beatlegdb.com

UPDATE: the poll decided helpfully to reset itself, so if you preciously voted can you do so again)

Casting my gaze over this wonderful forum, I am struck by the sheer range of interests of our members.

I don't think it's much of an exaggeration to say that this place attracts the hardest of hardcore fans, those like myself for whom a daily ingestion of Beatles in some form or other is a given. But it also seems to attract those who are sick of what they've been stuck with and are looking for more. When you get down to it, the Fabs only recorded about 10 hours worth of music. Some of the finest pop music ever, but still only enough to fill a morning and afternoon if you played all the records back to back. So there's got to be more to it, or anyone in their right mind is going to lose interest eventually.

I can remember in the 2000s (noughties) my interest diminished to an all time low because there didn't seem to be any new Beatlegs that interested me (I passed on Day By Day) and Apple seemed to have given up the ghost. The old bootlegs had kept my passion alive throughout the 80s and 90s but by then I was growing weary even of those. You can only listen to the same thing so many times.

These days, we're lucky in that there is so much post-1970 material to keep our interest from flagging. For me personally it is the discovery of new audio recordings and upgrades that drives me and keeps the fire burning. But what about you? Is it the solo releases that keep you going, or the yearly offerings from Apple? Is it the hope of a Let It Be bluray sometime this century? Or is it the many remixes both official and unnofficial?

Let's do a Census and get a good picture of what is actually going on out there. Above you will find seven carefully chosen options from which you can choose a maximum of two. I've limited it to that to stop people getting wishy washy. State your obsession proudly!

"For me personally it is the discovery of new audio recordings and upgrades that drives me and keeps the fire burning"
That's exactly what it is all about!

Whatever is new or an upgrade of what we already had is what keeps my interest in The Beatles alive.

And of course it's the best band in the world!

The sheer anticipation at what might surface

What keeps my interest alive are the interesting material they share from the hmc pear entertainment misterclaudel valkyrie dap labels, in addition to the unique and interesting works of Lord Reith, unique contributions of unseen material Clif, in short there are many nice people in this forum who make May Beatlemania still live, a hug for everyone from Bolivia

Their exisitng output would be enough to keep my interest up forever, I mean they evolved at an incredible pace and covered so many musical styles. Although I have my favourites it's great when someone else plays a track I haven't played in a while, so often I'll think to myself you should play that more often.

When 'new' stuff surfaces it's great but the high doesn't last that long and my addiction soon makes me start to crave for the next fix!

I discovered Beatles bootlegs in 1993, a few years after reading (and wondering) about the Beatles' outtakes in Mark Lewisohn's 'Complete Recording Sessions'. What got me hooked was trying to figure out the date and provenance of each track on the various bootlegs I could lay my hand on (so as not buy the same thing twice, which proved to be a quixotic task anyway), especially since there was very little reliable info at the time.

In 1999, I launched my first website, www.beatlesarchives.com, where I strove to catalogue all available recordings, including solo stuff, using Doug Sulpy and Chip Madinger's (and, eventually, John Winn's and Scott Raile's) invaluable research. In the spring of 2000, while trying to make sense of my burgeoning video collection, I followed suit with www.beatlesondvd.com, and that kept me busy for the better part of a decade, as I nearly gave up on my audio collection, due to Beatle (bootleg audio) fatigue.

Then, in the early 2010s, I really dug deep into their interviews after stumbling upon John Winn's blog.

Nowadays, I enjoy listening to meticulously researched audio compilations, such as Lord Reith's, MasterJedi's, CSNYFan's, and iPango's, and I sometimes worry I find way too much joy in getting rid of obsolete files from earlier collections, or finding the right date for the occasional misplaced file (such as in the otherwise fantastic 'Some Old Interviews' project)!

I very much enjoyed several top-notch Beatles-related documentaries of the 2010s and early 2020s, including 'Living in the Material World,' 'Above Us Only Sky,' and 'Get Back,' and I love to watch AdamBound's carefully restored compilations or new finds by BeatlesOnFilm.

Some outstanding research-driven Beatles books have also been published in the last decade, including 'Tune In,' of course; the first (and hopefully not final) volume of 'Lennonology'; and 'The McCartney Legacy'.

Tomorrow never knows, as they say, but at 53, I doubt I'll ever tire of the Beatles (although I've all but stopped listening to Paul and Ringo's output since the early 2010s). Conversely, although I'd happily pored over, and *transcribed*, every single available Macca concert recording from 1972 through 2009, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy now. What did it for me, I think, was transcribing the endless minute variations in Paul's 'masseuse' story on his Back in the U.S. tour. My friends and family should probably have staged an intervention then.

The Beatles are still part of my daily life, but they've sort of taken a backseat and I can now find the time to do other vaguely interesting stuff, like raising a son and working on the other important relationships in my life.

Any unreleased material always keeps me interested. The SDE's were right up my alley. I also like the remixes, more specifically, the Atmos mixes in Spatial Audio. New sounds and refreshed sounds. I would also add books, and a general fascination with foreign releases.

What’s kept me interested is a hunt for new footage - I’ve been trying to find people who shot 8mm at Beatles shows and it’s slowly starting to pay off!

It´s a complex matter, that perhaps could be said in short with the word "love".

Part of what keeps love going is when it has real substance, and the Beatles legacy certainly does.

There´s also something maybe less romantic too, because I´m just to far on this road. It´s open to other roads and has became so complex and with so many new promises... I always have the feeling that, on one side, I´ve gone too deep, but, on the other, I´m just beginning.