There have been a lot of variations of the Hamburg tapes released over the years, starting off with the Lingasong LP's in 1977. One thing in common with all the releases is that they altered the original recordings in one way or another. From removal of the between-the- songs dialogue, or song edits to loop portions of the track, to even fake stereo (as usual). This release is not going to try and re-invent the wheel. It simply presents some raw cassette transfers (speed corrected) that have been traded between collectors for many years.
The first twelve tracks here are from the bootleg Mach Shau! (Savage SC 12620) which contained alternate versions of songs such as I’m Talking About You and Roll Over Beethoven plus unadulterated versions of Till There Was You, A Taste Of Honey and Where Have You Been All My Life, all of them transferred from an original tape to vinyl. Then the next five songs came directly from a raw tape which today belongs to a private collector in Germany. That tape contains a total of 15 songs of which only seven feature the Beatles. Here we have five of them: Hippy Hippy Shake, A Taste of Honey [rec. 30/12/62], Reminiscing, Ask Me Why [rec. 30/12/62] and I Saw Her Standing There [rec. 30/12/62]. The rest of titles included are almost certainly performed by Ted "Kingsize" Taylor and the Dominoes. This tape circulated in the mid 90's and was later brought into the public eye by Fuego Entertainment in 2008 when they announced it to be a future release. Of course Apple put an end to that. The last five songs are from the famous "sampler" tape, copied by Allan Williams in 1978, which contained seven Star Club songs in their unadulterated original form. These are: Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey, Shimmy Like Kate, Falling in Love Again, Roll Over Beethoven [rec. 25/12/62], and Sweet Little Sixteen.
01- A Taste of Honey I 02- Till There Was You 03- Where Have You Been All my Life? 04- Lend Me Your Comb 05- Your Feet’s Too Big 06- Talkin’ ‘Bout You 07- To Know Her is To Love Her 08- Everybody’s Trying to Be my Baby 09- Matchbox 10- Little Queenie 11- Nothin’ Shakin’ 12- Roll Over Beethoven I 13- Hippy Hippy Shake 14- A Taste of Honey II 15- Reminiscing 16- Ask Me Why 17- I Saw Her Standing There 18- Kansas City/Hey, hey, hey, hey! 19- Shimmy Shimmy 20- Falling in Love Again 21- Roll Over Beethoven II 22- Sweet Little Sixteen
Back in 1965, Paul McCartney ended a very busy Beatles year by recording an album of his own, and releasing it as a Christmas present to John, George and Ringo. The album was only pressed in four copies, he kept one for himself. The album is made up of experiments in sound which Paul had conducted at home. This is side one, side two seems to be lost forever...
01- Paul's intro + Unforgettable (Nat King Cole) 02- Someone Ain't Right (Peter & Gordon) 03- Paul DJ 04- I Get Around (The Beach Boys) 05- Paul DJ 06- (Love is Like a) Heatwave (Martha & The Vandellas) 07- Paul DJ & Peter Asher
08- Don't Be Cruel (Elvis Presley) 09- Paul DJ 10- Down Home Girl (The Rolling Stones)
02- Long Tall Sally 03- Carol 04- Soldier of Love 05- Lend Me Your Comb 06- Clarabella 07- Memphis Tennessee 08- I Got a Woman 09- Sure to Fall (In Love With You) 10- Do You Want to Know a Secret? 11- The Hippy Hippy Shake 12- 'Till There Was You 13- Matchbox 14- I'm a Loser 15- She's a Woman 16- I Feel Fine 17- Everybody's Trying to Be my Baby 18- I'll Follow The Sun
More BBC material, this time from an early '80s bootleg mixed with some songs from another mid '70s bootleg, both featuring more BBC (by then) unreleased stuff.
