Letting Go and the Al Green Connection
Geoff Britton, the drummer with Wings from 1974 to early 1975 informed me that Letting Go was intended to be in the style of Al Green – to the extent that a roadie was sent to collect an Al Green record to make a direct comparison.
Geoff was more than happy with the original version of Letting Go and believed that the band had perfectly captured the sultry, smooth soul sound of Green. McCartney released this version of Letting Go in 2014 as a download to promote the Archive Collection of Venus and Mars. I sent a link of this recording to Geoff, as he had no heard it since being in the studio.
So can we make a comparsion with this version of Letting Go with the music of Al Green? To do so, let’s have a brief listen to Green’s biggest hit – Let’s Stay Together from 1972. It is worth noting that both tracks share the exact same tempo of 102 BPM – a DJ could switch between both without making any adjustments.
What else do the two tracks have in common? Both tracks feature the Hammond Organ; an instrument that soul singers such as Green brought from their gospel church heritage. At this stage, the tracks feature a fairly subdued clean-toned electric guitar part. However, Let’s Stay Together is based more on arpeggio patterns and Letting Go is formed formed from a repeated riff from the minor pentatonic scale.
The drum parts in both tracks make use of subtle open and closed high-hat decorations near the end of the bar, such as in Letting Go at 1:11 (the “and” of beat three) and Let’s Stay Together at 0:29 (the “and” of beat four). However, in Let’s Stay Togther the drums assume more of an intense role from 1:07 with a snare on each beat of the bar.
The bass guitar in Letting Go is very high in the mix and is formed from an ostinato pattern. However, it might be assumed that it would be mixed a little lower in final, polished mix-down.
Final Release
By the time that Letting Go finally made it onto the Venus and Mars album in May 1975, the track had been transformed. Horns had been added in the New Orleans overdub sessions and the electric guitar’s role had been ramped up a few notches. It seems to have been totally re-recorded with a distorted tone and a second guitar parts vies with it for attention. Although Al Green’s track utilises horns, the horns in Letting Go are more upfront and strident.
In essence, the track has moved from soul into the realm of slow rock.
Geoff Britton was sorely disappointed and his opinion, the track had been robbed of its original intent.
What do you think?
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