The Beatle/Threetle reunion that almost was

[JohnMill]

The Beatles just did not leave their great stuff on the cutting room floor.  People really are just getting worked up over the few remaining dribs and drabs at this point.  I'd love to hear that stuff, but unlike, say, the Beach Boys, it's not as though there are entire, unheard, finished, great original songs in the vault.  We're talking a noise collage, some unfinished demos, some stuff that could possibly have been patched up separately at a later date...

They seem to have handled their back catalog and archival material really well, and for the rest of it they have the most efficient, well-trained army of bootleggers in the world.

Well not everyone can be lucky enough to have a "SMiLE" locked up in the vaults   

Alright here we go.  Two pages worth of discussion and nobody yet has come up with a proposed release for a Beatles rarities set containing the most interesting stuff that is left in the vault.  I should state before I begin that I'm against this type of formatting and would much rather if The Beatles did open their archives it would be in the fashion of deluxe editions of their albums or multi-cd packages devoted to the session work for each album.  However given the way archival releases such as The Beach Boys' "Hawthorne, California" and some of Dylan's bootleg series are formatted (not to mention the Anthology series) perhaps a two disc compilation would be in order.  Most of my track selections have been gleaned from either Lewisohn's/Unterberger's notes or notes on the compiling of the "Anthology" albums.

Disc 1

Now And Then (Completed version that according to VM Paul McCartney has been working on over the past several years)
Love Of The Loved (Decca Auditions 1/1/62)
To Know Her Is To Love Her (Decca Auditions 1/1/62)
Do You Want To Know A Secret (alternate take with full ending from 2/11/63)
From Me To You (alternate take with basic harmonica introduction from 3/5/63)
I Should Have Known Better (alternate take with alternate harmonica solo from John and alternate ending from George from 2/25/64)
And I Love Her (2nd remake from 2/26/64)
If I Fell (early take without guitar intro from 2/27/64)
I'm A Loser (take 2 from 8/14/64)
Every Little Thing (take 4 from 9/29/64 or take 7 from 9/30/64 which apparently contains similar hysterics as the "And Your Bird Can Sing" outtake)
What You're Doing (take 11 from 9/30/64)
She's A Woman (take 5 from 10/8/64)
I Feel Fine (take 5 from 10/18/64)
I Need You (acoustic version from 2/15/65)
Dizzy Miss Lizzy (take 2 from 5/10/65)
She's A Woman (live from Shea Stadium 8/15/65)
Norwegian Wood (acoustic take 3 w/o sitar from 10/21/65)
In My Life (with alternate solo from 10/22/65)
I'm Looking Through You (1st remake from 11/6/65)
Think For Yourself (session extracts from 11/8/65)

Disc 2

Love You To (acoustic take 1 with backing vocals from McCartney from 4/11/66)
Paperback Writer (Stack O' Vocals)
Yellow Submarine (complete with full intro and ending w/o overdubs from 5/26/66)
Nowhere Man (live from Tokyo 7/1/66)
Strawberry Fields Forever (take 4 from 11/28/66 or RM9 from 12/15/66)
Carnival Of Light (Sound Collage excerpts from 1/5/67)
A Day In The Life (take 1 from 1/19/67)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (w/o overdubs from 2/2/67)
Fixing A Hole (take 2 from 2/9/67)
Getting Better (alternate take from 3/9/67)
With A Little Help From My Friends (alternate take w/ McCartney guide vocal from 3/29/67)
Magical Mystery Tour (alternate take from 4/25/67)
Medley: All Together Now/Hey La Le Lu (from 5/12/67)
It's All Too Much (Unedited from 5/26/67)
All You Need Is Love (take 10 from 6/14/67)
Lady Madonna (take 3 from 2/3/68)
Good Night (w/ spoken intro from 6/28/68)
Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da (1st remake from 7/8/68)
Sexy Sadie (1st remake from 7/24/68)
Hey Jude (alternate take from 7/30/68)
Yer Blues (take 6 from 8/13/68)
Etcetera (aka "Thingamybob" an unreleased McCartney composition from 8/20/68)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (first version from 8/16/68 or second version from 9/3/68)
Kansas City/Miss Ann/Lawdy Miss Clawdy (from 1/26/69)
I've Got A Feeling (w/ John Lennon solo vocal featuring Billy Preston on BV from 1/28/69)
I Want You (She's So Heavy) (John Lennon duet with Billy Preston from 1/28/69)
Let It Down (from 1/29/69)
The Ballad Of John & Yoko (session excerpts/alternate version from 4/14/69)
Oh! Darling (take 26 with alternate vocal from 4/26/69)
You Never Give Me Your Money (take 30 from 7/1/69)
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (take 1 from 7/2/69)
Maxwell's Silver Hammer (with complete intro from 7/10/69)
Something (take 37 with alternate vocal from 7/11/69)
Here Comes The Sun (alternate take from 7/7/69 or final take with alternate guitar solo from 7/16/69)
Who Slapped John?/Be-Bop A Lula (from 7/24/69)
Medley: Hey Majesty (take 3 with final chord) & Goodbye (McCartney demo from spring 1969)

