The EditoriaList: Top Ten Post-Breakup Beatles Releases

posted in: Features

Well, this was tougher than I anticipated. This is my THE list of the top ten official post-breakup Beatles releases. I laid myself some ground rules:

1. No bootlegs. We’d be here all year.

2. No box sets. Would have loved to get into the recent stellar releases in both mono and stereo, but you can’t say something is better or worse when it includes everything. There was also a great collection of EPs that came out in the ’90s. I recommend searching that out.

3. No Anthology. These three releases are each too sprawling, comprehensive, disjointed and frankly not that much fun to listen to as an album.

Without further delay…

Top Ten Post-Breakup Beatles Releases:

10. The Beatles Christmas Album (Released December 18, 1970):

The Beatles were a pretty funny group of dudes, which is one of the reasons George Martin decided to work with them in the beginning, having been rather un-wowed by their musical abilities. Their love of goofy and absurdist humor is on display throughout this compilation of their yearly Fan Club-only Christmas messages”a mix of conversation, song and sketch, which gets increasingly absurd, stark, bizarre and sad as the years go on and the divisions within the group grow. Each Beatle recorded their final messages separately. This is another hard-to-find item, but worth a listen for any true fan. And check out what this clever bastard did:

9. Let It Be¦Naked (Released November 17, 2003)

Stupid title, man. This project should have been the realization of the original concept for the Let It Be album: Get Back”a raw, warts-and-all album with no overdubs, relishing in its own rough edges. What we got instead was a bit of a vanity project in which McCartney gets the final say on an album he lost control of over thirty years prior. He made it well known that he hated Phil Spector’s input on the Let It Be LP, particularly the overwrought string arrangements and choirs. All that stuff is stripped away here along, sadly, with some of the great spoken improv bits. And still, this release sounds spectacular for its remixing and mastering, and the otherwise maudlin “Long and Winding Road” is redeemed in its simpler state.

8. Rarities (Released in US: March 24, 1980)

Long before the Anthology project, Capitol Records released this compilation of rare tracks, including B-sides, a mono, single-version of “Love Me Do” with Ringo on drums, the German-language version of “She Loves You,” “Penny Lane” with an extra trumpet flourish at the end and more. Some of this stuff has been issued on Past Masters and Anthology, but you know what? Some of it hasn’t. And the single-LP length ensures that there aren’t any redundancies or throwaways. Plus it has an awesome gatefold of the infamous “Butcher Cover,” which was the original (later re-called and pasted-over) sleeve to the Yesterday and Today compilation. A British version of this album exists with a few different songs and it is worth having as well, but the US version has, from my perspective, more interesting and, uh, rare rarities.

7. The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (Released May 4, 1977):

The early Beatles were a raw and raucous band, as evidenced on several bootlegs and some really good-quality videos out there, including a few that made the Anthology video series. In the two concerts represented here (one from 1964 and one from 1965), the performances are solid and occasionally really swinging (I’ve never enjoyed “Can’t Buy Me Love” more and “Things We Said Today” is a revelation) but the sound is not spectacular, due mainly to the weak sound system versus overwhelming roar of the audience. However, that’s part of the excitement of this album, which has yet to be released in any kind of digital format, including CD, and it makes this list precisely because it is the official record of Beatlemania in action. And the songs, too. The songs are good. They’re Beatles songs.

6. 1962-1966 (a.k.a. The Red Album) (Released April 19, 1973)

Part one of a classic and definitive compendium of Beatles songs. The Red Album covers the early-mid Beatles. The growth of this band as songwriters and musicians is obvious here and occurs at a breakneck pace. It’s a long way from “Love Me Do” (the album opener) to “Yesterday” (the end of disc one of the two-disc set) and that only took them three of the four years represented here.

5. 1967-1970 (a.k.a. The Blue Album) (Released April 19, 1973)

Part two kicks off with “Strawberry Fields Forever”, a musical and cultural sea change if ever there was one. The Blue Album ranks higher than its partner because of the continued explosion of songwriting and production. It really is as though there are two different bands represented on Red and Blue and the contrast in the cover photos” taken just a few years apart in the same place, pose and angle”speaks directly to this. The differences in appearance alone would be jarring if we weren’t already so familiar with these guys in all their incarnations.

4. Past Masters, Volumes I and II (Released March 7, 1988)

Past Masters functions in much the same way as Red and Blue in that it is a collection moving chronologically through The Beatles’ career. But these two albums (I’m not cheating”they were combined and released as one in 1988) are leaner and meaner. There is some overlap in songs, but Past Masters features a large dose of B-sides, single-only releases and rarities. You haven’t lived until you’ve had six or seven hefeweizens and stood on a table at a beer hall in Munich screaming along to “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand”, the German version of “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” Mach Schau!

3. Live at the BBC (Released November 30, 1994)

The British Broadcasting Company was more or less the only game in town for UK bands in the ’60s. And The Beatles were all over it, appearing fifty-two different times between ’62 and ’65. Apart from bootlegs and the relatively sketchy Live! At The Star Club in Hamburg 1962, this 1994 release is as close as it gets to gaining a solid impression of the early Beatles and the band’s mastery over their live repertoire of covers and originals. Aside from the interviews and banter, “Soldier of Love” is the highlight here”a never-before heard version of the 1962 Arthur Alexander B-side.

2. Hey Jude (Released February 26, 1970)

OK, now I’m kind of cheating. I wanted this all to be post-Let It Be releases, and this one falls just three months short of that album’s release. But the band was done recording forever, and this is my list, so go make your own. Hey Jude is a classic record that has somehow been omitted from all re-releases since then and thus has never even been available (officially) on CD. This is the first compilation of mostly non-album singles and B-sides. The name cashes in on the humongous popularity of the “Hey Jude” single and, as a cohesive album, Hey Jude benefits from the strength of the other singles, as well as the choice B-sides, including George Harrison’s “Old Brown Shoe”. “Paperback Writer” and “Rain” is a devastating one-two punch, and “I Should Have Known Better,” while previously available on the Hard Day’s Night soundtrack album, really shines in a new context here. This album is less essential today, in the wake of Past Masters, Anthology, etc, etc., but it really flows nicely and, at ten songs, feels like a focused album.

1. Love (Released November 20, 2006)

Love, released as a soundtrack of sorts to the Cirque de Soleil live show of the same name, is the ultimate ˜out’ for the hardcore traditionalist Beatle fan: we get to hear remixes of some favorite tracks without having the original albums compromised. George Martin and his son Giles masterminded this one and did a phenomenal job of re-imagining the music. The mash-ups are truly thrilling. I laughed out loud more than once as one song suddenly started playing over another. Wow, it wasn’t until I typed that sentence that I realized what a geek I am. This is difficult. Anyway, I’m the kind of Beatle fan that would love to hear remixes of the whole catalog. I mean, we’ve got the original albums; they’re not going anywhere. Come on, Macca, let’s do this. This album takes the top spot because it’s fresh and unique and, again, my list. I might have a different one tomorrow. But tomorrow never knows, does it? OH, I shouldn’t have done that, what a nerd I am.