Come Together With The Fab Four Beatles Special Hits And Misses, But Music Remains Irrestible

Sure, there are some nits to pick in “The Beatles Anthology,” which begins tonight at 9 on KXLYChannel 4 and continues Wednesday and Thursday.

We spend too much time with the Marahishi. We see too much of the already overexposed “Let It Be” sessions. Some of the documentary techniques are laughable.

Yet still I found “The Beatles Anthology” irresistible.

After seeing an advance copy of all three episodes, I found it to be an enlightening account of an extraordinary partnership. Those who followed the Beatles since 1964 will be impressed by the amount of new material; those who did not may find it a handy guide to understanding what all the fuss was about.

This documentary thankfully concentrates on the music. We hear (and see) many entire songs being performed, including “Twist and Shout,” “She Loves You,” “All You Need Is Love,” “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be.”

The downside is that we also hear entire songs that make the documentary fairly plod, such as “The Long and Winding Road.” At least this version is stripped of Phil Spector’s suffocating strings.

The three surviving Beatles seem relaxed and at ease in their interviews. One surprise for me: George Harrison is the most articulate.

The high points come in the rarely seen or never before seen performance footage. We see the early Beatles playing the Cavern Club; we see them attempting to hear themselves play at the height of Beatlemania; we see John Lennon going fairly berserk on the piano during a rendition of “I’m Down” at Shea Stadium.

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