Complete Live At Shea Stadium 1965
(Master Of Beatles Essentials MBE 2007SPV01)
Shea Stadium, Flushing, NY – August 15th, 1965
“Complete concert version”: Ed Sullivan Introduction, Twist And Shout, She’s A Woman, I Feel Fine, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Ticket To Ride, Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby, Can’t Buy Me Love, Baby’s In Black, Act Naturally, A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, I’m Down, ending
“ABC-TV Master version”: Introduction, I’m Down, Concert Documentary, Murray The K introduction, Discotech Dancers: Soul Twist, The King Kurtis Band: I Can’t Help Myself Brenda Holloway: Fingertips Sound Incorporated: backstage, Ed Sullivan introduction, Twist And Shout, I Feel Fine, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Ticket To Ride, Act Naturally, Can’t Buy Me Love, Baby’s In Black, A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, I’m Down, ending
The release of the complete soundboard for The Beatles’ first Shea Stadium show produced releases in many and various permutations. The Master Of Beatles Essentials on Complete Live At Shea Stadium 1965 issue the second DVD-only release of the tape, following the Darthdisc version.
The first half of the disc, the “complete concert version,” is the Beatles’ set from the new soundboard, complete and in proper sequence. This is synced with the existing footage of the show, similar to what appears on The Beatles And The Great Concert At Shea (SHEA-656A/B/C).
Unlike the SHEA release, MBE do include the two missing songs “She’s A Woman” and “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby” that were omitted from the documentary and compensate the missing footage with shots of older shows, scenes of the crowd screaming and of the band hanging out in the dressing room.
This is a great idea and MBE almost pull it off, but the sync job is inconsistent. Sometimes, like during the first part of “Twist & Shout” it is perfect, but on other songs like “Help!” it is almost painful to watch. The soundtrack and the film go in and out of sync because they both run at different speeds, with the film running faster than the music. What happens is the beginning of the song will be perfect, but as it progresses it becomes worse.
The SHEA release does a much better job of matching the music with visuals and makes it look more natural. If the soundtrack were slowed down a bit on MBE, they could have produced a smoother looking document. The second part of the disc is devoted to the ABC & BBC documentary that was broadcast in January, 1967. this film, including the Arthur Fiedler intro., is included on the SHEA release and Darthdisc in similar quality.
The disc is in NTSC, no region with Dolby stereo that sounds really good. The big drop-out during “Help!” is still present, however, and MBE didn’t attempt to “fix” that problem. The screen is in 4:3 ratio format. The “complete concert version” is thirty-six minutes long and is a two-source mix. the first source is the amazingly detailed, clear, and downright gorgeous picture that was used for the Anthology series back in the nineties.
The introduction and the first song “Twist & Shout” come from the excellent film. “She’s A Woman” is a montage followed by “I Feel Fine” also from the excellent film. “Dizzy Miss Lizzy,” and “Ticket To Ride” are sourced from a dull, high generation film.
George Harrison’s “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby” is another montage of the audience milling around, screaming and fainting. “Can’t Buy Me Love” is sourced from the second, dull quality film. For “Baby’s In Black” MBE go back to the first, excellent quality footage for the beginning and end of the song with audience shots and pieces from the poorer source used in the middle. “Act Naturally” and “A Hard Day’s Night” are completely from the second source.
The introduction for “Help!” comes from the same source but the excellent first one is edited in at the beginning and is used for most of the song. The poor second source is used for the introduction to “I’m Down” but the first source is edited in for most of the song, although some shots come from the second. The ending is an ascending shot over Shea Stadium itself before it ends.
Complete Live At Shea Stadium 1965 is packaged in a plastic DVD case with dual sided inserts. In general this is a good attempt at issuing the authoritative, complete experience that falls slightly short because of the sync job.
