It was thirty years ago this November that the Beatles finally delivered their long-gestating archival project Anthology. The multi-media venture had its origins in The Long and Winding Road, a feature-length documentary instigated by Beatle confidant Neil Aspinall immediately after the band’s breakup in 1970. Over the next quarter-century, The Long and Winding Road mutated into Anthology, which spanned a multi-part television documentary, three compilations of unreleased recordings, and a book, all intended to be the final word from the Beatles on their own story.
In either its video or audio incarnation, Anthology provided a wealth of rarities, but the two formats had different goals: the documentary targeted a wide audience, while the albums were aimed at hardcore fans, the kind of listener who was eager to hear evidence of the band’s earliest days when the John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison were playing as the Quarrymen.