Hey there Beatle people!
And suddenly it was December. How quickly that's a wrap for 2025, but at least in Beatle world it's ending on some things to be positive about, no matter what we think of Anthology: anything new to hear/see in this realm is good, right? We in the states just passed a weekend commemorating gratitude and that's a pretty good mindset to hang onto all year round (sermonizing over).
We'll skip news for now since there's really nothing relevant to report for the past week, except for...
ANTHOLOGY
By now I'm sure plenty of you have at least seen some of the Disney+ broadcast. No shortage of opinions to be found online, predictably across the spectrum. I'm certain a lot varies from generation to generation, and degree of fandom. In general, I try to err on the side of positivity where possible, though that certainly can be a challenge sometimes in Beatle world. Having not seen all of it yet, I'm going to refrain from weighing in myself right now and instead save any comment for an upcoming podcast discussion with a couple or few interested observers.
Regarding 314, which concerned itself with a review of Anthology 4 (generally) and the SDEs, I did notice some online chatter falling among predictable lines. I'm going to share here something I wrote as a clarification to somebody who wrote to me because I think there are people who decided in advance that the conversation was going to be hammering The Beatles and Apple. I would say I'm a bit more nuanced than that:
As for Anthology 4 goes, let me sum it up as basically as possible: 1) it's always good to have more of these guys, in whatever form. I'd rather have even the most tedious of takes made available, just to have them out there than not at all. Speaking as someone who spent too many years studying the Nagras - the very definition of tedium - virtually anything else is refreshing. So my philosophy is to err on the side of generosity.
2) My problem with the Anthology music series is not what we were given per se. It's more their scattershot approach that is, IMHO, both disrespectful to the group and their fans. Let me explain: in the '90s we were willing to accept anything, because first, there was no real precedent for The Beatles being so generous with this kind of stuff; quite the opposite in fact (with the cancelation of 1985's Sessions, for instance), and therefore we would take what we could get, before they changed their minds. Second, there wasn't much of an established template for the issue of archival material from legacy acts at the time. The Dylan Bootleg series started in 1991, but that was an outlier and it took awhile for other peer acts to begin to take note and service their fans this way.
As we now can see, it's become a textbook example of how these things should be done: chronicling the archive by period makes a lot of sense to depict an artist's evolution. Now with the first three Anthology installments, The Beatles adhered to a chronology, but it was a mishmash of "new" (the Threetles recordings), live material, studio outtakes, demos and so forth, and didn't have the kind of cohesiveness that fans nowadays might prefer (and benefit from: maybe not everyone likes concert recordings).
If I ran their world, I would either present the vault material as a chronological series (which they have kinda sorta done) but by scooping up ALL materials by period (which includes live material, demos, outtakes, etc) and issuing them in order, ala Dylan (that's the other thing: Paul, John and The Beatles have released the their SDEs out of release sequence, adhering to some outdated "anniversary" strategy that cynically attempts to ride free media attention as a marketing tool), OR: I would produce discreet collections tied to a theme - the demo collection, the live collection, the "first takes" collection, and so forth. Every studio album, in my opinion, should be a bundle of stereo and mono mixes, alongside contemporaneous singles; bonus editions would feature demos and outtakes. Something for every level of fandom.
I'd mentioned, without expounding, the idea of a Beatles '62 box set. It would be comprised of
1) The January 1 Decca audition, complete.
2) The March and June 1962 BBC shows, featuring Pete. I presented an excerpt ("Beautiful Dreamer") in 314, cleaned up by a smart fan - it's perfectly listenable and enjoyable besides.
3) The extant June 1962 EMI test session. (Pete's last stand - this would also feature the Geoff Emerick tape, unheard by the public.)
4) All September 1962 EMI recordings (Ringo and Andy White "Love Me Do"/"PS I Love You," plus early "Please Please Me" w/ Andy.)
5) The Cavern acetate
6) The October tape featuring an early harmonica take of "I Saw Her Standing There," plus "Catswalk" and “One After 909."
7) The October 1962 radio interview.
8) The "Please Please Me"/"Ask Me Why" session, which also included a take of "Tip of My Tongue."
9) All of the cleaned up Star Club recordings.
Bonus: if the July 1962 Cavern live material is fixable...
So to circle back to your original question: has my opinion changed about Anthology 4? No, not really. I think they can be doing things better, and in this case specifically, maybe they should've titled it Anthology 33 (or whatever the exact number in minutes the previously unreleased material adds up to), because this neither fish nor fowl collection makes little sense in slotting a majority of previously issued (on SDEs) tracks alongside non-previously issued ones. You could've easily presented two discs worth of stuff worth owning alongside the "new" material (including the Cavern acetates of "Some Other Guy"/"Kansas City," promo film version of "Revolution," uncut "It's All Too Much," alternates of "While My Guitar" and "Here Comes The Sun," Twickenham material, etc) and also issued a separate "best of" SDE cuts (so far). It is really really hard not to look at the way they do things as minimal effort and as part of an overall strategy to milk every last nickel out of their base (and at a glacial pace). I'm not happy.
