The 1995 release of The Beatles Anthology was a cultural earthquake. Broadcast in prime time on both sides of the Atlantic, it saw ABC in the US temporarily rebrand as 'ABeatlesC' in its honour. The accompanying trio of albums, which marked the first official release of the band's studio outtakes, sold millions of copies. This landmark project effectively launched the modern Beatles industry, a relentless stream of documentaries, reissues, and expanded editions built on the belief that the band's archive and story were endlessly fascinating.
The Law of Diminishing Returns
For years, this strategy appeared sound. Recently, however, it has become harder to ignore the sense that Apple Corps is scraping the bottom of the barrel to feed an insatiable demand for content. While Peter Jackson's Get Back series had its highlights, many questioned if the nearly eight-hour runtime, plus an IMAX film and a reissue of the original Let It Be documentary, was stretching thin material too far.
Similarly, last year's Martin Scorsese-produced Beatles '64 largely re-edited familiar footage from the Maysles Brothers' 1964 documentary, splicing it with new interviews that offered little fresh insight. It seemed everything about that year had already been said, with the two surviving Beatles understandably running out of new perspectives on a story they've recounted for six decades.
Anthology's 'New' Offerings Fall Flat
This same feeling of pointlessness hangs over the latest iteration of The Beatles Anthology. It arrives with a fourth album of outtakes, but a staggering 23 of its 36 tracks have been released before. This means vinyl collectors are being asked to pay nearly £70 for around 50 minutes of 'new' music, most of which will only interest the most dedicated fans.
Notably absent are the mythical Carnival of Light or the fabled 27-minute Helter Skelter. Instead, listeners are offered a shaky first take of their cover of Carl Perkins' Matchbox. The so-called 'all-new' TV episode, focusing on the making of the original Anthology and the completion of John Lennon demos Free as a Bird and Real Love, is equally disappointing. The footage, now three decades old, looks more dated than the 1960s material, a parade of mullets and stonewashed denim that has yet to achieve retro chic.
Recycled Footage and Visible Tension
The core issue is that this episode isn't new at all. It is essentially the bonus material from the 2003 DVD edition, padded out to 50 minutes. It shows the three surviving Beatles being interviewed at George Harrison's home and Abbey Road, loosely jamming on acoustic guitars and working on the new tracks with producer Jeff Lynne.
While there are sweet moments, like Ringo Starr's plaintive 'I like hanging out with you guys', the footage is also telling. Viewers can clearly see George Harrison's visible exasperation as the sessions drag on. Off camera, he famously refused to work on a third Lennon demo, Now and Then, calling it 'fucking rubbish'.
Paul McCartney shares a humorous anecdote about spiking Abbey Road's tea urn with amphetamines to keep engineers working late. However, a certain tension between him and Harrison is palpable. When producer George Martin plays the multitrack of McCartney's You Never Give Me Your Money, Harrison dismissively suggests it sounds 'a bit cheesy', leaving McCartney visibly unamused.
Ultimately, none of this feels essential. Like the Anthology 4 album, it has been flammed together to create an illusion of added value, suggesting there is something new to say about a subject that may well be exhausted. The Beatles Anthology is now streaming on Disney+, and the album Anthology 4 is out on Apple Records.