[JohnMill]

There's that studio chatter on the Think For Yourself vocal sessions that has been circulating for a while. I love that - especially unedited. Does much stuff like that circulate or was it rare that they kept the tape rolling like that?

Very little does unfortunately.  In the sixties it was custom for record companies to preserve tape whenever possible so according to George Martin while he often recorded The Beatles' rehearsals, he almost always wiped over those rehearsals with proper takes of the song in question.  The few rehearsals that do survive for the most part would be products of chance when the proper takes of a song did not manage to wipe all of the rehearsals present on the tape.

[anazgnos]

The Beatles just did not leave their great stuff on the cutting room floor.  People really are just getting worked up over the few remaining dribs and drabs at this point.  I'd love to hear that stuff, but unlike, say, the Beach Boys, it's not as though there are entire, unheard, finished, great original songs in the vault.  We're talking a noise collage, some unfinished demos, some stuff that could possibly have been patched up separately at a later date...

They seem to have handled their back catalog and archival material really well, and for the rest of it they have the most efficient, well-trained army of bootleggers in the world.

Your'e a sharp guy, you're right, even so, it's the Beatles, there is no lost great album like Smile, it's just like you said, except there is
more stuff, than you seem to be aware of, but yes its all hodge podge, a possible live album, the White album demo;s which is pretty
comprehensive, two more reunion songs, McCartneys version of revolution nine, Sour Milk Sea, which is actually very cool, maybe as good
as Glass Onion or Savoy Truffle, something along those lines, Several hours of live recording between, Paul Ringo and George, as seen very
briefly in the film,. ( there is several hours of that jam)   Some of the Let it Be stuff could be patched up.
...

Yeah, but I've already got a great deal of the stuff you mention.  I was focusing on stuff that hasn't even been heard or bootlegged, of which there really isn't much.  

The reason the Smile release was so significant, even though it too had mostly been "heard", is because it stood to really reframe or even rehabilitate the Beach Boys legacy in the public eye, which generally tends to be somewhat fragmented (arty vs. fun & sun, etc.).  None of the Beatles material is really significant enough to do that, leaving aside the fact that the Beatles legacy is not really in any need of rehabilitation!  It means something for a long-suppressed work of great ambition to finally be given a place in the "official" catalog, but it really doesn't "mean" that much whether the Esher demos or every scrap of the Threetles sessions gets officially released, does it?  

I mean, yeah, I'd like to have or hear "everything" someday too but ultimately all those bandmember quotes JohnMill posted seem really right on to me.  This is all about extremely niche fan-interest stuff, not vital missing pieces of the Beatles legacy.  The Beatles catalog is the most untainted, undiluted one of any rock band for a reason, and I'm in favor of that.  

[JohnMill]

The Beatles just did not leave their great stuff on the cutting room floor.  People really are just getting worked up over the few remaining dribs and drabs at this point.  I'd love to hear that stuff, but unlike, say, the Beach Boys, it's not as though there are entire, unheard, finished, great original songs in the vault.  We're talking a noise collage, some unfinished demos, some stuff that could possibly have been patched up separately at a later date...

They seem to have handled their back catalog and archival material really well, and for the rest of it they have the most efficient, well-trained army of bootleggers in the world.

Your'e a sharp guy, you're right, even so, it's the Beatles, there is no lost great album like Smile, it's just like you said, except there is
more stuff, than you seem to be aware of, but yes its all hodge podge, a possible live album, the White album demo;s which is pretty
comprehensive, two more reunion songs, McCartneys version of revolution nine, Sour Milk Sea, which is actually very cool, maybe as good
as Glass Onion or Savoy Truffle, something along those lines, Several hours of live recording between, Paul Ringo and George, as seen very
briefly in the film,. ( there is several hours of that jam)   Some of the Let it Be stuff could be patched up.
...

