Beatles Live at Hollywood Bowl essential?

I know there's already an extensive thread about this release.
I'm interested in opinions whether this is an essential purchase for a casual
Beatles fan such as myself or if it's aimed at more in-depth listeners.

 

It is the best live recording of the band. If you want to hear what they sounded like live in better quality than is available on bootlegs, this is for you. Many of the songs are more energetic than the studio versions, though not as tight and not as in tune.

I would say the BBC releases, with lots of otherwise unreleased stuff played live in the studio are more essential than this one. So I would not bother with this until you get both of those.

 

You are going to get a variety of replies.

My viewpoint is that it is not "essential" since it is not part of what I consider to be their core catalog (their studio albums). As the previous poster has indicated, there was no song on here that was not also released in a studio version.
But it is interesting as a historical document of what a Beatles concert was like. Lots and lots and lots and lots of screams, at least on the 1977 LP version (remains to be seen if they were able to improve this at all here in 2016).

I am probably going to get this, but I will probably listen to it once or twice, and then not listen to it again for a long time. To give you some idea of how I really feel about it, it's been 36 years since I last heard these recordings.

 

The BBC releases are almost all "live in the studio" and several have overdubs of vocals and some instruments. There are a few songs that were recorded live before a small studio audience. While they are generally good, but not excellent recordings, they don't have that feel of being at a for-real Beatles concert.

Live at the Hollywood Bowl does have that feeling. Yes, the performances aren't always the best, but they are darn good and energetic as all heck. If you want to know what Beatlemania was all about, get the Hollywood Bowl album when it comes out. If you want to hear how good the Beatles were with playing and harmonies live, but in the studio, then the BBC albums are for you.

 

It's probably worth mentioning that I own all the studio releases but nothing beyond that.

 

No.

If you are a completist like many of us here then yes, but if you are simply a fan who likes to listen to records/albums over and over, I would say you can skip it.

Historically it is essential IMHO but not really as a repetitive music listening experience. .

 

Much the same here. Hollywood Bowl not essential. Got BBC & I don't find that essential.

 

It's a cool release but you probably wouldn't listen to it much. I'm a huge collector and I haven't listened to the original release in over twenty years. However I do agree that the BBC releases would be a better choice for you. Buy them!!!

 

I bought it when it came out. I ditched it a couple of decades ago: if I wanted to listen to the Beatles, this would never be an LP I reach for.

 

Yeah. It's sort of like when you go on a vacation a buy all this local city branded crap because you're so in the mood from excited on your trip and then you get come and the crap sits around untouched for years.

 

I think it is. I sounds like no other live album. I wasn't there when Beatlemania happened but whenever I hear someone compare someone else to The Beatles because the girls are screaming, like Take That, One Direction or Justin Bieber for example, then I think about "The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl" and I think to myself, NO, it's nothing like The Beatles.

 

I mentioned in the earlier post I hadn't listened to this music in 36 years.

That's not to say I haven't had opportunities to buy it in used vinyl places. I passed it up each time - most recently right before this new release was announced (good for me, I guess).

 

Not essential unless you are addicted to the Beatles....

I’ll be getting it! But like mentioned in the other posts, it’ll be a few listens, then put away!

 

Not essential and I will still be buying the new LP and CD

 

Every one is different. Maybe you love live recordings. In that case, you may find this essential. But if you have average interest in the Beatles, you'd probably be better off getting all the core catalog LPs followed by the BBC releases, followed by the Anthology releases, followed by, whew!, this!

But have you heard the White Album in mono?!!

 

I had the album and ditched it after getting the complete studio discography. I probably should have kept it for collectibility reasons but I stopped listening to it. Not essential if you aren't a completist.

 

To the hardcore fan...absolutely.

 

I couldn't even keep it (LP) for collectability reasons. I thought the LP itself was ugly. Did not like the tan color, nor the fact that the tickets shown were fake (Capitol added the Beatles faces to the tickets).

 

It depends what you mean by , "casual". As someone who is much more maniacal than casual, I still like to put things like this in perspective. From a musical standpoint, not only is this release not essential, it may be quite disappointing as well. I've gone a long way in various threads and forums giving my own personal reasoning as to why I feel that The Beatles stuck the nails into their own coffin in terms playing live very early on. The Beatles (meaning, John and Paul) did more than write SONGS...they wrote RECORDS. The quality of their studio recordings/arrangements-even as early back as 1963-made it a near impossibility to play these songs "right" on stage. Add to that the distraction of all the audience screaming and you had a result which was at very best, mildly satisfactory in terms of musical "adequacy".

All that said however, there is one aspect of the live HB album which does, in fact, makes it indispensable; and that's the simple, all-important fact that it stands as an aural document of what went on in those Beatlemania days. Taken on those terms, the album and what it represents is, in my opinion, "essential".

 

I always considered it a part of the official Beatles collection- has sentimental value to me

 

I actually think it is considerably more valuable because they could not play some of the arrangements "right" as a more stripped down arrangement makes for a more interesting variation.

 

Like most others have said, essential only for us completists. I haven't listened to the original LP in its entirety since 1996. I do really like that live version of "Boys", though.

 

I think it's an essential document demonstrating the band as a tight touring unit. Sure they could be sloppy but given the fact that they couldn't hear each other, the fact that they were able to sound coherent in that chaos is a minor miracle.

 

I have a great looking but bad sounding CD bootleg. This will augment and possibly replace that disc inside the gatefold boot packaging that looks like the original LP.

 

For the casual fan I would say it's not essential. It definitely won't be an album that will stand for repetitive listening. But for a completist or hardcore fan it is an important artifact of sentimental value.