Live at the BBC

by

The Beatles

Edit

As much as the Beatles were loved in the USA, we were short-changed. We thought we were getting a lot with an album every ten months, a handful of singles each year, a movie every two years, an occasional tour, and a sloppy Saturday morning cartoon.

But, in the UK, the Beatles were doing stage shows--not just their own act, but pantomime and vaudeville-type things--and tons of live radio, where "From Me To You" was converted to "From Us To You" and made their signature tune. LIVE AT THE BBC collects more than 60 of the best moments from their radio appearances in one fabulous package.

There are a couple odd glitches--the solo on "A Hard Day's Night" is an obvious edit of the studio solo patched over a live performance, for instance--but the vast majority of the music here is superb.

The cover of "Sweet Little Sixteen" is fantastic, really hard stuff the way Lennon always said he preferred the Beatles to sound. Harrison shines on "Nothin' Shakin'" and "Everybody's Tryin' To Be My Baby." McCartney wails on "Long Tall Sally," "Lucille," and "The Hippy Hippy Shake." The whole band delivers a jolt with my very favorite early Beatles rocker, "Some Other Guy."

Ringo, as always, is the heart of the Beatles sound. On "Thank You Girl" he sounds like he's going to knock the bandstand to pieces. Why he isn't universally acclaimed as one of the 2 or 3 greatest Rock drummers of all time is beyond me.

This is a great record of the Beatles early days, when they were just beginning to step away from a very 1950s sound. Who could have guessed how far they'd go in less than a decade?

"The Beatles - Live at the BBC", containing recordings done by the Fab Four for the BBC during the years 1962-1965, provides an interesting perspective on John, Paul, George and Ringo, when they were still a bunch of young and ambitious friends, who just got together to play some rock'n'roll and impress the ladies, way before Lennon decided to change the world and McCartney decided to write enough sweet love songs to fill a candy store.

The recordings in the double album are mostly cover versions of r'n'r and r'n'b standards by the artists the Beatles liked - Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Larry Williams, Carl Perkins, and the rest. Here and there some of their early original hits (Love Me Do, Can't Buy Me Love, Ticket To Ride, and more).

The performances are strong and vigorous. John and Paul scream their lungs out, George's guitar imitates Chuck Berry quite well, and Ringo keeps the steady beat. They sound like they're trying to convince England that they're the best band in the world. They did manage to do that eventually.

All in all, not an album for everyone. People who look for all the famous songs from their later period - Let It Be, Hey Jude, Strawberry Fields Forever - will be disappointed. There is nothing psychedelic or experimental about these recordings - it's pure rock'n'roll.

If you're not (yet) a big Beatles fan, I recommend you'd start by buying one of their classic studio albums - Help!, Sgt. Pepper's or Abbey Road. However, if you already own most of the Beatles' material and you want to hear different Beatles - young, innocent and full of appreciation to the r'n'r legends of the '50s - this is an album for you.

One last note - due to the fact that these recordings were taken off radio sessions, the sound quality is so-so. Most of the songs sound good, but it's not what you're used to hear on studio albums.