The Beatles catalog is the most untainted, undiluted one of any rock band for a reason, and I'm in favor of that.  

No offense but I put this argument right alongside those who argued for years that "The Beach Boys should never reunite because at their current age, they are only capable of creating music that will taint their legacy".  People need to realize once and for all that nothing that The Beatles or The Beach Boys or many of those legendary groups do now until forever will taint the legacy they established for themselves in the sixties.  The people who have a genuine interest in outtakes and alternate versions will continue to pursue them until probably the ends of time as a matter of extreme passion for the groups that they enjoy.  The people who are not interested those sorts of things won't and quite frankly both groups can continue to coexist quite nicely.  As for the bands themselves, I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that their music will continue to sell regardless of what they release (or don't release) in the future.  

So don't worry so much about tainting the brand as it's never going to happen.

[Jay]

There's that studio chatter on the Think For Yourself vocal sessions that has been circulating for a while. I love that - especially unedited. Does much stuff like that circulate or was it rare that they kept the tape rolling like that?

On that particular occasion, George Martin made a point to keep the tape rolling constantly, hoping that any studio banter could be used for a Beatles Christmas fan club EP.

[hypehat]

With all due respect this isn't a matter of entitlement.....

I'm sorry, but phrasing as if it's some hardship that the 'collectors circuit' has to 'deal with' and then saying that these releases aren't things you feel entitled to does not compute, honestly. I can understand wanting to hear it, but it's ultimately their decision and if they honestly feel this stuff is not good enough for public consumption, well, we aren't the ones to tell them otherwise. They might come around to it, like BW did with Smile. Hell, it's entirely likely they'll die at some point and it'll come out then. But it boils down to 'I don't have it. I want it.'

In terms of your two-cd tracklisting (which I respect you admit isn't a viable option for release), it really does show the paucity of stuff left in The Beatles' vault - we are talking four unreleased compositions here and alternate takes which may not differ wildly at all from either the released versions or Anthology takes. As Beatles obsessive as I can get, the words 'alternate guitar solo' or 'basic harmonica take' don't really make my heart soar with joy or encourage me to throw my wallet at Apple Corp. Therein lies the rub.

Also, like Smile, we don't know how much of this stuff exists anymore.

[JohnMill]

With all due respect this isn't a matter of entitlement.....

I'm sorry, but phrasing as if it's some hardship that the 'collectors circuit' has to 'deal with' and then saying that these releases aren't things you feel entitled to does not compute, honestly. I can understand wanting to hear it, but it's ultimately their decision and if they honestly feel this stuff is not good enough for public consumption, well, we aren't the ones to tell them otherwise. They might come around to it, like BW did with Smile. Hell, it's entirely likely they'll die at some point and it'll come out then. But it boils down to 'I don't have it. I want it.'

In terms of your two-cd tracklisting (which I respect you admit isn't a viable option for release), it really does show the paucity of stuff left in The Beatles' vault - we are talking four unreleased compositions here and alternate takes which may not differ wildly at all from either the released versions or Anthology takes. As Beatles obsessive as I can get, the words 'alternate guitar solo' or 'basic harmonica take' don't really make my heart soar with joy or encourage me to throw my wallet at Apple Corp. Therein lies the rub.

Also, like Smile, we don't know how much of this stuff exists anymore.

While I agree that we aren't the ones to tell Camp Beatle what to or what not to release, without voices of dissent we would be a society boiled down to what one of my old college professors referred to as the "least common denominator in terms of group think" which I personally believe is something that may heavily dominate the thinking within Camp Beatle.  Perhaps they do need a fresh set of eyes in there who knows?  But then again I'll just as readily admit that opinion is based on several brief quotations made by members of that fraternity in articles where there were asked by journalists about future prospects of releasing more archival material.  If Camp Beatle is truly uncomfortable with the prospects of releasing this stuff (at least in the present tense) they aren't going to rave about what is left in the vaults or even saying anything positive about it as it would do nothing but cast them in a negative light ("We have all this great stuff but we aren't ever releasing it") so instead they tend to downplay any questions regarding their archives.

So to me that isn't at all entitlement at least on my part.  It's just a difference of opinion based on the knowledge of the facts at hand.  For The Beatles to come out in the press and basically deem what is left in the archives to be rubbish is the hardship that the collector's circuit deals with everyday.  The fact that there is a disconnect between the band and those who follow them that doesn't seem to exist with any other band of their ilk in music.  Now personally (as you could probably tell) I already have such a low opinion of Camp Beatle when it comes to matters such as these that I don't get my knickers all in a twist about it anymore.  I'm still interested and hopeful that one day I get to hear this stuff but quite frankly I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that it isn't going to happen until "many years from now" due to the circumstances I've already outlined.  

