Paul McCartney’s “Let It Be” first emerged during a difficult period for The Beatles and was a reflection of increasing tensions between McCartney and the other members of the band. It was January 1969, when the Fab Four were in the studio to work on the “Get Back” project, a planned TV special that Paul McCartney believed would help bring the band back to its roots.
John, Paul, George, and Ringo had begun to drift apart during the recording of 1968’s “The Beatles,” aka “The White Album,” with the band members often writing and recording separately, and with them each pursuing distinct interests. John Lennon was consumed by his love affair with the artist Yoko Ono, while George Harrison persisted in his interest in spirituality and religion and developing his own songwriting skills. The band had also been shaken by several traumatic events, including the death of their manager Brian Epstein in August 1967, as well as their fractious break with the religious leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whom they had visited in India in 1968.
Around this time, McCartney, perhaps worrying about the future of the band he had dedicated his life to, had a profound experience when his mother, Mary, came to him in a dream. Mary McCartney had died tragically of complications of breast cancer when McCartney was just 14. A decade later, she told him in his dream not to worry about the trouble around him, but simply to “let it be.”
