<P> McCartney said he had the idea of "Let It Be" after he had a dream about his mother during the tense period surrounding the sessions for The Beatles ("the White Album") in 1968 . According to McCartney, the song's reference to "Mother Mary" was not biblical . The phrase has at times been used as a reference to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ . Nevertheless, McCartney explained that his mother--who died of cancer when he was fourteen--was the inspiration for the "Mother Mary" lyric . He later said: "It was great to visit with her again . I felt very blessed to have that dream . So that got me writing' Let It Be' ." He also said in a later interview about the dream that his mother had told him, "It will be all right, just let it be ." When asked if the song referred to the Virgin Mary, McCartney has typically answered the question by assuring his fans that they can interpret the song however they like . </P> <P> The first rehearsal of "Let It Be" took place at Twickenham Film Studios on 3 January 1969, where the group had, the previous day, begun what would become the Let It Be film . During this stage of the film they were only recording on the mono decks used for syncing to the film cameras, and were not making multi-track recordings for release . A single take was recorded, with just McCartney on piano and vocals . The first attempt with the other Beatles was made on 8 January . Work continued on the song throughout the month . Multi-track recordings commenced on 23 January at Apple Studios . </P> <P> The master take was recorded on 31 January 1969, as part of the "Apple studio performance" for the project . McCartney played Blüthner piano, Lennon played six - string electric bass (replaced by McCartney's own bass part on the final version at the behest of George Martin), George Harrison and Ringo Starr assumed their conventional roles, on guitar and drums respectively, and Billy Preston contributed on organ . This was one of two performances of "Let It Be" that day . The first version, designated take 27 - A, would serve as the basis for all officially released versions of the song . The other version, take 27 - B, was performed as part of the "live studio performance", along with "Two of Us" and "The Long and Winding Road". This performance, in which Lennon and Harrison harmonised with McCartney's lead vocal and Harrison contributed a subdued guitar solo, can be seen in the film Let It Be . </P> <P> The film performance of "Let It Be" has never been officially released as an audio recording . The lyrics in the two versions differ a little in the last verse . The studio version has mother Mary comes to me...there will be an answer, whereas the film version has mother Mary comes to me...there will be no sorrow . In addition, McCartney's vocal performance is noticeably different in both versions: in the film version, it sounds rough in certain moments since he is not using anti-pop on his mic; there are also a couple of falsetto vocals performed by him (extending the vocal' e' on the word' be'), for instance in the' let it be' line that precedes the second chorus . Finally, the instrumental progression featured on the middle of the song after the second chorus (that descends from F to C), which is played twice on all released studio versions, is played (or at least is shown being played) only once in the film . </P>

Who plays the guitar solo in let it be