Before any of you dive into At the Hollywood Bowl to hear some classic Beatles pop tunes, it should be noted that this is no ordinary concert performance - this concert is a loudness contest. The Beatles are doing their damnedest to be heard over a hysterical crowd of fans whose only reaction is to scream. Now I'm not one to psychoanalyze all of the reasons why Beatlemania happened, but if you want to know what it sounded like, this is it - lots of screaming with a little bit of... some song... playing... hey it's "Ticket to Ride"! If this is a loudness competition, it's anyone's game on whose winning, although if you're unlucky enough to have the original 1977 master, safe to say that the screaming has won the battle. The 2016 remaster does wonders on cleaning up this performance, even if just a bit, but it's still there. If you ask The Beatles themselves, they weren't exactly able to hear themselves, with Ringo claiming he would watch Paul's shoes to know what song and beat they were on - a true professional if you ask me.
With that in mind, you would expect the performance to sound like dribble, although you're in for yet another surprise - The Beatles are more than solid players on this live disc. While I'm sure anyone could ascertain that there's some talent to be had in a live setting from the group, you'd be hard-pressed to hear any of it over the tape noise on albums like Live at the Star Club. On the cleaned-up version of this release from 2016, you can actually hear the group, and they do damn well for themselves, especially on the cover songs - hell, "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" works much better in a live setting than it ever did on a studio album, and it's probably one of the best things here. Imagine that. Some of their newer songs also hit the spot, mainly a killer version of "She's a Woman", a fiery "Ticket to Ride" performance, and a solid run-through of both "Help!" and "A Hard Day's Night" - ending on "Long Tall Sally" is also an excellent choice, as it remains one of their finest covers to this day. Some versions do lack a little bit of life, though, such as "Can't Buy Me Love" or "She Loves You", which can only dream of being as exciting as their studio cut versions.
Sorry to say, but this is the most we get with Beatles live releases, really - up until 2022's release of the Rooftop Concert (more on that soon), your only option was this album or the dark and cloudy world of bootlegs (cloudy in more than one sense; most sound like shit). While At the Hollywood Bowl isn't necessarily a high-fidelity album, what is captured is a definitive picture of a phenomenon with a solid performance from the lads to boot. It's not like there's many live performances afterwards anyways, as The Beatles stopped touring in 1966, so this is as good of an image you could get of the group in their touring days. Certainly a solid time, and one that can almost capture the thrill of hearing them live in person - I'm sure the screaming could be louder, though.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to At the Hollywood Bowl.
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