Here is the second volume of The Beatles Collection I put together. Disc 1 uses songs that were recorded around the time of the ‘White Album’, using some demos, singles and outtakes to create a one CD version. It would seem that my choices were pretty consistent as only one song that was used on the A Doll’s House post did not make the cut here, and that would be Savoy Truffle (http://www.thesquirepresents.co.uk/the-beatles-a-dolls-house/). There are lot more George Harrison songs on this compilation, showing the improvement he had made as a songwriter at this time. What these discs show; if proof were needed, is just how prolific they were at that time.
The Beatles are one of the few bands where I feel they improved with age. The songs got better as they went along, and when I pull out one of their records to play, they tend to be from Revolver onwards. Rarely do I go for one of the earlier LPs. The songs are still good but as a cohesive whole, those earlier records just don’t cut it for me. That is most probably why the early material covers one CD whereas the songs from Revolver onwards cover three. Each to their own I suppose. Not using any covers most probably helped though.
Disc 2 covers the sessions for Let It Be and Abbey Road. I was quite surprised when going back over this, how many of the mixes from Let It Be…Naked I used. I would have felt that the original Phil Spector produced versions would have been ingrained into my brain that I would have gone with those regardless. The whole of Side 2 of Abbey Road was used (except for Her Majesty) as this was a perfect way of completing this compilation.
Disc 1
- Back In The USSR
- Dear Prudence
- Glass Onion
- The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps
- Happiness Is Warm Gun
- Martha My Dear
- Lady Madonna
- Hey Bulldog
- I’m So Tired
- Blackbird
- Piggies
- Mother Nature’s Son
- Not Guilty
- Yer Blues
- Julia
- Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me & My Monkey
- Sexy Sadie
- Cry Baby Cry
- Across The Universe (Wildlife Version)
- Revolution 1
- Long, Long, Long
- Hey Jude
- Junk (Demo)
Disc 2
- One After 909
- Two Of Us
- Come Together
- Something
- Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
- Oh! Darling
- Get Back
- I’ve Got A Feeling
- Revolution
- Don’t Let Me Down
- All Things Must Pass (Demo)
- Let It Be
- I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
- Here Comes The Sun
- Because
- You Never Give Me Your Money
- Sun King
- Mean Mr. Mustard
- Polythene Pam
- She Came in Through The Bathroom Window
- Golden Slumbers
- Carry That Weight
- The End
The front cover is taken from the compilation 1967-1970 and shows the band looking down from the stairwell of the now demolished London headquarters of EMI in Manchester House, London. This was a re-creation of the shot used on the 1962-1966 compilation and it was planned to be used on the front cover for their Get Back LP but as that album did not come up, it was repurposed here.
This was compiled before the release of the deluxe editions, so the Anthology 3 version of Not Guilty was used. The full length version of this song can be used as there would still be enough room to still fit into the playing time of one CD.