I know it’s something of a heretical view, but I must be honest: I’m not much of a Beatles fan. I like many of the band’s singles and I freely acknowledge their significance to the history of popular music, but for the most part, I’ve never understood the deep, almost mystical reverence that so many hold for the boys from Liverpool. They just don’t grab me that way. I think it’s even arguable as to whether their music qualifies as “rock and roll”; the later stuff, especially, sounds to my ears more like a descendant of the English music-hall than anything related to the blues.
Still, I like them well enough, and I’m always interested in stories about lost-and-found treasures. Which is all my roundabout way of saying that I was very intrigued this afternoon by the news that some 500 tapes from the 1969 “Get Back” sessions have been recovered:
The tapes recorded [The Beatles] performing more than 200 cover versions of work by the artists who had influenced them: Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. They played their own version of Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind, and Rod Stewart’s Maggie May. They belted out Great Balls of Fire, Hippy Hippy Shake and Lucille in spontaneous bursts of play.
You know that at least some of this stuff will be released on CD — more likely all of it will in a big old collectible box set — and, despite my reservations about the orthodoxy of the band’s greatness, I’d really like to hear Lennon’s take on “Great Balls of Fire…”
