The Beatles - Live at the BBC
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Free Music Notes for Live at the BBC
Free Music Review: Includes many songs not on any other Beatles album!
Hit: 5 Stars
The four Beatles introduce themselves and the instruments they play. Leave it to Mr. Lennon to be the witty one: "I'm John and I too play the guitar. Sometimes I play the fool."Live at the BBC means that this was broadcast on any one of their radio program appearances from 1963 to 1965. However, there are actual live versions of "Thank You Girl" and "I Saw Her Standing There" here. And their version of "A Hard Day's Night" is interrupted during that final guitar just to prove that this wasn't just a record playing.
The rapport between the radio host and the Beatles is also fun, in the spirit of the dialogue on the A Hard Day's Night movie. John in particular is quite a clown. They get Lee Peters to introduce "Baby It's You" in his famous James Mason-impersonation voice. Another time, we learn that the Beatles current single is at number one in Portugal and it's called "Crisnk Dee Night", or "A Hard Day's Night".
The real treat is that the majority of songs aren't on any other Beatles album. They cover songs by Arthur Alexander, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley, to name a few. Basically, these two discs show what groups and artists influenced the Beatles. However, there are songs that are already on their studio albums, such as "Things We Said Today", "You Really Got A Hold On Me", "I'm A Loser", and "Ticket To Ride".
They capture the spirit of the originals. Foe example, John sings "I Got A Woman" by Ray Charles and it's a 50's rockabilly number. "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" is a Shangri-La's/Shirelles type number that could've been included on Please Please Me.
Well-known numbers that don't need any introduction: Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Goode" and Elvis Presley's "That's All Right, (Mama)" and Chan Romero's "Hippy Hippy Shake" which they originally did in their days with Tony Sheridan.
Classic rock and roll with Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business"
Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Carl Perkins in particular are given special note. They do five Perkins numbers here: "Sure To Fall (In Love With You)", "Matchbox", "Glad All Over", "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby", and "Honey Don't." Nine, count'tem NINE (!) Chuck Berry numbers are done here. Other than the aforementioned three, the others are "Roll Over Beethoven" which they did on With The Beatles, "Rock And Roll Music" from For Sale, "Memphis, Tennessee", "Sweet Little Sixteen", "I Got To Find My Baby", and "Carol", which the Stones did on their first album. Little Richard songs are "Lucille", "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey", "Ooh! My Soul", and "Long Tall Sally".
The liner notes over each songs tells which artist originally covered this song, the show it was broadcast, and when it was recorded and transmitted. A very valuable addition to anyone Beatles collection.
Free Music Review: Sounds good in Mono
Hit: 3 Stars
The Beatles' "Live at the BBC" is entirely in mono, and it sounds great in mono, because that was probably the way it was originally recorded. It gives it a sense of oldness.There are lots of dialogue tracks, which are also fun to listen to. It seems like a real Beatles radio show. The unreleased songs are good, although some of the recordings aren't great quality, but once again, it sounds better the way they really recorded it. It would have been horrible if they'd "remixed" and "Remastered" all the tracks into stereo, and beefed it all up, the way they ruined the Yellow Submarine tracks with the new Yellow Submarine 1999 album.
The Beatles at the BBC is an essential Beatles album.
Free Music Review: Feed Growing Bands Good Music, They Grow Up Big and Strong!
Hit: 4 Stars
Reviewing anything by the Beatles is a sucker bet. Considering both the quality of their music and the degree of lingering effect they have on modern culture, you can't find a band that outstrips the Fab Four. But sometimes you wonder how a group of this sort could have gotten to be so great and influential. Well, this album displays their pedigree for all to see.Every one of these tracks was cut in a BBC studio before being aired. Thus, they're live in the sense of having been recorded all at once, rather than in the sense of being performed before an audience. And thank heavens for that, because the live performances were famously difficult to hear over the screaming -- even the Boys themselves couldn't hear their own monitors right there on stage. The effect is almost like hearing a private concert coming live over the radio.
Most of these tracks are quite short, in keeping with the short attention spans suffered by radio listeners. That's okay. the tracks also tend to overlap, the way radio tracks do. Don't expect to be able to make mix tapes with this album. How about that -- a CD that by its very nature discourages piracy! EMI probably saw dollar signs when they screened the mix of this album.