As far as the paucity of stuff left in The Beatles vault, as I admitted unless they start aiming a series of discs at the collector's circuit (or including a track here or there as bonus tracks on various releases) there really isn't a commercial market for this stuff.  But don't confuse the commercial aspect of the subject matter with the value of these recordings themselves to the collector.  While I respect your claim about being "Beatle obsessive" there are Beatles fans that would literally give up several months wages to hear some of the "alternate guitar solo" takes I outlined so maybe you aren't "Beatle obsessive" as you tend to think you are?  I don't know only you can answer that one.

The one question I can answer is all of this stuff does still exist in the archives.  Lewisohn reported on virtually all of this stuff back in 1988 in "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions" so it was certainly available for his perusal and analysis then.  Also in 1988 engineer Alan Rouse actually copied the entire archive over into digital format ostensibly as a safety measure to guard against things going missing in the future.  So the entire archive is certainly available now in digital format.  I remember reading a few years back that this process may have been repeated one further time in recent years prior to the "Love" project but I'm not sure on that.

Also in contrast to material being lost forever, the exact opposite seems to be the trend with The Beatles.  The alternate versions of "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me" that are on "Anthology 1" were found during the compiling of the "Anthology" albums (Martin found "Love Me Do" in his broom closet!) and prior to that many archival recordings from the year 1962 were thought lost for years.  Likewise "Etcetera" which was also thought lost to time (as it was taken out of EMI Studios by Macca back 1968) was allegedly located during a recent trove of McCartney's archives while searching for rare solo material for a proposed Wings box set a few years back.  

Edit: Also while I readily admit that the compilation I suggested has little commercial value in terms of marketing to the general record buying public, if aimed towards the collector's circuit it easily has as much value as one of the recent installments (Volume 7?) of the Dylan Bootleg Series I picked up which is mainly a hodge-podge of Bob Dylan alternate takes which probably only hold value to the Dylan collector.

[vintagemusic]

I'm enjoying this discussion immensely, I however disagree, with John Mill's hypothetical release, I think there are a good half
dozen releases that could do stunning business, or be used as bonus material on remixed albums. Allow me to demonstrate
two stand alone albums I think would do very very well.



THE BEATLES SESSIONS (revamped from the original 1985 idea)
note, 13 of these did appear on Anthology, but with bad mixes, a remix
would make them sound much better. FAAB & RL also appeared on Antholgy
the rest has not appeared



THE BEATLES SESSIONS ALBUM (studio recordings not found on any proper album or single)

1- Free As A Bird
2- Now and Then
3-All For Love
4- Real Love
5- Blue Moon Of Kentucky
6-Baby What you want me to do
7-Carnival Of Light
8-SOur Milk Sea (new mix from Lomax multitrack, lead vocal by Harrison)
9- I lost My LIttle Girl   (lennon vocal, let it be sessions)
10 All Things Must Pass  (composite mix from assorted Let it Be takes)
11 Etcetera  (McCartney white album ditty on acoustic ala Blackbird or Junk)
12  Who Slapped John  (abbey road outtake, Gene Vincent cover)
13  Peggy Sue Got Married   ( I me Mine outtake, Harrison on vocal)
14   Dig It Long Version    (from let it be, five minutes instead of fifty seconds)
15 Come And Get it
16 Leave My Kitten alone
17 Not Guilty
18 I'm Looking Through You (alternate version)
19 What's The New Mary Jane
20 How Do You Do It
21 Besame Mucho
22 One After 909 (1963 version)
23  If You've Got Trouble
24  That Mean's A Lot
25 While My Guitar Gently Weeps  (love version with George Martin strings)
26  Mailman Bring me No More Blues
27 Christmas Time is Here Again (new mix featuring only music and vocals, no spoken word overlay)


That particular album would have about half on Anthology in inferior mixes, and about half would be totally new songs


The BEatles Christmas album
1 1963
2 1964
3 1965
4 1966
5 1967
6 1968
7 1969

Plus additional outtake footage from these sessions, and additional studio banter like the
THink For Yourself vocal session, the Lennon Lucy From Littletown, and McCartney also has a couple
of comedy things, it would probably be ok, to add You Know My Name Look up the number as it probably
fits the wacky theme.


