Beatles

Between 1982 and Capitol/Apple’s 1994 release of the original The Beatles Live at the BBC (C1724383179619 2 LPs, cassette, CD) the BBC broadcast annual Beatles specials that included the music the group performed on the British radio institution between 1962 and 1965. The older listeners had heard all or most of those performances when they were first broadcast.

Americans, unless they found a way to get the bootlegs, heard little or none of this. Between 1962 and 1965 The Beatles performed multiple versions of 88 songs on the BBC—more than 275 in all—including 36 the group never recorded for Parlophone.

So when the 1994 set was released hardcore fans were outraged, while casual Beatlemaniacs were happy with what they’d been given because they didn’t know what they were missing. The 1994 The Beatles Live at the BBC release included but 56 of the 88 different songs and just 30 of the 36 never recorded for Parlophone.

Live versions of big hits were missing along with notable obscurities. The two LP vinyl packaging was so-so but at least there was vinyl.

’On Air-Live at the BBC Volume 2’(Apple/Universal 3750506) includes 37 previously unreleased performances, ten never recorded by the group for EMI, two released for the first time and 23 “newly available” speech tracks. I’ll leave it to someone with more time on their hands and greater fanatical fervor to collate the material.

Apple/Universal has way upped the packaging. This is a laminated triple gatefold presentation, with attractive sculpted cutouts on each panel that make easier removing the sleeves. The layout, the photographic reproduction, the sleeve artwork—all are well-implemented.

And, as best as I can tell, the pressings are from Optimal in Germany. The look, feel and inner groove scribes and numbers aren’t familiar, plus the pressing quality is exceptional physically and sonically. Okay, you’ll be paying a premium for the third 180g record that is exclusively “Pop Profile” interviews that probably could have just as easily been put on a CD, but if you’re buying the vinyl you’ll probably want it all that way.

The more you listen to these guys play live during these early years, the more you appreciate just how tight they were and how high was the energy level. Music today doesn’t jump with this energy level nor do people speak with it. Face it: this past, so familiar to many is starting to look old the way silent movies looked to boomers when they saw them recycled on television.

Yet The Beatles’ music remains fresh and exciting to new generations for reasons that are clear when you listen to these spirited performances—clearer in fact than when listening to the more polished albums.

The Beatles performed constantly during this time period and they had a BBC radio show too called “Pop Goes The Beatles”. Of necessity they had to do covers. From Arthur Alexander, to The Shirelles to The Miracles and the Donays (!), to Carl Perkins, Little Richard, The Isley Brothers, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, The Beatles clearly had eclectic musical tastes, but they didn’t extend far into to blues. You’d have to look in Mick and Keith’s record collections for those. The covers illuminate but the originals amaze. How did one lead to the other?

As for the sound, I’m sorry but the despite the mono and despite the suspect quality of some of the sources, when The Beatles talk on vinyl it sounds like “the radio” (and they sound life-like), but when you hear the same talking on the CD it sounds like an iPod. Don’t ask me why. As for the music, at least on my rig, the vinyl sounds like The Beatles and the CD sounds like the Fab Faux (not the great cover band, but a drab digital recreation of the Fab Four).

I know, I know I know, the source for the vinyl is a DIGITAL FILE. I don’t care. You’ll listen to the vinyl. It will bring this all to life for you. It will thrill your senses and if you’re of a certain age, re-live all of the initial excitement. At least I did. The CDs will not do that for you. At least that was my reaction and it surprised even me—and I was listening on the best digital system I've yet heard: a $100,000 plus dCS Vivaldi digital system I’d just finished reviewing for Stereophile.