01- Some Other Guy 02- I'm Talkin' About You 03- Youngblood 04- Too Much Monkey Business 05- I Got To Find My Baby 06- Johnny B. Goode 07- Keep Your Hands Off My Baby 08- Beautiful Dreamer 09- That's All Right Mama 10- Sweet Little Sixteen 11- Ooh! My Soul 12- I'll Get You 13- Too Much Monkey Business 14- Devil in Her Heart 15- Memphis Tennessee 16- I Forgot to Remember to Forget
In 1972 two more whole LP's of BBC material arrived from TMOQ. Of course, they were sold as being EMI recordings (common titles were STUDIO SESSIONS 1 & 2, or OUTAKES), but we all learned otherwise. The 24 songs - almost all of them on unheard renditions - were a fairly strict chronological record of the Summer 63 "Pop Go The Beatles" BBC Radio series. What it lacked in sonic brilliance (obviously somebody's collection of home recordings taped directly off a speaker) it made up in charm and historical importance and made a nice companion to the YELLOW MATTER CUSTARD title. The gem back in the day was John Lennon's version of Carl Perkins' "Honey Don't" later recorded by the band with Ringo as the lead singer.
01- Do You Want to Know a Secret 02- You Really Got a Hold On Me 03- The Hippy Hippy Shake 04- Misery 05- Money (That's What I Want) I 06- Till There Was You 07- From Me to You 08- Roll Over Beethoven 09- Love Me Do 10- Kansas City-Hey, hey, hey, hey! 11- Long Tall Sally 12- Please Please Me 13- She Loves You 14- Words Of Love 15- Devil In Her Heart 16- Anna (Go to Him) 17- Money (That's What I Want) II 18- There's A Place 19- Honey Don't 20- Chains 21- I Saw Her Standing There 22- I'm Sure To Fall 23- Lucille 24- Boys
An important batch of rare recordings surfaced in the form of bootlegs during 1971 covering a (by then) almost unknown and forgotten aspect of the Beatles' career - the sessions for BBC Radio. Anyway, they were advertised (on purpose, or not) as being studio outtakes. The first and best-known of these early bootlegs was called YELLOW MATTER CUSTARD (aka AS SWEET AS YOU ARE), and it was a compilation of 14 songs, only one of which ("Slow Down") was previously officially released by The Beatles. Once it was established these were not outtakes, they were thought to be from a single -and unexistent- November 1962 BBC broadcast for a while, and even John Lennon himself (who once asked a fan for a copy of it) called them "the Decca audition". If we reverse sides A and B, we'll find the songs to be chronological highlights from the "Pop Go The Beatles" series from July-Sep 63. The original tape probably came from a British fan who only taped those songs not available on record (remember "Slow Down" didn't come out until 64) with a home recorder. A bootleg which was a MUST back in the day due to its quality and stuff.
01- I Got A Woman 02- Glad All Over 03- I Just Don't Understand 04- Slow Down 05- Don't Ever Change 06- A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues 07- Sure To Fall (In Love With You) 08- Nothin' Shakin' (But The Leaves On The Trees) 09- Lonesone Tears In My Eyes 10- So How Come (No One Loves Me) 11- I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You) 12- Crying, Waiting, Hoping 13- To Know Her Is To Love Her 14- The Honeymoon Song
In 1983, for the first and only time, the doors to Abbey Road's famous studio were opened to the public, for a tour and audio-video presentation, Fans were treated to a tour of the famous Number 2 Studio, which had remained virtually unchanged from the days of the sixties where the Beatles recorded from 1962-1969. Starting July 11th, the doors were opened seven days a week through September 11th, with three shows per day at 10:30 am, 3:30 pm and 7:30 pm. Tickets sold for about 4.50 GBP. In all, the presentation and tour was given 168 times. After a short tour of the facility, the fans were seated in the Number 2 Studio for a 90 minute video presentation featuring rare filmclips and promotional videos with previously unreleased Beatles recordings. This was the first time that EMI had ever permitted the public performance of Beatles outtakes. Refreshments were served, and in one corner there was a booth offering T-shirts, posters, stickers, road signs, postcards and other type of Beatles souvenirs. Ticket sales were handled directly by EMI and Abbey Road Studios. EMI said at the time that this was the first time that the public was invited into Abbey Road Studios, AND that it would be the last time, never to happen again. Now we'll see probably why...
