Anthology 2 (1996 album)

My first proper introduction to the Beatles was in 1995 with the debut of the Beatles Anthology. I taped every segment of the miniseries and then dug through my dad's vinyl collection to listen to the Beatles and by the time I saw the "Can't Buy Me Love" scene in A Hard Day's Night they had officially became my favorite band. The treat of the Anthology series were the two new songs "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" and I preferred "Real Love" as it sounded more harmonious and lyrically I just thought it was brilliant. So between having "Real Love" on the second Anthology CD set and the first CD set having "Free As A Bird" and taking into account the naturally superior studio sound in the second set versus the demo tape recordings on the first, I have a biased view from the start to say it is the better of the first two Anthology albums. The third one has many great tunes not released before but none 'entirely' new (usually being demos to songs they would record as solo artists), so my first post of the Anthology set is Anthology 2. So it's an odds and ends album making a cohesive flat rating basically obsolete. A two hour hedge-podge epic can't simply be giving a pick or pan thumbs up or down rating. All I can say is what makes this album worth a listen. First as I said "Real Love" a beautiful Lennon song resurrected from a premature grave (not making it on a John Lennon album except on the soundtrack to the documentary John Lennon: Imagine). Classic tunes resurrected include the surprisingly unreleased songs "If You've Got Trouble" and "That Means A Lot" originally intended for the Help! soundtrack but cut out almost inexplicably for the covers "Act Naturally" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" (both worthy covers of Buck Owens and Larry Williams tunes respectively). An unfinished group instrumental "12 Bar Original" also included helps keep pleasant surprises coming. A lavish string opening arranged for "Eleanor Rigby" and three different takes on "Strawberry Fields Forever" help justify why they would choose to release altered forms of their classics. Between the inventive takes of earlier versions of "Eleanor Rigby" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" and cut out classics like soft romantic "That Means A Lot" and the blunt confronting "If You've Got Trouble" you'll think of how much second guessing must have went on in making their albums that would previously seem so effortlessly wonderful. Listening to the lack luster take of "Got To Get You Into My Life" you'll appreciate the caution they took in making these albums.