The Beatles – Live At The Hollywood Bowl

Given the technical limitations of the original recordings, this remixed and remastered version is more than acceptable. It takes its place with the other live recordings of the Beatles from the early years - a mixed bag of audio quality to say the least. A real plus for me is the clarity of the vocal performances, while it was clearly a struggle at times for the boys to hear themselves, the remix has given their voices a strong presence that sit atop the instrumental performances nicely, sounding fresh and clear. This collection may not have them playing at their best or or even their most tuneful, but there is a lot of energy, pace and excitement in the performances - She Loves You here perfectly encapsulates the thrill of Beatlemania with a great performance accompanied by a wall of screaming. My vinyl copy is quiet, weighty, and the packaging decent enough, though the older I get my ability to read extensive liner notes in tiny fonts on these releases diminishes!

How does one rate an album like this? The music is, well great, It's the Beatles Live! :) The recording is not good though, '64/'65 what do we expect? So, the sound quality is not a 5 or a 4 but more like a 2 or 3. Though, I can't give this a 2 or a 3 as it is maybe as good as it gets without totally AIing the crap out of the music. So, the question is, how does one truly rate it?

I gave it a 4. Can't be a 5 but, I can't do a 3 as, well, it's Live Beatles! :)

A nice piece of Beatles history with a lo-fi source recording. The highlight is the 4 bonus tracks that have a significant sound improvement. If only there were more songs from that same source.

I *much* prefer the original '77 mix. Bass is a lot more defined, and the stereo mix just feels a bit more organic. Things are very separate in this 2016 version, which is a bit offputting for me at least. Nice to have some new tracks though, but even these feel strange to tack on at the end and not have them intertwined in the main 'feature'.

I don’t have the 1977 version to compare to, but I can just say that I thoroughly enjoyed the listen. The energy and performance is incredible. In of pressing, vinyl is dead quiet and music is nice & punchy!

Nice pressing of a good recording of a dynamite performance by a live band at their peak. The boys are on fire blowing through their set, showcasing how good of a live band they were. The new mix with the reduced crowd noise goes a long way to make it much more listenable.

Listening back to back from the 77 to this one, ( both on vinyl) I thought the sound just slightly thinner but then it grew on me .. nice, quite sound floor and I’m actually amazed how good both recordings sound .. but you can’t beat the bonus tracks ..

I was interested to find out how this newly remastered/remixed version sounded. I wondered how a three track tape full of 17,000 screaming girls and an inadequately amplified Fab Four could be improved upon. I liked the original 1977 release a lot, it really gave you a sense of how crazy those US concerts were. So I purchased it, despite the hideous cover. I settled down, poured a glass of wine and dropped the needle. I was greeted by a cacophony of screaming girls, just like the original, then the introduction, just like the original, then straight into ‘Twist and shout’, just like the original! For a brief moment I thought I had actually put on my original copy. But no, there was that hideous cover staring back at me.
I continued to listen to the whole album. So how can I review this? It sounds like a recording from a three track tape full of 17,000 screaming girls and an inadequately amplified Fab Four. Or to put it another way, it sounds exactly the same as the original release. I don’t quite know what I was expecting, but I suppose I did expect to notice some kind of sonic improvement. The only noticeable difference were the four bonus tracks.
I am going to keep this, purely because of the additional songs. I love it, of course I love it, it’s The Beatles!

This LP sounds a lot better that the 1977 original. Newer technology has made this record sound like a high quality live record. Highly recommended.