Ok so there is two albums I would like to see, I';; leave you with one more I think would be great

The Beatles White Demos, recorded at Kinfauns Esher George Harrisons house, 1968 before the proper
studio sessions got underway

1-Back In The USSR
2 Dear Prudence
3-Ob La Di Obla Da
4-Bungalow Bill
5-While My Guitar Gently Weeps
6-I'm So Tired
7- Blackbird
8-Piggies
9 Rocky Raccoon
10-Not Guilty
11-Singalong Junk
12-Julia
13- Yer Blues
14-Mother Natures Son
15-Every BOdy's Got Something To Hide except for me & my
16-Sexy Sadie
17- Sour Milk Sea
18-Revolution
19-Honey Pie
20- Cry Baby Cry
21-What's The New Mary Jane
22- Circles (colliding circles)
23-Child Of Nature
24-Julia Instrumental
25- Mean Mr Mustard
26-Polythene Pam
27 Happiness is a Warm gun


There may be a couple more of these white demos. but that gives you the idea, high quality unplugged home\
recordings of essentially the entire White album, with just a couple songs that weren't demoed.


To me all three of these are not niche albums, but big sellers, maybe now JOhn Could compile the ultimate Alternate
take guide, maybe a book should come with each album explaining each tracks history.

Maybe I am so out of touch, with the world and music business, I don't think so, I didint even touch on live albums
or alternate takes, because that's not my area, but this is not scraping the bottom of the barrel, this is some good stuff
granted, it's not as good as Abbey Road, Sgt Pepper or The White album., but there is tons of good stuff here, I Just
listed three albums that made sense to me, staying away from live and alternate takes, (with two exceptions)

now an album of the best alternate takes would be what? are there more John?


Or again, all this could be bonus material on the accompanying remixed album. It's more fun this way though

[JohnMill]

I'm enjoying this discussion immensely, I however disagree, with John Mill's hypothetical release, I think there are a good half
dozen releases that could do stunning business, or be used as bonus material on remixed albums. Allow me to demonstrate
two stand alone albums I think would do very very well.



THE BEATLES SESSIONS (revamped from the original 1985 idea)
note, 13 of these did appear on Anthology, but with bad mixes, a remix
would make them sound much better. FAAB & RL also appeared on Antholgy
the rest has not appeared



THE BEATLES SESSIONS ALBUM (studio recordings not found on any proper album or single)

1- Free As A Bird
2- Now and Then
3-All For Love
4- Real Love
5- Blue Moon Of Kentucky
6-Baby What you want me to do
7-Carnival Of Light
8-SOur Milk Sea (new mix from Lomax multitrack, lead vocal by Harrison)
9- I lost My LIttle Girl   (lennon vocal, let it be sessions)
10 All Things Must Pass  (composite mix from assorted Let it Be takes)
11 Etcetera  (McCartney white album ditty on acoustic ala Blackbird or Junk)
12  Who Slapped John  (abbey road outtake, Gene Vincent cover)
13  Peggy Sue Got Married   ( I me Mine outtake, Harrison on vocal)
14   Dig It Long Version    (from let it be, five minutes instead of fifty seconds)
15 Come And Get it
16 Leave My Kitten alone
17 Not Guilty
18 I'm Looking Through You (alternate version)
19 What's The New Mary Jane
20 How Do You Do It
21 Besame Mucho
22 One After 909 (1963 version)
23  If You've Got Trouble
24  That Mean's A Lot
25 While My Guitar Gently Weeps  (love version with George Martin strings)
26  Mailman Bring me No More Blues
27 Christmas Time is Here Again (new mix featuring only music and vocals, no spoken word overlay)


That particular album would have about half on Anthology in inferior mixes, and about half would be totally new songs


The BEatles Christmas album
1 1963
2 1964
3 1965
4 1966
5 1967
6 1968
7 1969

Plus additional outtake footage from these sessions, and additional studio banter like the
THink For Yourself vocal session, the Lennon Lucy From Littletown, and McCartney also has a couple
of comedy things, it would probably be ok, to add You Know My Name Look up the number as it probably
fits the wacky theme.


