Thursday, January 20, 2011

Beatles Anthology 2: The Album

Anthology 2 is the follow-up compilation two-CD set to Anthology 1. Produced by George Martin (with Jeff Lynne and Harrison, McCartney and Starr jointly producing "Real Love"), the CD set was released on March 18, 1996. With many exceptions, the albums covers the middle period of the Beatles, ranging from Rubber Soul through Magical Mystery Tour. The opening track was "Real Love," which was another new Beatles song resulting from the surviving Beatles re-engineering an old Lennon home recording tape and augmenting it with their own vocals and instrumentation. As with Free as a Bird, the writing credit for "Real Love" was left to only Lennon. The album was released by Apple, and a vinyl set was also released for collectors.

The track listing was as follows:

Disc One

Real Love
Yes It Is (takes 2 and 14)
I'm Down
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away (takes 1,2 & 5)
That Means a Lot
Yesterday
It's Only Love (takes 2 & 3)
I Feel Fine
Ticket to Ride
Yesterday
Help!
Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby
Norwegian Wood
I'm Looking Through You
12-Bar Original (an instrumental)
Tomorrow Never Knows
Got to Get You Into My Life (take 5)
And Your Bird Can Sing (take 2)
Taxman (take 11)
Eleanor Rigby (take 14)
I'm Only Sleeping (rehearsal)
I'm Only Sleeping (tale 1)
Rock and Roll Music
She's a Woman

Disc Two

Strawberry Fields Forever (home demo)
Strawberry Fields Forever (take 1)
Strawberry Fields Forever (take 7)
Penny Lane (take 9)
A Day in the Life (takes 1,2,& 6)
Good Morning Good Morning (take 8)
Only a Northern Song (takes 3 & 12)
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite (takes 1 & 2)
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite (take 7)
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (takes 6, 7, & 8)
Within You Without You (the instrumental track only)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band Reprise (take 5)
You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)
I Am the Walrus (take 16)
The Fool on the Hill
Your Mother Should Know (take 27)
The Fool on the Hill (take 4)
Hello, Goodbye (take 16)
Lady Madonna (tales 3 & 4)
Across the Universe (take 2)

As with Anthology 1, the main Beatles fact is that these tracks represent a combination of rehearsals, alternate versions, home demo recordings, false starts, and songs that have different versions edited together to show the evolution of a song in the studio, as with "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Yes It Is." Some tracks are live performances. Many tracks sound very close (or nearly identical) to the final take used for the released albums or singles, while others are missing special sound effects. "Got to Get You Into My Life," for example, does not have a horn section.

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