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This album is the second in a series of three and it is the latest project by the Beatles. These albums are accompanied by a ten hour, eight tape movie compilation. The project was done by the three surviving Beatles, (Paul, George, and Ringo for those who are unfamilar with the Beatles), and it also features Neil Aspinall, roadie, and Derek Taylor, publicist who passed away soon after the project's completion. Both the videos and the albums are a great piece of work that span the career of the Beatles, and provide the most depth of any project done on the Beatles (apart from the books by Mark Lewisohn, who also worked on the booklet in the albums). Since the project is done by the Beatles, it makes it official, and the audience gets to hear what they intended and how they want their story told. This could be a hindrance because the whole truth may not be shown. Despite this, they make for an excellent listening and showing and are a must for any Beatle fan. The songs are divided among six discs and three albums. This one, is the material that I dub the transition material. It features mainly outtakes of some of the Beatles most notorious work, although it does have some live songs, which include some of the songs from the infamous concert at Shea Stadium. Instead of the first album which showed never before heard songs, this one shows the evolution to the final product. The songs are from the Help! period through the Magical Mystery Tour album. Almost every song on disc one and two are amazing and it's hard to decifer the best ones. But some of the best are, "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" which you can hear Paul break a glass before (according to John it was Paul), there is also a couple of unheard songs, "If You've Got Trouble", sung by Ringo and "That Means A Lot", a Paul song. "Yesterday" is shown beautifully, although it is only Paul and his guitar, a rough, sitar laden "Norwegian Wood" is shown, as well as a 12 bar guitar original never before heard. A very funny version of "And Your Bird Can Sing" with Paul and John laughing throught the overdub is on here and only the strings to "Eleanor Rigby", which is beautiful, and a different version of "I'm Only Sleeping" make up some of the best. Like the first anthology, the Beatles prepared one of John's unused solo works to be released on the album. This time the song is called "Real Love" and this one was almost in finished form when John wrote it. There is less of a sharing on the vocals than "Free As A Bird", but it is just as good. This song also contains the best and longed after qualites of the Beatles that "Free As A Bird". The song also sounds like it could be off of Abbey Road with the tight harmonies. It is a masterpiece like most of the other work by the Beatles. Disc two shows more time being spent in the studio, and that is due to the fact that the Beatles quit touring. Some of the best work on this are the three takes of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and it shows the evolution of this ground breaking song. A magnificent early take of "A Day In the Life" is included, "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" an early take of it, and a silly song "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) are also on disc 2. "I Am The Walrus", different takes of "The Fool On The Hill" and "Hello Goodbye", as well as a nice version of the wonderous song "Across The Universe" are on this album. The latter of the songs is a much faster and unorchestrated version,but it is just as beautiful as the released version as it has John's voice be show magnificently. The anthology albums are a must for Beatles fans. They show different takes of some of our favorite songs, that are awkward at first but then you can see the beauty of transition. The whole concept is rooted in nostagalia, past visits of old songs, and even the cover is designed by Hamburg buddy Klaus Voorman (also the designer of Revolver). The albums are a great trip back to the past of good times and great music |
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