Q&A; Author Richie Unterberger discusses unreleased Beatles, what next music release should be

October 22, 3:05 PMBeatles ExaminerSteve Marinucci

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The cover of "The Unreleased Beatles: Music & Film." (Courtesy Richie
 Unterberger)

Richie Unterberger has written an interesting study of "The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film Book." We recently attended a presentation by Unterberger on the subject and later followed it up with some questions by email.

Q: What do you find fascinating about studying unreleased Beatles songs?

Richie Unterberger: Although I'd never put the Beatles' unreleased material on par with what's been officially issued, there is a great deal of enjoyable stuff in that body of work. That alone makes it worthwhile to hear much of it. But if you're seriously interested in them as musicians and people, or as in my case a writer and music journalist as well, there are other important reasons to examine it too.

I think the unreleased material tells us a lot about the group that isn't always easily apparent from their official releases, or from most standard biographies/historical treatments of the band. There are many sub-genres of unreleased Beatles material, but to focus on some of the more crucial ones, the home/composing tapes give us a lot of insight into their creative process as songwriters and how they shaped/changed their ideas as they went along. (Unfortunately there's far more of such material in circulation from John Lennon's home tapes than there is from Paul McCartney's or George Harrison's.) The live tapes tell us a lot about how they played in front of audiences – sometimes showing them in a very flattering light, sometimes in their poorest light – as well as their humor and rapport while interacting with the audience and among themselves.

The demo tapes (and to a lesser extent the few 1962 BBC performances from early-to-mid-1962) tell us a lot about how Pete Best sounded while he was the band's drummer, and how enormously the Beatles grew as performers and songwriters in just the year or so between their January 1962 audition for Decca Records and the recording of their first album in early 1963. The many BBC tapes are the best-sounding recordings of the Beatles in a live or virtually live situation, as well as illustrating how many strands of rock and popular music they drew from in their wide repertoire of cover versions. The studio outtakes testify to their perfectionism in the studio and the remarkably astute decisions they made as the songs evolved, as do the January 1969 rehearsals during the Let It Be/Get Back sessions (which, alas, also testify to how ragged they could be and how the tensions eventually leading to their breakup were rising during this month). Even their annual fan club Christmas discs have their moments of vintage Beatles humor.

More subtly, as I mention in the book's introduction, many Beatles fans – even those who've never come close to meeting any of the group in person – feel a familial connection with the band, as though they're both unofficial brothers to their audience and among themselves. Listening to them in their more unguarded moments might unearth some sloppiness and bickering that doesn't show the group at their best. But it also gives us a more rounded picture of the band that in some instances feels more intimate than it would if we limited ourselves to their official product.

Q: Your favorite unreleased track?

Richie Unterberger: There are a lot of contenders, but my favorite might be a pretty obscure one – their cover of Little Richard's "Lucille" from a September 3, 1963 BBC session. Fortunately there's another good BBC version of this song which is available on Live at the BBC. But I like this version a lot, as it's also in good sound quality and has a better, tremolo-heavy George Harrison guitar solo. This and many other performances, released and unreleased, demonstrate that Paul McCartney was the best upper-register raunchy rock'n'roll singer bar none. Other of my favorites are listed on my website, at www.richieunterberger.com/bestubeatles.html.

Q: Your thoughts on the "Revolution" outtake that surfaced about six months ago? What did that show?

Richie Unterberger: This outtake had been described in Mark Lewisohn's book "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions," so it wasn't as surprising as it might have been otherwise. But it did show that the distance between the White Album's "Revolution 1," an arrangement heard in the first half or so of the take, and the avant-garde structure/atonality of "Revolution 9" wasn't as wide as many had assumed. For the last half of this outtake gets into some seriously dissonant noise jamming, with all the Beatles participating. Some of it was used in "Revolution 9" itself, though it was integrated with a lot of other elements to become something very different and more of a John Lennon/Yoko Ono creation than a group Beatles effort.

Q: What do you think the next big music-related Beatles release should be?

Richie Unterberger: My answer overlaps to the answer to your next question – as I think they should focus on issuing unreleased material, I think they should put out a compilation of their demos for the White Album, which is my favorite body of Beatles recordings that hasn't come out. If they would contend that those are too rough in fidelity or performance to be considered for official release, or at least the first forthcoming official release, I think they should finally put At the Hollywood Bowl on CD. It's baffling that it hasn't gotten on compact disc yet. It made #2 on the charts when it came out on LP in 1977, and you can still get used copies everywhere. So if they're feeling is nowadays that they'd rather not have people listening to it, it's not as though keeping out off CD will prevent that, and at least a million or two fans are probably primed to upgrade their version to the compact disc format. They could use that opportunity to put not just the original LP on CD, but also do an expanded edition that includes all of the material from the three Beatles concerts Capitol Records recorded at the Hollywood Bowl (on August 23, 1964; August 29, 1965; and August 30, 1965). The original Hollywood Bowl was actually a combination of material from these concerts (mostly from August 23, 1964 and August 30, 1965).

On the DVD front, one of the questions I get asked most often is, "Why isn't Let It Be on DVD?" I don't have a good answer for that. People want to see and buy it; it's an extremely historic film, even if at some points it doesn't show the Beatles at their best; there are probably plenty of extras that could be included in the way of unused footage; and it was previously available on VHS. It's often speculated or reported that the surviving Beatles and their estates don't want it out as it revives painful memories. But it does sometimes show the group in a good light as well, especially in the rooftop concert that was their last live performance.

Q: If you had a free hand to put together any unreleased Beatles material for release, what would it be?

Richie Unterberger: I'd like to see all of the two dozen-plus demos the Beatles recorded at George Harrison's house in May 1968, shortly before sessions for The White Album started, compiled for official release (along with any other existing ones that haven't yet circulated). This could be done either as a standalone release or as a bonus disc in an expanded edition of The White Album. Although sometimes ragged, they show the Beatles in a gentle and fun-loving, acoustic folk-oriented light that's quite enjoyable and an interesting contrast to their official releases. You also get to hear in-progress versions of numerous White Album songs with numerous interesting differences to the studio tracks, as well as some Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison compositions the Beatles wouldn't release during the 1960s, although they'd surface on their solo albums. A list of what I view as the most significant Beatles material yet to be compiled for release is on my website at www.richieunterberger.com/released.html.

Q: One of the biggest unreleased Beatles debates concerns whether "Peace of Mind" is them or not. Do you think it is?

Richie Unterberger: This is a question that's going to be impossible to answer with any certainty. Some Beatles fans and experts dismiss the notion of it being at all possible that it's actually the group as rubbish; others have reported it as a genuine Beatles outtake. The failure of the song to be copyrighted does make me kind of wonder if it's actually the Beatles; if they'd bothered to make a not-too-bad-sounding tape of it, one would think they might bother to copyright it. But unlike some listeners, I think it's just possible it might be them. It is Beatlesque, especially in the harmonies, though if it's them, it's probably the group at the peak of their susceptibility to hippie naiveté in the surreal lyrics, acid-folk arrangement, and the way the tape seems to keep speeding up. But there's no evidence that's appeared that has convinced me one way or the other.

For more info:

• Richie Unterberger's website