Released on November 11,
2013, The Beatles, On Air–Live at the BBC Volume 2 is
a live-in-the-studio compilation album featuring 63 tracks from the Beatles’
1963–1964 BBC Radio broadcasts—including 37 previously unreleased performances,
and 23 newly-available dialog tracks.
Like The Beatles, Live at the BBC (generally
considered its prequel) this collection is a mixture of live recordings of
Beatles covers and originals (the hits that rocketed them to international
stardom), as well as in-studio banter—all remastered and presented on two CDs
or in a three-LP package (which also includes a 48-page fan-book and/or five
photo cards).
Selected from a total of 275
unique musical performances of 88 songs the Beatles delivered at BBC Radio studios between March of 1962 and June of 1965
for broadcast on various Light Programme radio shows (a station broadcasting
mainstream “light” entertainment and music from 1945 to 1967), 10 of these
songs have the unique distinction of never being recorded by the group for EMI
(their British recording and publishing company), two of which are released
here for the very first time: Chuck Berry’s “I’m Talking About You” (performed
direct-to-air) and the Stephen Foster traditional, “Beautiful Dreamer.”
Although this collection relies
more heavily on “speech” tracks than The Beatles, Live at the BBC, in this case
they tend to add a cohesion to the collection not found in the former, with the
profile interviews at the end of each side helping remind listeners that while
these four “Lads from Liverpool” went on to become unparallelled Rock monsters,
they were once four kinda-regular guys looking to have fun and maybe make a
name for themselves while doing it. And while it may take a bit of “reading
between the lines,” the one-on-one interviews with Paul (as he discusses his
experience at a Karlheinz Stockhausen performance), John (as he ponders
politics), and George (speculating on the future of music production) gives
fans new insight into their individual personalities–and outlook for the
future.
A great addition to any Beatles music collection, The
Beatles, On Air–Live at the BBC Volume 2 it is not without its shortcomings.
For example, while the 1996 The Beatles, Live at the BBC offers 30 songs never
previously issued, this collection offers but two. Additionally, with only 88
different tracks to select from, several songs appear on both collections
including Little Richard’s “Lucille,” Chan Romero’s “The Hippy Hippy Shake,”
Meredith Willson’s “Till There Was You,” and Carl Perkins’ “Sure to Fall (in
Love with You).” Although it could be argued that these classics are
alternative versions—and welcome additions to any oldies compilation—the fact
remains that those who purchase both collections are paying twice for the same
songs. And considering that only 40 of the 63 tracks on Volume 2 are music, a
fair percentage of that investment goes towards dialog rather than tunage.
All in all, no matter which
collection you might choose, it clearly demonstrates what masters of live
performance the Beatles had become by this early stage of their incredible
musical journey as a band.
You can download The Beatles
album, The Beatles Live at the BBC Vol 2 from iTunes here, or get the album on CD or Vinyl here.
No comments:
Post a Comment