Ok so there is two albums I would like to see, I';; leave you with one more I think would be great

The Beatles White Demos, recorded at Kinfauns Esher George Harrisons house, 1968 before the proper
studio sessions got underway

1-Back In The USSR
2 Dear Prudence
3-Ob La Di Obla Da
4-Bungalow Bill
5-While My Guitar Gently Weeps
6-I'm So Tired
7- Blackbird
8-Piggies
9 Rocky Raccoon
10-Not Guilty
11-Singalong Junk
12-Julia
13- Yer Blues
14-Mother Natures Son
15-Every BOdy's Got Something To Hide except for me & my
16-Sexy Sadie
17- Sour Milk Sea
18-Revolution
19-Honey Pie
20- Cry Baby Cry
21-What's The New Mary Jane
22- Circles (colliding circles)
23-Child Of Nature
24-Julia Instrumental
25- Mean Mr Mustard
26-Polythene Pam
27 Happiness is a Warm gun


There may be a couple more of these white demos. but that gives you the idea, high quality unplugged home\
recordings of essentially the entire White album, with just a couple songs that weren't demoed.


To me all three of these are not niche albums, but big sellers, maybe now JOhn Could compile the ultimate Alternate
take guide, maybe a book should come with each album explaining each tracks history.

Maybe I am so out of touch, with the world and music business, I don't think so, I didint even touch on live albums
or alternate takes, because that's not my area, but this is not scraping the bottom of the barrel, this is some good stuff
granted, it's not as good as Abbey Road, Sgt Pepper or The White album., but there is tons of good stuff here, I Just
listed three albums that made sense to me, staying away from live and alternate takes, (with two exceptions)

now an album of the best alternate takes would be what? are there more John?


Or again, all this could be bonus material on the accompanying remixed album. It's more fun this way though

Two points:

First archival releases are rarely big sellers.  Bruce Springsteen might be the exception in that category I don't know but I believe his "Live 75-85" and "Tracks" boxset were the few of it's kind devoted entirely to archival material that sold well comparatively speaking.  The Beatles "Anthology" actually reported diminishing returns as that series went along and you have to remember that was back when The Beatles had their entire archives at their disposal.  For any future archival releases you would likely have to discount the material that has already been previously issued on "Anthology" which is why I don't consider your "Sessions" compilation to be feasible.  

The "Sessions" LP would have actually been a great idea in the eighties (especially coming off the back of the "Rarities" LP from 1980 I believe) and I'll even go so far as to guessing that it would have been a big seller given both it's compact nature and the fact that at that time most of the music contained on that album was generally unheard by the public.  That opportunity however has now long since passed on.  Even back in 1985 EMI knew what was the best of the lot as far as unreleased songs went in their archives and basically dried up that well with the material they proposed for "Sessions" and later released on "Anthology".  As far as outtakes go, even I have to admit that what is left in the vault is clearly a step below what is already featured on "Anthology".

The bottom line is archival releases by and large are aimed at collectors not the general public and therefore report back far smaller sales figures than projects marketed towards the general public.  Again maybe I'm just ignorant to the facts, but outside of Springsteen I don't think there have been any archival box sets that have done monumental business.

Secondly in regards to your alternate takes question: I took around a half hour last night going through Lewisohn once again to compile that listing of alternate takes noting each alternate version that Lewisohn mentioned as being different from it's released counterpart.  I ignored minor differences (such as the difference between take 1 of a given song and take 4) and instead concentrated on deviating versions where the arrangement of the song was different or in some cases represents an occasion where a song was remade entirely.  In other cases I made note of alternate takes that were once marked "best" by The Beatles on the various tape boxes meaning at one point they were considered to be the master take until they went back later and remade the song.  So the alternate versions I listed for the most part are the best of the rest according to Lewisohn and in some cases those who compiled the "Anthology" series.

[vintagemusic]

I'm enjoying this discussion immensely, I however disagree, with John Mill's hypothetical release, I think there are a good half
dozen releases that could do stunning business, or be used as bonus material on remixed albums. Allow me to demonstrate
two stand alone albums I think would do very very well.



