Beatles:Anthology 3
1996
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: Disc 1: 1. A Beginning 2. Happiness is a Warm Gun 3. Helter Skelter 4. Mean Mr. Mustard 5. Polythene Pam 6.Glass Onion 7. Junk 8. Piggies 9. Honey Pie 10. Don't Pass Me By 11. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da 12. Good Night 13.Cry Baby Cry 14. Blackbird 15. Sexy Sadie 16. While My Guitar Gently Weeps 17. Hey Jude 18. Not Guilty 19. Mother Nature's Son 20. Glass Onion 21. Rocky Raccoon 22. What's the New Mary Jane 23. Step Inside Love/Los Paranoias 24. I'm So Tired 25. I Will 26. Why Don't We Do It in the Road? 27. Julia
Disc 2: 1. I've Got a Feeling 2. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window 3. Dig A Pony 4. Two of Us 5. For You Blue 6. Teddy Boy 7. Medley: Rip It Up/Shake, Rattle and Roll/Blue Suede Shoes
8. The Long and Winding Road 9. Oh! Darling 10. All Things Must Pass 11. Mailman, Bring Me No More Blue 12. Get Back 13. Old Brown Shoe 14. Octopus's Garden 15. Maxwell's Silver Hammer 16. Something 17. Come Together 18. Come and Get It 19. Ain't She Sweet 20. Because 21. Let It Be 22. I Me Mine 23. The End
The third and final Anthology installment. I find Anthology 3 to be the most rewarding entry in the series, mainly due to the the high number of new Beatles tracks...
Sure, a couple of them are relatively unexciting, tossed-off cover tunes, but there's a ton of fascinating new originals (most of which have made later appearances on the band member's solo records).
Probably my favorite of the unreleased songs is the sweet longing of "All Things Must Pass." This later became the title track to George Harrison's first post-Beatles solo album, but it appears in a stripped down, and honestly, even better demo version here...Apparently, this was an outtake from the "Let It Be" sessions, which is just bonkers...They used "The Long & Winding Road" but cut "All Things Must Pass"? George is also represented by the less successful but still enjoyably funky "Not Guilty." Looking at the back cover this is clearly labeled "Take 102." Holy shit! Is that a joke?! If I had to do...gulp...102 takes of something I'd be damned if I would let the song end up an outtake!
McCartney's outtakes are just as good. We have two tracks that would later appear (and steal the show) on his first solo record ("Teddy Boy" and "Junk.") and the the huge hooky pop of "Come and Get It" that Paul very generously gave to Badfinger....
Paul also has the Latin-tinged "Step Inside Love," which he wrote as the theme for a television series...The version here is a loose run through from the "White Album" that tacks on the humorous "Los Paranoias," which is a fictional name the Beatles gave themselves...Too many herbal jazz cigarettes? You decide...
John is represented by the goofy, experimental "What's the New Mary Jane." It comes across as a mix of Syd Barrett and "Revolution 9." John said at some point he wanted to release it as a single alongside "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number"! I would have loved it if this would have happened...I like it when the Beatles get far out...They were the world's biggest band, but they weren't slaves to the public's fickle tastes...They were going to make an experimental noise track, and you're going to buy it and like it because they were the goddamn Beatles! If more bands would take this attitude I think the world of music would be a much more interesting place...
George Martin even gets in on the outtake action with "A Beginning" which was originally intended to work as an introduction to "Good Night" on the White Album.It reminds me of the beginning of a Disney movie or something...I can see cartoon animals waking up to this in an enchanted forest...
Oh yea, a lot of these "new" Beatles songs that debuted on the Anthology records were originally slated to be released by EMI on a record called "Sessions" that the Beatles originally vetoed, but it did get as far as a cover having a cover printed...
As much as I enjoy slogging through the endless demos and various takes on the Anthologies, something as clean and succinct as this sounds pretty appealing...I guess now you can just make a playlist or something that does this, but dammit...I want to walk over to the record shelf and pull out a record and toss it on the turntable and kick back w/ a Straw-Ber-Rita and listen to "Come and Get It" and "Leave My Kitten Alon" back to back...
(Damn. These tall boys of Straw-ber-Rita" have a way of sneaking up on you sometimes...You start out all "Mmm...Tastes like Kool-Aide" and before you know it you're drunkenly posting the "White Review." Stick with the little 8 oz. fun-sized cans...It gives you a more accurate perspective...)
The remainder of the album is made up of demos, and the White Album ones are especially interesting...It kind of plays as an alternate "unplugged" version of that album..The acoustic demo of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a cool counterpoint to the grand White Album version. And who knew that "Helter Skelter" started its life as a slow, smoldering blues number? Or that "Obla de obla Da" started out more calypso than ska? Man, I love this shit...Is there any way we can get an "Anthology 4"? No? Howzabout "Carnival of Lights" at least?
Oh well, let's listen to the demo for "All Things Must Pass" once more...
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