Category: The Beatles

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The end of The Beatles

If you are a Beatles fan you will know this, so apologies.

A history lesson

John Lennon died in 1980. George Harrison died in 2001.

Between those two years, the living individual members of the fabs made albums, had bands, retired, made films and did whatever, and at times relations were strained, and at other times not. (And some John Lennon stuff made an appearance.)

But the three came together in the mid-1990s for The Anthology project. It was an attempt to present The Beatles’ history by the Beatles, sanitized and approximate. There was a coffee table book, a tv series and three boxed sets.

The music aspect brought together a load of stuff: old session recordings, live performances, BBC stuff, talking and interviews… Whatever you may think of what was included and what not, and how it was presented (and many people do dislike it), it is better to have it than not.

There were to be three new tracks, based on demos Lennon had recorded, one for each boxed set. Real Love and Free As A Bird got made over, with new material from the three living lads, and help from Jeff Lynne. They did pretty well, sales-wise, but met with a mixed reaction from fans. And it was really only the fans who were interested.

The third song, Now And Then, was started and worked on, but the original recording quality had noise problems and it was abandoned.

Come 2017 and it’s the 50th anniversary of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Giles Martin is let loose to make it sound more modern and in-your-face, with thumping bass, high volume levels and a lack of sublety. The big package sold well. The Beatles, Abbey Road and Let It Be followed. There’s a market for this they discover.

Whatever you think of these new mixes, yes they do have more detail but I contend that the original vinyl pressings are more pleaserable to listen to.

Other albums, going backwards from Revolver, are going to be difficult to remix because of the way they were recorded.

Then Peter Jackson and his chums appear on the scene with software that can extract the different instruments onto separate tracks so that ‘errors’ can be fixed and the bass gets a boost. So now we have a Revolver box set, 2022.

That brings us to today, I mean literally today.

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“The Beatles: Get Back”

We mentioned The Beatles and films just recently, and we have “Yellow Submarine” to come soon, but here’s a slight diversion.

If you are a Beatles fan you will know all this and much more… Apologies.

At some point in 1968 it was decided that the Fab Four should have a new project. It began shooting in January 1969 in the barn-like and very cold Twickenham Studios. The plan was not totally clear: some kind of filmed rehearsal/tv special/live concert in the UK or elsewhere. Michael Lindsay-Hogg was the director.

The lads came with a few ideas, nothing reasonably completed, but with a deadline before the concert or whatever. Twickenham proved a dreadful place, so they moved to Apple in Savile Row, recruited Billy Preston and did the famous roof top concert. And the album, and an 80 minute film.

The film shows the band unhappy with each other, making little progress, Paul dominating and Yoko Ono everywhere. Having been seen around the world, and the album selling well (even though it’s many people’s least favourite) the film disappeared and got no official home media release, though poor quality copies can be found.

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“A Hard Day’s Night”

There are interviews somewhere, can’t find them just now, where members of the greatest pop band in the world are asked about their futures. Can’t imagine we’ll be doing this in a few years, is the reply, John and Paul will ultimately turn to writing songs for musicals, Ringo wants a hairdressing salon. This from the early 1960s.

Who would know that here we are, sixty years later, and the Beatles are as popular as ever? Their cds sell, so does vinyl, and they are hugely popular downloads. There are more books about the Beatle years than any other artists. Two of them are dead, but the other two, in their eighties, are still performing. Indeed, McCartney did a tour just this year. They are not the same as they were, but who is.

The 1960s were not like now. Anything a famous person does now in public, or even in private, is recorded. Everyone, virtually, has cameras on the phones or whatever. It may not be interesting or of value, but it’s there. In the 1960s, recording was less easy.

There are clips of The Beatles in concert. There are interviews. The quality can be good, or not. So much of what The Beatles did is lost forever.

The Fab Four made some feature films. “Yellow Submarine” is an animation based on their songs. The guys don’t do the voices and appear just briefly at the end for some fun. “Let It Be” is a documentary about rehearsals for a concert. It has been re-visited recently and is a cause of much discussion among fans.

“Help!” is a kind of sixties James Bond type spoof. There are some big stars in it and it’s fun enough, but not great.

And then there is “A Hard Day’s Night”.

This black and white film from 1964 is directed by Richard Lester. Although it’s fiction and the lads are acting, it kind of reflects the lives they were leaving at the time. Of course, we know it’s fiction – Wilfred Bramble is not really Paul McCartney’s grandfather.

The Beatles play The Beatles. The film records a few days in their hectic lives, preparing for a tv concert.

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