The Beatles - Anthology 3
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Free Music Notes for Anthology 3
Free Music Review: The Genesis of Many Great Beatles Songs..
Hit: 5 Stars
Sometimes when you listen to a great song - whether it be the Beatles or some other great recording artist - you forget that the version you're listening to is the end result of alot of different takes and revisions and changes.
That's what this and the other 2 Anthology CD's are all about. They give you a snap shot into the thinking of John, Paul George and Ringo and at times you feel as though you were actually in the recording room with them.
Listen to the early take of John's beautiful ballad / tribute to his mother Julia. The song just presents John alone with an acoustic guitar fingerpicking this tune. He gets quite far into the song before a mistake brings the take to a screeching halt and you are able to listen in on the conversation between John in the studio and Paul in the control room.
I find it interesting because it was only months earlier in Rishikesh, India at the Maharishi's retreat that folk singer Donovan taught John how to finger pick. And like any great artist, John Lennon takes this new technique, writes an incredibly beautiful ballard around it and the listener is presented with Julia.
Many of the songs on this CD were from the White Album, a disk that was probably the beginning of the end for this incredible band. If Sgt Pepper, for example, was the result of what these guys working collectively could acheive, the White Album clearly shows four guys working relatively independantly of each other. Many of the White Album songs had their beginnings in India and clearly there was very little, if any collaberation, going on.
Does anybody think that John Lennon had ANYTHING to do with Ob La Di Ob La Da despite the fact that it was attributed to Lennon / McCartney.
Some might say this is the weakest of the three Anthology CDs. Maybe it is. Certainly it's the "hardest" to listen to because you know that these guys are playing out the string now.
At the time these songs / demos/ takes were being made, the listener knows that John, for example, has met Yoko and the Beatles now seem to be very secondary now.
Or Paul has recently met Linda Eastman. And the business / personal problems that will soon engulf these four guys is not too far away from the time of these recordings.
I'll conclude with the same comment I made re Anthology 1 and 2. If you're a new or relatively young Beatles fan, these are not the CDs I would recommend that you start with. When you've come to love their music as much as I do, then you'll want to listen to these and savour the humble origins of some memorable songs.
Free Music Review: A sad affair...
Hit: 5 Stars
Well, though you don't know (or don't even care) to find out how the Beatles split, just a thorough listening to Anthology 3 and you'll feel the melancholy and the bitterness. There are many upbeat songs though, and even those silly ones (like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", made even sillier on the outtake), and weird "experimentals" ("What's The New Mary Jane"), and some great moments (such as the first take on "Come Together" and the edgy rocker "I've Got A Feeling" which they discontinued playing because John Lennon complained something like it was too loud!). Still, the slower, more melancholy and leisurely numbers prevail and characterize the overall mood of this album, and these songs are the best, in my opinion. The early recordings of "Something", "All Things Must Pass" and especially the painfully lovely "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (all by George Harrison) are sparse (duh!) and in effect more soulful and more beautiful. Paul McCartney's "Junk" (though I've never heard his own version yet) is wistful and lovely, as well as "Two Of Us", and John's early take on "Julia" is almost perfect if not for his guitar slip-up in mid-song. "Because" is sung "a cappella", with lots of layered vocal tracks which sound so amazing you'll feel like you're in outer space.Some of the album's tracks taken from the band's impromptu (and final) show at the Apple HQ's rooftop, meanwhile, are quite a treat, with the band members (plus Billy Preston) seemed to enjoy performing.
All in all, the album presents a lot of different sounds and different styles, you want to imagine they're playing in another band. Which was one of the reasons why the Beatles quite unamicably broke up (musical differences, in other words). But even when they were in bitter professional and personal clashes with each other, still they managed to make really brilliant music that would make an indelible, lasting impression on and continue to inspire many music fans for generations after them and many more generations to come. It was a sad affair, but it was all for the best, and I sometimes think it is a good thing that they split while they were still very much at the peak of their artistic greatness. Anthology 3 is a gorgeous album that touches me profoundly, probably my most favorite among the three "Anthologies".
Free Music Review: White Album + Up
Hit: 3 Stars
I picked this up at the local library and as soon as i finished hearing it, i had to go out and buy some cd-rs. I don't know what the first track's all about, John's acoustic "Happiness Is A Warm Gun," that one's great, but it only has two of the three main parts. He also drops the s-bomb when he screws up at the beginning.
"Helter Skelter" is a take-2. It's practically an underproduced version of the album version, with worse vocals.
