Beatles Anthology

"Tomorrow Never Knows" - the thick, freaky haze of McCartney's version is fascinating and would have possibly been even more mind-blowing as a conclusion to Revolver...but it's SO far removed that it would feel a tacked-on oddity instead of the conclusion to a journey.

"Sgt. Pepper's (Reprise)" - why the fuck didn't they put this one out? It tears the house down! (As much as the Beatles ever do, anyway.)

"Obla-Di" - I like the wall of sound approach to this, and never liked the original very much, so, hey, can't hurt.

"I'm Looking Through You" - okay, so it's obviously kind of lackluster without the big riff, but this laid-back maraca thing is something the Beatles didn't really do enough of - it would have been a reasonable sort of sequel to "I'll Follow the Sun."

And "Across the Universe," of course.

Never-released songs..."If You've Got Troubles," though widely mocked, is still better than whatever other shitty Ringo vehicle made it onto the album in question (I think "Honey Don't"). And I LOVE Paul's "That Means A Lot" - not a major effort but I'm a sucker for giant-size echoing mixes for the Beatles, and I think this would have been a fine addition where-ever it was supposed to go. Was it for Help! maybe? Actually, it seems to me like it would have been a great b-side. The other big winners are "Come and Get It," which needs more lyrics and changes but is still better than Badfinger's cover, also "What's The New Mary Jane?" which I think honestly should have taken "Revolution #9"'s place on the White Album, certainly on any single-disc version of the album.

A lot of the other little bitsy things are to me essential for Beatle fans - there's something very endearing about "Los Paranoias" for example, but at the same time it's appropriate that it only saw release in this format. What really makes the whole package worth it is the tiny stuff, the little recording-room asides that instantly entered me and my buddy's private language of Beatle talk when we were 15. "Sugar plum fairy, sugar plum fairy..." "From the heart of the Black Country!"...etc. Such crumbs we fed on for months and months.

Some combination of 2 and 3 is all I really need. Never bought 1 so I can't comment on it - still can't get interested since I know there's all kinds of talky talky on it.

Can you believe it's been a decade since this all came out?

Vol 1 is also ace. Like the BBC sessions, it's patchy, but a great period piece. The second 'No Reply' on CD2 is better than the Beatles For Sale version - more sparkly and alive. Highlight for me is the two versions of I'll Be Back, the first in 3/4 time, the second in 4/4. John stops the first saying 'it's too hard to play' and they immediately change time sig and it works. There's a superb, very different version of 'And I Love Her' too.

God I love this stuff.

The version of "Yes it is" on anth is less good than the original, and they really should have used Take 1 (from a bootleg if you want to find it) where John's fragile vocal suits it, the tentative backing also, and the 'funny voices' only happens briefly.

I love it also, I already had a lot of it on boots but the extras made it even better.

You have to track down the 'anthology plus' 2CD set from yr unusual places...

It doesn't make me Geir though.

Vol 2 disc 1 is probably my favourite hour of music in the Beatles discography. I don't have the recordings in front of me but a yes-yes-yes to "This Bird Can Sing", "No Reply", "Across the Universe", "I'm Looking Through You". And I love the anth version of "Yes It Is" (also: "Hey You've Got to Hide Your Love Away").

"And so, for Paul McCartney of Liverpool... opportunity knocks." Classic.

Personally, as a matter of fact, I prefer "Free As a Bird" to "Real Love", mainly because I feel like "Free As a Bird" is sort of the effort of the entire group, with a part composed by Paul and a lot of harmonies provided by George, while "Real Love" is a bit too much of a John Lennon solo recording backed by Paul and George on some backing vocals. I also really love the Paul-composed part of "Free As a Bird", and I still rank it higher than "Real Love". Both are great pop songs, only dragged down by the bad technical quality of the recording of John's voice.

not on 'anthology' but as i've banged on about before the early version of HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE (invariably Take 2 i believe) that is in circulation destroys the album version. macca sounds wrecked on it and his voice can't quite get there, which adds to the whole thing. it's on the 'anthology plus' cd that mark one-ups about upthread.

there's a thread about this already i'm sure.

