EXPLORING THE FLIP SIDE OF BEATLES MARKETING.

Byline: Dan DeLuca Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

"The Beatles are forever,

"It's like John never got shot.

"Here's what gives - Elvis lives!

"What is in fact is not."

- from "What Gives"

by Loudon Wainwright III

As if the Fab Four weren't overexposed enough already, "The Beatles Anthology: 2" arrived in stores Tuesday.

This two-CD, 45-track set is a collection of outtakes, live and alternate versions recorded by the four Liverpudlians between February 1965 and February 1968. It also includes "Real Love," a second "new" Beatles song, which pairs John Lennon's disembodied voice and piano with music recorded by the three surviving Beatles.

This time, the marketing avalanche doesn't equal the campaign mounted around the initial "Anthology" in November, with its six-hour television documentary aired on A-Beatles-C to create nail-biting anticipation as the world awaited "Free As a Bird."

The intial "Anthology" has racked up sales of more than 10 million worldwide, but even ardent Beatles enthusiasts have begun to wonder whether songs as spotty as "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" are worth all the fuss.

"It got under my skin before it even happened," said British singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding of the Beatles "reunion." "It's sadly inevitable."

Happily inevitable is a spate of songs inspired by this so-called reunion, with Harding's the most extraordinary. Like Loudon Wainwright III's "What Gives" and ex-Waterboys leader Mike Scott's "Beatles Reunion Blues," Harding's "When the Beatles Hit America" takes a sarcastic poke at the Beatles' ability to defy the slight complication of Lennon's death in 1980.

Most remarkable about Harding's strummy folk song, which targets a mythical reunion of Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Lennon's voice, is that it was written more than six years ago. His tune even prophesied that Jeff Lynne would be the Beatles' reunion producer. (The ex-ELO leader did indeed produce last year when "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" were recorded.)

"People treat me as some kind of biblical seer, but it was just a good call," said Harding, who names John as his favorite Beatle, "though I always thought Ringo was really funny."

"All I had to do was think about how evil money is and what is the worst thing it could do. Which is get the Beatles back together. And there you have it."

Harding wrote "When the Beatles Hit America" in 1989. The song, a staple of his live show as he tours behind "John Wesley Harding's New Deal," was issued on a 1990 compilation album called "Just Say Da."

"What surprised me was not that they got back together," Harding said, "but that they turned down the tour."

Earlier this month, McCartney, Harrison and Starr announced that they had rejected an offer of $225 million to tour 22 cities in North America, Europe and Japan.

"They found some line to draw," Harding said. " 'Without John, it would be wrong.' As opposed to what? Taking his disembodied voice and making millions of dollars? C'mon! Why not just play his previously recorded parts and have a little puppet up there on stage!"

Mike Scott's "Beatles Reunion Blues" is a dream sequence in which the Beatles show up as surprise openers at a Guns 'N Roses show. The song is on the "Bring 'Em All In" five-song CD from his new album of the same name.

"I'd like to tell you that they was great ..." Scott sings, but "the harmonies were slightly off, and the PA system sucked."

But if his electric blues conveys a letdown, Scott says he's still happy to see the Fab Three together.

"It warms my heart to see Ringo, George and Paul back together," said the spiritual Scotsman. (Favorite Beatle: George.)

Wainwright's "What Gives" is an as-yet-unrecorded song that the wickedly funny singer-songwriter has been opening shows with while touring in support of his "Grown Man" album.

It plays on show biz and commerce's power to defy reality and, potentially, to create all sorts of posthumous fantasy bands. "There's a way to make it pay though they've flown the coop," Wainwight sings. "Let's get Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson and Otis Redding in one supergroup."

"For all these years, they kept saying that there isn't enough money in the world to get the Beatles back together," said Wainwright, whose favorite was Paul. "Well, this would lead me to believe that maybe there is."

But Wainwright is really displeased at the Beatles regrouping: It's incomplete without his "true" favorite, the New York disc jockey who was known as "the fifth Beatle."

"Those guys can do anything they want, I don't disapprove," he said. "I just wish they had included Murray the K."

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PHOTO

Photo "Without John (Lennon, left), it would be wrong," said surviving Beatles, clockwise from top, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney in turning down a $225 million tour offer.