Most of these songs are covers. We've heard some of them before, in the more polished (some might say sterile) studio recordings. We already know how they handled Carl Perkins' "Matchbox," Arthur Alexander's "A Taste of Honey," or Little Richard's "Lucille." Here, though, we get a feel for the rough, energetic sound that must have existed for them when they performed live on stage. We also get to hear new covers -- "Carol," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "The Hippy Hippy Shake," and "Memphis, Tennessee," among others. This really gives us an opportunity to see how the Beatles developed from a struggling bar band doing covers for tips and drinks, to the greatest force in the history of recorded music.
The recording quality on many tracks leaves something to be desired. Some were cut on one- or two-track systems that sound like the instruments were being played inside a tin can. Others sound rushed and haphazard (never mind the statement in the booklet notes that it took sixteen tries to get the feedback at the front of "I Feel Fine" right). Still, enough of them are good to keep listening from being painful, and all are at least interesting from the viewpoint of fans in good standing.
Some of the spoken tracks are interesting, but seem like throwaways. Thanks to the magic of the CD player, it's possible to program around most of them, and thank heavens, because some of them descend into inanity. However, they're listenable at least once or twice, with the famed Beatles banter that endeared them to the Radio-listening and TV-watching public back home in Britain.
This is an imperfect album, not really up to the level of their studio work when they were still a going force. However, for Beatlemaniacs, fans, or even just casual listeners who are familiar with the Liverpool Sound, this album is a fair investment of funds. Love it or hate it, this album is an influential addition to the Beatles canon.
Free Music Review: An Essential For Any Beatles Fan
Hit: 4 Stars
"Live At The BBC" is definetly one of the top Beatles collections if you want to hear unreleased versions of songs, studio chatter, interviews, or completely unreleased songs by The Beatles. Many of these tracks may be familiar to Elvis or Little Richard fans. You must hear The Beatles' interpretations of these classics if you have heard the original releases. Some conversations are fun and interesting to listen to and give some information about The Beatles' personalities. Some versions found on this compilation are argueably or hands-down superior to the official Beatles release, especially on "Baby, It's You". The version of "Matchbox" found here is better in some parts than the one found on "Past Masters, Volume 1" or the "Long Tall Sally" EP. The version of "Honey Don't" found here rivals that of the studio version found on "Beatles For Sale" because it shows a different side of the band's style of playing it. It is sung not necessarily better than that version here, not by Ringo, but by John, and it sounds much more raw and faster. At times "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" sounds better because it has no heavy echo, but still overall is just about as good. Some unreleased songs are very enjoyable such as "I Just Don't Understand", "To Know Her is to Love Her", "Lonesome Tears in My Eyes", and perhaps the best cover The Beatles have ever done: Chuck Berry's "I Got To Find My Baby". "Nothin' Shakin'" also sounds great sung by The Beatles as well as "Lucille".
The Beatles cover two more Arthur Alexander songs on this two disc set (the first Arthur Alexander song they covered was found on "Please Please Me"): "A Shot of Rythm and Blues" and "Soldier of Love". "Carol" and "Clarebella" are especially pleasing to listen to, as well as "The Honeymoon Song", "Johnny B Goode" and the funny speech track "Set Fire to That Lot!".
It's a wonder that the "Pop Goes The Beatles" radio show's theme was not here but there are twenty-nine tracks recorded on it. But as you can see the real gems here are not the re-recordings of Beatles songs but the unreleased cover songs found here. You won't find any Beatles song from later than 1965 here because they didn't record any more songs on the BBC after that point. These are not all of the songs The Beatles recorded on the BBC but if anyone can afford, let alone find the nine disc set entitled "The Complete BBC Sessions", they will have every song found here and 150+ songs (some are the same song but not the same recording, for instance there are four "Long Tall Sally"s found on "The Complete BBC Sessions" because The Beatles recorded it four seperate times at the BBC. There is a total of 227 song on the set)! But this is a great alternative and a must-have for any Beatles fan.
Free Music Review: An Awesome Collection
Hit: 5 Stars
If you are a serious Beatles' fan, you have got to have "Live at the BBC". I happened to be listening to the radio (which I don't normally do) about twenty years ago when these songs were introduced to the public, I believe, for the first time. I am still playing the tapes I made off the air some twenty years ago today!!I believe the version of "I Saw Her Standing There" on this collection is the best rendition I have ever heard. Listen to "Some Other Guy" and you get some idea of the energy and enthusiasm that made The Beatles so very popular in the early days. Many, many great songs and short interviews rendering unique insight into The Beatles as the people they were all those years ago.