I don't actually have the anthologies, but love "real love" and root for "free as a bird" (tho still think is too slow)

Take 1 of SFF is better on the circulating bootlegs. It has some lovely airy harmonies that for some reason are missing from the version on Anthology. It's not surprising but some of the Anthology outtakes are composites so don't offer a true picture of the take. For example one of my favourites is the bluesier version of Can't Buy Me Love which is clearly in the wrong key for McCartney and breaks down. The unedited take features just the worst Harrison solo so they put in a slightly worse solo from another take. It's odd with him, invariably the solo that ends up on the record is great, but give him a live take in the studio and he never comes up with an on the spot great solo (certainly from the available bootleg evidence).

Love both Real Love and Free As A Bird though probably would give Real Love the nod.

Who does? So, he goes away and works one out.

I can see why most of the "take one" versions were not used for that reason. Bit of a shame (certainly as regards "Yes it is") but there you go.

My brother just let me hear the version of SFF from the new Love album and it includes those take 1 harmonies I just mentioned!

I agree he deserves to be cut some slack because of the way they were working and because the final solo is usually perfect, it just always surprised me that he wasn't capable of knocking up something reasonable quite quickly having been playing for years live and in the studio. I suppose he always knew the solo would be an overdub anyway.

Famously, the solo from A Hard Day's Night had to be dubbed onto the BBC version before broadcast (check out the both the official release and any number of bootlegs - you can hear the edit)

Man, so as I said upthread I've never really bothered to check out the Anthology 1 stuff at all, I'm kind of youtubing bits of it now and it's more interesting than I would have thought! The progression of "No Reply" from Take 1 to 2 is just nuts.

I bought it used not long ago but haven't sat down to give it my full attention yet.

i haven't watched in probably a decade, but it's fun stuff. still, wish there was just a really nerdy "Beatles in the Studio" kinda documentary that went into the nuts and bolts of the days/nights in abbey road. or does that exist?

I think I enjoyed Beatles:Rockband solely for the little audio bits of them in the studio before and after each of the songs. tylerw otm, I could just listen to them plinking and plonking and arguing and talking baout things for like, weeks.

Totally baffled that they didn't push "Leave My Kitten Alone" a little further and get it on the record - - I mean it's definitely rough around the edges, nobody's playing all that tightly, but it's a kick-ass cover. I guess it's basically redundant to, like, "Slow Down," but ehh, I'd take it over their dull rendition of "Rock n Roll Music" that made it onto the album.

agreed with tylerw above - - - I basically have the entire Anthology documentary memorized (taped it off TV when it was on and would watch it whenever I was home sick, etc) but I was listening to it yesterday while doing work and it was just like, okay, these are the standard anecdotes and checkpoints but god, talk about recording the White Album some more! Revolver! Tell us about Revolver!

I guess Lewisohn's Recording Sessions is the closest you'll get though.

yeah i guess i basically want a documentary of that lewisohn book. something along those lines will probably happen sometime before i die?

after all the craziness surrounding the re-released albums you'd think something like that would at least be on the table.

RELEASE ALL THE THINGS.

yeah just do it! with little things that keep floating around, like that "here comes the sun" lost solo, or the hard days night opening chord explained, it's clearly rich territory for dorks like me!

Two of my all-time favorite Beatles performances are the live "Money" (with the insanely up-front crunchy guitar) and "Roll Over Beethoven" (one of the swingingest Ringo performances ever) on Anthology 1.

I'm a big corny stan for the Morecambe and Wise appearance and "Moonlight Bay"

I wonder if EMI would ever experiment with something like a subscription digital bootleg service. Like, it would probably not have ever been commercially viable to put out like a 212-disc ongoing series of recording sessions, but digital distribution is cheap and there are many Beatle nerds.

A real recording-session documentary at this point seems like it'd be a tall order - George Martin is 86 years old, how much energy could he have for something like that? Kind of staggering to realize it's now been almost as long since the Anthology stuff was filmed as it had then been since the Beatles broke up.

haha, listening to moonlight bay now, pretty great!

