Free as a Bird vs Real Love?

[karl100589]

Back in 1995, the three surviving members of the Beatles reunited to work on two new recordings to celebrate their newly released anthology compilation. Using two John Lennon demos as a base, "Free as a Bird and "Real Love" both reached the UK top ten and mark the official final recordings the fab four ever made.

The question is, which track was better? While I think Real Love is the better of the two tracks, I feel it could easily work as a John solo single whereas Free as a Bird has more input from the rest of the group and feels like a more "modern" track, the sort of thing a nineties Beatles would've released.

I'm curious as to what you guys thought.

[Vampiro138]

I love "Real Love" I actually made a edit of it though corrected the pitch and added the John piano ending of the track so it fades from the beatles singing together to just John solo and piano outro and felt it sounds pretty nice that way. George's guitar solo on Real Love is legit fantastic, However the pitch they changed it too just does not work for me so by default I have to go with Free As A Bird. I wish they would finally release "Now And Then" since Ringo and Paul recorded "Grow Old With Me" on Ringos last album you can make a good little EP of "Free As A Bird" "Real Love" "Grow Old With Me" "Now And Then"

[Dr. T is an alien]

I love both songs and find it unfortunate that Paul grated on George's nerves so much at the time. Yoko actually gave them 4 of John's demos that she thought they could finish as a group but they only finished these two before George opted to take a break from Paul. I would have liked to hear how they would have completed the last two. Now there are only two left and they only work together very rarely (though the last song I remember them doing together, Ringo's song "Walk with You", was pretty damned good).

[Perd]

I’d say Real Love is a better song. But Free as a Bird is a better Beatles song. If that makes sense?

I’ll also use this thread to recommend the book “Solid State” by Kenneth Womack. It’s about the making of Abbey Road and I’d say a must read for Beatle fans.

[adamclark52]

Free as a Bird was the better song and meant so much more.

[corndog]

Mar 26, 2020 23:12:13 GMT -5 Dr. T is an alien said:

I love both songs and find it unfortunate that Paul grated on George's nerves so much at the time. Yoko actually gave them 4 of John's demos that she thought they could finish as a group but they only finished these two before George opted to take a break from Paul. I would have liked to hear how they would have completed the last two. Now there are only two left and they only work together very rarely (though the last song I remember them doing together, Ringo's song "Walk with You", was pretty damned good).

Didn't know about this, but it's not incredibly surprising. At the end of the Beatles Paul became a tyrant that really grated the rest of the group, although Abbey Road/Let it Be would not have been finished without him. I wonder what the other two songs were?

Back to the OT, I agree with the sentiment that Real Love is a better song, but Free as a Bird feels more like an actual Beatles song than a John Lennon solo work in Real Love.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

I think 'Real Love' is the better song, but I think 'Free as a Bird' is the better Beatles song.

'Real Love' is both more of a solo joint than a Beatles track, unlike 'Free as a Bird' which fits into the canon better - and the former is just better in cover versions. Even Adam Sandler's.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Free as a bird feels and sounds like a lost Beatles song. Real love sounds like a homage song from a former beatle's solo album, like Beautiful night, When we was fab or even a Julian Lennon song like Day after day.

[King Boo]

For me, it's Free as a Bird.

Its video came on during the first episode of the Beatles Anthology, which aired the day my grandma - who had long battled illness after illness and with whom I spent a lot of time - died. To this day, I can't listen to that song and not cry.