Glyn Johns' discography as a recording engineer basically reads like a Far Out list of the Greatest Albums of the 1960s and '70s, from his first gig working in the studio with the skiffle legend Lonnie Donegan straight through a host of seminal records by the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, the Eagles, Neil Young, and the Clash.
Johns is probably best known, however, for his work with the Beatles; a relationship that was given much greater colour by the release of Peter Jackson's Get Back documentary series a few years ago. While most Beatles fans were mesmerised by that film's "fly on the wall" view of the 'Get Back' recording sessions, Glyn Johns had already experienced that perspective firsthand way back in 1969, and had even approached the band about releasing an album that included their banter, in-fighting, and tinkering as a way of giving listeners a totally new insight into the Beatles' process.
"I thought it was fantastic because it was showing who they really were," Johns said in a 2014 interview, noting that he'd even put together a compilation tape during those sessions to get across his idea.
"I took it in and I played it to them, and to a man they all said, 'no, don't be ridiculous, nobody wants anything to do with that.' And I kind of expected that. So we carried on."
Johns eventually played a role in the famous rooftop concert that concluded the sessions, a seemingly triumphant end to a tumultuous few weeks. The fate of those new songs, of course, was a whole other story, as the gradual breakdown of the Beatles throughout the year left the individual band members either disillusioned or in total disagreement about what to do with the recordings that would become Let It Be.
At one point, Glyn Johns says he was summoned to Abbey Road by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and essentially had the project foisted upon him to mix the record -- not just because they trusted him, but because they were sick of thinking about it. Not long after, though, despite putting together a mix he was happy with, Johns caught word that Lennon had befriended the famed "Wall of Sound" producer Phil Spector in New York, and that Spector would now be handling post-production on Let It Be.
"I was disappointed that Lennon got away with giving it to Spector, and even more disappointed with what Spector did to it," Johns told the New York Times in 2014 while promoting his memoir Sound Man. "It has nothing to do with the Beatles at all. Let It Be is a bunch of garbage.
"As I say in the book, [Spector] puked all over it," Johns added. "I've never listened to the whole thing, I've only listened to the first few bars of some things and said, 'Oh, forget it.' It was ridiculously, disgustingly syrupy."
Fans and critics might have been a tad more forgiving of Let It Be upon its original release, as the break-up of the band painted the record with an emotional heft that almost excused Spector's numerous overdubs and unneeded bells and whistles. Over the years, though, many listeners -- including most of the Beatles, it seems -- came around to Johns' assessment, as evidenced by McCartney releasing his own simplified mix of Let It Be, called Let It Be Naked, back in 2003.
As for Glyn Johns' own original take on Let It Be? Those tapes, complete with the studio banter and rawness he'd envisioned from the beginning, were lost for many years until Johns uncovered them under the lining in the boot of his car, covered in mildew. Available for a while as a bootleg, Johns' Let It Be mix, aka 'The Get Back Album,' was given a more official release as part of the Let It Be Super DeLuxe box set in 2021.