LET THEM BE RELEASED: THE MOST SIGNIFICANT
BEATLES CDs AND DVDs YET TO BE COMPILED FOR RELEASE
CDs
(in roughly chronological order):
1. The Decca audition tapes,
January 1, 1962: The complete 15-song tape of their
unsuccessful audition for Decca Records, long bootlegged, with five
cuts finding official release on Anthology
1. This is the first studio-quality, album-length recording of
the Beatles, as well as by far the best-sounding recording of the group
while Pete Best was still the drummer. Among the material not to show
up on Anthology 1 is one
Lennon-McCartney original ("Love of the Loved") and two covers (of
Bobby Vee's "Take Good Care of My Baby" and the pop standard "September
in
the Rain") of which no other Beatles versions have circulated.
2. Live at the
BBC, Vol. 2: Although
the cream of the Beatles' BBC recordings were compiled on the official
1994 two-CD set Live at the BBC
(which properly emphasized the songs they did on the radio that they
never put on their official releases), enough exists for about a ten-CD
box set. A ten-CD box set would be too much for all but fanatics,
especially considering that the group did many songs in multiple
versions on their 1962-65 BBC sessions. But certainly a one- or
two-disc supplementary set could be considered, making sure to include
the five covers (of Roy Orbison's "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream),"
Joe Brown's "A Picture of You," the Coasters' arrangement of "Besame
Mucho," Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer," and Chuck Berry's "I'm
Talking About You") that the band never issued in studio versions while
active.
3. The live Hamburg Star-Club tapes,
late December 1962: Thirty songs from these tapes were issued
way back in 1977, and have cropped up piecemeal on numerous tacky
reissues ever since. A sanctioned compilation with all thirty songs,
the few unreleased tracks that have circulated from these same tapes,
and accurate, informed historical liner notes is long overdue.
4. The Beatles Christmas Album: As
most fans of the group know, for every year between 1963 and 1969, the
Beatles put out special flexidiscs with a five-minute-or-so Christmas
message available only to members of their fan club, combining holiday
greetings with sketches, bits of songs, and (from 1966 onward)
quasi-surrealistic sound montages. In 1970, with the band having
recently split, the fan club instead put out a full LP, The Beatles Christmas Album,
collecting all of the 1963-69 flexis on one long-playing disc. Long
bootlegged, this should be released officially, with outtakes from the
sessions (and there are some that have already been bootlegged as well)
added as bonus tracks.
5 . The Complete Hollywood Bowl
Concerts: The 1977 LP The
Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl (itself never reissued on
CD) drew from parts of three concerts that Capitol Records recorded at
the Los Angeles venue on August 23, 1964, August 29, 1965, and August
30, 1965. All three of the complete concerts have been packaged
together on bootlegs already; such a package would make a worthy
official release, despite the multiple versions of many of the songs.
6. The "Kinfauns" (White Album) demos, circa late May
1968: Around late May 1968, shortly before entering the studio
to record The White Album,
the Beatles recorded no less than 27 acoustic-flavored demos at George
Harrison's house, "Kinfauns," in his home in the London suburb of
Esher. In addition to including early versions of 19 songs from The White Album, these included
half a dozen songs never to be released by the Beatles while they were
active, though all of these would appear in some form on some
post-Beatles compilation, solo Beatles release, or (in the case of
"Sour Milk Sea") a cover version by fellow Apple Records artist Jackie
Lomax. A thorough compilation of all 27 (or more, if they exist)
Kinfauns demos, with the best available fidelity and cleaned-up sound,
would be a solid contender for the best collection of (largely)
unreleased Beatles material that could be envisioned at this point.
7. More Get Back/Let It Be sessions,
January 1969: Around 100 hours of material from when the
Beatles were recording what was originally to be the Get Back LP, and ended up being
the Let It Be LP and film,
in January 1969 have been bootlegged. It would be too extreme to
officially release all of this, but an additional CD or two would
certainly be possible. This could take the shape of the entire January
30, 1969 concert on the rooftop of Apple, from start-to-finish, and/or
one or two discs of the best alternate/unissued takes/rehearsals that
have yet to be blessed with commercial availability.
8. Anthology
Vol. 4: Although the three two-disc Anthology volumes did cream off
the best previously unreleased Beatles material in the 1990s, there's
enough for an additional, fairly solid one- or two-disc set. Click here for a sample set of thirty
1962-70 tracks that could fit onto one 78-minute disc.
DVDs
(in roughly chronological order):
1. Washington Coliseum concert,
February 11, 1964 (the complete version,
not the incomplete one issued on The Beatles in Washington D.C..,
February 11, 1964): The Beatles' first US concert was filmed a
little crudely and not in the best of sound, but there is no more
exciting document of live Beatlemania.
2. Around
the Beatles (British TV special, April 28, 1964): Rarely
seen in the US, the Beatles hosted this frenetic special with
little-seen (in the US) British Invasion acts like Cilla Black, Millie
Small, P.J. Proby, and Long John Baldry. The Beatles closed the show
with a half-dozen numbers of their own, including a wild version of the
Isley Brothers' "Shout!," a song they never put on their own releases.
3.
The Beatles Sing for Shell (TV
special of June 17, 1964, concert in
Melbourne, Australia, if its missing fragments can be found): A
fine, energetic show from their 1964 tour Down Under, though
unfortunately a few fragments are missing from the circulating tape.
4. Les
Beatles (TV special of June 20, 1965, concert in Paris): A
full concert from their 1965 European tour, showing the band still to
be in excellent form onstage, and including, believe it or not, the
only decent live version of "A Hard Day's Night" on film.
5. The
Beatles at Shea Stadium (TV special of August 15, 1965, concert):
A documentary of perhaps their most famous individual concert.
6. Compilation of all Beatles promotional
films, 1965-1969: All the promotional films they made for their
singles (and, in the case of "A Day in the Life," an LP cut), including
all of the multiple/alternate versions that were made for specific
songs.
7. Tokyo concerts from June 30, 1966 and
July 1, 1966 (both combined onto one DVD): While these were not
the Beatles' best concerts, as they were taken at a time when they were
starting to get up with touring, they're the only full-length concerts
preserved on color film. They are also important historical documents
of how
the group sounded (and felt) onstage when they were on the verge of
retiring from live performance.
8. The
Making of Sgt. Pepper: Though it's not exactly a Beatles
film, this 1992 television documentary is an interesting, well-done
look at the making of the Beatles' most famous album, including
interviews with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and
George Martin.
9. Magical
Mystery Tour: Believe or not, like Help!, this is unavailable on DVD in the US as of
this writing.
10. Let
It Be: Another
Beatles film unavailable on DVD. There are reportedly anywhere from
about 30 to 100 hours of unreleased footage in
existence, and while (as with the audio tapes of their January 1969
sessions) that's way too much to fit onto a commercial release,
certainly there must be two hours or so of extras that could easily be
tacked on as bonus footage.
11. John Lennon TV documentaries 24
Hours and Man of the Decade,
December 1969 (combined onto one DVD): Two interesting
half-hour British television documentaries of John Lennon in the period
when he'd already told the other Beatles (but not the public) of his
intention to quit the group, and was accelerating his involvement in
peace activism.
unless otherwise specified.
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