Let It Be Album

HLN's Robin Meade releases country album, remakes 'Dirty Laundry'

(CNN) -- The irony of a newswoman doing a country remake of Don Henley's 1980s hit "Dirty Laundry" was not lost on Robin Meade. "Instead of avoiding what I do for a living and why people know my name," the HLN host told CNN, "I said 'Let's just come at it straight on', and to me it's kind of like a tongue-in-cheek nod at what I do for a living."

The host of HLN's "Morning Express with Robin Meade" spoke to CNN about her debut country album, "Brand New Day."

"If you listen to the words to 'Dirty Laundry' now," Meade continued, "It is still really contemporary, even though it's an old song. When I listen to the words, it makes me think of what types of stories have gripped us. The past month or so has been all about this Casey Anthony trial and people wanting justice for a little girl whose life was ended way too soon and looking at the way the trial started and the way she threw her family under the bus and if that's not dirty laundry, I don't know what is.

"And the same with the Anthony Weiner scandal; I think we all are attracted -- I don't want to say to dirty laundry per se, but we are attracted to the human condition and what happens to other people. It's like, there are fewer soap operas -- if there are any -- on in the afternoons anymore and so it's almost like these types of stories have become our own soap opera viewing. It's not like we, as viewers, want people to lose; but I think we want to look at stories and go: 'Oh my gosh! I hope things get better for them' or you go 'Thank goodness my family's not that dysfunctional!' or, 'See, I am normal! I knew it!' So I think in many different ways, 'Dirty Laundry' is the perfect song."

The track also features the vocal stylings of a group Meade lovingly refers to as the Dirty Laundry Choir.

"Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn came in on a day he'd rather have been golfing, I'm sure," Meade said. "He did background vocals on the line: 'Kick 'em when they're up, kick 'em when they're down.' Also, Bo Bice is singing in the choir and a number of other people."

Meade has co-written six of the 12 songs on the album, which is teaming with Nashville heavy-hitters including artist Victoria Shaw, who co-produced Lady Antebellum's first album.

"I happened to get her," joked Meade. "She says I stopped her, I say I employed the tenacity of a reporter to get her.

Let It Be… Naked Album Review « beatle.net

, Nov-Dec 2003

Nearly 35 years after the Beatles’ tumultuous January 1969 back-to-basics recording sessions, Apple finally had released the album the group wanted all along. “Let It Be… Naked” is more than a stripped-down version of the officially released “Let It Be” album. It is a freshly remixed collection of the best takes of the best songs identified with the “Get Back”/”Let It Be” project. It comes with a 32-page booklet full of pictures taken during the sessions and extracts from the original “Let It Be” Book, plus a 22-minute bonus disc containing studio chatter and snippets of songs.

Since its release in 1970, the “Let It Be” album has evoked strong opinions from fans and critics, particularly among the those who have heard bootlegs containing the unreleased “Get Back” album compiled and mixed by engineer Glyn Johns. Although “Get Back” contains many ragged performances, it has humor and charm. It was designed to be “The Beatles with their socks off.” No overdubs. No edits. Warts and all. The “Let It Be” LP, which was reproduced for disc by Phil Spector, has better performances of some songs but deviates drastically from the project’s original no-overdubs policy. Those who enjoy the loose quality and simplicity of “Get Back” vilify Spector for the orchestral and choir embellishments added to a few of the tracks. Others believe Spector turned an amateurish-sounding collection of poorly performed songs into a highly-polished and respectable album. The Beatles were never really satisfied with either version.

Early in 2003, word began filtering through Beatles fandom that Apple was going to release a “de-Spectorized” version of “Let It Be”. Many people assumed that the “new” disc would be the “Get Back” album. Others speculated that “Let It Be… Naked” would have the same running order as the “Let It Be” album, but would use the pre-Spector versions of “Across the Universe”, “I Me Mine”, “The Long and Winding Road” and “Let It Be” that appeared on the “Anthology” album. Few gave any thought to the possibility that Apple would issue an entirely new version of the album. But that’s exactly what happened.

In early 2002, Apple Managing Director Neil Aspinall contacted Allan Rouse at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios about redoing the “Let It be” album. Rouse had served as project coordinator for the “Anthology” and “Yellow Submarine Songtrack”. He brought in Paul Hicks and Guy Massey to mix and engineer the album. The trio was given the freedom to select which versions of songs to include and to remix the songs as they saw fit. Because the objective was to produce an album of great songs that would fit in with the rest of the Beatles catalog, the trio decided to drop the throw-away tracks “Dig It” and “Maggie Mae” as well as all studio banter. For example, we no longer hear about “Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf-aids.” Although the trio listened to all 30 reels of tape recorded at Apple during January 1969, most of the tracks on the new album use the same master take as the previously released album.

Beatlesongs

Let it be

Billboard

Tell me why, a Beatles commentary

The Beatles anthology