I think my favorite Anthology bit aside from "And Your Bird Can Sing" is the initial take of "I'll Be Back" in waltz time, when it becomes quickly clear it isn't going to work.

That whole Morecambe/Wise bit with "What's it like being famous" and John goes "Oh it's not like in your day. You know..." Just the way he lets that sit there, it's just gold. Cracks me up. and then about his little Dad etc

Also "BONGO!!!" makes me giggle

listening to waltzy "i'll be back" now and i think you are quite right!

There's something about Beatles giggling while recording that will always fill my heart with gladness.

Surely we can have a little tap?

Off topic but I also think George is far and away the funniest in A Hard Day's Night. ''He filled his head up with notions, seemingly.''

Readin' them borads! You should be out parading!

Yeah i don't think it was drugs so much as just not wanting to be in the same room, making music at 8am or something.

Doctor Casino OTM. "Can I say something? I think it's quite likely we won't be on. I mean, the law of average is against it."

And of course

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QREeweMWTZk

Yeah, George is the best in that, especially that big scene of his just posted.

oh god, George with the hipster people is fantastic

"You can be replaced!"

"I don't care."

"And that's wrong, too. The new thing is to care passionately, and be right-wing!"

Brilliant writing. I must watch AHDN tonight

Someone mentions above the Anthology's 8 minute run-through of the development of Strawberry Fields. This 26 minute version is far more satisfying, and surely definitive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS6wswlJCB4

wow this is great. god bless beatles nerds.

omg, yay!

has 'carnival of light' really never been bootlegged ever? i'm dying to hear the thing now.

nope, never bootlegged. there have been some fakes that were passed off as the real thing iirc.

There's lots of non-music stuff from that era that's never been bootlegged. Plenty of drugged-up jams recorded during and post the Pepper sessions that aren't really considered music at all by the one or two people that have heard them, but I'd love to hear them.

God I am so in love with that Strawberry Fields youtube

I need this for all of the songs. ALL OF THE SONGS.

yeah it's great! really brings back home what a crazy, weird/wonderful song it is.

and from the simplicity of Lennon's lyrics and guitar work, and then that great rhythm underneath it...like Ringo and Paul really add a whole new layer to that once they're on the track, it's so cool.

and just how he gets from let me take you back to let me take you back...just those tiny choices. Agh! I love it!

and could I start more sentences with "and" please

Some of my favorite moments: At 3.40 - the completely different melody he uses for the title line - a lovely little discarded fragment of a tune. Also, the sweet Weybridge guitar; and the folksy finger-picking versions that begins after 7 mins; and at just past 11 minutes, what I think was his best vocal take. It almost ends anti-climatically - thank god they didn't release/slowed down the horrid, shrill orchestral version, but I can't really argue much with the finished product.

what's so great (or one of the things that's so great) about SFF is how much of a mess it really is! such weird, illogical edits, sped-up/slowed down tape -- the seams really show! and yet -- total classic.

yeah the full speed orchestra is like AGGH CLAMOROUS NOISE but slowed down it works so well.

It's a real credit to the way George and the engineers worked with the Beatles, where there really wasn't any half-cocked notion that they wouldn't at least explore. You know, like 'I want it to sound like THIS, how do we do that.'

I just realized that part of reason I love The Beatles is the same reason I love the Apollo missions :)

Also, isn't that bit of footage at the beginning astonishing - Lennon picking out the SFF chords on a melodica, backstage during a their first U.S. tour promoting A Hard Day's Night!

So cool.

I also think that the Strawberry Fields promo video itself is one of my favorite things the Beatles did, visually. The colors, the look, everything about it is just so fantastic to me.(I think it's also bc Yellow Submarine was my favorite as a kid and they all look like their IRL cartoon characters, lol)

yeah, so crazy, that opening melodica clip.
& yeah, the SFF video is something else, something pretty magical about it.

