Anthology 3

BP FALLON listens to The Beatles anthology

Cor, it’s Beatlemania all over again, nearly a quarter of a century since The Fabs first divorced. While their original alimony was acrimonious - towards Paul anyway - today Johnny Fab and his of Moondogs are hotter than heat. Latest release by the ex-moptops is the double CD The Beatles Anthology 3 (Apple/EM I Records) 50 cuts of out-takes and sloppy unreleased tracks. "If you want it come and get it," 

Paul sings here on his demo for the group Badfinger, and already 13 million people have done just that, forking out for volumes 1 and 2, shelling out for stuff that could’ve been found in Beatles waste-paper basket.

Is it worth it? Yes, the same way as Picasso’s scribbles are - and John Lennon’s for that matter, the ones that have just been rediscovered John’s unhinged, fuelled doodles poured out as he across Ireland in the ‘60s to buy the little island Dorinish Beg.

John additionally becomes flesh again in the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, filmed in December 1966 and unreleased until now. Now available on CD (ABKCO Records) and soon to be seen in video, here we have the self-styled Winston Legthigh performing his song 'Yer Blues' with his ad hoc group The Dirty Mac which comprises Eric Clapton, Keef Richard and drummer Mitch Mitchell from The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Heroes on heroin, basically, but chillingly brilliant.

Even madder in another way is Pussycats (RCA Records), credited to Harry Nilsson but as much the work of its producer John Lennon. Haphazardly assembled in 1974 during John’s crazed ‘lost weekend’, the record features such nasally fuelled lunatic luminaries as Ringo Starr and Keith Moon.

But back to Anthology 3: among the gems are George’s acoustic demos of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' and 'Something', while John in full gobbledygook Dr Winston O’Boogie mode leads his chums into the unreleased Rizia sizzler opus 'What’s the New Mary Jane', jazz woodbine glowing.

But what we’re missing the ‘new’ Beatles song 'Now and Then', a record-of John’s that was to have lyrics added by the surviving Fabs. Why has-it been released? Because last Christmas the "new" Beatles single 'Free As A Bird' was pipped from the toppermost of the poppermost Michael Jackson’s forgettable 'Earthsong'. In a victory V sign, the chairman of Sony - Jackson s company -sent his counterpart at EMI a turkey with The Beatles single stuffed up its ...uh, it’s bum. No gobble.

"They used us as an excuse to go mad, the world did, and then blamed it on us," George remembers. Or, as The Beatles themselves so beautifully sing on 'The End' "the love you take is equal to the love you make."

Yes.

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