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The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl

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The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl is a live album released in May 1977 featuring songs by The Beatles compiled from two live performances at the Hollywood Bowl during August 1964 and August 1965.[1] The album was released by Capitol Records in the United States and Canada and on Parlophone in the United Kingdom. The album has not been officially released on the Compact Disc (CD) format.

History

Initially, Capitol Records considered recording the Beatles' February 1964 concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, but it could not obtain the necessary approval from the American Federation of Musicians to record the performance. Six months later, KRLA DJ Bob Eubanks booked the band's 23 August performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles,[2] where Capitol recorded their performance with the aim of releasing a live album in America. The sound quality of the tapes proved to be inadequate for commercial release, however, although Capitol utilised a 48-second excerpt of "Twist and Shout" from the concert on the 1964 documentary album The Beatles' Story. When the Beatles returned to the Hollywood Bowl a year later during their 1965 American tour, Capitol recorded two performances by the group at the same venue. The sound quality of the 1965 recordings was equally disappointing, however.[3]

The Beatles were among the few major recording artists of the 1960s not to have issued a live album. Consequently, among Beatles fans, pent-up demand for a concert album continued to build. In fact, John Lennon set off a minor frenzy when, in a 1971 Rolling Stone interview, he incorrectly identified an obscure Italian compilation album, The Beatles in Italy, as a live recording ("There's one in Italy apparently, that somebody recorded there").[4] Despite the obvious demand for a live album, the tapes from the three Hollywood Bowl performances continued to sit untouched in a Capitol vault. In 1971, following his salvaging of the "Get Back" tapes, which was released as the group's Let It Be album, the Hollywood Bowl tapes were given to American record producer Phil Spector to see if he could fashion an album out of the material. Either Spector did not complete the job or his production was unsatisfactory, and the tapes continued to sit unreleased for another six years. Finally, with a rival record label's impending release of the Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962 album consisting of a fifteen-year-old, poor-quality mono concert recording of the group performing in the Star Club in Hamburg, Capitol Records' president, Bhaskar Menon, decided to revisit the Hollywood Bowl recordings. Beatles' producer George Martin was handed the tapes and asked to compile a listenable "official" live album.

When Martin was asked by Menon to hear the tapes he was impressed with the performances, but disappointed in the sound quality. In working on the three-track Hollywood Bowl concert tapes, Martin discovered quite a challenge.[3] The first difficulty was finding a working three-track machine with which to play back the master tapes. Once he found one, he discovered that the machine overheated when it was running, melting the magnetic tape. Martin and recording engineer Geoff Emerick came up with the solution of blowing cold air from a vacuum cleaner to keep the tape deck cool whilst the recordings were transferred to 16-track tape for filtering, equalisation, editing, and mixing. Martin found the 29 August 1965 recording virtually useless, and, except for a few dubs taken from the 29 August performance to augment other performances, the album compiled by Martin consisted entirely of songs recorded on 23 August 1964 and 30 August 1965. (The album cover mistakenly showing the almost completely unused 29 August recordings as the second date used.)

Even though the recordings on The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl were between 12 and 13 years old, the album reached number one on the New Musical Express chart in the United Kingdom and number two on the Billboard chart in the United States. The album has yet to be released on compact disc in either country. Bootleggers do circulate transfers of the LP as well as complete outtakes from the three concerts across the internet.

Because The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl included songs from two shows recorded a year apart, a number of songs performed at the two concerts were not included on the album. Songs from the 1964 show not included on the album are: "Twist and Shout", "You Can't Do That", "Can't Buy Me Love", "If I Fell", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and "A Hard Day's Night". Songs from the 1965 show not included on the album are: "I Feel Fine", "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby", "Baby's in Black", "I Wanna Be Your Man", and "I'm Down".[5] "Baby's in Black", from the 1965 Hollywood Bowl concert, however, was issued as the B-Side of the 1996 "Real Love" single, and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" from the 1964 concert was mixed into the studio version of the song for the 2006 Love album.

One unintended consequence of the mixing of dates is the inconsistent dialogue between songs, in which band members recorded a year apart refer to both A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965) as their latest album. This then gives just cause to believe the recording of "A Hard Day's Night" on this album was actually recorded on 23 August 1964.

Even though the album sleeve says that the recordings were all made on 23 August 1964 or 30 August 1965, "Ticket to Ride" and "Help" were recorded on 29 August 1965, and "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" is a composite using parts from both nights in 1965.

Bootleg CDs of The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl appear regularly without an official release. Bootlegs also include 'Baby's In Black' lifted from the Real Love Single CD.

