Far from "scraping the bottom of the barrel," as some would have it, this third and final installment of the ANTHOLOGY CDs is clearly the most essential. Anthology 3 fills in the more gaping holes in Beatle lore. Not only should it be required listening for Beatle fans, there is plenty that will appeal to casual listeners too -- in contrast to the first two Anthologies.

There appears to be some confusion regarding this album's purpose. This is NOT a greatest hits collection. Rather, these are two CDs of outtakes from the WHITE ALBUM, GET BACK/LET IT BE and ABBEY ROAD sessions. Most of these recordings were much discussed but seldom heard over the years. A few had been unofficially released in the late 1980s and early '90s as part of the ULTRA RARE TRAX bootleg series. In 1995 and 1996 Capitol finally got around to officially releasing them to coincide with a prime time TV documentary about the Beatles.

Everyone is referring to Disc 1 as the Unplugged White Album and there is truth in that description. Seven songs are homemade recordings from May 1968; it's great fun to hear "Glass Onion," "Honey Pie," "Piggies," and "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" in such intimate acoustic form. Later, in the summer and early autumn of '68, the Beatles went into the studio to make the WHITE ALBUM. In those sessions they recorded fascinating alternate takes of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Why Don't We Do It in the Road" and a calypso version of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" (with acoustic guitars and conga drums) which sound nothing like the White Album versions. Other highlights include a slower, bluesier rehearsal of "Helter Skelter." There is a terrific demo of "Hey Jude," in which McCartney delivers an even more impassioned lead vocal than he does on the "official" version of the song. "Not Guilty" is a previously unreleased George Harrison tune that was left off of the White Album; in my unbiased opinion, it is better than "Savoy Truffle," which did make it onto the White Album. John Lennon's previously unreleased "What's the New Mary Jane" might be described as "Imagine" meets "Revolution 9." It's a strangely surreal piece that improves with repeated listening.

Moving on to Disc 2, its versions of "I've Got a Feeling" and "Dig a Pony" are considerably better than the ragged performances of those songs that appear on the forlorn Let It Be album. "The Long and Winding Road," presented here without Phil Spector's controversial overdubs, is another high point. [Update: The other non-Spector take of "The Long and Winding Road," released on LET IT BE: NAKED in 2003, is even better.]

Lennon had one foot out the door during the Let It Be sessions and it shows. Indeed, George Harrison is a more conspicuous presence on Disc 2 than Lennon is. The demo that George made of "Something," alone with his electric guitar, is beautiful. His demo of "Old Brown Shoe" is more compelling than the more elaborate version that was released as a B-side in 1969. The more keyboard-based version of "For You Blue" is charming. Most poignant of all is the demo of "All Things Must Pass," which became the title song of his epic debut solo album in 1970.

ANTHOLOGY 3 also offers a retrospective sneak peak at McCartney's solo career. "Junk" and "Teddy Boy" both went on to grace his first solo album. Even better is "Come and Get It," a song that McCartney gave to Badfinger (it was Badfinger's first hit).

This is not to say that everything on this album is a masterpiece. The rehearsals of "Octopus Garden," "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," and "Let It Be" are dispensable and add little; the same may be said of some of the White Album outtakes. Also, with a combined running time of almost two and one-half hours, there may be too much music here for casual listeners to digest all at once. Still, Anthology 3 has plenty of great music to behold and every Beatle fan owes it to him or herself to hear it.

This is the most no-frills Anthology since there were no "new reunion" songs to promote.

The 1st CD offers a generous helping of White Album demos. You have a reggae version of "Ob-La-Di..." with guitars and congas which I like even better than the original. "Glass Onion" features some bizarre but quirky sound effects ("It's a goal!"). Songs being released for the 1st time are George's "Not Guilty" (1 of the best ones), John's "What's the New Mary Jane" (1 of the worst), George Martin's "A Beginning" (reminiscent of the background music in Yellow Submarine) and Paul's "Step Inside Love/Los Paranoias" (a fun jam). With the exception of the raucous blues jam "Helter Skelter", most of the songs on CD1 are acoustic. Paul improvises on "Rocky Racoon" (on this take, Rocky is from Minnesota!), "Mother Nature's Son", "Honey Pie", "Hey Jude" ("..when I was a robber in Boston Place.."), and "Why Don't We Do It,,". George features some pretty acoustic blueprints for "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Piggies". Ringo gets help from his friends on "Good Night". John shows his wit on the acoustic "Glass Onion" (double tracking and joking with himself!), intorduces "Mean Mr. Mustard", "Polothene Pam", improvises on "Happiness is a Warm Gun" ("Mother superior... oh s___!"), and showcases his solo debut on "Julia" (with Paul giving him some advice in the control panel!).

CD2 features Let It Be sessions. Most interesting are "Oh! Darling" (with John's news, singing "Free at last!"), the Beatles final performance ever on "I Me Mine" (George comically excuses John's absence), the rock medley with "Blue Suede Shoes" (great organ from Billy Preston!), and Paul's acoustic "Teddy Boy" (with wisecracks galore from John!). Then there's the Abbey Road sessions. George has some great sounding demos of "Something" and "All Things Must Pass". Paul does his own version of "Come & Get It" (which he later gave to Badfinger). Ringo warbles through "Octopus' Garden before sarcastically remarking "That was superb!" John warms up on "Come Together" and slows down on "Ain't She Sweet". A beautiful acapella version of "Because" is included. And the closer is an alternate version of "The End" (with a little more jamming and the final chord on....).

Anthology Three shows the Beatles at the end of their career together and increases the awe at the quality of their music, even at a period when they were falling apart. Again, we get alternative versions of songs mixed with outtakes and experimentation. Most endearing, is the final performance of Get Back from the Apple rooftop, which, while rather disjointed (owing to the presence of police) shows the band at a brief moment of togetherness and unity.

Ever wondered what some of the tracks on Let It Be sounded like before Phil Spector performed surgery on them? If you have, you will no doubt have been most curious about The Long and Winding Road which was undeniably over produced on the album. Here, we finally get to hear it on disc without the overdubs and the result is a beautiful ballad which is more moving in its sparse rendition than it was laden with epic strings and choirs. The same goes for I Me Mine.

Witness Glass Onion without the George Martin string arrangement, but with interesting sound effects put there by John Lennon. Hear a Paul McCartney solo song, Teddy Boy, with John Lennon making comical remarks and noises in the background, much to the amusement of Paul.

This album is a must have, again!! It will provide years of amusement and interest.

GET IT NOW!!!!

Anthology 3 covers the expansive White album sessions as well as the Abbey Road and Get Back/Let it Be recordings. It is amazing that even after all the great music they made in 1966-67, they would still have such a catalog of songs. It is interesting to hear songs that would eventually appear on solo albums like "All Things Must Pass" and "Junk" in the context of a Beatles album and to her the Let It Be songs in their raw, un-Spectorized versions. A great final chapter to the revealing and enlightening Anthology series.

Remember the new album "Let it Be Naked"? Well, disc 1 of this set is sort of the same, only it's the "White Album Naked." We get to hear acoustic versions of all the great songs, including "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Glass Onion," "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," and "Helter Skelter." I particularly enjoyed the outtake for "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da." "Helter Skelter is also quite interesting. Then on disc 2 we get outtakes from the "Let it Be" and "Abbey Road" sessions. Among my favorites from that set are the acoustic "Something," "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and the oldies medley of "Rip it Up," "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Shake Rattle and Roll." I have been a Beatles collector for many years, so I found this set to be spectacular.