Yeah SFF is awesome. Too bad Magical Mystery Tour was received so badly, they should've kept making videos. Imagine some Beatles-produced White Album videos would be cool.

omg how could would that have been

*cool

"I also think that the Strawberry Fields promo video itself is one of my favorite things the Beatles did, visually. The colors, the look, everything about it is just so fantastic to me."

I agree - the video, with its deep, saturated colors in the nighttime parts, is perfect complement to the final version of the song (which, after the brief misstep of the full-speed orchestral version, is itself a triumph)

Macca and George resolved a lotta the differences before he died but man if you think he's cold towards him in Anthology you don't wanna read
Many Years From Now the Macca autobiog.

Some of John's demos at about 5:00 in that video sound like outtakes from Bee Thousand!

And that version with the Here, There and Everywhere-style harmony vocals . . . I mean, can you imagine, that something that goes in your discard pile?

Many Years from Now is not an autobiography. Don't remember what was so cold about George in it.

some of my fave non Anthology out-takes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRrZBj7vaSc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pwyh5ukOBk

we've talked about that last clip a lot over the last 10 years on ILM; i can't find a longer version of it on You Tube, the proper one is 17 minutes long.
still one of my fave Beatles *things* ever, even Ian Mcdonald refers to it in his book.

There's a bootleg that is a full length cd of the evolution of Strawberry Fields through different takes. It's amazing.

anthology is really a pretty good paring down of the generally available bootlegs, although yeah, unsurpassed masters, if you can scrounge them up (which you can on the internet) are more revelatory. I know I downloaded the whole shebang one night and then spent the entire night listening to them. but anthology gets all the must haves in one place: those early things like cry for a shadow, the very early recordings of that'll be the day and in spite of all the danger; the 'finished song' outtakes like kitten, that means a lot, not guilty, mary jane, come and get it, the all things must pass demo; a decent chunk of the strawberry fields evolution; penny lane with the trumpet. I just made a playlist of all of these things for my son (who is just about six and has already played out all the regular albums) and it was the most exciting thing in the world for him. I envy, and yet don't, people discovering the beatles today. It took me years to finally hear all the released stuff in the late 70's early 80's. now they can have everything plus hundreds of hours of outtakes just like that.

The "Revolution" full outtake is still really effing cool to hear.

'Kitten' was supposedly gonna come out as a single ahead of the original planned 'Sessions' out takes album in the the mid 80s but it was 'bumped' from the EMI schedule because of er.. Paul McCartney's "Give My Regards To Broad Street"

http://www.beatlesagain.com/breflib/sessions.html

I was saying to my wife last night, at this late date, when the Beatles have monetized essentially everything they're going to for the consumer market, they should build a Beatles Center in Liverpool or London. It could be like the Paley Center in NYC, but devoted entirely to the band's entire recording history. You could listen to whatever takes of whatever songs you wanted, fool around with the 4- and 8-track masters, etc. It would be a major tourist destination for fans.

I approve of this idea, Phil!

Too bad Apple are total idiots.

I always like listening to the progression of She Said She Said:

http://youtu.be/8b-9DNkWw5g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b-9DNkWw5g

John's mellotron tapes are cool too, if a little silly. It's more like an electronic version of the Goons at parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0mWa_9fWmo

Oh, and this stuff is great! Pretty ambient!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9waBYt0WDU

Imagine THAT on the White Album instead of "Revolution No 9"! He taped it at the same time.

OMG, She Said progression is CRAZY! How did that not get on Anthology?!

Playing a real Mellotron is high up on my bucket list.... such a haunting, distinctive sound that's surprisingly difficult to emulate on a modern keyboard - a note played on a mellotron never sounds the same way twice, with all the wow-and-flutter, crosstalk, and other imperfections from the imperfect analog tape mechanisms coloring the sound.

Yeah if i ever win the Lotto I'm getting a mellotron and a harpsichord.

Man, "She Said" demos are just great. "I said, who put all that crap in your head?"

Also makes it a lot clearer how the "Dylan influence" led outwards to the psychedelic stuff, if all of Revolver began as demos like that. Much moreso than "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away," somehow.