The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl, a 1977 live album containing material from the Beatles' Hollywood Bowl concerts in Aug. 1964 and Aug. 1965, is coming back in an expanded release globally on Sept. 9 on CD and digital download for the first time, it was announced early today by the Beatles' Apple Corps' Ltd. and Universal Music Group. A 180-gram vinyl release will follow on Nov. 18.
The new package, a companion release to the new Ron Howard film The Beatles: Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years, includes all the tracks of the 1977 album plus four additional unreleased songs and a 24-page booklet with an essay by music journalist David Fricke. The cover photo for the album, also on the poster for the film, was taken by the group's U.S. tour manager Bob Bonis on Aug. 22, 1964 as they boarded a chartered flight in Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. for their first concert in Canada.
Today's announcement said the new release is sourced from the original three track tapes of the concerts, which have been remixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios. It was Martin's father, Sir George Martin, who produced the original album and wrote in the original liner notes, “The chaos, I might almost say panic, that reigned at these concerts was unbelievable unless you were there. Only three-track recording was possible; The Beatles had no ‘fold back’ speakers, so they could not hear what they were singing, and the eternal shriek from 17,000 healthy, young lungs made even a jet plane inaudible,” he wrote, “What did impress me was the electric atmosphere and raw energy that came over."