THE BEATLES SESSIONS (revamped from the original 1985 idea)
note, 13 of these did appear on Anthology, but with bad mixes, a remix
would make them sound much better. FAAB & RL also appeared on Anthology
the rest has not appeared




THE BEATLES SESSIONS ALBUM (studio recordings not found on any proper album or single)

1- Free As A Bird
2- Now and Then
3-All For Love
4- Real Love
5- Blue Moon Of Kentucky
6-Baby What you want me to do
7-Carnival Of Light
8-Sour Milk Sea (new mix from Lomax multitrack, lead vocal by Harrison)
9- I lost My LIttle Girl   (Lennon vocal, let it be sessions)
10 All Things Must Pass  (composite mix from assorted Let it Be takes)
11 Etcetera  (McCartney white album ditty on acoustic ala Blackbird or Junk)
12  Who Slapped John  (abbey road outtake, Gene Vincent cover)
13 Peggy Sue Got Married   ( I me Mine outtake, Harrison on vocal)
14   Dig It Long Version    (from let it be, five minutes instead of fifty seconds)
15 Come And Get it
16 Leave My Kitten alone
17 Not Guilty
18 I'm Looking Through You (alternate version)
19 What's The New Mary Jane
20 How Do You Do It
21 Besame Mucho
22 One After 909 (1963 version)
23 If You've Got Trouble
24  That Mean's A Lot
25 While My Guitar Gently Weeps  (love version with George Martin strings)
26  Mailman Bring me No More Blues
27 Christmas Time is Here Again (new mix featuring only music and vocals, no spoken word overlay)


That particular album would have about half on Anthology in inferior mixes, and about half would be totally new songs


The Beatles Christmas album
1 1963
2 1964
3 1965
4 1966
5 1967
6 1968
7 1969

Plus additional outtake footage from these sessions, and additional studio banter like the
Think For Yourself vocal session, the Lennon Lucy From Littletown, and McCartney also has a couple
of comedy things, it would probably be OK, to add You Know My Name Look up the number as it probably
fits the wacky theme.


OK so there is two albums I would like to see, I';; leave you with one more I think would be great

The Beatles White Demos, recorded at Kinfauns Esher George Harrisons house, 1968 before the proper
studio sessions got underway

1-Back In The USSR
2 Dear Prudence
3-Ob La Di Ob la Da
4-Bungalow Bill
5-While My Guitar Gently Weeps
6-I'm So Tired
7- Blackbird
8-Piggies
9 Rocky Raccoon
10-Not Guilty
11-Singalong Junk
12-Julia
13- Yer Blues
14-Mother Natures Son
15-Every BOdy's Got Something To Hide except for me & my
16-Sexy Sadie
17- Sour Milk Sea
18-Revolution
19-Honey Pie
20- Cry Baby Cry
21-What's The New Mary Jane
22- Circles (colliding circles)
23-Child Of Nature
24-Julia Instrumental
25- Mean Mr Mustard
26-Polythene Pam
27 Happiness is a Warm gun


There may be a couple more of these white demos. but that gives you the idea, high quality unplugged home\
recordings of essentially the entire White album, with just a couple songs that weren't demoed.


To me all three of these are not niche albums, but big sellers, maybe now John Could compile the ultimate Alternate
take guide, maybe a book should come with each album explaining each tracks history.

Maybe I am so out of touch, with the world and music business, I don't think so, I didint even touch on live albums
or alternate takes, because that's not my area, but this is not scraping the bottom of the barrel, this is some good stuff
granted, it's not as good as Abbey Road, Sgt Pepper or The White album., but there is tons of good stuff here, I Just
listed three albums that made sense to me, staying away from live and alternate takes, (with two exceptions)

now an album of the best alternate takes would be what? are there more John?


Or again, all this could be bonus material on the accompanying remixed album. It's more fun this way though

Two points:

First archival releases are rarely big sellers.  Bruce Springsteen might be the exception in that category I don't know but I believe his "Live 75-85" and "Tracks" boxset were the few of it's kind devoted entirely to archival material that sold well comparatively speaking. The Beatles "Anthology" actually reported diminishing returns as that series went along and you have to remember that was back when The Beatles had their entire archives at their disposal.  For any future archival releases you would likely have to discount the material that has already been previously issued on "Anthology" which is why I don't consider your "Sessions" compilation to be feasible.  

The "Sessions" LP would have actually been a great idea in the eighties (especially coming off the back of the "Rarities" LP from 1980 I believe) and I'll even go so far as to guessing that it would have been a big seller given both it's compact nature and the fact that at that time most of the music contained on that album was generally unheard by the public. That opportunity however has now long since passed on.  Even back in 1985 EMI knew what was the best of the lot as far as unreleased songs went in their archives and basically dried up that well with the material they proposed for "Sessions" and later released on "Anthology".  As far as outtakes go, even I have to admit that what is left in the vault is clearly a step below what is already featured on "Anthology".

The bottom line is archival releases by and large are aimed at collectors not the general public and therefore report back far smaller sales figures than projects marketed towards the general public.  Again maybe I'm just ignorant to the facts, but outside of Springsteen I don't think there have been any archival box sets that have done monumental business.

