top orchestration that Spector added to the album which ruined it’s “back to basics” mood. You can hear it without the strings on Let It Be… Naked.

05. “Dig It” - John

The song is actually credited to all four Beatles (the only other songs credited like that are “Flying,” “12-Bar Original,” and “Free as a Bird.” The latter two available on Anthology 2 & Anthology 1 respectively.)

It’s obviously a pretty slight song, but I think it works for helping to set the loose & ragged feel they were going for with the the Get Back project. It’s too bad that they weren’t able to really see that through to the end. And I don’t think Let It Be… Naked really does the idea justice either, partly because of it’s inclusion of “Across The Universe” and the overuse of noise cancellation in the mastering which sucks some of the life out of the recording (the remastering of Let It Be in The Beatles In Stereo Box Set is much better.)

Perhaps one day the original Get Back album will be properly released (and properly remastered without noise removal.)

By the way (and I’m very far off the subject now, aren’t I?) This is the original track listing for the Get Back album that was never officially released:

01. “One After 909″
02. “Rocker”
03. “Save the Last Dance For Me”
04. “Don’t Let Me Down”
05. “Dig a Pony”
06. “I’ve Got a Feeling”
07. “Get Back”
08. “For You Blue”
09. “The Walk”
10. “Teddy Boy”
11. “Two of Us”
12. “Maggie Mae”
13. “Dig It”
14. “Let It Be”
15. “The Long and Winding Road”
16. “Get Back (reprise)”

06. “Let It Be” - Paul

One of the most timeless Beatles classics. I don’t think I need to go into details on it because everyone knows this song.

07. “Maggie May”

This is a traditional song that The Beatles very sloppily ran through. It doesn’t seem that any of The Beatles deserves particular “credit” for this one. Like “Dig It” it helps to set the mood and makes me wish they had released the original version of Get Back.

08. “I’ve Got a Feeling” - Paul & John

This song rocks. And it’s really the last time Paul & John properly worked together in this way (by joining their songs fragments together to make a whole song.)

09. “One After 909″ - John

An early version of this song (it was written by Lennon as early as 1957) can be heard on Anthology 1. Not one of my favorites, although it’s grown on me a bit over the years. It definitely fits with the “back to basics” theme.

10. “The Long and Winding Road” - Paul

Probably the worst hatchet job that Spector did on this album was the ridiculous strings he added to this song. It’s really quite a lovely understated ballad without the strings (listen to the Let It Be… Naked version.) With them I think it’s a bit too melodramatic, particularly in the context of the rest of this album. That being said, I still think it’s a good song even in this over the top version and completely out of context as it is here.

11. “For You Blue” - George

That’s Lennon playing the lap steel guitar lead bit. A very groovy little song. An enjoyable listen.

12. “Get Back” - Paul

I do kind of miss the “low neck Sweater” bit that you hear in the single version (found on the Past Masters set.) But this is definitely a great way to end the album.

VERDICT: Paul. While Paul & John contributed about the same amount of tracks to this album (I count 4 and a half each) I do think Paul deserves a bit more credit for “I’ve Got a Feeling” than John does (as Paul’s bit makes up the heart of the song) and really giving John as much credit for “Dig It” as Paul gets for “Let It Be” & “Get Back” is more than a little ridiculous.

All of the stand out tracks on this album (”Let It Be,” “Get Back,” “Two of Us,” “The Long and Winding Road,” & “I’ve Got a Feeling”) are either Paul’s or mostly Paul’s with the exception of “Across the Universe” which really comes from an earlier time (it was recorded in early 1968) and doesn’t fit the album at all. John’s contributions include “Dig a Pony” which is pretty weak by Beatles standards in my opinion and “Dig It” which can barely be considered a song and “One After the 909″ which was written in 1957 (and Paul may have helped him to write it, there are conflicting accounts.) So yeah, it may appear close looking at the numbers, but it’s obvious that Paul was the dominating force on this album.

This means after looking at all 13 studio albums John has 7 MVB awards, Paul has 5, and George has 1. But, I’m not done yet. I’m going to do both Past Masters discs as well. I haven’t decided whether to do them separately or both at once yet. They cover such different periods of their career that I think it does make sense to do them one at a time.

Most Valuable Beatle, John Lennon, 1970, The Beatles, Paul McCartney

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