Went for a nice run over the weekend and listened to the '64 Hollywood Bowl concert and the '69 Rooftop Concert back-to-back just for the heck of it. Portions of both have been officially released, but there's something about listening to them "as they happened" that is truly rewarding. The Hollywood Bowl show presents the Beatles prior to their U.S. height of fame (arguable for sure, but I peg their States-side apogee closer to August '65, a full year after this concert) and the tapes - well, they USED to be tapes, as opposed to the digital mp3s they are on my iPod - show a lot of enthusiasm from the band and are much better sounding recording-wise than I thought they'd be. The stereo placement is fine (I'm sure it wasn't mixed: the tapes are fairly raw) and the crowd doesn't really drown out the music as much as the '77 LIVE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL album would have you believe. A tight 1/2 hour, but a good one (hard to believe they were able to play the largely acoustic "If I Fell" and get away with it noisewise).
The Rooftop Concert, on the other hand, is much less a concert performance than a number of song run-throughs in an open-air environment. There are repeats ("Get Back" gets three perfs while "Don't Let Me Down" and "I've Got A Feeling" get two each), breakdowns (well, one at least: "Dig A Pony") and a superb one-off ("One After 909"). The between song banter is mostly of the in-joke variety and not really directed at anyone in particular as far as I can tell. Put all that aside though, and there's still some great performances by a band that played quite well together: three of the "takes" ended up on the released LET IT BE album. [There is a random correlation between this and how a number of the tracks from the '64 Hollywood Bowl concert ended up on the released album but I don't have the time today to go into further detail!]
No version of LIVE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL has found it's way to a proper CD release; nor has the Rooftop Concert. A pity. I'm sure some day they'll be more widely available. Legally, I would hope.
Jeremy
[Any and all comments are welcome! Drop me a line at jeremyboob@yahoo.com. Probably won't be able to answer each and every e-mail but will do my best to address crossover issues in future posts.]
The Rooftop Concert, on the other hand, is much less a concert performance than a number of song run-throughs in an open-air environment. There are repeats ("Get Back" gets three perfs while "Don't Let Me Down" and "I've Got A Feeling" get two each), breakdowns (well, one at least: "Dig A Pony") and a superb one-off ("One After 909"). The between song banter is mostly of the in-joke variety and not really directed at anyone in particular as far as I can tell. Put all that aside though, and there's still some great performances by a band that played quite well together: three of the "takes" ended up on the released LET IT BE album. [There is a random correlation between this and how a number of the tracks from the '64 Hollywood Bowl concert ended up on the released album but I don't have the time today to go into further detail!]
No version of LIVE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL has found it's way to a proper CD release; nor has the Rooftop Concert. A pity. I'm sure some day they'll be more widely available. Legally, I would hope.
Jeremy
[Any and all comments are welcome! Drop me a line at jeremyboob@yahoo.com. Probably won't be able to answer each and every e-mail but will do my best to address crossover issues in future posts.]
1 comment:
Whilst I generally do not comment on such matters, this blatant misuse of the bloggint to promote a commercial internet title mill concerns me.
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