The Beatles – Live At The BBC

An absolutely fantastic sounding record set (superior to the thinner sounding original 95’ release), with equally fantastic packaging. This is the perfect way to hear "the boys" before they became the "clever Beatles". This triple set is full of excellent live cover versions, hits, album cuts, and charming banter. "The King of Rock & Roll", R&B, and Country and Western can all be heard influencing the entire 3LP set, proving that although The Beatles may have been from "across the pond", a healthy portion of their inspiration was actually made in "the good ole' U.S. of A." (Elvis says humbly, “Uh, thank you very much”)...In 95', "Baby It's You (Live)" returned the group to the top ten as a single in the U.K., and remains a stand-out on this compilation. My favorite cut is "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby", the song is peculiar sounding due to it’s crude live recording, higher frequencies sound filtered out, while John's "Rockin’ ‘n’ Rollin'" vocals play over a tremendous rumbling low-end. The track plays oddly modern, yet raw, making it the most exciting moment on the album.

For those Beatle's fans that need more of what they got on "BBC Live", look no further than "BBC Live Vol. 2", another jam packed set with all the bells and whistles of it's predecessor, and then some. Highlights include the thumping and grooving "Memphis, Tennessee" & "Kansas City / Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!" (both superior takes than the ones on "BBC 1"), as well as a studio outtake of "I Feel Fine", all nodding towards the future sounds that would be "Rubber Soul".

UMG - Apple should really either refund or exchange the millions of original EMI-Apple double and thus compressed release of this slice of history for this revised re-mastered and thus sonically improved tripple vinyl. It really is very very unfair to expect fans to have fork out again on something that should have been tripple first time around.

This smacks of being conned and ripped off I think we all have nasty taste in the mouth memories of the original Album collections in the blue box and or deluxe slide front with the exclusive UK only Rarities album in promotional form that only came with the complete set. Only to find 6 months later this alleged and stated exclusive set teaser was slyly released commercially as a stand alone album, not a very nice thing that Apple Corps allowed to happen.

Now a decade and more later they have done it again NOT NICE and very unfair of UMG and Apple to let this happen!