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April 24, 2005
Somebody Stop Me...
from buying this.
I've had the Beatles Anthology I for a while, but I just recently delved into it deeply. (The Beatles are so familiar by now that I can go long stretches listening to other stuff). But once again they have asserted their dominance as the greatest rock group, by far. The main point of that first collection is this: they were a smoking hot live band! The fabulous songs are familiar, and Lennon and McCartney are easily the two best rock vocalists ever (and George is damned good as well). But to hear these elements in a live setting, positively sparking with youthful energy, wound musically tight after innumerable gigs in the dives of Hamburg--the effect is overwhelming.
It is, of course, a treasured legend to Beatles fans how John Lennon, with a throat raw from a cold and with one last take left in him, summoned forth one of rock music's best vocal performances at the conclusion of their marathon recording session for their first album. And indeed it was a stupendous effort. But after listening to the Beatles live performance of "Twist and Shout" on Anthology I, I realized the Lennon's studio performance was a herculean, but maybe not unusual, effort: he was singing it that well every time they played it.
John said, "We played straight rock. And there was nobody to touch us in Britain, you know?"
And there never has been, since.
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