The Beatles Years

When the Beatles burst onto the pop scene in 1962, they not only took the music world by storm but they also brought with them a counter culture that was to have far-reaching effects. With their long hair, humour and irreverent attitude towards authority, they were a breath of fresh air to a generation who had grown weary of the greyness of the post-war years.

The Beatles So much has been said and written about the Beatles – and their story is so mythic in its sweep – that it's difficult to summarize their career without restating clichés that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans. To start with the obvious, they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era, and they introduced more innovations into popular music than any other group of their time. Moreover, they were among the few artists of any discipline who were simultaneously the best at what they did and the most popular at what they did. Relentlessly imaginative and experimental, the Beatles grabbed hold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and didn't let go for the next six years, always staying ahead of the pack in terms of creativity and never losing the ability to communicate their increasingly sophisticated ideas to a mass audience.

The Alf Bicknell Tapes gathers various Beatles tapes that had been discussed over the years and in fact had been released before in a number of ways. Bicknell was The Beatles' personal limo driver between 1964-1966, so he was able to witness the stardom and adventures John, Paul, George, and Richie had at the height of worldwide Beatlemania. In the 1980's, it was revealed he had some rare Beatles recordings and put them up for action. He had hoped to gain a good amount of money but ended up not getting as much as expected. Some of these tapes are personal demos, some of these are partial demo sessions, a few are of unknown origin but they have become a part of The Beatles' recorded legacy. The quality of each is mixed but as the saying goes, "it is what it is". This is done by the Remasters Workshop in 2010.

Rarer Than Rare was a bootleg album by The Beatles, released in 1978. This is taken from a compact disc version released by the Bootleg/White Knight label in 2001, remastered by Remasters Workshop.