The majority of the Beatles’ entire catalogue has appeared for free on YouTube. The Daily Beatle was the first site to report on Apple Corps.’s new generosity regarding the sharing of the “Fab Four’s” music. The albums include the main stereo UK catalogue from 1963’s Please Please Me through 1970’s Let It Be, along with the hits compilations 1962/1966 – better known as the “Red Album” and 1967/1970 – the “Blue” album. Also uploaded is Beatles 1, The Beatles LOVE, both volumes of the catch-all Past Masters stray track collections, and all three volumes of the double-disc The Beatles Anthology sets – along with the Anthology Highlights sampler, which features apropos videos rather than album screen shots for “Free As A Bird,” “Real Love,” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
The only official albums not yet included officially on YouTube are Let It Be. . . Naked, Live At The BBC, On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2, and Live At The Hollywood Bowl.
Although John Lennon realized that he and the Beatles were the prime creative movers of the boomer generation — he always went to great lengths to explain that they were only a part of the ’60s cultural shift — not the actual reason for it: “Y’know that bit about — ‘We changed everybody’s hairstyles,’ but something influenced us, whatever’s in the air to, to do it. And pinpointing who did what first, is. . . . doesn’t really work. We were part of whatever the ’60s was. We were like the ones that were chosen to represent whatever was going on on the street. It was happening itself, y’know? It could’ve been somebody else — but it wasn’t. It was us and the (Rolling) Stones and people like that and here we all are, y’know? And we all went through it together.” (Pulse)
SIDE NOTES
- In a recent interview with Diymag.com, Paul McCartney confirmed that a remixed deluxe 50th anniversary edition of the Beatles‘ 1968 “White Album” is in the works — marking the first time someone in the group’s camp has gone on record stating the project is definitely happening.
- McCartney said, “It’s all in place, I’ve just got a couple of essays (to approve). It’s all lined up and it’s really good. . . It’s really nice because we were a great little band — I think we can agree on that. So for me to be a part of that and to be remembering it is great; all these little things remind me of it and I do learn things. The album itself is very cool and it sounds like you’re in the room; that’s the great thing about doing remasters. But we’ve also got some demos of the songs, so you get things stripped right back to just John’s voice and a guitar. Amazing. We were just doing it; it was amazing. We were having a good time.”
- No release date for the package was given.
