If you are a Beatles fan you would want to check out a two hour feature at NPR with newly-found studio recordings of the fab four. It is a chronicle of the last few weeks of the seminal band at the end of the 60's including a recording of the very last time they played togther. As we all know, they split up and never played together again. With two of the members gone, all hopes that we once cherished of their reunion, are dashed. We have to comfort ourselves with heretofore unknown recordings and, apparently, there are hundereds of hours of such tapes.
There are several things that this program makes apparent:
- they had talent but were not gods; they at times sound just as bad as the neighborhood garage band.
- they had fun despite the constant tension between the members.
- the songs evelved over long periods of time. There are raw uncut gems that could have easily ended up in the wastebasket but were refined over time into slick songs.
- producers do have an effect on the final output. Unlike the over-produced pap that comes through on top-ten radio, the band and the other elements downstream have a symbiotic relationship.
8:33:08 AM 
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