Not too long after the July 18th opening, a fan was caught trying to make an audio recording of the show. Immediately, EMI had metal detectors installed in the hallway leading into the studio that everyone had to pass through to get inside for the presentation. In the studio, several signs were posted on the walls that stated: "Absolutely no sound recordings may be made of this presentation". Fans being determined, and with word out from previous visitors about how great the outtakes were, three U.S. collectors managed to sneak in a compact Sony cassette player and record the entire show from start to finish, in stereo. Their story was told in an interview some years back, they had each taken with them a shopping bag filled with "tourist" items as if they had been shopping all day. Hidden inside one of the bags was the Sony tape recorder. In another, the microphone and batteries, and in the third, the blank tapes. The recording items were buried in the bottom of the bags, with souvenirs covering the top. Nervous about doing this, they said the 20 minute wait in line seemed like forever. They had no idea about the metal detectors inside, and almost gave up and turned back when they rounded the corner of the hallway and saw the guards and detectors. Deciding to take a chance anyway, and confident knowing the recording equipment was spread out in different bags, they headed forward. Amazingly, when they got to the search point, the guard looked in the bags quickly, passed them AROUND the metal detector, and directed them through the detectors -sans bags(!)- and then handed the bags BACK to them on the other side of the detector!!! They could not believe that they got into the Abbey Road presentation with a tape recorder! At this time, of course, they were ecstatic, as they KNEW they would soon have a recording of the entire show. Once inside they toured the studio, enjoyed soft drinks and took several photos, including one of the "absolutely no sound recordings..." sign, which was later printed inside the gatefold vinyl LP cover. Upon being seated for the show, they all sat together and carefully pulled the parts from their bags to prepare recording. One of them sat perfectly still holding the microphone for the entire ninety minute presentation. The tape was reviewed in the cab on the way back to the hotel and all three fans were blown away, the recording had turned out incredible. Upon their return to the U.S., a cover was designed and in early 1984 the recording was issued as a double album gatetold set, "The Beatles Live at Abbey Road Studios" (ARS 2 9083). Eagerly received by collectors and considered a landmark album, it quickly sold out. A few months later, it was copied and reissued, identical to the original except the cover artwork was blurry and the labels were blank white. In the late 1980s a Japanese CD version called "Abbey Road Show" was issued in excellent quality stereo (ARS83-2). A different audience tape appeared on an European bootleg, "In Abbey Road (Beatles Fan Records A/B)". Enjoy now this version of "The Beatles Live at Abbey Road Studios" where the legendary cassette tape made by the American fans has been edited with those same tracks but as compiled by John Barrett straight from master tapes, giving you the first chance to experience the whole show as it was conceived originally.
Part 1: 01- Introduction 02- Love Me Do (take 18) 03- How Do You Do It? (take 2) 04- I Saw Her Standing There (working title: Seventeen) (takes 6, 11 & 12) 05- Twist & Shout (take 1) 06- One After 909 (edited takes 4 & 5) 07- Don't Bother Me (takes 11 & 12) 08- A Hard Day's Night (takes 2, 3 & 9) 09- Leave My Kitten Alone (take 5) 10- I'm a Loser (take 8) 11- She's a Woman (take 1) 12- Ticket to Ride (take 2) 13- Help! (take 5)
Part 2: 14- Norwegian Wood (take 1) 15- I'm Looking Through You (take 1) 16- Paperback Writer (take 2) 17- Rain (take 7) 18- Penny Lane (RS1 from take 9) 19- Strawberry Fields Forever (take 1) 20- Strawberry Fields Forever (take 7) 21- Strawberry Fields Forever (take 26) 22- A Day In The Life (edit of takes 6, 7 & 9) 23- Hello Goodbye (RS2 from take 22) 24- Lady Madonna (take 4) 25- Hey Jude (take 9) 26- While My Guitar Gently Weeps (unedited take 1) 27- Because (take 16) 28- Ringo Special Message + #9 Dream
