As a Beatles fan, it was certainly a real treat to experience what a lot of Beatles fans didn't experience in their lifetime, which is listening to new Beatles music for the first time. The song was written and "demoed" in John Lennon's apartment in the late 70s and was included within the "Lost Lennon" tapes that were sort of the big deal in the 80s. Luckily I had never heard any version of the song until the Anthology series was aired on television in 1994.

Free as a Bird sounds like Beatles pop rock that could have easily fit on their last studio release, Abbey Road. It's like The Beatles had never left. Paul, George and Ringo took this unfinished, unpolished house demo from Yoko and really Beatle-ized it. Paul McCartney and George Harrison always produced a special sound when they harmonized their vocals together. They really added most of their Beatle flavor with their extended "Ahhhhhhh"s and the harmonies added to John Lennon's voice.

The first thing that you notice is the quality of John Lennon's lead vocal. It sounds distant, and too much echo, like he's in a cave. His diction sounds distorted and sometimes you can't make out the words he's singing. John's house demos were usually done with just a tape recorder, and here is no different. He set a tape recorder on top of the piano he was playing, along to a metronome’s click. ELO frontman Jeff Lynne was brought in by George Harrison to produce and try and help the song make sense sonically. They did the best with what they had, the sound isn't too much better, but they were able to bring his voice more to the fore with studio trickery and the doubled vocal of McCartney singing along with John Lennon's lead vocal to give it more power. I compare John's voice to the original Let It Be album version of Across the Universe. They both have that fuzzy slightly garbled quality.

Paul's middle eight, or bridge to the song is what was missing from Lennon's attempt and it's the best part for me here.
The only downside is Ringo's drumming. He was confined to a straight drumbeat to match and conceal John Lennon's metronome click.

The Beatles did not produce cheap, quickly knocked-off marketing scheme, labeling it as the first new Beatles in 25 years though. They really put everything into this song that we love about the Beatles. We have the vocal harmonies of all three Beatles singing together and John, Paul & George each get a lead vocal slot. The title and words, "free as a bird" give that fitting posthumous tone for John Lennon, and even The Beatles as a band. Plus, the most important thing is that it's a great song, it has that Beatle quality that you can't get anywhere else except your old Beatles records.

When the three Beatles Anthology double CDs were released, Beatles fans were ravenous with the desire to digest every ounce of Beatles music they could. Having said that, it's a great bonus to pick up a CD single like this, because here we have three extra Beatles tracks that were not included on the Anthology One CD.

I Saw Her Standing There, a classic Beatles track from their first LP, Please, Please Me is the first song included. On Paul's count-in "1-2-3-4!", you may say that it sounds exactly the same as the one released on the 1963 album. That's because the count-in is the one used in the album version. The Beatles liked the first take of I Saw Her Standing There, but used the count-in from Take 9. This version is the full Take 9 heard from the first time. It is slightly different, the guitar solo for instance, and the energy is slightly less enthused from what we're used to on the original version.

This Boy was recorded in October of 1963. This track is comprised of Take 12 and 13. They are both incomplete, but the charm is the studio chatter between Paul and John. John had a thing in these early days with writing songs where you would naturally confuse the lyrics and mess them up. It's apparent that even The Beatles themselves had some trouble with John's lyrics. For example, in this song - they're unsure whether this verse starts with THIS boy or That boy, one hilarious compromise was THUS boy. No Reply is another song like this and could be found on Anthology One.

When I obtained this CD single, it was the first time that I heard Christmas Time (Is Here Again). The Beatles would record and issue a special Christmas record each year to their fan club. They did from the years 1963 up to 1969. This one is taken mostly from 1967; only a little piece of spoken word is taken from 1966, which was pasted onto the end seamlessly. It's another great song to possess, not so much in quality in this case, but just the fact that it's so rare. It does indeed have a Christmassy feel to it, and the lyrics even bring a smirk to my face, as sometimes they make no sense. You hear Ringo singing out of nowhere, the lyrics, O-U-T spells out. The out of left field lyrics assures me that this song was indeed recorded in 1967, must have been a smoky room that night.

Anyway, this is a quality CD single put forth by The Beatles camp. They could have easily thrown on three live renditions of songs we know already. The fact that these are all rare Beatles studio takes, well for me, it's a real treat.


the songs

1. Free As A Bird
2. I Saw Her Standing There
3. This Boy
4. Christmas Time (Is Here Again)




♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦More Beatles-related Epinions from Scapp70♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦


~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Beatles~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please Please Me
A Hard Day's Night
Help!
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The White Album
Abbey Road
Real Love (CD Single)
Free As A Bird (CD Single)
Tropical Tribute To The Beatles
Bach On Abbey Road
Love


~~~~~~~~~~~Paul McCartney~~~~~~~~~~

McCartney
RAM
Red Rose Speedway
Band On The Run
Venus And Mars
Wings At The Speed Of Sound
Should Paul McCartney Go Back On Drugs?
The Walrus Was Paul
Top 20 Favorite SOLO Beatles Songs W/O


~~~~~~~~~~~~Ringo Starr~~~~~~~~~~~

Ringo
Goodnight Vienna
Blast From The Past
Rotogravure
VH1 Storytellers


~~~~~~~~~~~~John Lennon~~~~~~~~~~~

Plastic Ono Band
Imagine


~~~~~~~~~~George Harrison~~~~~~~~~

All Things Must Pass
















Recommended: Yes