“Being right there in the inner sanctum and hanging out with them for a few weeks was fantastic. Although a long time passed since they last recorded as one unit, they worked terribly well together, and being in the control room watching and listening to them interact with each other was fascinating. I’d often have cause to think, ‘Christ, no wonder they were the best.’ But I always thought they were the greatest anyway.
They’re still great musicians and great singers. Paul and George would strike up the backing vocals – and all of a sudden it’s The Beatles again! To be there in the middle of all this and have a degree of responsibility over the result was astonishing. It wasn’t some kind of fake version, it really was the real thing. They were having fun with each other and reminding each other of the old times. I’d be waiting to record and normally I’d say, ‘OK, Let’s do a take’, but I was too busy laughing and smiling at everything they were talking about.”
Jeff Lynne talking about being a bit overwhelmed by being in the studio recording with Paul, George and Ringo
Source: Sound On Sound, December 1995
Robbie’s Commentary
FREE AS A BIRD was recorded by Paul ,George and Ringo based on a demo of Johns seventeen years after he recorded it in New York and was released as the lead single from the Anthology project
The tape had been given to Paul by Yoko at John’s posthumous induction into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame
Paul asked Yoko not to impose too many conditions on them, because spiritually it was really difficult for them to do, and luckily it all worked out
Jeff Lynne said that it was one of the hardest jobs he’d ever had to do, because of the nature of the source material, saying that it was primitive sounding, to say the least
It took him a week to clean it up with the help of an engineer
Paul, George and Ringo decided the only way to handle it is was to pretend that John was still with them, but had just gone off on holiday and told them to go ahead and finish it, because he trusted them
The strategy worked, with Paul and George both working on extra lyrics and the middle eight, and the three of them enjoying the recording immensely
They wanted it to sound like a Beatle song, and in my opinion they succeeded admirably
