George Martin on why the long version of "Helter Skelter" was left off Anthology 3:
Perhaps the Holy Grail of unheard Beatles outtakes is this legendary 27-minute version of "Helter Skelter," at a session also producing ten- and twelve-minute versions. In The Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn noted that "each take developed into a tight and concisely played jam with long instrumental passages." The four-and-a-half-minute edit of take 2 on Anthology 3 lowered expectations, however, as even this truncated version both veered on tedium and was far inferior to the final arrangement, with its dragging tempo and rote blues-rock guitar licks. Explaining why a longer version was not chosen for the Anthology CD compilations in a 1995 Dutch interview (as seen in the bonus disc of the bootlegged director's cut of the Anthology documentary), George Martin was blunt: "I think it gets boring." His elaboration perhaps gave away more than he would have liked about the core philosophy behind the Anthology collections: "In making these records, my consideration has been to put in works that are interesting to the majority of people. Not to Beatle fanatics. And I have to look at the public as a broad, interesting thing. And I don't want to put anything that people are going to say"