OK - the SH Membership's final word... "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love"...

A vote from someone who's not exactly a Beatle fan - I consider "Free as a Bird" not to be a Beatles single. It just doesn't sound anything like them, IMHO.

 

Yes, but... I wish they worked with George Martin or Geoff Emerick instead of Jeff Lynne.

 

Not Beatles singles.... didn't even play "Real Love" on the radio when it came out.

When playing Anthology 1 and 2... I always start at track 2.

 

Since all four fabs are included on the track, I'd say it's the Beatles. And it is true. Not all of the guys were on all the recordings (ie. "Ballad of John and Yoko", "I Me Mine"), but the songs were still credited to the group.

 

I'll go ahead and call it The Beatles anyway but without John being alive, there was no getting around it, it just didn't feel the same IMO.

 

I liked "Real Love," but ohmygawd FAAB is such a dirge.

 

Regardless if John did not know how the his demo would end-up, it has John, Paul, George and Ringo playing - it's the Beatles.

If we are splitting hairs, then songs such as Love Me Do (single), Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby, Back in the U.S.S.R., Julia, The Ballad of John & Yoko, I Me Mine, etc. should not be considered as "by the Beatles".

 

My copies of "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love" says The Beatles. That's good enough for me.

Jim W.

 

Geoff Emerick was engineer on the sessions.

 

I don't like the way "Real Love" was sped up.

"Free As A Bird" had a nice video to go with it to sort of take your mind off its shortcomings as a song.

I like each of them simply because they are unique. I think that if Lennon were alive and they did reunite, it wouldn't have sounded anything like what they did in the past.

 

Free As A Bird has lead vocals by the three primary singers and a newly written bridge so it counts as a co-composition. I guess that really makes it a Beatle song.

-BZync

 

IMO since all four participated they are Beatles songs. I listen to them more often than I do Let It be..Naked.

 

I'm not at all ashamed to say that I enjoy listening to both of these songs by The Beatles.

 

Love both songs. I find myself humming Free As A Bird all the time.

Yes, it's the Beatles.

(putting on flame-proof outfit) I love LIBN, too. I'm outta here!!!

 

I don't know what else you could call "Free as a bird" & "Real Love" other than Beatles tracks. Both songs were on an official Beatles release, and all four members participated. There are more than just a few "Beatles" songs that don't have all four Beatles participating.

"Yesterday"
"Eleanor Rigby"
"The Ballad of John & Yoko"
"Back in the USSR"
"Dear Prudence"
"I Me Mine"
"She's Leaving Home"
"Within You, Without You"
"Revolution 9"
"Julia"
"I Will"
"Why Don't We Do it in the road"

And that's just off the top of my head!

 

Same here.. what were they thinking?!? I don't really care for RL anyway. John's demo on Imagine is 100x better (IMHfO).

I mostly agree with this as well. I became aware of FAAB thru this move and I'm grateful for it (I like it).

Of course some time later I heard John's demo and now I can't care as much for the ELO-ized mess that's on Anthology (again, IMHO).

 

Technically, these are Beatles tracks. At least, according to The Beatles, or rather, the surviving members at the time these tracks were released. So I don't see how you can argue whether or not these are Beatles tracks - it's sort of a moot point. A better topic would have been SHOULD these have been Beatles tracks?, to which I have no real answer, since I can see it both ways, or are they any good?, to which I'd say NO in capital letters - I don't think they would have been any good as LENNON songs, much less as Beatles songs. I was unimpressed by both. Real Love sounds like an Imagine LP reject, and Free made so little impression on me that that I don't even remember what it sounded like or what it was about - although I do seem to remember thinking the video was a lot better than the song.

 

I agree. I voted "yes, but" because "Real Love" was much more a done-up Lennon piece, and sounded like it in terms of melody and arrangement. Really, it's a ditty. A good ditty, but a ditty. (I also didn't like the way you could tell when his vocal/piano were punched in.)

I'm probably in the minority here, but I really do love "Free As A Bird." Jeff Lynne's production doesn't do it justice. If you want to hear more of the brilliance that's there, take a listen to the 5.1 mix on the video Anthology. It's a revelation.

For me, FAAB has all the sonic inventiveness and songwriting craft that the Beatles brought to their work from Rubber Soul on. And it's a meditation on the departed Lennon and the surviving Beatles, which is why it's both a lament and a yearning-for-transcendence that always characterized their music. It includes lots of Beatle touches, right up to the last chord and the way it recalls "The End," and the little ukelele coda is just perfect. It also has wonderful lyrics.

I know few will agree, but if you can listen past the ticka-ticka Jeff Lynne production (and you can do this with the 5.1 mix--electric guitars reappear, and the acoustic guitars actually have some body and weight) you'll hear a masterpiece. It never fails to bring tears to my eyes.

 

I voted "yes, but..." because the songs DO indeed come titled as being by "The Beatles" and they feature all four members. However, one of those members had no say over their final form, so I think an asterisk should appear. I DON'T think of them as being part of the "canon" - they come outside the years of 1962-1970 and exist as hodge-podges...

 

I really like the songs. Real Love is amazingly "Beatles"

I liked them after I saw the Anthology DVD though...is great when they are recording them.

 

I do consider them Beatles songs. And while I wouldn't call either of them a "great song" ... I'd rather have them than not.

 

Sorry guys, but what the heck are you even talking about?

 

Yes but

I like Free As A Bird but Jeff Lynne does make everything sound like the Travelling Wilburies.