The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl revisited

9 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:

    Thanks for posting these. I have never seen this with such improved sound quality before. Even more surprising, how could over 205,000 people watch the first part, but only 467 watch the second part?

  2. Brian Fried says:

    One comment missing from this is George Martin's assertion that the Hollywood Bowl tapes' crowd screaming would be too harsh for transfer to compact disc. It was his way of saying why this album of original material (the only one of the 70s and early 80s) was not released by EMI-Capitol with the initial wave.

    "Baby's In Black" on the "Real Love" CD single invalidated that claim, and a lot of fans picked up on that as well to wonder if Hollywood Bowl will ever get released.

    I've not doubt at all in my mind that the live project by Ron Howard will see this released, possibly in conjunction with the Shea Stadium show remastered for DVD as well.

    If so, you can bet that release coupled with whatever Yoko has planned for John this year (every 5 years we get a big promotion of his life), Let It Be will be postponed to 2016 — unless something else comes up, then it's 2018 because 2017 will be the 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper, and you can bet that someone will be wanting to capitalize on that!

  3. Anonymous says:

    Great article, Wog! There's a lot of stuff I didn't know before!

    @Brian, I very much doubt we'll get a complete Hollywood Bowl or Shea Stadium release in conjunction with "The Beatles Live Project". In my mind, the idea behind the film and, presumptuously, an accompanying soundtrack is to release a "best of" collection along the lines of "Live At The BBC". In other words, *both* the film and soundtrack will be a compilation of highlights throughout their time as a live band, and won't include any concert in full. We'll get tracks from both, but not the full performances of either.

    If they'd wanted to re-release the "Hollywood Bowl" tapes or the Shea film/soundtrack in their entirety, they would have done so already. The "Live Project" gives them an opportunity to give us a "new" release, and only show us their performances as flawlessly as possible. And you know how protective they are of their image. Par for the course.

    With that said, it will be interesting to see what a "Live Project" album will contain. "Anthology 1" and "Anthology 2" already contain cuts from the Royal Command Performance, Morecambe & Wise, Sweden, Ed Sullivan, Blackpool, Shea, and Tokyo. If my assumption is right and the "Live Project" album does turn out to be a compilation, surely a lot of that material will be re-used, albeit remastered.

    Which begs the question, "Then what of the Anthology?"

    In my optimistic moods, given the EU copyright issue, I have a hunch we're going to see these releases from Apple this decade, approximately along this sort of timeline:

    1. Beatles Live Project (Christmas 2015, or at least by Summer 2016, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Candlestick)

    2. Anthology albums, re-mastered with revised tracklistings or else with bonus tracks, to coincide with the Anthology documentary re-released on Blu-Ray (Christmas 2017, in time to copyright "Carnival of Light")

    3. Official release of Esher Demos, if not already rolled into an Anthology re-release (Christmas 2018, in time to copyright the circulating but unreleased tracks)

    4. Let It Be Blu-Ray (Sometime in 2019, or possibly 2020, in time for the 50th Anniversary, and to copyright the unreleased Twickenham/Apple rehearsals for an accompanying compilation album)

    In my less optimistic moods, I think none of this will happen aside from the "Live Project", especially given the absence of "Bootleg Recordings 1964". It would mean Apple opening the vault way more than they have before, even if most of it has been partially released already on the "Anthology" albums.

    Then again, with "Live At The BBC Vol. 2" and "Bootleg Recordings 1963" already released and the "Live Project" all but a done deal, it seems like they might finally be taking the opportunity to cash in on the bootlegs before all their first generation fans die off and people stop buying physical albums altogether.

    Time will tell, but I think the truth lies somewhere in between. The tracklisting of the "Live Project", I think, will give a huge clue as to what lies ahead.

  4. Brian Fried says:

    @heyfatalbert:

    The American collection was introduced on the anniversary of that momentous occasion.

    I suspect that, on the anniversary of Shea in 2015, we'll get a live set of Hollywood Bowl and Shea together, with a disc of Ed Sullivan appearances and a few other oddities missing from the previous releases.

    If 2016 is the anniversary of Anthology they want to celebrate, it won't be with an expanded edition. They would have expanded it earlier with the digital version…. If anything, they'd do an additional set of Anthology (maybe a 4th disc?), but that would be acknowledging there's little left beyond live performances, Esher and Get Back.

    2017 is the anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's, so that's when I expect we'll get a super deluxe edition of the album with the stereo, mono, and outtakes… including possibly "Carnival Of Light."

    2018 would then be Let It Be on DVD.

    2019, the 20th anniversary of "1," will at last see the video collection. 😉

  5. Anonymous says:

    I never cease to be amazed at how Beatlemaniac collectors seem to miss basic points about the items they buy.
    Surely among the key facts of Apple releases is that they NEVER repeat NEVER celebrate anniversaries as EMI had been wont to do in the 80's before Apple regained full control over the presentation of the group and its catalogue.

    Why do we have the buyers of Beatle product in some kind of delusion that things are, have been or will be oriented around anniversaries. You can readily observe in recent and old interviews that Paul reacts with boredom to news of Beatle anniversaries, often saying that 'every day is some kind of a Beatle anniversary'.

    AIN'T. GOING. TO. HAPPEN.

  6. EUES Ireland says:

    Hi,

    I saw your very interesting website and thought that you may be able to help me locate this item.

    Have you ever heard of a contemporary Capitol Records in-house issue of the Beatles’ 1964 Hollywood Bowl concert pressed on 2 x 7” records?

    Thanking you,

    Best Regards,
    Brian O Kelly
    irishrecordfairs[at]live.ie
    irishrecordfairs.com

  7. Unknown says:

    This showed up on database today at a record shop I work in (17 July 2016):

    The Beatles – Beatles Live at The Hollywood Bowl
    Distributed by Universal
    LP: Cat No. 5705499 [Barcode 602557054996]
    CD: Cat No. 5705497 [Barcode 602557054972]

    No other details… Other than release date as 19th July 2016 (Tuesday???!)

  8. Unknown says:

    Just found out about this today!
    amazon.com/Live-At-Hollywood-Bowl-Beatles/dp/B01IO7OHTU/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1468891037&sr=1-4&keywords=beatles+live+at+the+hollywood+bowl

  9. Unknown says:

    I have the original negatives from the original printing of the Hollywood Bowl album. My mother worked at the print shop and her boss let her/me have them. Any ideas on how to sell them?

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