Friday 2nd January 2015 by Andrew Trendell | Photos by Press

The Beatles' engineer: 'Let It Be was a bunch of garbage'

Glyn Johns slams the work of Phil Spector

Flaming Lips: Being the modern masters of mind-bending psychedelia and experimental noise, it should come as no surprise that The Beatles are one of Flaming Lips' main influences. Not only have they covered them countless times, but Wayne Coyne once said: "The Beatles and Pink Floyd didn't just make records, they stood for something."

St Vincent: She does a pretty awesome cover of 'Dig A Pony', showing the true influence of John Lennon's guitar mastery on her own firecracker style.

PIXIES: Not only were Black Francis and co once referred as 'the Psychotic Beatles', but their seminal Doolittle was heavily influenced by the noise and variety The White Album. Of course it was.

Smashing Pumpkins: Bald-headed alt-grunge hero Billy Corgan said that The Beatles were the first band to inspire him to pick up a guitar, saying: "They set the rock pop paradigm we are in. If you go from 'Love Me Do' to 'Helter Skelter' that covers about 85-90 percent of popular rock music."

Green Day: With an insatiable love of a good hook and pop anthem, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong once famously said: "I think that some of the Beatles� songs are way more punk rock than most punk songs written today."

Prince: His Royal Badness loves classic pop and rock n' roll and is like a musical sponge - of course The Beatles are an influence. He also does a pretty mean cover of 'Come Together'.

Panic! At The Disco: Discussing the more eclectic and psychedelic nature of their recent albums, drummer Spencer Smith once told Rolling Stone: "In the past couple of years we were listening to stuff that was a little bit different than what we were on the first record, and the Beatles would be an example of that."

The Beach Boys: Stunned by the sheer quality of Rubber Soul while recording Pet Sounds, Brian Wilson rushed to his wife and shouted: "Marilyn, I'm gonna make the greatest album! The greatest rock album ever made!"

Foo Fighters: Yup, Dave Grohl once famously wrote: "If it weren't for The Beatles, I would not be a musician. From a very young age I became fascinated with their songs, and over the years have drowned myself in the depth of their catalogue. Their groove and their swagger. Their grace and their beauty. Their dark and their light. The Beatles seemed to be capable of anything."

Nirvana: Kurt Cobain would often cite The Beatles as one of his favourite bands of all time. They formed his earliest musical memories, and the song 'About A Girl' is said to have been written after listening to Meet The Beatles on repeat.

The Killers: "I owe everything to The Beatles," frontman Brandon Flowers once told the Liverpool Echo. "When I was in Liverpool last, I went on a real tourist pilgrimage. It blew me away, seeing the houses they lived in. Just being in Liverpool was a humbling experience for me. The UK was the first place to open their arms to us and we are still grateful for that. In a lot of senses it�s home for us musically. A lot of the music we heard that made us want to be in a band came from the UK."

Tags: The Beatles

Legendary engineer for The Beatles Glyn Johns, has slammed Let It Be as 'a bunch of garbage'.

Writing in his new memoir, Sound Man, the acclaimed studio figure spoke of how he was disappointed with the material presented to him after Phil Spector had got involved.

"I was disappointed that (John) Lennon got away with giving it to Spector, and even more disappointed with what Spector did to it," Johns told the New York Times. "It has nothing to do with the Beatles at all.

"Let It Be is a bunch of garbage. As I say in the book, he (Spector) puked all over it. 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."

Watch the video for 'Let It Be' by The Beatles below

Let It Be would become The Beatles' final album. Glyn Johns however, went on to work with the likes of Ryan Adams, The Who, Stevie Nicks, Eagles, The Clash, Led Zeppelin and many more.