The writer reflects on how a teenage obsession with the Beatles helped spark a lifelong career in history. Before the internet, researching the band became a gateway into understanding the wider world of the 1960s, from fashion and politics to global conflicts and counterculture. This personal journey shows how the Beatles’ influence extended far beyond music.
The original Beatles Anthology, released in 1995 as a three-album set and documentary series, was a major event for fans. Now, an updated edition has appeared, featuring a fourth CD filled with previously unheard material. For devotees of the group, hearing early versions of famous songs is always exciting.
Still, the author notes that true collectors have already had access to much of this music through unofficial bootlegs. What remains hard to find, even today, are some of the Beatles’ films. Despite the band’s massive legacy, certain movies are strangely inaccessible.
The writer recalls the thrill of hearing that the BBC would air all the Beatles films during Christmas 1979, a rare opportunity at the time. Ironically, as critics now speak of “barrel-scraping” in terms of new Beatles releases, several of these classic films have become harder to view rather than easier.
There has been some progress in the last decade. A Hard Day’s Night (1964) was restored and brought back to cinemas in 2014, and it now streams on the BFI platform. Meanwhile, Let It Be (1970) received a high-profile restoration for Disney+ in 2024, handled by director Peter Jackson, who previously assembled the acclaimed Get Back documentary from unused footage of the band’s final sessions.
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