First Impression: The Beatles' '1/1+' delivers something new
More Beatles? That’s the question a skeptic might reasonably ask at the recent announcement of a new version of the group's 2000 “1” hits compilation that became the biggest-selling album of the decade, the new edition being packaged with performance footage and films for each of the Fab Four’s 27 No. 1 hits on the album.
In fact, one of the prime movers behind the new “The Beatles 1/1+” project, which will be released Nov. 6, initially had the same reaction.
“My first question about it was whether this might be just a ‘ka-ching!’ prospect,” Jonathan Clyde, Apple Corps Ltd.’s director of production and producer of the “1/1+” told The Times on Thursday. He conducted a playback session in West Hollywood of several of the videos for about 50 music writers and a few VIPs including Doors drummer John Densmore and filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who directed the Beatles' cinematic swan song, “Let It Be.”
“But the more we dug into the archives, the more I realized how much great material hasn’t been made available before,” he said. “And more than just visuals to accompany the songs, a story begins to emerge that demonstrates how the Beatles approached audio-video with the same sense of adventure they brought to their music.”
Clyde noted that despite all the archival footage used in the massive 1995-96 “Anthology” documentary, of the 50 selections in the deluxe edition of the “1+” release, only 10 were featured in full in “Anthology,” 18 were sampled in edited form or edited with other material, 13 were not shown in any form and nine are newly discovered or created since the ‘90s.
By: Randy Lewis
Source: L.A Times
