The Beatles: Live at the BBC revisited

In college, I knew these guys who were in a band and all lived together. They played shows regularly and, about once a month, they would put on shows at their own rented house where they and other local bands would play in the basement.  On one of the support beams in the basement, there was a list of about 200 songs, a mixture of originals and covers; these were the songs could play on the fly, no rehearsal necessary.

It may be hard to believe but, before Sgt. Pepper, before Rubber Soul, even before Ed Sullivan, this was pretty much exactly what the Beatles were: a tight little rock and roll combo with an arsenal of a few dozen rock tunes that they could bust into at a moment's notice. The two volume collection, Live at the BBC and On Air- Live at the BBC Volume 2 capture this period in the band's career. In all, the collection contains over 30 tunes never released by the band on any album, EP, or single before the 1994 release of the first volume. Over 80 different songs are performed over the two volume, 4 CD collection and it is a testament to how versatile and tight the band was as a live unit.

The first volume was originally released in 1994 and I owned it on cassette, which was still a viable audio format at the time. It was, in fact, my introduction to the early Beatles as the only other Beatles cassette I owned at the time was the so-called 'Blue Album' which collected their best between 1967-1970.  And early is the operative word here, most of these recordings date from 1963, when Beatlemania was a national rather than an international phenomena and the band had time for their own weekly show (as well as regular appearances on other shows) on the BBC.

The band showcased the depth of their pop knowledge, performing hits and lesser known material from such early Rock N' Roll pioneers as Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Little Richard as well as early Motown and, really, just about anything they could get their hands on.  Some of these songs were hits for the original artist ("Johnny B. Goode", "Lucille") others weren't and the Beatles actually managed to transform those into their own ("Hippy Hippy Shake", "Some Other Guy").  In fact, their "Some Other Guy", despite not being officially released until 1994, was arguably more associated with The Beatles than the song's original performer, Richard Barett.

The second volume, On Air- Live at the BBC Volume 2 was just released this fall and, while it doesn't come close to unearthing the number of buried treasures its predecessor did (in fact, their is quite a bit of redundancy between the two), it is still just as charming and continues to capture the warmth and energy of the previous collections live performances. In fact On Air seems less concerned with unearthing new tracks than it is in documenting the performances of more well known tracks from the Beatles 'official' recordings. In fact, many of the band's early hits and standbys that were conspicuously absent from the first collection appear here.  Among these are "Twist and Shout", "Money", "Please Mr. Postman", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and "She Loves You".

That being said, it is not without its surprises.  What the band's take on the long forgotten Chuck Berry number, "I'm Talking About You" may lack in terms of quality of recording, it makes up for in sheer ferocity of performance with John Lennon screeching his vocals a la "Twist and Shout" and rest of the band playing at their most raw and raucous. Meanwhile, the band's thirty second performance of "Happy Birthday Dear Saturday Club" might be the first recorded example of what would later become known as punk rock.

All in all, Live at the BBC and On Air-Live at the BBC Volume 2 serve as a pleasant reminder of what the Beatles really were when all was said and done:  a rock band.

Key Tracks: Live at the BBC- "Some Other Guy", "Soldier of Love", "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)", "Crying, Waiting, Hoping", "The Hippy Hippy Shake", "Ooh! My Soul", On Air- "Words of Love", "Boys", "Please Please Me", "Please Mr. Postman", "Twist and Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "Money (That's What I Want)", "Beautiful Dreamer", "I'm Talking About You"