Anthology mythkeeping
So, The Beatles Anthology, chapters 1-9 and the book, are in keeping with what we new about the Beatles twenty-five, thirty odd year ago. The book is just like it was, not a word altered. The TV series, shortened from the VHS/Laserdisc/DVD version, but around the same length as the televised version we saw in 1995.
A bit of editing has happened, image and sound quality improved upon, some bits included which weren’t there originally, and some old bits removed. The story told is the same as then, albeit with the 2025 politically correct decision of not keeping bits which may be offensive to viewer groups. Hence, George’s description of the Paris audience in 1964 as “gay looking guys” is no longer there, for instance.
But the main story is as was, which meant that the 6th of June session at EMI studios was still thought of as an audition, even after Mark Lewisohn had gathered information which proved that a record contract with EMI was already in place.
Brian was right.
The footage for the story about the “Abbey Road” album was mostly pictures from the recordings of the “White album”! Despite the fact that a lot of pictures from the recording sessions for “Abbey Road” exist.
What is also not mentioned is that at the meeting between The Beatles after the release of “Abbey Road”, John suggested that they would release a new single for Christmas, and that from now on George should have as many songs on the albums as Lennon and McCartney.
Then came the concert with John & Yoko and a hastily assembled Plastic Ono Band for the rock’n’roll revival festival in Toronto, and after that John quit the Beatles, he wanted “a divorce, like I had with Cynthia”.
We were not allowed to be part of the recordings in January 1970 when Paul, George and Ringo came together for the re-recording of “I Me Mine” and the arrangements and new guitar solo for “Let It Be”, while John was still holidaying in Denmark.
After releasing “All Things Must Pass”, George also said in an interview that after that album he expected them to start working on a new Beatles album.
These are things would have been good to include in such a documentary series.
Furthermore, the documentary continues to misrepresent the recording of “Love Me Do.” They reverse the narrative. They say Ringo plays on the album version and Andy White on the single version, when everyone knows it was the other way around. I was hoping they would correct this now, but I was sorely mistaken.
The bottom line is that the wrong people are now steering the Beatle ship and we have zero control over its course…my brother summed up episode 9 perfectly…underwhelming.
Episode 9 was a great soft landing. Perfect enough for the future.
I feel like lots of big-time Beatle fans are viewing Anthology through the wrong lens. It isn’t the “one true complete story of The Beatles,” it’s the Beatles story as they themselves remember it and want to tell it. Autobiographies are by nature subjective tellings of events. The Beatles contradict each other a few times throughout the doc and specifically say they’d forgotten certain bits, so getting certain things wrong (like which version of “Love Me Do” has Ringo on it) isn’t really a problem because it’s how they remember it happening. If you want to get all the context and all the details, you of course have to look at additional sources that are a bit more objective than hearing it straight from the Beatles’ mouths.
I also see lots of people complaining about certain bits being removed as some sort of “censorship,” but again, this is them telling their own story. If I asked you to tell me about your life, you’d surely leave out some bits that maybe don’t make you look so great. There’s nothing wrong with that in an autobiography, especially one that has to also serve as a consensus between four parties.
Two parties. And some people that knew the other two.
Well, I didn’t expect them to add anything new to the Anthology series, altho’ I am disappointed they found time to edit stuff out instead.
There’s a lot of early material that could have been influential, like the day John met Paul, and concerts from 1963, but what I regret is that instead of adding material, they removed it, for example, the Quarrymen home recording scene.
Maybe we’ll have a Director’s Cut version on BR and DVD next year. with extra minutes.. who knows? I think they are trying to save stuff to keep on releasing Beatles media in the future, so it’s a matter of time.. I’m sure there’ll be more Super Deluxe sets, too.
Hi, Roger. I got my usual newsletter of what’s new in Japan, and it seems they’re getting a double A-side single with the new mixes of Free as a Bird and Real Love. Not sure if that was known.
as it has been a long time since i watched this , i am rewatching from the start , not just heading for the new episode. watched the first couple last night. they say that please please me was their first number 1. But i thought it was generally accepted now that from me to you was first number one , as pp me was not number 1 in main chart ? they do not even mention from me to you unless i missed it, but then go on to say that i want to hold your hand was their THIRD number one ? so they are either discounting pp me or from me to you , as she loves you was also number 1 of course . apologies if i misheard all this !
While “Please Please Me” went to number one on the charts that mattered in 1963, the charts compiled by “New Musical Express” and “Melody Maker” music newspapers, the little known and disregarded charts compiled by the industry magazine “Record Retailer” where the single only went to no. 2 is now regarded as the truth. This due to that when the Guinness Book of Records were to buy one of the charts for use in their publication, the cheapest one they could get was the “Record Retailer” charts. Hence, that became the standard and not the really important charts in “New Musical Express” and “Melody Maker”. History in the faking! So, going by the Guinness Book of Records, their third chart topper was “I Want To Hold Your Hand”. This may have confused the editors of the series, siting PPM as a number 1 and then forgetting all about that when describing IWTHYH.
I noticed these discrepancies, too, particularly in regard to the Parlophone signing, but doubt Apple has contemporary (90s) audio and video to replace the original myth, seeing that I have yet to see McCartney correct the story in interviews or books. Interestingly, he probably read the Lewisohn book. My theory is that his fairly recent “Get Enough” was inspired by walks along the Liverpool dock with girlfriend Dot, his memories brought fresh to mind by the surprises Lewisohn shared in regard to that part of his life.
They removed Ringo Starr’s Nazi salute when he arrives in Australia… But they included when Lennon sings “She Loves You” at the end of All Your Need Is Love…
What I found missing was a deeper dive into the Beatles’ last recording session for I Me Mine, which took place on January 3, 1970 – more interviews or details about that day would have been fascinating.
“You all will have read that Dave Dee is no longer with us. But Mickey and Tich and I would just like to carry on the good work that’s always gone down in number two”. – George Harrison
John Lennon’s mocking of disabled people—did that make it to the new edit?
I gotta say, trying to watch even an episode or two on Disney+ and putting up with all those stupid, yammering commercials is just about more than I can tolerate. I’ll be happy to stick with my old DVD set. (And the edits to the new edition are very irritating as well. Stop prissying up the history!)