title: “Here There And Everywhere” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-05” author: “Justin Perry”
They should be grateful that satisfaction is at hand. ““Live at the BBC’’ will be available in the United States next week, and the Beatles industry is revving up in other corners as well. Earlier this month British writer Ian MacDonald published ““Revolution in the Head,’’ a brilliant electrical storm of a book that deconstructs the band’s catalog song by song. In the spring, the group’s legendary producer, George Martin, will publish his wry, engaging account of the making of ““Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’’ (the book is already out in Britain). Then, late next year, fans will die and go to heaven with ““The Beatles Anthology,’’ a multipart TV documentary that will likely be accompanied by several discs’ worth of unreleased studio outtakes. Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr have sat for interviews for the project, as well as adding new vocals and instrumentation to one of John Lennon’s unfinished songs, ““Free as a Bird,’’ found on a demo tape from the mid-’70s. Lennon and McCartney sing together again. Imagine.
With ““Anthology’’ in the offing, EMI and the Beatles’ company, Apple Corps, may be testing the waters with ““Live at the BBC’’ – trying to determine how big the demand is for Fab Four rarities. They may also be trying to deal a blow to a pesky bootleg market. As Bill King, publisher of the tenacious periodical Beatlefan, puts it, ““I think they finally realized that they might as well do it themselves, have some control and get a royalty.’’ A bigger selection of the Beatles’ BBC recordings is already available in a handsome (but often dodgy-sounding) nine-CD bootleg set from Italy. Anybody got $175?
For serious fans, ““Live at the BBC’’ is a winning collection that, as George Martin says, ““shows how good the Beatles were as a band before we started doing tricks in the studio.’’ Thirty of the tracks here (29 oldies, plus one Lennon/McCartney original, ““I’ll Be on My Way’’) were never recorded for an album. And all 56 deliver the young, bantering Beatles who were obsessed with Chuck Berry, played scrabbling guitars and still wore ties. Some of the songs – ““Can’t Buy Me Love,’’ ““Hard Day’s Night’’ – may sound too much like the studio versions to turn your head. But when was the last time you heard a Beatles show not drowned out by the white noise of a crowd? Brian Matthew, one of the hosts trading quips with the boys on ““Live,’’ remembers what concerts were like out in the real world: ““I interviewed the Beatles immediately after their Shea Stadium gig, and John Lennon said, “I have no idea what was going on’.''
Ah, yes, John Lennon. Last week the white wall outside the Abbey Road studios was, as always, swarming with graffiti, including this declaration in stark black letters: nothing is real without you, john. It remains to be seen how real ““Free as a Bird’’ will seem next year. Lennon’s original track (available on a bootleg) was an echoey, quavering piano ballad. It was lovely in its way, but only half there. ““Well, it’s all there now,’’ says a source who’s heard the finished track. ““It’s definitely a Beatles song. Only somebody churlish wouldn’t like it.’’ Duets from the dead have a spooky edge (paging Natalie Cole), but our guess is we’ll all be moved when Lennon sings, ““Free as a bird / It’s the nearest thing to being / Free as a bird / Home, home and dry / Like a homing bird I’ll fly.’’ The orchestra swells. The credits roll. It works for us.
While we’re waiting for ““The Anthology,’’ nothing seems more real than the Lennon who appears in the current Beatle grab bag. On ““Live,’’ he’s the mischief-maker. In Martin’s book, he’s the self-taught genius who, upon learning that guitars and saxophones play in different keys, growls, ““But that’s bloody stupid!’’ In MacDonald’s book, he’s a man made so uncertain by LSD that someone has to tell him which Beatles songs he wrote. It’s nice to have all the various Lennons in circulation again, though it’s not as if any former Beatles are ever in danger of dropping off the historical atlas. An interview with author MacDonald (conducted by fax at his request) ended with the question, ““Why are people still obsessed with the Beatles?’’ To which MacDonald messaged back: ““Saved the big one for last, eh? I rather think that’s a book-length answer. Can I offer “Revolution in the Head’ as my stab at it, and sag off for the rest of the afternoon?’’ Of course you can – though for the Beatles, there is no rest.
