The Beatles Anthology: 3
Anthology 3 documents the fractious Beatles years from 1968 to the end. Apple Records was launched ironically as the quartet were splintering into different units; to put it one way, they were increasingly solo artists appearing as session musicians on each others songs, or to look at it another way, they were already peering over the horizon at the post-Beatle world. There were no reconstructed and heavily overdubbed demos from which to create 'new' singles, but plenty of alternate takes from the white album, "Abbey Road", and "Let It Be" (with John spoiling the seriousness of a run-through of the title track by cheerfully calling Paul a bounder and a cheat!) as well as early versions of "All Things Must Pass" and "Not Guilty", which George wrote and later recorded properly on two of his solo albums in the 70s; and Paul's versions of "Step Inside Love" and "Come And Get It", which became hits respectively for Cilla Black and Badfinger. The others include a rock'n'roll medly included during the difficult "Let It Be" sessions - Jive Bunny, Status Quo, you weren't the first, were you - and an amusing version of "Get Back", with Paul ad-libbing vocals at the end just as the police were coming to order them off the roof during that famous last live open-air performance in January 1969. The main exclusive is John Lennon's "What's The New Mary Jane", a much-hyped 'rarity' which had been rumoured as a possible Plastic Ono Band single at the time - featuring John, George, Yoko and roadie Mal Evans, but neither Paul nor Ringo. EMI. 2005.