I love The Beatles. Now don't get me wrong but... what the heck is this CD? The Anthology concept sounded great on paper, but this CD is truly weird. Containing tons of live takes/outtakes/interview segments and the overplayed/overhyped and not so great track "Free As a Bird", The Beatles Anthology I is sort of a letdown.
I've read quite a bit about their past, and I can't believe this is the material they come up with for this CD. Now don't get me wrong, some of this stuff is amazing. Hearing the early Beatles recordings is a big treat. Except man if those original tapes aren't of awful quality. But I guess when you record them in someones living room you can't demand too much. The early original numbers are the great parts of this CD. What I can't understand is why there are so many weird outtakes on here. The One After 909 for instance is merely quite a little boring version of the song that false starts. Doesn't have any real historical signifigance I think. This album seems to drag on forever with these alternate versions of some songs.
The Live numbers however do a great job of capturing the mass hysteria surrounding The Beatles during their prime. They were an undeniable force on stage, and these moments are captured well. The little interview bits seem to be toss-away things thrown on the CD at the last moment. Many under 30 seconds, the interview bits don't reveal a whole lot about the songs like they're suppposed to, but merely annoy you that they don't tell you anymore about it.
The CD booklet is killer - a superb job was done on it. The book is so chockfull of information on the tracks contained on the CD's that it will take you quite a while to read. I wish all CD books were done this well.
These CD's only cover the very early period of The Beatles career - basically only when they were "nice clean cut looking young men." I've not had a chance to listen to the later two Anthology sets from the Sgt Pepper era, but I bet those are a lot more intresting. If you're a casual Beatles fan, then I think you'll be best of just renting The Beatles Anthology I on Video. Listening to these two CD's will drive you mad with frustration. I think they could have done a better job on this set, but it's still a very impressive retrospect.
The Beatles Anthology: 1 also includes Free As A Bird, the band s first new recording in 25 years. Written by the late John Lennon, the song was recor...More at Buy.com
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.