The Beatles recorded 88 different songs for the BBC, the
cream of which was released in 1994. The most thrilling thing about The Beatles Live at the BBC was getting
to hear a plethora of songs they never put out on their proper albums, and it
didn’t hurt that they rendered oldies such as “Some Other Guy”, “I Got a Woman”,
“Too Much Monkey Business”, “Clarabella”, and “The Hippy Hippy Shake” with such
excitement. Perhaps most significant of all was the release of “I’ll Be on My
Way,” a pretty and wistful Lennon/McCartney original otherwise unavailable.
On Air—Live at the BBC
Volume 2 gets closer to the bottom of the barrel, relying on a lot of
material from Please Please Me and a
lot already available on the first volume, only offering two otherwise unreleased
numbers (the soppy standard “Beautiful Dreamer” and Chuck Berry’s “I’m Talking
About You” featuring the riff Paul copped for his bassline on “I Saw Her
Standing There”), and no revelatory Lennon/McCartney rarities. Still, this is
The Beatles’ barrel we’re talking about, which is a pretty good barrel. There
are certainly some cool things to hear on On
Air. There’s a version of “Words of Love” recorded fifteen months before it
made its vinyl debut on Beatles for Sale.
There’s a positively vicious version of “Money” (and am I hearing Lennon scream,
“I wanna be free, bitch!” at the climax of the track?). There are also several
of versions of big hits— “Please Please Me”, “From Me to You”, “She Loves You”,
“I Want to Hold Your Hand”, an electrified “And I Love Her”—that were surprisingly
passed over for volume one (which is receiving a remastering and rerelease in
conjunction with its sequel). But what strikes me most about these recordings
is the clear differentiation of instruments when compared to the (albeit less
weedy) album versions. These recordings were the best ways to hear Paul’s bass
work until Revolver. On a less
musical note, there are also interesting Rubber
Soul and Revolver-era solo
interviews with each Beatle, their soberness providing a jarring counterpoint
to the goofy clowning of the between-track banter elsewhere on On Air. I actually think this is the
only time I’ve ever heard George
address his role as the quiet one and Paul discuss his personal cultural renaissance
that would so influence Sgt. Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band the following
year.
