Various The Hamburg Repertoire - The Original Classic Recordings Of Songs Performed By The Beatles Onstage In Hamburg (2-CD)

(Cherry Red Records) 68 tracks, digisleeve with 36-page booklet

The original classic recordings of songs performed by the Beatles on stage in Hamburg.
“We were born in Liverpool but grew up in Hamburg” John Lennon
The Beatles, by far the best pop group of all time, changed attitudes to music, culture, fashion, politics, morality and everything else. They changed the world.
The group served an extraordinary apprenticeship in the working-class pubs and rock 'n' roll clubs of Hamburg's St. Pauli district. There, in squalid conditions, in front of an audience that included gangsters and prostitutes, drunken sailors and aggressive local rockers, they honed their presentation skills, developed their image and fostered the humor and pioneering musical spirit that would define their future success.
To meet the demands placed on them - 800 hours on stage in a year and a half - the Beatles' repertoire was inevitably extensive and varied. Their “sound” developed from this. Necessity fostered an eclecticism that set them apart and perhaps laid the foundations for such mid-sixties masterpieces as “Rubber Soul” and “Revolver”. The range of the included unadulterated rock 'n' roll, rhythm and blues, rockabilly, show tunes, movie themes and also the most eloquent new pop songwriting of the time - which inspired Lennon and McCartney to imitate it - that of Buddy Holly and Goffin and King.
Many of the songs the Beatles performed on stage in Hamburg were recorded for their first albums, played on radio broadcasts or later appeared in their respective solo projects.Hamburg was a tough school. This is where it all began ...