Willie Nelson, Naked Willie (RCA Nashville/Legacy)
I'm something of a purist when it comes to tinkering with "the way things were," so the idea of Willie Nelson's Naked Willie leaves me feeling like I've just licked a 9-volt battery.
Nelson's Naked, which steals its concept and title from The Beatles' Let it Be ... Naked from 2003, wipes the strings and additional instrumental accoutrements from some of the Red-Headed Stranger's best material from his 1960s sessions for RCA.
But where Let it Be ... Naked had the benefit of finally realizing the initial intentions of the Let it Be sessions — showing the Fab Four live, unadorned by overdubs and without Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" additions — Nelson's orchestration was largely preconceived and intended to be a part of the recordings.
Would we so easily accept someone adding sound to a track? What if someone remastered Bruce Springsteen's quiet, spooky Nebraska with a full orchestra? That's not what the Boss had in mind. And it would ruin the integrity and vision of what was done in the first place.
Still, advertising and marketing being what it is, they know there are a certain percentage of listeners who will have to have this, believing it to be a "truer" representation of what Nelson intended, which is not just debatable, but wrong.
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