Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 no stars February 19, 2008
Johnny the Fret (London UK)
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
There is nothing to be said. Why re-issue stuff that we really do not need? Some believed in free love and respect, others just took the drugs. Here, they just take your money.
 Beatles BBC: "B - - - - y Brilliant Compilation" December 1, 2006
Geoffrey Millar (Brunswick Australia)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
When this collection was released, prior to the Anthology series, it was the first `new' Beatles material released for many years.
Many of the songs have been previously bootlegged, but this collection has many unfamiliar tunes, including some Chuck Berry numbers and contemporary beat tunes like `Some Other Guy' and `Hippy Hippy Shake'.
The banter with BBC presenters is delightful, as is reading the fan mail and various comments and in-jokes.
The set is just short of a revelation. It's full of energy, toughness, fun and sparkle. There are some great covers, as well as slightly different versions of the usual Beatles hits. It's interesting that they seem to have put just as much thought into the covers as their own material: these songs were never 'filler', but songs The Beatles knew and loved.
The packaging and liner notes are marvellous and each disc has about 30 tracks, so the set is great value.
The only drawback of this terrific album is the sound: glorious mono, with varying degrees of low, medium and hi `fi' due to the age of the tapes and BBC recording techniques. It's not even at the standard of the official Beatles mono LPs, but it's always listenable and you soon forget about the sound, anyway.
 Portrait of the Artists as Young Men April 2, 2006
craig black (edinburgh, scotland United Kingdom)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
When this album was first released in the mid-90's I'll admit I bought it largely as merely a companion to the original fabs lps of this period('62-'65 approx.),a collection-filler which I doubted I would find the desire to actually listen to very much-but I was wrong! Despite a few complaints(don't worry we will come to those in a moment)this album is, in its own way, just as good as the official Beatles releases from this period(Please Please Me thru to Help!)and should not be ignored.
Many of these tracks were live favorites during their early days playing the Star-Club, the Cavern and so on, but, by the height of Beatlemania, when all their scream-tastic audiences required of them was to turn up, look pretty and run through half-arsed, barely audible versions of the hits, these live-in-the-studio BBC sessions gave them their only chance to perform them, and the group's enthusiasm at being given this opportunity to be able to please themselves and be musicians again for a change, rather than simply "pop stars", is both obvious and highly infectious.
This is the Beatles at the height of their fame, "in the eye of the hurricane" as John Lennon later called it, relaxing and playing the music they'd loved as teenagers, without worrying about record sales or commercial appeal. Hearing tracks such as I Got A Woman, Lucille or the blueswailing I Got to Find My Baby(as good as anything similar The Stones were recording at the time), or to listen to them in the speech tracks, gently taking the piss out of "your pal" DJ Brain Matthews, is to hear the group when they really were just "four lads from Liverpool",before the appeal of fame wore off and the Studio became the only place they could really be themselves, free from the bullsht "celebrity" attracts.
I like to view Live at the BBC as almost a mirror image of 1968's White Album. Just as that record saw the group's three main songwriters working often individually on tracks that clearly displayed their influences at the time(Lennon-Yoko Ono and the avant garde, McCartney-Pet Sounds and The Who, Harrison-Indian music and Bob Dylan),the BBC album shows them doing the same thing 5 years before-each in turn taking a chance to front the band and attempt to emualate the heroes and inspirations of the day(Lennon-Arthur Alexander and Chess R'n'B, McCartney-Little Richard and Broadway musicals, Harrison-Carl Perkins and Sun rockabilly,prior to the point where they equalled then eventually outgrew these early influences and went on to the next chapter of their career.
As such this album is a fascinating insight into the Beatles at their rawest and most naive(musically speaking, that is).Its not a perfect collection-even to a Pavement fan like myself the sound quality on a few tracks, such as Keep Your Hands Off My Baby and Thats Alright, sounds not so much lo-fi as no-fi. The record is also too long-the alternate versions of Lennon-McCartney songs already available elsewhere are inferior to the originals and are unnecessary.
Despite these (very minor) grumbles however this remains a great album and essential listening to any of fan of the Beatles music of this period(if you're a newcomer try A Hard Day's Night or Past Master One first)and is highly recommened.
Wonderful! June 27, 2005
Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae)
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
These two discs feature live-in-the-studio recordings made by The Beatles for BBC Radio between 1962 and 1965.
Over half of these 56 songs are covers, many of which were never officially released, and it's a real treat to have this often-bootlegged material available and sounding very, very good. And the lavish 46-page booklet features complete recording information, pictures, and essays by Derek Taylor and producer Kevin Howlett.The Beatles do their best to live up to their happy-go-lucky images on a number of non-musical "soundbytes", and Paul McCartney gets to sing a couple of too-cute pop songs, but the majority of this material is simply magnificent. John Lennon sings a tough rock n' roll-rendition of Ray Charles' "I Got A Woman", McCartney rips loose on electrifying versions of "Lucilel" and "I Saw Her Standing There", and George Harrison does a credible Chuck Berry on "Roll Over Beethoven".
A couple of Arthur Alexander-covers are equally great, and Lennon performs a wonderfully tough, confident reading of "A Shot Of Rhythm & Blues" and tears through a great, punchy "Dizzy Miss Lizzy". Their own songs sound magnificent as well. A driving "A Hard Day's Night", the clanging, circular guitar riff of "Ticket To Ride" ringing out...Well, you can check out the track list for youself.
This is a delightful 2hrs+ of music. The Beatles give it their all, and you can hear what a terrific little rock n' roll combo they were when they could actually hear each other play!
Very highly recommended.
Good, but not perfect collection February 25, 2005
shstaples
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
For years bootlegs (LPs back then, the "Live at the Beeb" series) of the BBC-radioshows were in high demand: they covered every show the Fab Four ever performed for the BBC. They would never fit on a 2CD-set. So yes, one will miss a song or two on this collection, but there are some real gems (I'll be on my way, Clarabella, Lucille - to name but three). I think they could have put on more covers that were not released on their official albums, as some performances are clearly inferior.
The BBC itself did not archive these recordings, as far as I know, though there may be acetates. Luckily most of it was recorded by fans and survived that way. Naturally the audio quality of these recordings is far from perfect (compared to their first album, which in itself was almost 'live in the studio'), but most are listenable enough. Some are really bad (Keep your hands off my baby, for one, and a couple of TV performances), but I guess these are included for their uniqueness. I could have done without the chats, especially when they are edited over the music and you can't skip the track.
All in all it's a great set that shows the Beatles'influences and for me, I think some of their covers are so much better than the originals!
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