In New Zealand, it was to be pressed and released locally with the catalogue number PCS 6130 (the 6000 series was designated for EMI (NZ) only releases), but this did not occur. Instead New Zealand pressed this record and used the Australian catalogue number PCSO 7577.[citation needed]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[8]
The Village VoiceA[9]

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl was voted the 26th best record of 1977 in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published by The Village Voice.[10] Robert Christgau, the poll's supervisor, ranked it 12th on his own year-end list,[11] and in a review for the newspaper, he wrote:

A tribute not only to the Beatles (which figured) but to George Martin and Capitol (which didn't necessarily figure at all). The sound rings clearly and powerfully through the shrieking: the segues are brisk and the punch-ins imperceptible; and the songs capture our heroes at their highest. Furthermore, though the musicianship is raw, the arrangements are tighter (faster, actually) than on record.[9]

In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Rob Sheffield said called the record "a loving tribute to the screaming girl fans who drown out the band in these 1964–65 shows; those girls were heroes on the rock & roll frontier, and they deserve to be the lead instrument on a Beatles album of their own."[8] AllMusic critic Richard S. Ginell was impressed the Beatles' performances under the chaotic circumstances, although he lamented the sound quality and separation from the crowd noise, citing it as a possible reason for the record remaining out of print.[6]

Track listing

All tracks written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, except where noted.

Side one
No.TitleRecording dateLength
1."Twist and Shout" (Phil Medley and Bert Russell)30 August 19651:32
2."She's a Woman"30 August 19652:53
3."Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" (Larry Williams)29/30 August 19653:37
4."Ticket to Ride"29 August 19652:51
5."Can't Buy Me Love"30 August 19652:16
6."Things We Said Today"23 August 19642:20
7."Roll Over Beethoven" (Chuck Berry)23 August 19642:28
Side two
No.TitleRecording dateLength
1."Boys" (Luther Dixon and Wes Farrell)23 August 19642:12
2."A Hard Day's Night"30 August 1965 (poss. 23 August 1964)3:15
3."Help!"29 August 19652:46
4."All My Loving"23 August 19642:14
5."She Loves You"23 August 19642:31
6."Long Tall Sally" (Enotris Johnson, Richard Penniman, and Robert Blackwell)23 August 19642:53

Charts

Chart succession

Preceded by
Shokubutsushi by Iruka
Challenge Concert by Pink Lady
 Japanese Oricon LP Chart number-one album
6–13 June 1977
27 June 1977 		Succeeded by
Preceded by UK Albums Chart number one album
18 June 1977 		Succeeded by

See also

References

  1. ^ Friede; Titone; Weiner. The Beatles A to Z. Methuen Publishing. ISBN 0-413-48380-0.
  2. ^ "Rock, Pop & Jazz". hollywoodbowl.com. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  3. ^ a b Badman, Keith (2003). The Beatles: Off the Record 2, The Dream is Over. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-9199-6.
  4. ^ Wenner, Jann (2000). Lennon Remembers. Verso. ISBN 978-1-85984-600-1.
  5. ^ Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 28 - The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!: The U.S.A. is invaded by a wave of long-haired English rockers. [Part 2]" (audio). Pop Chronicles. University of North Texas Libraries. Track 2.
  6. ^ a b Ginell, Richard S. "The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  7. ^ "The Beatles The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl". Acclaimed Music. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  8. ^ a b "The Beatles: Album Guide". rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on 20 September 2011. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  9. ^ a b Christgau, Robert (6 June 1977). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  10. ^ "Pazz & Jop 1977: Critics Poll". The Village Voice. New York. 23 January 1978. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  11. ^ Christgau, Robert (23 January 1978). "Pazz & Jop 1977: Dean's List". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  12. ^ a b Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  13. ^ "austriancharts.at The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl Live!" (ASP). Hung Medien (in German). Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  14. ^ "Top Albums/CDs - Volume 27, No. 12" (PHP). RPM. 18 June 1977. Retrieved 18 December 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ a b Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005. Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
  16. ^ "charts.org.nz The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl Live!" (ASP). Hung Medien. Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  17. ^ "norwegiancharts.com The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl Live!" (ASP). Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  18. ^ "swedishcharts.com The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl Live!" (ASP) (in Swedish). Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  19. ^ "The Beatles > Artists > Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 18 December 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  20. ^ "allmusic ((( The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl Live! > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". allmusic.com. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  21. ^ "Album Search: The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl Live!" (in German). Media Control. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  22. ^ "1977年アルバム年間ヒットチャート" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 12 September 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ "RPM Top 100 Albums of 1977". RPM. 31 December 1977. Retrieved 24 February 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  24. ^ "Canadian album certifications – The Beatles – Live at the Hollywood Bowl". Music Canada. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  25. ^ "Les Albums Or". infodisc.fr. SNEP. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
  26. ^ "French album certifications – The Beatles – The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.
  27. ^ "British album certifications – The Beatles – The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 15 September 2013. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  28. ^ "American album certifications – Beatles, The – The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 15 September 2013.

External links

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