Elly Roberts reviews
The Beatles: LOVE
Distributed by
Apple Corps Ltd./EMI Music
- Released: November 2006
- Rating: 10/10+
All you need is LOVE to make your Beatles collection complete.
Week commencing December 3rd it was at No.5 after two weeks on chart.
Endorsed by surviving members Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and widows of
George Harrison and John Lennon, legendary Fab Four producer George Martin
was commissioned to re-work their back-catalogue for Cirque du Soleil.
If proof was ever needed that Martin is the greatest producer of all time –
then this is it. Tampering with the past can be dodgy business, but it has to
be said that this is UNBELIEVABLE. Co-produced with son Giles Martin, they’ve
effectively dusted down the originals and perfectly made them adaptable for
the Las Vegas show.
Some might say it’s just a mash-up of originals which it is; nevertheless the
overall work is another masterstroke by the Martins. Having seen a production
by Cirque du Soleil in Manchester, I can see exactly how it would fit their
magnificent artistic creations.
Choosing songs principally from their hippy period, including hit song and
album tracks they elected to ignore most of their early period except I Want
To Hold Your Hand (’63) Help! (’65).
Opening with the a capella Because (featured in the flick American
Beauty) it lays the perfect template for Cirque to lead into a thumping
Get Back with its misleading Help! intro which thrusts into a
belting 1 minute 20 seconds of Glass Onion followed by Martin’s
sensitive and emotion drenched string prefix of Eleanor Rigby.
I Am The Walrus is typical Lennon at his best…’Cookoo cactchoo’ to
perfection which is something CdS will have a ball with.
Neatly dropped in, is I Want To Hold Your Hand complete with dubbed
hysterical fans. Further in, the lead to Something, a reversed
Sun King – Gnik Nus – is yet another clever bit of fiddling, bringing
the Harrison classic to greater heights than the original. Bursting out of
the drippy – hippy splash is Help! as it goes out to remind us of the
swinging '60s.
By now you’re sure to be tingling with emotion – as I am right now. A pinch
of Blackbird fuses into Yesterday. Then it’s back to the ‘Summer
Of Love’ as Strawberry Fields Forever takes us all retro as does the
psychedelic Lucy In The Sky with Lennon doing some deft vocal dexterity.
The hand-clapping intro to Lady Madonna is magnificent as The Fab Four
go Ba Ba Ba Ba, clunk click … Lady Madonna. Haunting tabla sequences bring new
life to Here Comes The Sun, one of their most memorable songs ever,
segued by the funky stripped pub rocker Come Together that eventually flows
into rasping rockers Revolution and Back In The USSR.
Following the blistering crescendos, it goes downbeat – Harrison’s
While My Guitar, A Day In The Life (voted best Beatles song ever)
and anthemic Hey Jude with Macca singing out of his skin. Closing,
there’s the seamless join of St.Pepper’s, going right into hippy anthem
All You Need Is Love leaving us in awe at its wonder.
Ok, so we’ve heard it all before , but not quite like this.
Next stop – Las Vegas !
The full list of tracks included are :
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
