Having given us Peter Jackson’s monster documentary series The Beatles: Get Back four years ago, Disney have returned to the Moptop well to deliver this spruced-up reissue of the Beatles Anthology. This epic history of the Fab Four originally aired in six-episode form in the US and the UK in 1995, but that was expanded to eight instalments for VHS and LaserDisc releases in 1996.
The USP of this latest version is a supposedly new ninth episode, a sort of post-match roundup assembled from mid-1990s interviews with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison with interpolations from producer George Martin. This was at the time when the surviving members (the so-called “Threetles”) were creating “new” Beatle recordings from John Lennon’s demos of "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love". However, a lot of this material appeared on a “Special Features” DVD included in the Anthology box set (2003), though parts of it are previously unseen. Meanwhile, for your enhanced purchasing pleasure, there's also a new Beatles audio compilation, Anthology 4, on CD and LP.
This bonus episode is thus not much of a peg to hang a re-run of Anthology on, agreeable though it is to see the trio chatting in George Harrison’s lounge (complete with giant Ayrton Senna poster on the wall) or harmonising jovially in the multi-acre garden. But since its mid-Nineties incarnation, the whole series has been treated to a high-end technological overhaul under the auspices of Peter Jackson’s companies, WingNut Films and Park Road Post.
This includes much-superior upscaled video resolution and “AI audio de-mixing”, which has brought enhanced sharpness and punch to previously murky historic footage. A prime specimen of this is the group’s 1965 Shea Stadium performance where, it seemed, neither band nor audience could hear what the hell was going on on the day in question. Sixty years later, we can.
This work has been overseen by Giles Martin, son of the illustrious George. Giles commented: “When I can isolate with the voice, I'm thinking, ‘I can hear John now, and I can see him on screen singing,’ and there's his voice coming out on his own. I'm thinking, ‘He's never even heard this, and he was there!’”
So if you enjoyed the original Anthology, chances are you’ll enjoy this deluxe makeover even more, though whether there’s a new, younger audience thirsting for Beatle product is a moot point. It’s a bit like a visit to a vanished civilisation, as the Anthology traces the life and times of the band with almost anthropological thoroughness. It ranges from the post-war Liverpool where they grew up, through the rationing-hit Fifties to early-Sixties rock’n’roll, to Hamburg where the group cut their performing teeth and honed themselves into a tough, tight unit with ceaseless gigging into the small hours before returning to conquer dear old Blighty. And then everywhere else.
A much older McCartney makes the point that “to me the Beatles were always a great little band”, and time and again you might find yourself marvelling at their deft instrumental skills and slick harmony singing (which they possibly don’t get enough credit for). Perhaps the greatest advantage of stretching the story out at such length is that there’s plenty of room for extended performance footage, sometimes encompassing complete songs rather than the sawn-off extracts which are the norm in less opulent productions. The newly-enhanced audio makes this particularly pertinent.
Apart from all that, it was the group’s natural wit and savviness that also made them special. Treading where no pop group had been before, they seemed able to take any situation in their stride thanks to their cheerful collective self-belief and spontaneous humour, whether they were doing a live TV appearance with Morecambe and Wise or Ed Sullivan or performing for the Queen Mother. It all came naturally. As Harrison put it, “everyone in Liverpool thinks they’re a comedian.”
Still, you have to wonder how much more Beatle-recycling from Disney or Apple Corps the world can take. But they’ve already made the transition into timeless myth, like Superman, James Bond and Donald Duck.
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