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9.03pm
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18 February 2013
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Is it vintage Beatles? Probably not. But I’ve always enjoyed it as a song, even if it is ‘sacrilage’, as some people would have it.
Likewise Real Love .
10.23pm
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20 August 2013
Offline Freezerbird. Ha!
(see Joe’s post #3 above)
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4.54am
17 January 2014
Offline I was 5 when released so was not listening. But I think it was done well with what they were working with. I think would of been done better with George Martin, I believe George demanded Jeff Lynne to gain more creative input. I think Real Love would of been a hit for John and that the song sounded great. It has more of a natural feel since they just had to over dub once the noise and hiss was reduced. It has classic Beatles style all over it.
12.32pm
19 April 2010
Offline I was alive when Free As A Bird came out – I’d been a Beatles Fan since 1964 – I was very excited when I heard what Paul, George and Ringo were doing UNTIL I learned that Jeff Lynne was producing – I know his sound and never liked it – and Free As A Bird sounds more like a Jeff Lynne record than a Beatles song or a John Lennon song.
I know some will disagree but he ruined it – in my opinion – they should have insisted on using George Martin – somehow he and his son were able to do Beatles LOVE album – so it wasn’t his hearing that was the true obstacle .
And so frankly, I can’t stand to hear it. From the very first notes I thought “Ugh, it’s ELO.”
"She looks more like him than I do."
3.08pm
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1 May 2011
Offline I was dead excited back when the news was announced and can remember watching the 30 minute ITV special which premièred the video in the UK (i never heard the Radio One broadcast) with my family. A while later ITV also broadcast the Real Love video in a 5 minute slot which we also watched together. I have newspaper clippings from the Anthology era in scrapbooks and in shoe boxes stored a cupboard; it was just incredible how it was everywhere, every newspaper you opened had an article on The Beatles and the upcoming documentary. You could also go into a store every week and find a new special Beatles magazine with unseen pictures – of course they weren’t but you only found that out after buying it.
I really liked the song at the time, heck it was the Beatles and i was a mad young fan so i was always going to love it – actually preferred it to Real Love . Just after that Christmas we went away on a family vacation to somewhere in England (
) and i got the CD single in some shop (had bought the cassette when it came out) and we played it over and over in the car.
But then about 3 or 4 years later i heard a fan mix on Anthology Plus that stripped so much of the song away and it was gorgeous with the focus being on the harmonies and that became the go-to version for me. Now i rarely play it as John’s vocal is so yucky and i dislike the production. Its ok but should forever remain contained within the Anthology series – a footnote in their history.
For Real Love the demo on the Lennon Anthology (different demo to the one Yoko donated) is so much better than what the Beatles name is attached to.
Truth be told i hardly ever play either.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
8.55pm
10 February 2013
Offline I remember seeing the video premiere at the end the Anthology here in the states. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t released on radio until after the video debut. I’m not sure I would’ve loved it as I do without that video. Pretty sure I teared up the first time I saw it (as I still do sometimes, sap that I am).
I agree with Robert above that Jeff Lynne’s production is horrible. I like the production sound of early ELO records but by the early 80s, Lynne was using that horrible snare drum sound that infects everything he produces.
Also agree that George Martin should have done it, no matter what the state of his hearing at the time. 
10.31pm
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29 August 2013
Offline Father McCartney said
Is it vintage Beatles? Probably not. But I’ve always enjoyed it as a song, even if it is ‘sacrilage’, as some people would have it.Likewise Real Love .
Same here – and as noted on other posts I don’t mind the production either; and I have real love for the video 
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3.13pm
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20 August 2013
Offline Free As A Bird
It’s the next best thing to be
So what’s the best thing to be?
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3.40pm
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1 May 2011
Offline A bird?
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
5.17pm
1 November 2013
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6.06pm
10 August 2011
Offline A Beatle?
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7.39pm
2 June 2014
Offline Listening to them for the first time ?
9.39pm
22 December 2013
Offline Ahhh Girl said
Free As A Bird
It’s the next best thing to beSo what’s the best thing to be?
It was said by many who knew John earlier on (Cynthia’s one who comes immediate to mind) that John was always on the look out for the ‘Next Big Thing’ in Life (Rock ‘N’ Roll , Drugs, Maharishi, etc.) and going by the timeframe of this song’s conception, the ‘Next Big Thing’ or “next best thing” was to be “free” of the chains that had held him down for so long with life as a Beatle, the “next” lyric didn’t mean “second place” to something else but rather to be “just around the corner”. John was getting ready to step out over a cliff and take flight for the first time in his life, becoming just “John” as opposed to “Beatle John”, he was finding himself during the Dakota Years…:-)
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20 August 2013
Offline Oh, my, thank you, @Billy Rhythm! Very interesting. That thought goes well with a thought that is formulating in my mind. I just have to find the right thread for it.
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12.03am
28 March 2014
Offline They are both good songs, but that is all. Nothing more, nothing less.
Perhaps I’m thankful they didn’t do a whole lot of lost Lennon songs, or maybe a little disappointed that there could have been some more Gems out there.
I’m actually a little surprised Yoko didn’t give some songs to her son to record instead to help his career. 
BEATLES Music gives me Eargasms! 
2.03am
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1 May 2011
Offline So John wrote and recorded a song about, at least partly, finally escaping from the Beatles and getting the freedom of life without that millstone weighing him down only for it to become the first new ‘Beatles’ track for 25 years?!!!
F*****g hell!! If thats so what chance did they have to ever actually get free because its not going to happen for Ringo or Paul now?
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8.19pm
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14 April 2010
Offline Wow – great explanation Billy Rhythm. Makes complete sense.
To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.
10.38pm
28 March 2014
Offline meanmistermustard said
So John wrote and recorded a song about, at least partly, finally escaping from the Beatles and getting the freedom of life without that millstone weighing him down only for it to become the first new ‘Beatles’ track for 25 years?!!!F*****g hell!! If thats so what chance did they have to ever actually get free because its not going to happen for Ringo or Paul now?
There’s gotta be a great unreleased Ringo song waiting for Paul down the road….. 
BEATLES Music gives me Eargasms!
11.18pm
21 November 2012
Offline meanmistermustard said
So John wrote and recorded a song about, at least partly, finally escaping from the Beatles and getting the freedom of life without that millstone weighing him down only for it to become the first new ‘Beatles’ track for 25 years?!!!F*****g hell!! If thats so what chance did they have to ever actually get free because its not going to happen for Ringo or Paul now?
Well, once a Beatle, always a Beatle.
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14 April 2010
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So true. Post-Beatles, Paul has surpassed his Beatles song output by a ton. To me, he’s still a Beatle. They all are.
To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.
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