The first "Glass Onion" take is acoustic; its ok, though he keeps screwing up on vocals and talking gibberish. The second "Glass Onion" on this compilation is, in my opinion, better than the White album version, yet it lacks the weird string arrangement at the end though! I love that song; it ties a lot of the famous Beatles songs.
The version of "Ob-La-Di" is just horrible compared to the White album.
"Good Night"'s demo was interesting though, great piano, yet terrible vocals.
"Blackbird"'s demo was very similar to the White album's version though it lacked the (annoying) bird samples. Vocals weren't as good as the White album's though.
"Sexy Sadie" was great, better than the album version, in my opinion.
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" take is acoustic, vocals are as always an issue with these demos.
Forget about "Hey Jude"'s version, they practically ruined one of their best songs, no offense to them.
"What's the New Mary Jane" is Avant-Garde, with weird samples. It reminded me like an upbeat "Revolution #9" actually. Definatly weed influenced.
"The Long and Winding Road" take on disc 2 was great, I prefer it over the album version.
"Get Back"'s demo was horrid, and I've always hated the song.
I liked "Old Brown Shoe"'s take, while the take of "Octopus's Garden" was stupid and elementary. Literally.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is a kid's song and a horrible one too. Then there's that annoying voice where they pull a Korn and come up with gibberish words.
"Something"'s take was exceptional; excellent.
"Come Together" sounded similar to the Abby version, yet with less-perfect lyrics, and the "shoots" were unreverbed.
"Because" is skip-able; just vocals. It's a good song though, worth a listen.
"Let It Be"'s take was stupid unlike the released version (and im not talking about that horrible Let It Be Naked). However, I can't help but think of Sesame Street everytime I hear it.
"I Me Mine"'s take was ok.
and the compilation concluded with "The End"; really heavy and a great closure.
3 and a half stars.
Free Music Review: Mother Superior jumped the...oh ____...wrong chord...
Hit: 5 Stars
There seems to be a true variety of opinion as to the merit of this collection, indeed of the anthology series as a whole, among music fans. Some love these ragged rough cuts and outtakes, some hate 'em. Well, put me in the camp of those who can't get enough. I'll admit I'm a Beatles fan, that's my bias, and this remains true even though I am aware that what was once a "good little rock n roll band" has become something of a corporation bent on churning out as much old material as possible so as to make a profit. The way I see it, there are many, many worse things you could sell the public than the music contained in this set (actually set 1 of the anthology series is among those worse things!).These discs really humanize the Beatles during a time when their legendary status made it seem that they could do no wrong in the eyes of the public. The White Album and Abbey Road have such a mystique that it has become verboten to criticize them at all (and in fact, these are both in my top-ten list of all time records). But here we can hear the band coming up with their ideas, trying things out, constructing songs from the ground up. Having fun, even. It's an engaging listen. I actually enjoy the material from "Get Back" the most, especially some of the oldies covers and the really stripped-down versions of the originals. This is closer than EITHER "Let It Be" or "...Naked" to the concept behind "Get Back" (I wish more of the oldies covers from this period were commercially available). But there's nothing really weak here from any period, save "Whats the New Mary Jane" which is one of the worst songs I have ever heard (the original acoustic version, on the "Beatles Unplugged" bootleg, is not so bad, however).
So, a qualified recommendation...buy the three albums from this period first (White Album, Abbey Road, and Let it Be), and then come back for this. If you do that, and you are anything like me, you will be glad you did. This is some of the greatest music of all time.
Free Music Review: Seminal Beatles' tunes.
Hit: 5 Stars
All right, most who come to this page probably argue that that Beatles are the best. So do I. The stuff you heard on the released albums, while superb, was all mixed, multi-tracked, re-recorded, and every other electronic and musical embellishment one could think of. That doesn't make it bad. In fact, it was well done, hence the Fab Four's popularity.Haven't you wondered what the songs sounded like when they were in the earlier stages of production? This is full of those numbers, before the commercializers took them and added to them whatever they thought would make them more sellable.
Don't get me wrong. I like the commercial productions too. But to hear them while they were being gestated, it's like seeing the beginning of a miracle.
The booklet that accompanies this gem too is loaded with useful bits of info for the Beatles fan. And there's a picture or two of the Beatles' final live performance together, the one from the film "Let It Be" at which the police got them off the roof of the building.
I have all three of the Anthology and this I like the best. The Long and Winding Road, Let It Be particularly are less embellished even than they are on the "Let It Be Naked" CD which was far more disappointing than this. Other songs have been pointed out by other critics with good points to make.
Get this one, and thrive.