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All Songs +1: The Beatles Are Live And Sounding Better Than Ever
NPR ^ | August 25, 2016 | Bob Boilen

Posted on 08/25/2016 4:34:02 PM PDT by Mariner

Here's something I find remarkable: There are only three professionally made recordings of The Beatles playing live in concert. Sure, there are bootleg recordings that don't sound very good. And there's a single-microphone recording from the band's days performing in Hamburg in the early '60s, but that's it.

All three professional recordings were done at The Hollywood Bowl. One is a performance from August 1964 and the other two from August of '65. And "professional" in the mid-'60s means they were recorded on three-track analog tape. That's the best they could do. Even the label, Capitol Records, concluded the recordings didn't sound good enough to release. They eventually did, but not until 1977, and even then the album they put out, The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl, sounded just okay.

All that's changed thanks to the remarkable work of Giles Martin, son of the legendary Beatles producer, George Martin. Using new technology, Giles Martin has brought new clarity to the recordings, more presence and reduced the overall roar of the crowd, a sound that was so loud it drowned out much of the band's performance. Give a listen to Martin's reworked version of "A Hard Day's Night."

(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...


TOPICS: History; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: beatles; music
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda
"Paul McCartney was talented, but every High school has someone like that. Lennon though was a mutant."

Paul McCartney wrote most of Peter And Gordon hit songs. Paul actually lived upstairs in the Astor (upper class to McCartney) home while dating Peter's sister Jane.

Peter was so bummed out because he thought their popularity was due to McCartney's name as the author on their albums.

McCartney wrote the song Woman for Peter and Gordon using the name Bernard Webb...it was still a very big hit.

21 posted on 08/25/2016 5:43:16 PM PDT by blam (Jeff Sessions For President)
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To: Mariner
I was in the 8th grade in 1957 when this (Maybe Baby) song was released.

Those were the days.

22 posted on 08/25/2016 5:50:03 PM PDT by blam (Jeff Sessions For President)
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To: Inyo-Mono

I read your comment and wondered what the date was that I saw them in Memphis. I looked it up, August 19th, 1966. Dates both of us - 50 years ago this month.


23 posted on 08/25/2016 5:51:25 PM PDT by Bearshouse
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To: rusty schucklefurd

Yes, God love George Martin!


24 posted on 08/25/2016 5:56:32 PM PDT by freepertoo
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To: blam

Asher.


25 posted on 08/25/2016 6:23:41 PM PDT by Zirondelle ("disce aut discede")
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To: Mariner

McCartney was/is one of the greatest rock bass players of all times.

Rubber Soul and Revolver and songs like Don't let me down and Come Together are classics
because of McCartney's Driving, melodic and sublime bass playing.

Blackbird is one song any aspiring guitar player must learn.

26 posted on 08/25/2016 6:26:12 PM PDT by John 3_19-21 (The primaries are over, you are either with U.S. or against U.S.)
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To: dfwgator

.
Lennon was good at writing spiritually depressing clap-trap lyrics.

He had a head full of “awful stuff.”

Paul was the heart and soul of the Beatles.
.


27 posted on 08/25/2016 6:29:07 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Bearshouse
I read your comment and wondered what the date was that I saw them in Memphis. I looked it up, August 19th, 1966. Dates both of us - 50 years ago this month.

Yeah, it sure does! I was 16 at the time. Aside from the screaming, they were very good live considering what they had to work with at the time. Seeing The Beatles live, they sounded just like their records to me and I have seen many concerts over the years with other bands where they sounded not nearly as good as their recordings.

28 posted on 08/25/2016 6:44:28 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono
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To: editor-surveyor

Paul would write, ‘It’s getting better all the time’, then John was the one who added, “It can’t get no worse.”


29 posted on 08/25/2016 6:46:17 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: freepertoo
Paul and John were opposite ends of the spectrum, and they balanced one another so perfectly that it made the band truly great. It was that ying and yang...sugar and salt, light and dark. They were perfect as a team. When they split, so did the magic.

Paul briefly teamed with Elvis Costello, which had a similar kind of mix. They co-wrote "Veronica" which IMHO may have been one of Macca's best Post-Beatles songs.

30 posted on 08/25/2016 6:48:21 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: BlueStateRightist
I listen to the songs written by Paul on Abbey Road, Sergeant Peppers, Revolver, and the White Album and I reach a different conclusion. He also was superlatively unique. Paul, who ultimately couldn’t stand John after Yoko arrived, added genius in his own way and if you removed him from the band they wouldn’t be remembered as best of their era as they are now.

I totally agree with you. Paul was (and is) a real musical genius. He wrote some of the best of Beatles songs and his lead guitar on "Baby You Can Drive My Car" and "Doctor Robert" is superb.

31 posted on 08/25/2016 6:53:12 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono
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To: Mariner

The Beatles played at least two concerts at Budokon Hall in Tokyo and also the famous Shea stadium show that were professionally recorded.


32 posted on 08/25/2016 6:55:01 PM PDT by curth
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To: Inyo-Mono

I would also point out Paul’s first solo album, which as truly a solo album in every sense of the word, that every sound on it was produced by Paul.

Maybe I’m Amazed is great, but there are other hidden gems, like “Junk” and “Every Night.”


33 posted on 08/25/2016 6:56:19 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator

You bet.

“Every Night” is one of favorite not well known McCartney songs.


34 posted on 08/25/2016 7:10:35 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono
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To: Mariner
Amazing. You can almost hear the band above all the shrieking, crying girls.

Does that sort of thing still happen?

35 posted on 08/25/2016 8:39:32 PM PDT by TChad
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To: Inyo-Mono

A Dunn y story from 1994. Paul came to Memphis and played the Liberty Bowl. His first song of the night was “Drive My Car”. He totally blew the first few words. He stopped and said let’s try that again. A great nearly three hour concert. The first of three for me.


36 posted on 08/25/2016 9:28:17 PM PDT by NCC-1701 (You have your fear, which might become reality; and you have Godzilla, which IS reality.)
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To: NCC-1701

A Dunn y = A funny. Big oops.


37 posted on 08/25/2016 9:30:07 PM PDT by NCC-1701 (You have your fear, which might become reality; and you have Godzilla, which IS reality.)
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To: ZagFan
McCartney has always been a big lefty.

Can't Buy Me Love 1964

38 posted on 08/25/2016 10:51:49 PM PDT by Daaave ("Well bless my soul what's wrong with me")
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To: BlueStateRightist
Lennon was a hardcore leftist before it was fashionable for rockers to be total leftists. I have a feeling Lennon, if alive, would be a Bernie supporter. To the greater point, it’s safe to assume all current “artists” vote Marxist these days. If I start to like any music I intentionally avoid learning of the band’s/artist’s politics — as I’m sure it would ruin the experience.


Perhaps not a Bernie guy in Lennon's later yeaars -

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2009562/John-Lennon-closet-conservative-fan-Reagan.html

39 posted on 08/25/2016 11:02:36 PM PDT by az_gila
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To: BlueStateRightist

If John Lennon were alive today, he’d have been dead many years ago with the massive amounts of chemicals and hallucinogens and alcohol he consumed in his relatively short life. Keith Richards would probably have demanded that John have an intervention.

An incredible talent of course—but John needed Paul and vice-versa... Though in my opinion, Paul is far more talented a player, singer and songwriter, I still loved John as a Beatle.


40 posted on 08/25/2016 11:20:46 PM PDT by Husker8877
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