The Beatles never die, they just find more stuff they should’ve released years ago and release. Frida Kelly should have told her story 20 years and the Beatles Live At The BBC Volume 2 should have been released in 1996, two years after the initial volume of live performances on the BBC. Volume One was great, I have no problems with it, I am well in the market for more of John Lennon covering chuck berry, in 1994 we got Lennon, as opposed to Harrison, performing “Roll Over Beethoven” and that alone was worth the price of admission.
Here is some cut and pasting for you: “Previously unreleased recordings and studio banter by The Beatles including early hits and cover versions, are to become available for the first time.
The tracks, from BBC radio broadcasts in 1963 and 1964, include 37 performances which have never been issued before now, together with 23 tracks of conversations featuring the Fab Four.
Among the tracks for the new album On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2 are a pair of songs which were never recorded for their record label and which have not had official release, Beautiful Dreamer and Chuck Berry’s I’m Talking About You.
The album is a follow-up to a 1994 collection of BBC recordings and the new set includes different versions of six songs which appeared on that album – Lucille, The Hippy Hippy Shake, I Got A Woman, Glad All Over, Sure To Fall and Memphis, Tennessee.
Fans noticed that a release was imminent when there was a posting on the website of an offshoot of music company Universal in the Philippines last month, but the full details of the recordings were not confirmed until today. In all there will be 40 performances across a double CD package and there will also be a vinyl version for collectors.”
contactmusic.com added this: “The 63 track compilation has been extracted from the impressive 275 unique musical performances The Beatles played for the BBC Between March 1962 and June 1965 and will also include 23 previously unreleased excerpts of studio conversation. Famed for their sharp wit, the band can be heard bantering with their BBC radio hosts, including Brian Matthew and Alan Freeman.”
OK, got it?
I did say I liked Volume One and I will absolutely get Volume two, but I LIKED IT DIDN’T LOVE IT. It is fun and charming but it lacks, how you say, that old sustained vision groove thing. By Beatle curve standards it is a B+. Nobody seems to know when Volume 2 will be out…