Last night I stayed up way too late in order to watch a laserdisc copy of The Beatles Compleat documentary. While it has been long surpassed by the Beatles Anthology specials from the mid-1990s, it efficiently recaps the whirlwind history of The Beatles from the formation of John Lennon's first skiffle band to the groups dissolution around the time of the release of Let It Be and Paul McCartney's first album.
The most interesting aspect of this documentary is, despite its wonderful Malcolm McDowell voice-over narration, is that it has yet to be released on DVD. The Beatles remain one of the most popular musical artists, even as the band has now lost two members (John Lennon and George Harrison) and the band disbanded forty years ago. One would think that there would be nothing from the group's history that would be out of print.
One of the most significant omissions from The Beatles catalogue is the absence of a CD or a digital release of The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl. Released in 1977 on vinyl, it remains the only officially released live album of The Beatles at the height of Beatlemania (of course, live songs of The Beatles have since been released in Anthology 1, 2 and 3 which makes the loss of this album a little less painful). Nevertheless, this is an exciting album featuring The Beatles at the height of their powers as a live band (and disproving the late 1970s assertions by members of the public that The Beatles did not rock). Despite the protestation by the former members of the band, and George Martin, the audio quality of the recordings was quite good having been recorded on a three track recorder (the three track recorder was probably a 35mm magstock three stripe film recorder from the period, quite capable of excellent analog sound). And, outside of Cheap Trick's Budokan albums, there are no better examples of the sustained screaming, from mostly female fans, long since gone from the contemporary concern scene.
It is time for an official release of this album (or even better the complete 1964 and 1965 Hollywood Bowl concerts that were compiled for this album). I know that Capitol Records were disappointed in the sales of The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, but it still was a #1 record in the United Kingdom and a #2 record in the United States. It is inexcusable that this important historical document, as well as a very entertaining album to listen to, has been out of print for all these years.
No comments:
Post a Comment