Let It Be

When the final studio album by the Beatles was released this week in 1970, the band had already broken up. As fans know well, the years of grueling tours, their widening creative differences, and the suffering from their own successes, finally finished them off (I have no comment on Yoko). “Finally,” is a strong word, though, as none of the men were yet thirty years of age.

Critics responded to that final album by hurling rotten tomatoes, one writing, “It is the sound of a band falling apart. It is the sound of a band trying to hold it together. It is the sound of an era ending.” And so it was, but the title track has proven to be a lasting treasure: “Let It Be.”

Paul McCartney wrote the song after an epiphany. Completely lost, depressed, and lonely, he was longing for the comfort of his mother. Her name…