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Music Notes: The Beatles, Love (Album)

November 21st, 2006

I picked up a copy of The Beatles: Love (with the DVD audio disc). As mentioned before, this music is pretty personal to me, and I had some conflicting emotions listening to it. However, after one listen it has more I’m excited about than not, and I’m thinking this soundtrack to the Cirque du Solei show will be a pretty awesome Christmas gift for many a Beatles fan – if they haven’t rushed out and bought one already.

First, my reservations. This is an abridged, “Cliff Notes” of the Fab Four’s career. It presents their strongest and most artistic work in the best light. As a result, it’s a very serious album and definitely post Revolver-heavy. There are only a few mop-top era Beatles songs, namely I Want To Hold Your Hand and Drive My Car. The latter in particular basically attempts to cram all of Rubber Soul and Beatles For Sale into one song.

Which brings me to the subject of the “mash-up” or combining different songs together in a unique way. I have to admit I found these experiments rather hit and miss. Some moments are truly inspired, like the appending of I Want You (She’s So Heavy) to Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite, and also the combination of Tomorrow Never Knows and Within You Without You. I think this is because the basic mood of these song-pairs retains the spirit of the original works.

Meanwhile, the combination of Ringo’s Octopus’s Garden vocal over Goodnight doesn’t feel quite right to me. Neither does parts of Piggies, Penny Lane, and Hello Goodbye playing over the coda of Strawberry Fields Forever. The original context of each of these songs is too ingrained in my memory. Therefore, I hear more excessive alterations to said tunes as confusing the original meaning – Hello Goodbye is too happy and superficial for Strawberry Fields.

So what did I really like about this album? Basically, there are several tracks that are completely remastered and enhanced versions of the originals, with little or no “mash-up” activity. The results are a new-found separation of each song’s instruments and sonic detail – the feeling when you change out old, grungy guitar strings to a new set, or the difference in image quality going from VHS to DVD – it’s that good.

The Love versions of Eleanor Rigby and Yesterday are particularly stunning – you can hear every nuance in the strings and emotions in Paul’s voice that are fresh and new. John’s Help and Revolution benefit as well – the lead guitar in both sounds as acerbic and cutting as John’s lyrics and delivery. New details are revealed: a crispness to Ringo’s drums, George’s finger running over strings during a guitar solo, or an acoustic guitar muddled behind a mono mix for forty years (with Yesterday in particular, I found myself getting misty-eyed).

George Harrison seems to benefit the most; the new treatments of Something, Here Comes the Sun, and even Within You Without You make George seem like an equal contributor to the Beatles legacy (which he practically is today, but in the sixties he seemed to come into his own only after Sgt. Pepper).

So the ultimate point of Love might be revisionist history, presenting The Beatles as musical geniuses and serious artists – which I don’t disagree with, but there was an awful lot of experimentation for them to get to that point. The road from the cheesy, commercial Mr. Moonlight to the world-changing sing-along of Hey Jude is part of what I love about The Beatles, and isn’t presented here. Love is pretty much the sonic equivalent of an exciting movie trailer showing the best parts of an epic movie that you’ve already seen.

What I’m secretly hoping is that the “epic movie” to come is a complete digital restoration and re-mastering of the entire Beatles catalog. I was skeptical I would ever want such a package before I picked up this CD, but after listening to what is possible with a return to the original recordings, I’d pony up for each and every one of them. The sound quality of this disc is that amazing.

Additional Reading: My Review of the Beatles Love Cirque du Solei Show

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  • I was glad to find this thoughtful review. I got this album for Christmas and have been listening to it a lot the last couple of weeks.

    One thing I'm finding very entertaining about it, aside from the great new mixes, is that often the songs use not just the final version of parts in the mix (the ones we're most familiar with), but also alternate takes. For instance, "While my guitar gently weeps" includes a verse that was left out of the original release. This gives us not just a new sheen on old songs, but almost the feel of "new versions" done by the Beatles themselves.
  • Hi Patrick, thanks for stopping by... that is a good point about alternate takes being used here. My Guitar Gently Weeps is obviously quite different from the White Album version with Eric Clapton and a full band.

    Another example that comes to mind is the Love version of Strawberry fields, which is essentially going from a Lennon demo through various versions... the demos appear on the Beatles Anthology CDs but not stitched together in this manner.
  • Mike E
    "Love" was made for me, a Beatle-phile. Sifting thru the tracks I am stunned by Sir George's and Giles attention to detail -- the foreshadowing, transitions, and medleys, all done with tremendous care (even the ones that don't work as well:). I have listened to the Fabs music for 30 years, and this was such a delight. Giles' liner note says it all -- this band, in their 20's, still blows everybody away
  • Hey Mike. Yeah I did mention it above but I was really impressed by the clarity of the sound on the Love disc. Good to know that as a long time beatle fan you didn't find it too off-putting. I'd also recommend checking out the Beatles Love show in Vegas which I really enjoyed, too, if you haven't done so already.
  • Like most Beatles fans, I like the album from the tracks that were chosen down to the album cover. Some songs were given a new twist and they definitely sounded better especially the intro part, others were creepy sounding. All in all the album was a great buy. You should check out their site it gives detailed explanations for each tracks.
  • Hi meong, cool, I'll check out the site. I haven't done so in a while.
  • Anne Gaffney
    I was very moved when I first listened to this magnificiant album, it captures just the right twist of Sir George M's intention - especially love the lyrics of While My Guitar Gently Weeps,
    hari krishna GEORGE H. thank you for it all guys xxxx
  • Hi Anne, thanks for stopping by and commenting. It's definitely a neat album.
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