The Beatles fans were full of praise for a remastering of Free as a Bird, which will feature on the upcoming Anthology 4 release.
An announcement earlier today (August 21) confirmed the release of a fourth instalment to The Beatles‘ Anthology package. The previous three releases featured unreleased songs and alternative takes to some of the band’s best-loved tracks. Free as a Bird, one of the original songs to come from the sessions, was released around the same time as the initial Anthology package. A remastered version has since been released and received plenty of praise from fans of the Fab Four. Some have suggested the vocal scrubbing of John Lennon‘s tape offers some new insight into the “nuance” of his lyrics and delivery.
A post to the r/Beatles subreddit had fans share their thoughts on the recently released song. Anthology 4 will release on November 21, with an extra episode of the television programme, Anthology, confirmed for release on November 26. A leak of the song yesterday had fans listening in advance of release, but they all noted the stronger audio quality and cleaner sound of Free as a Bird.
One fan wrote: “It’s so interesting hearing John’s audio track cleared up, there’s a lot of little nuances to his vocals that I never noticed before.” Another agreed, adding: “I don’t think the audio quality is worse; it’s that it’s been cleaned up to the point the original weakness of John’s demo vocal is more exposed.
“(To be fair, this was a tape for his personal use and he wasn’t expecting to be shot to death by a psycho a couple of years later.)” A third shared: “It sounds much more intimate now. I feel like I’m in a very private moment, which, if you think about it, it really is. This is special because we hear a polished take of something that was never meant to be a polished take.
“It was a scratchpad of an idea, never intending to be anything of significance yet. What is interesting about this is the point in time the original creative contribution was so suddenly abandoned, and the ensuing avalanche of production built around it spans an atypical amount of time. Not only is it band group art…but group art from different eras.”
Not everyone agreed with the new mix merits, though, as a handful of detractors suggested it was just “louder”, rather than better quality. One wrote: “It doesn’t sound that clear to me to be honest. It’s definitely louder and more noticeable, but the audio quality still sounds rough. I genuinely don’t think it sounds much better. His voice is just louder now.”
Another added: “Admittedly, I think I prefer the more distorted vocals on the ’95 mix. There’s a ghostly quality which sounds like John is singing to us from beyond.” A third agreed, writing: “As much as I love both, that is a beautiful way to put it. I’m so used to the distortedness it almost doesn’t sound right.”
Some users have since suggested the vocals are a little too “clean” to work. One wrote: “While it’s cool to hear the vocal clean, I don’t like that they have kept it so dry. Lennon rarely had his vocals without an echo or ADT. Or they could have had the other guys double-tracking the lines like it does in the last verse. That part sounded better to me.”
Another agreed, adding: “This is exactly what I thought. Lennon would have hated his voice that dry. They should have put something on it to help fill out what was a scratch take in a demo. This feels more like a demonstration of the track separation and cleaning technology than an actual attempt at a good mix. Maybe they’ll get it better in fifteen years for the 50th Anniversary release.”
A box set for all four Anthology editions will be released, with the 191-song set including Fee as a Bird, Real Love, and Now and Then. Also featured are rooftop performances of Don’t Let Me Down, a strings-only version of Something and a rehearsal of Octopus’s Garden.
