Thanksgiving and the Beatles by Darren

Thanksgiving time, specifically the week leading up to Thanksgiving, puts me in my "Beatles head". Now, anyone who knows me, knows I am in my "Beatles head" year 'round! But when Thanksgiving week rolls around, the Beatles become an even closer companion. This all began eleven years ago...Thanksgiving week 1995...the week that "The Beatles Anthology" documentary debuted along with "Free As A Bird", the first new Beatles song in 25 years.

The buzz in 1995 was that the definitive Beatles history, "The Beatles Anthology", was coming and it would be a multi-faceted project: a video documentary, an archival audio portion on CD and, eventually, a book. The video documentary would come first to television in edited form and then, to video (VHS, then, eventually, DVD). The full length documentary would clock in at around ten hours...the Beatles telling their story themselves - setting the record straight. Even more significant was that Beatles fans would get their first official peek at the Beatles master tapes as tons of unreleased material from the vaults would be issued as the audio portion of the "Anthology project" - three double albums that would be released into 1996. But what was going to be the special aspect of the "Anthology project" was that new Beatles songs would be part of the experience. Yes, new Beatles songs!! There would be two new songs. There was almost three. Yes three. No, wait... only two! Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Paul McCartney, the "Threetles", gathered together with cassette demos of a few unreleased John Lennon songs ... and they created that Beatles magic. First in 1994, 25 years after Abbey Road, Paul, George and Ringo "completed" John's 1979 cassette demo of his song "Free As A Bird". Then in early 1995, the Threetles were back at it for a second go 'round with another of John's demos from 1979, "Real Love". (The third song never came to fruition.) George, Paul and Ringo working together again. As close as we could come to a reunion. Words can't describe...

Then came the Sunday before Thanksgiving, November 19, 1995. I remember the great anticipation. I remember the excitement and tension building. That night, ABC would broadcast the first part of the video documentary, culminating with the video of the first new song - "Free As A Bird". The significance grew for me when I heard the news on WINS that afternoon...the broadcast of the first new Beatles song in 25 years was a major news story!

I was five years old when the Beatles broke up (1970). I vaguely remember the Hey Jude compilation album and the final Beatles album Let It Be being released. I had the singles, but had faint memories of the Beatles final two hits - "The Long And Winding Road" and "Let It Be" - on the charts. I kind of remember being in the Palace Theater (in the Parkchester section of the Bronx) seeing the "Let It Be" movie with my mother. Now I was 30 years old and married almost one year and I was finally experiencing the Beatles...something new...as if they had reunited.

That night, I was riveted to the television as ABC (WABC, channel 7 in NYC) broadcast part one of "The Beatles Anthology". At shortly before 11:00PM, they would wrap up with "Free As A Bird". What would it sound like (I had never heard the bootleg of John's demo)? What would they sound like? What would John's 15 year old cassette demo sound like combined with professional, state of the art, 1994 overdubs? The anticipation was intense!

Needless to say, I was not disappointed at all. "Free As A Bird" was a magical masterpiece. I would need another massive blog entry to express my feelings about the song. Then, of course, there was the documentary! We can't forget that! The new interviews with Paul, George and Ringo. Seeing them together again. Unbelievable. The archival footage. Hearing John talk about the Beatles. And we were just getting started! That Tuesday, November 21, 1995, Capitol/Apple would release the first album, The Beatles Anthology 1, which would open with "Free As A Bird". The archival material on the album would chronicle the Beatles from the mid/late 1950s until 1964. The "Free As A Bird" single would soon follow. On Wednesday night, November 22 (Thanksgiving eve), ABC would broadcast part two of the documentary. Then, on Thanksgiving night (November 23, 1995), the third and final part would be broadcast. It was sad watching the end. The Beatles have broken up, good night! I remember that on that Thanksgiving day, a commercial rock radio station (I forget which one) was playing the entire Beatles song catalogue from A to Z all day. I loved when stations did that. They would do it from time to time. Unfortunately, nobody has done it since then. I also remember frustrating my wife by telling her that we HAD to leave her parents' house EARLY that day, cutting short our Thanksgiving visit, so that I'd be home in plenty of time for the final part of the Anthology! We had over an hour drive home and we had to deal with the L.I.E.!! I wasn't taking any chances!! We had to leave EARLY!!!

In 1996, the second new Beatles song, "Real Love", was revealed in March, just before my 31st birthday. It was included on the second anthology album, The Beatles Anthology 2, and issued as a single. Man, it was almost as good (maybe as good) as "Free As A Bird". By the fall, came the final album, The Beatles Anthology 3. (Then, of course, the entire ten hour documentary was released and later, the book.)

The "Anthology"/"Free As A Bird" experience from Thanksgiving 1995 has stayed with me and created this Beatles vibe that will always live within me (and without me!) when the Thanksgiving holiday arrives and Christmas is right around the corner.

Now it's eleven years after that "Beatles Thanksgiving". I'm 41. I have two beautiful children and my wife and I have been married almost twelve years (this Saturday, December 2, will make it twelve!). My Dad died three years ago this Wednesday. I've moved out of my beloved Bronx. But, I am still at WFUV!!! Some things never change! The "Beatles Thanksgiving" vibe, or that "Beatles head" I referred to earlier, was renewed this year when last Tuesday, November 21, 2006, the new Beatles album Love was released...yup, during Thanksgiving week!


Darren DeVivo
11/27-28/06