"Free As a Bird" and "Real Love"

[mervap]

I was watching the "Beatles Anthology" recently and the video for "Free As a Bird" rounds out the last disc...I've gotten the impression from lots of Beatles fans that this song and the other 'new' single, "Real Love", was not very well received. Most of us know how these songs were done...and I'll certainly concede that these tunes are not really 'Beatles' tunes, but I cannot escape the fact that I really do enjoy them both. The 'George' section on "Free As a Bird" still can make my eyes sweat and the harmonies behind his solo are very.....well.....Beatlesque. Taken as a whole, I still feel these two tunes are worth listening to....it's sad, though, that they never got an opportunity to try them as a whole group.

[EddieV]

In a way I still can´t believe that they actually were together and recorded together. I really think they worked hard. I love Real Love. To me it is the isthe definitive Beatles song and video with the song always makes sad and nearly into tears.

[2 of 3]

Yes, I like Real Love better than Free As A Bird....and I guess I'm one of those Beatle fans that was disappointed in the final product. I think it's because it sounds more like a solo record that the Beatles. Could it be Jeff Lynn's production? Did Ringo's drums really sound like that in the Beatles? Actually, they sound like the drums in The ballad of John and Yoko....and that was Paul. I mean, the songs are nicely done, but...I don't know.....maybe George Martin would have had a better idea. I think Jeff tried to hard to make it sound like....The Beatles....or his vison of the Beatles...which would be...ELO.

[mervap]

I feel that the main issue that Jeff Lynne, or any producer, would have to deal with is the poor condition of the source tape. Anyone who's done any recording can tell you that your sound is only as good as your lowest quality track...that's what everyone will hear and it will stick out. John's demo was a mono cassette recording made with the recorder sitting on the piano I understand...not a recipe for a high fidelity...it was only a demo, after all. Trying to make that track sound 'right' had to be a major issue. Dang that Chapman guy!

[chris]

never really cared for free as a bird. it may have been all of the hype surrounding the release of the song. then it came on..at the end of anthology, if memory serves...and i thought...it sounds like john was singing under water. the band (?) did an okay job, but i view it as unreleasable.

real love, however, was a much better song. great harmonies. as a piece of nostalgia...its just fine. but i have never really considered it a beatle song.

and...while i never was a real fan of jeff lynn's production values, i think he did a fine job on the two new releases...as well as paul's very fine flaming pie. neither offered the elo sound i was afraid it would. 

[2 of 3]

neither offered the elo sound i was afraid it would. 

Really?....hmmm...that's all I hear. Now that's not a bad thing, I like ELO...but he even made Tom Petty sound like ELO.

[Kylenz]

I too think Real Love was a cracker of a recording - up there with the best of The Beatles's work. Free As A Bird was just a little too slow in the tempo department. It needed to be slightly faster. They needed George Martin cracking the whip like when they did Please Please Me as a slow Roy Orbison howl, and GM got them to quicken the tempo and make it into the catchy breakthrough smash hit that it was (their first number one).

I also think they were a little lazy with cleaning up John's old tapes. Maybe the technology is much better here in 2007 than in 1994 but you can hear the crackle of the tape all too clearly. I thought John recorded a proper studio version of Real Love (it was on the Imagine film soundtrack)? Why didn't they use the original vocal track from that? Surely it makes sense to use tapes of a higher sound quality?

[Paperback Writer]

I like both, well enough, it's not prime A+ single material, but certainly  top album tracks on a Beatle album.   They are what they are - a sparse demo tape of John and three Beatles - who haven't recorded in umpteenth years - making it a real good record.

I'll gladly take as many of those that I can get!  (Maybe there is only that one left)

[lampie1970]

I liked em too...

...that that's all i have to say about that 

[RickStark79]

I like Real Love.  I love Free As A Bird.  Paul and George's vocal contributions to Free add just enough to the song to put it over the top for me.  Gret chord progressions!!   

[Kylenz]

Agree Rick. It's Paul and George's vocal contributions that make the song for me. Along with the chords. All in all, the gang did a good job.

[PaulieBear]

I was watching the "Beatles Anthology" recently and the video for "Free As a Bird" rounds out the last disc...I've gotten the impression from lots of Beatles fans that this song and the other 'new' single, "Real Love", was not very well received. Most of us know how these songs were done...and I'll certainly concede that these tunes are not really 'Beatles' tunes, but I cannot escape the fact that I really do enjoy them both. The 'George' section on "Free As a Bird" still can make my eyes sweat and the harmonies behind his solo are very.....well.....Beatlesque. Taken as a whole, I still feel these two tunes are worth listening to....it's sad, though, that they never got an opportunity to try them as a whole group.

I AM SO JEALOUS OF YOU. you have Beatles Anthology!!! :flamingmad:lol

[MeanMrMustard]

I agree. When I first heard these tracks for the first time (back in November, '95 when I saw Anthology first broadcast on ABC TV in the States) I was astounded how well Jeff Lynne restored John's old analog home-made tapes and incorporated them into re-layered polished works w/ Macca, George & Ringo. I never fail to get a little emotional when I hear them even now(especially FAAB) because of the beauty of the melodies and the haunting aspect of John's conspicuous absence. I'm hard-pressed to find a more eloquent (and searing) Harrison guitar solo than that found in Free As A Bird (the closest comparison that comes to mind is the excruciatingly perfect bit in "Old Brown Shoe")

kudos to Lynne & co. (it's no wonder ELO was so great w/ such a brilliant frontman)

-MMM

[MeanMrMustard]

Dang that Chapman guy!

at the risk of appearing vulgar, I personally would've used a stronger word than "dang", regarding the villanous Mark David Chapman..but I wont because I respect this site and it's members too much..but you get my drift.
sorry, I know..off-topic.
(we all obviously feel strongly about the whole Chapman subject and the achingly painful events of 12/8/80, but I have even a more painful connection to it being from NYC myself. I was in Grad school at the time--just a few miles away--when I heard about John's unthinkable demise (I wont say "untimely" because that trivializes it) So you can imagine how incredibly aweful it is to know that one of your truest life-time heroes was murdered in your own home town....this trauma is permanent. Sorry guys, just had to interject this when I read the name "Chapman"....
If he ever gets out of Attica, I dont think he'll live very long---I know many ppl that mean him harm--I tell them frequently to forget such notions...it goes against everything Lennon himself would've wanted)

-MMM

[Lennon]

I don't know what they were thinking doing "Free as a Bird"- I thought they did a terrible job on it.  It drags like hell, the tempo is torture.  Not only that, they use Lennon's middle-eight of "Whatever happened to..." when they had the opportunity to write something new there and didn't (Lennon's part is cut out)- the whole thing is a mess- Harrison's slide guitar adds nothing to it- they really had lost their magic.  It was not greeted as anything great or special.  It's not John's fault, though, it's the 3 Beatles- they did an uninspired routine job.

Now "Real Love" is a great song and they did a much better job- the thing is, people had soured on them because of "Free as a Bird" so "Real Love" didn't get the chance it should have.  This is a great song but Yoko has sort of incorporated it into John's solo output- she names a lot of his stuff "Real Love" so that has created sort of a schism about it but it's a great song nevertheless.