Do you regard "Real Love" and "Free as a Bird" as real Beatles songs?

Yes and No.
Officially yes but personally no.
John had no idea that when he was writing and recording demos of FAAB and RL that he was writing and singing the next Beatles songs.

 

Absolutely, yes. And very fine Beatles songs they are, too. Just a pity we didn't get a third one. I would have loved a new McCartney-Harrison song, but it wasn't to be.

 

I was going to say, no more or less than An American Prayer was a real Doors album.

 

I like them a lot as they are, but would have far preferred they'd been fully developed Lennon tracks (even with one or two Beatles in attendance) on his 1980 LP - instead of the Yoko tracks.

 

I'm inclined to believe that George Martin's polite excuse to not produce these was only half a story, and that what he actually said was "Either my ears aren't what they used to be, or these songs are f#%$ing awful."

 

I like the songs but it feels almost like a form of necrophilia to me. I don't think John would've ever gotten back with The Beatles had he lived past 1980. I think for him, going by interviews, that part of his life was behind him forever. To paraphrase what he said near the end, you couldn't ask them to walk on water again. While I have no doubt he would've contributed to other members' solo projects as he had done, I do not believe if John was alive that you'd have ever seen a new song under The Beatles moniker. I can see him reuniting with Paul the way Robert Plant reunited with Jimmy Page, but John was smart enough to know that a full Beatles reunion would serve to diminish the legacy, because no matter how good the material they'd put together might be, it'd never match an entire generation's memories and nostalgia. They did their job between 1960 and 1970.

As such, I view them as a tribute to John. Not really Beatles songs because the other three weren't even The Beatles at that point. It was just Paul, George and Ringo working together for this specific project. There was no reunion in the sense of "Paul, George and Ringo are carrying on, here's some tracks featuring John's voice to tide you over." It was just, to me, a tribute piece to John, and emotional closure for the other three and for the fans. Not a real set of songs in any real band context.

 

She's really not that bad.

 

Beatles songs all the way, May as well ask if Brainwashed is a real George Harrison album.

 

How many times has this very question been asked on here?
Surely people are bored to death by now of discussing these two songs...

 

They did the best they could with them under the circumstances.

 

"Yesterday" and "The Ballad Of John And Yoko" and other tracks didn't have all Beatles musically performing together. However, part of what made the Beatles what they were was the personal interaction between them, which they fed off and influenced their music, whether it be a collaborative musical relationship or as a passive-agressive act/act of defiance, or act of independence. Which is what I meant in my definition, quoted above for reference (apologies if I didn't express it clearly in my original post).

In comparison, Lennon's "Real Love" and "Free as a Bird" contribution were demos for his solo work decades after he had anything significant to do with the others. It's not like it was an unreleased song demoed by him during the Let It Be sessions, where there was interaction with the others. He wrote and played it not having any explicit intention of involving the other Beatles. So essentially they are session men padding out a Lennon solo song. Which to me isn't Beatles.

 

Frankenstein Beatles.

 

IMO John recorded the demos intending the songs for eventual solo release. That the three others overdubbed them with new music and vocals leads me to believe that, technically, they should have been credited to John Lennon featuring The Beatles.

It's not the same as, say Queen's Made In Heaven album which was assembled after he had died, from his vocal recordings, as Freddie fully intended them to be used by the other three and released under the Queen banner, whereas John didn't.

That John didn't expect the other three on his recording, means that just because they are on there, doesn't make it a Beatles record, despite what Paul, the others, the record label etc. think. They were guests on his recording and really should have been credited as such.

 

Hey, i knew his sister Phyllis.

 

Officially they seem to be. Otherwise they have a solemn and dirge-like quality that I don't really recognize from the Fab Four... Only the Spectorized The Long And Winding Road comes to my mind.

 

No, It wasnt written while they were officially together. I am sure it was just used to promote the anthology series

 

You gotta hand it to them...
They put those out while the 'industry' was still selling millions of actual 'product'!

 

I vote no and will vote no each time someone else posts this question again.

 

It's very possible, in Martin's case at that point, it may've been a combination of both. I think it was hearing issues that led him to retire as an active producer around then. But even someone whose hearing was going, I'll admit, would know rubbish when they're able to hear as best they could.

 

I like them but for me they're not. If George Martin had produced them it would have gave them more weight. If they had done an entire album where everyone got their turn I might have felt differently. If it was just the three of them doing new originals along with some Lennon penned tunes I would have accepted that too. As is, it's too much of a freaky gimmick for me.

 

They are Beatles songs. The three remaining members at the time regarded them as such, at least to the point that they got together to do the project and release them on official Beatles merchandise. I would have loved for George Martin to have been involved for nostalgia's sake, but they chose to go with Jeff Lynne. I don't think that makes them any less Beatles songs. Of course, John isn't there in the present and I see why that bothers people, but I have no issue with him being flown in via the demo's Yoko provided.

 

No

 

Exactly how I felt and still feel.

 

They don't sound like Beatles songs to me. They sound like a band trying to sound Beatlesque. I realize they are technically Beatles songs but my brain rejects them.

 

I appreciate people like them....maybe if I was 15 when they came out id become attached but they do nothing for me and I don't consider them beatles songs, more of a curiosity