MORE ON BEATLE DOCUMENTARY STUFF
I think it was back in the very first SATB newsletter that I shared a do-it-yourself version of the 1982 documentary, The Compleat Beatles. This was the non-Apple, unauthorized telling that got a lot of traction, considering it was filling a void that had yet to be filled officially. So there was this write-up on it in the NYT this week, which definitely filled in some of my knowledge gap on how it came to be in the first place. You can read the article here, and check out this version of the doc here.
As a general rule, and this is something that's been discussed on the podcast, certainly in the most recent appearance by Erin Weber: people wishing to tell the story of something historical are limited in accessing data, but otherwise have a freer hand in their depiction, when compared to those tellings sanctioned by the subject matter. In those instances, one trades access for the freedom to tell the story as one sees fit. Implicitly or explicitly, an authorized telling will be at the mercy of how frank and honest the subject wants to be. One can make the case that the one-time Beatle directive of "warts and all" is long gone, not least since making the decision to get into bed with Disney.
Therefore, at the very least, whatever one thinks of The Compleat Beatles, it was produced with the freedom of no oversight coming from the subject matter to handcuff wherever they want it to go with it.
HISTORY
December 3, 1965: Rubber Soul was released in the UK
The Beatles' 6th long-player in less than three years was their most advanced yet, suffice to say; but also a real high-water mark for the principal songwriters, John in particular: "In My Life" - "Girl" - "Nowhere Man" - "Norwegian Wood."
Rubber Soul was their last album with Norman Smith engineering. Considering that compressed recording schedule - beginning October 12 (with "Run For Your Life" and "Norwegian Wood") and ending on November 11 (with "Girl"), and with a Help! leftover ("Wait") tossed in, the staggering quality of the material as well as the musical exploration on display speaks to both their artistic growth and accelerated ambitions.
Around the time sessions began, John was quoted admiring the work of Brian Wilson, specifically noting that in quitting the road, spending time in the studio crafting material liberated Brian to enact whatever musical thoughts came his way. It was clear by the end of their last tour date that year that the group was well past whatever thrill they once got from stepping on the concert stage. Exactly HOW they would make the break was uncertain at that point, but Rubber Soul signaled greater ambitions unbound by the challenge of reproducing their newest material onstage.
Also released on this day in the UK: the accompanying "We Can Work It Out" / "Day Tripper" single.
It was the first of their designated "double A-side" singles, prompted by a disagreement between John on one side and Paul/George Martin on the other over which song was more commercial. (In places where the record charted as separate releases, WCWIO tended to outperform DT, but it was the latter song that became a live staple during their final touring year.)
ALSO released on this day: for some perspective, The Who's debut album. Like Please Please Me, it too was a document of their stage act, being R&B cover heavy, but also containing the title track: an advanced thematic work that signaled the latent ambitions of Pete Townshend (as well as the group's managers, Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp) that would flower in two years with The Who Sell Out and three-and-a-half years with Tommy.
A SATB FORUM
As mentioned in last week's newsletter, I've been looking to put together some kind of online SATB community. The amount of feedback I've gotten from you guys since starting a newsletter a year ago, and more importantly, the quality of it, makes it all the more pressing as far as I'm concerned to contain it and present it for all of you to communicate amongst yourselves. You might say well don't we have social media for that. Honestly, I hate it. I look no further than my 2.0 page on Facebook - the only reason I keep it going at all is because with north of 20,000 followers, it's a way to reach a good chunk of people. But it's become degraded over time, in the last couple of years especially, and while I haven't got the bandwidth to police it as much as it probably could stand, I've had to block too many people for abuse to each other. It's become a place for too much inappropriate snark, or else petty oneupsmanship. Pretty much like all of the internet.
What I envision for a SATB forum is, first of all, commentary and input for the shows. But beyond that, in the years since I've been producing the newsletter, I've gotten all kinds of amazing emails from people that I wish I could have responded to directly. People with stories of what the Beatles meant to them, personal interactions, and just all kinds of stuff that is too good not to share with the group.
And then there is the aspect of sharing knowledge. There are tons of people I have had on the show that are doing other things, either directly Beatles relevant or Beatles adjacent. I would think that would be of interest to most listeners, so a forum would be a place for them to link to and otherwise share what they're up to.
Most of all, I want this to be a place of smart discussion and a community based on respect, with people behaving in a way that you wouldn't be embarrassed for anyone in Beatle world to witness. Best behavior, in other words. And I really don't think that's anything I need to be heavy-handed with, because I can't think of any interactions I've had with any listeners that have been a waste of time. Not really. We can always disagree on interpretations of things, but I hope we can all agree to be civil with each other and recognize what connects us.
Anyway, some of you offered suggestions and the one thing I think for certain, which happens to align with my own inclination, is I'm not going to do this on Facebook. A couple of you suggested substack, but I've been looking beyond that for hosting platforms that specialize in this kind of thing.
I'm going to put this here and if anybody has any direct experience with any of the ones mentioned, let me know, the good and the bad. Very likely I will end up at least trying out one of them.
CHRISTMAS
Last week I highlighted the history of one Christmas message (1966). Here's something that just came to my attention: the video someone put together showcasing the visuals associated with the lot of them. Enjoy!
LAST
SATB 315 - Beatles Bass; An Appreciation with Arion Salazar and Rob Collier out now!
All best,
RR
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