The surviving members of the Fab Four spent much of the 1990s belatedly reuniting to document, promote, and occasionally awkwardly burnish their unparalleled pop music legacy. This double-disc anthology of live-in-the-studio performances originally recorded specifically for the BBC during the most frantic years of early Beatlemania was the first chapter in that effort and the first issuance of previously unreleased Beatles recordings since the late ’70s. In many ways, it remains [Read More...]
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As much as the Beatles were loved in the USA, we were short-changed. We thought we were getting a lot with an album every ten months, a handful of singles each year, a movie every two years, an occasional tour, and a sloppy Saturday morning cartoon.
But, in the UK, the Beatles were doing stage shows–not just their own act, but pantomime and vaudeville-type things–and tons of live radio, where “From Me To You” was converted to “From Us To You” and made their signature tune. LIVE AT THE BBC collects more than 60 of the best moments from their radio appearances in one fabulous package.
There are a couple odd glitches–the solo on “A Hard Day’s Night” is an obvious edit of the studio solo patched over a live performance, for instance–but the vast majority of the music here is superb.
The cover of “Sweet Little Sixteen” is fantastic, really hard stuff the way Lennon always said he preferred the Beatles to sound. Harrison shines on “Nothin’ Shakin’” and “Everybody’s Tryin’ To Be My Baby.” McCartney wails on “Long Tall Sally,” “Lucille,” and “The Hippy Hippy Shake.” The whole band delivers a jolt with my very favorite early Beatles rocker, “Some Other Guy.”
Ringo, as always, is the heart of the Beatles sound. On “Thank You Girl” he sounds like he’s going to knock the bandstand to pieces. Why he isn’t universally acclaimed as one of the 2 or 3 greatest Rock drummers of all time is beyond me.
This is a great record of the Beatles early days, when they were just beginning to step away from a very 1950s sound. Who could have guessed how far they’d go in less than a decade?
It bears noting that at the time this compilation was released, the Beatles were banned from the BBC. Not because of any song content, mind you (as if), but because, if I remember the exact wording, they were “too boring.” This all changed soon enough, when a year later Beatlemania was revamped by the Anthology series and “Free As A Bird”/”Real Love” releases.
But in the heyday of the sixties, the love affair between the Beeb and the boys from Liverpool was hot and heavy. And mutually beneficial, no doubt.
For those of us who love the “personal history” stuff of the Beatles story as well as the technical, which-riff-goes-where stuff, this set is a treasure trove. Not only do we get to hear early interviews where Paul, George, Ringo, and even cheeky John still have butterflies in their stomachs, but despite the low-tech feel of the recordings, the energy of the songs recorded here is palpable. In between the songs the lads chat with DJs and share Christmas and other holiday greetings. This gives us a glimpse, in part, into even the pre-”toppermost of the poppermost” days.
My favorite songs on the collection feature George, and listening to them gave me further insight into the frustration he must have felt playing an undeserved “second fiddle” role to the Lennon-McCartney partnership. His covers of “Young Blood”, “Crying, Waiting, Hoping”, “Nothin’ Shakin’” are so fresh and spot on, to say nothing, of course, of “Roll Over Beethoven”. Even though a Harrison original doesn’t show up here, his musicianship and importance in the group comes through.
“Nothin’ Shakin’”, by the way, a terrific rockabilly number, is one of several unique recordings on this collection, along with songs such as Carl Perkin’s “Glad All Over” (not to be confused with the Dave Clark number of the same name).
A must for any serious Fab Four collection.