Beatles, The - Anthology 5 & 6

Beatles, The - Anthology 5 & 6
Originally uploaded by omuniuum

Volume 5 starts with the band’s show at Shea Stadium in August 1965. It progresses through July 1966 and features comments from the Beatles, Aspinall and Martin. It opens with coverage of the Shea concert and then leads though the band’s meeting with Elvis, frustrations with the limitations of the road, increased experimentation in the studio with Rubber Soul and Revolver, George’s interest in Indian music and the sitar, their introduction to LSD, early attempts at music videos, and issues related to playing in Japan in 1966.

For complete music clips, we hear “Twist and Shout”, “I Feel Fine”, “Baby’s In Black”, “I’m Down”, and “Help!” at Shea, “Nowhere Man” live in Munich, “We Can Work It Out” lip-synched on TV, and both “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music” and “Yesterday” live in Japan. We get partially complete music videos for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain” and also parts of “Day Tripper” lip-synched on TV and “Paperback Writer” live in Japan.

Volume 6 traces the band from July 1966 to June 1967. We hear from the Beatles, Aspinall, and Martin. This episode discusses issues during their trip to the Philippines, the controversy over John’s “bigger than Jesus” statement, the end of touring, John’s acting in How I Won the War, George’s trip to India, Paul’s score for The Family Way, the development and recording of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane”, the gestation and creation of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band and its reception, and the reaction to Paul’s admission of drug use.

Since the band left the road early in Volume 6, we get no live performance clips from the era. The only complete piece comes from the “Penny Lane” music video. We get most but not all of the “Strawberry Fields Forever” video, and we also find parts of a modern McCartney rendition of “Eleanor Rigby”.