Plenty of people have a real love for The Beatles, and their track Real Love, a sudden and stunning release from those near-endless backlogs, is a pleasant surprise. One of the three post-John Lennon death tracks that attempt to claw at The Beatles as a longstanding project. It is as though the remaining three of the Fab Four feared fading away despite their achievements elsewhere. Paul McCartney had stunned with two major groups and enjoyed a bountiful solo career, as did George Harrison. Ringo Starr also had albums of his own. Only a handful of those efforts match the peak qualities of The Beatles – and while the trio had returned to their works with the infamous band from time to time, Real Love stands out, especially after the release of Now and Then.
Preserving the feel of The Beatles is as necessary as it is impressive for Real Love, a track which maintains an absolute and steady course of fitting instrumentals. It holds firm and brings out the Fab Four at their best, far better than Free As A Bird and on par with Now and Then. Grand and Georgian introductions bring Real Love back to the perceived glory days of The Beatles. When it was all rosy and experimental and a few too many alleged drugs were making the rounds and leaving their influence. Using a sixth take from Lennon who recorded the track before his death and retrofitting it to be a Beatles single is a bold move but brings about the Beatles Anthology project nicely. It is the single that was never meant to be.
Broadly believed to have been a possible feature on Double Fantasy, the track never came to be, and it would be another fifteen years before its proper release. By that time, Harrison had added an exceptional, Eric Clapton-like guitar riff underneath, Starr had brought in some necessary percussion and McCartney, the beating heart of the track, brought in a new instrumentation. His rhythm and bass, barely heard, would surely be missed had they not squared up the track and tidied all the odd bits and ends. Real Love is delicate and captures The Beatles in all their sporadic glory – it manages to maintain a tone which sees the track sidle up to the best of the bunch and fit in naturally, unlike Free As A Bird, a sentimentally ropey track stuffed full of promise.
Pairing it with Baby’s In Black is an initially puzzling double bill but it fits the piece neatly. A B-Side is always needed and the Beatles for Sale number settles in nicely. Harmonies of this nature are likely to bulk up McCartney, whose influence can be felt on Real Love but instrumentals are barely awake. Instead, the high octaves he hits on the classic Beatles For Sale track make up for what he, and others, may perceive as a lacking collaboration. It is nothing of the sort though – Real Love is a real track showcasing the adoration The Beatles had for Lennon. His writing is as strong as expected, it is Lennon after all – but it is still stunning to hear a piece from Lennon, written alone, adapted to The Beatles’ discography.
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