The Beatles Anthology 2 - A Deep Dive with Insider Secrets

Using insider production notes for the Anthology project, we uncover which tracks were originally considered for inclusion on 'Anthology 2' but were ultimately left off and why. We also dissect the 'Real Love' recording and find out just what was on the 48-track tape. Among other secrets, we discover how the series was originally meant to finish and exactly what happened to 'The End'.

0:00 - Opener & titles
0:55 - Preparing for 'Anthology 2'
1:16 - Selecting John's cassette demos.
2:00 - Recording 'Real Love'.
3:48 - Breaking down the 48-track master tapes.
6:32 - 'Real Love' CD single.
7:41 - Anthology 2 - 1965 track selection.
11:20 - Track selections from 'Revolver'.
13:36 - Track selections from 'Sgt Pepper's...'.
15:34 - May 9th 1967 unreleased session.
16:26 - 'Hey Liley, Liley Lo'.
17:02 - George's revenge & 'Carnival of Light'.
17:30 - How 'Anthology 3' was meant to end.
18:28 - Outro.

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[marty]

Small correction: Giles didn't remix Real Love and Free as a Bird for 1+. It was Jeff Lynne himself. Giles did remix the rest of the songs on those Blu-rays

[zvbxrpl]

I think the OBX refers to an Oberheim Drum Machine which uses samples. I had one of these in the 1980s.

[gregoryminton]

EBU is a time code sync signal. Probably used to sync the tape with the other machine :)

[dt]

Getting rid of the speeches in anthology 1 was a step in the right direction as you mentioned. For anthology 2 they should have ditched the live recordings and included more of the studio outtakes that were planned for this release but dropped. The live concert material should have been used as a separate release but unfortunately, I don't that will ever happen.

[aslutnixessexintulsa]

I like how the Klaus Voorman self portrait on the Revolver artwork is aged on the Anthology art.
I remember a Pioneer Laser Disc version that came with a T-shirt

[alexcaprio]

“That Means A Lot” is one of my favorite songs of all time, I’ll eventually rebuy the 3LP of “Anthology 2” just for that tune.

[EarBooker]

“Baby’s In Black” on both Real Love and Live At The Hollywood Bowl are from the 8/30/1965 show, but Real Love uses John’s spoken intro from the 8/29/1965 show instead, which still makes it somewhat unique and worth having.

Also, I’ve always felt that Rubber Soul is woefully underrepresented here, with only three tracks from the period, and only two of them from the album itself… an album itself that was a major transition into spending more time in the studio. I hope a Super Deluxe Edition can finally right this wrong…

[barrygoodson]

Carnival of Lights should make at least one appearance on something before Paul is gone. It's been spoken of through the years as some great mystic piece. It would be nice to just hear it !

[vinylarchaeologist]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these in-depth videos. This is what Youtube was made for.

[uriwertheim]

acc is a short we use for acoustic guitars. thank you for another interesting vid

[IndigoDavei]

Great to hear how 'Real Love' was built up on the multitrack, and the story behind the presentation of some of the other tracks. I've never gone out of my way for bootlegs, on the whole, but I do have Sessions, and I can't help feeling that something closer to the concept of that might have been rewarded with more plays over the yesrs. Not that I'm complaining about Anthology - I lapped it up at the time.

[StJimmy]

I remember renting the cd for this at my local library of all places and couldn’t get enough it’s definitely my favorite of the anthologies

I wonder if they’d ever do a new vinyl release for all of them… what they did with the Escher demos was brilliant so I don’t see why they cant

[bookashkin]

I still have the Beatles Sessions LP. It was a real eye opener at the time. Top quality production, fine cover art too. The only thing missing from the bootleg were the labels on the disc itself. Ah, well.

[ldchappell]

I have all three Beatles Anthologies and part two is definitely my favorite. So many great tracks. _I'm Down, That Means A Lot, If You've Got Trouble, I'm Only Sleeping, Taxman, Strawberry Fields Forever, Only A Northern Song._ The list goes on.

[GBincProductions]

This is why I'm hoping for super deluxe release of Magical Mystery Tour/Yellow Submarine. That post-Pepper period has so much weird stuff in it. The May 4th jam sessions and things like Hey Liley, Liley Lo are things I really want to hear! Plus, where else are you supposed to put Carnival of Light? It's probably a bad bit of noise, but I think as long as they just stick it on there as a bonus track and don't make a big deal out of it, it should be fine.

[stevenorman]

Please do a video on the 'Love' album too, Andrew! In my opinion the most underrated official release from the Beatles catalogue. How they managed to mix 'Drive My Car', 'The Word' & 'What You're Doing' in to a seamless 3 minute track blows my mind to this day! Also for me it has the superior versions of 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite' & 'Lady Madonna' compared to the original releases :D

[johnsmith-cvlp]

Loving these videos.Great commentary without the arms flapping and facial dramatiztions of other channels .Fantastic amount of detail .

[seid]

It's still weird to know how much unused material there was, and that the possibility of an Alternate Anthology trilogy would be far from reality

[thebellaluna]

I am amazed at all the insturments used in the recording. Well-done! :)

[doodledangernoodle]

I'd honestly love to see you cover some Beatlegs now. There's a lot of really interesting stuff that often turns up on them.