Secondly in regards to your alternate takes question: I took around a half hour last night going through Lewisohn once again to compile that listing of alternate takes noting each alternate version that Lewisohn mentioned as being different from it's released counterpart.  I ignored minor differences (such as the difference between take 1 of a given song and take 4) and instead concentrated on deviating versions where the arrangement of the song was different or in some cases represents an occasion where a song was remade entirely.  In other cases I made note of alternate takes that were once marked "best" by The Beatles on the various tape boxes meaning at one point they were considered to be the master take until they went back later and remade the song.  So the alternate versions I listed for the most part are the best of the rest according to Lewisohn and in some cases those who compiled the "Anthology" series.

Those are points well taken John, but I disagree. Beatles Anthology sold somewhere between ten and twenty million copies, no wonder it started to
tail off, if the third installment had, had one or even two new songs, I'm sure sales would have gone up again.

The revamped Sessions album I proposed, I think would do very well, the tracklisting I had, included about a dozen Beatles songs, not released
anywhere!

Another thing I think would do very well. Is a new animated film in the tradition of Yellow Submarine. In fact there is a guy on the internet
who did some cartoon animation, and uses actual Beatle dialogue, from the Christmas records, various press conferences, Lennon's readings
of some of his poems, from In His Own Write and Spaniard in the Works. The only problem, is the guy's animation, is not up to standard. If it
looked as good as the graphics for the Beatles Rock Band game, it would be a winner. Write a little plot and story, add a couple characters, and
use the actual Beatle dialogue as much as possible. And inject some of the better unreleased songs, along with a few Beatle hits never seen in
a movie, and voila! Big smash.


Or really John I don't care, we know the Beatles catalogue will receive new mixes as the Yellow Submarine and Let it Be Naked proved.
and the Love album. When they remix the albums, add all this stuff as bonus material on disc two or three, I don't care how they do it
just so long, as some of that stuff becomes available. Every single big act from the classic rock era offers these bonus tracks, previously
unreleased, rarties, unknown songs, alternate takes, when they release a repackage. Witness, The recent Pink Floyd or the recent Quadrophenia
with about a dozen of Townsend's demo's, as well as half the album being mixed in 5.1, Pink Floyd went further with immersion boxes, videos
where live concerts corresponding with the particular album were included. As well as rare or unreleased tracks.

The Kinks have been issuing a ton of rare songs on their reissues. Queen made an entire new album with Freddie Mercury fragments
after his death. These projects made big money.

I could care less what the best marketing strategy is, just get it out to the public. Please. This begs one question, if the Beatles aren't going
to do this kind of thing, and the remasters was basically the end of the line, except for reissuing Magical Mystery Tour the film, and perhaps
Let it Be, then why have a large permanent staff, and an expensive executive like Jeff Jones (known for archival releases) why have this
overhead and staff if you aren't really going to be doing anything? It seems like an office with three or four people would be plenty for a company
with no big plans. They just issued all the "other" Apple artists, Billy preston, Badfinger, James Taylor etc. I believe a singles box for all those
Apple groups. You mean to tell me, they would go through the trouble of doing that. But they won't bother to release Now and Then or Carnival
Of Light.


I give up whatever John. Millions of people would love to hear that stuff, most people aren't even aware of it, but would be interested if they knew.

Yoko released the most God awful album of Lennon home demo's about five or six years ago, I forget the name. Just awful quality. This Beatle stuff
should come out. Like any other company, if customers want a product they should write the company in question, and tell Jeff Jones, Hey we would
like to hear this stuff, or at the very least, have the company issue a statement about any plans or lack of plans and why.


I don't know what the salary of a respected high level record executive is, for a guy like Jeff Jones, but he was known for mining gold out of the
archives, he doesn't come cheap. If you aren't gonna let the guy mine the archives (his specialty) why would he want to stay, and why would you
want to pay a high profile guy like that? for what reason?


Just the absence of information on the whole Beatles reunion period, and what was recorded, creates suspicion. When Bootleggers, started making
a killing marketing all that stuff, that's when the Anthology came out. Just afterwards. The only problem, no bootlegger is gonna get close to those
recordings now. But They must be protecting something. Do you realize how much it costs to maintain a climate controlled environment with security
for all those recordings,  Of course they are all transferred to digital safety copies by now. But still the cost of permanent security, That must be quite
a bit of money for something, where there is nothing there worth issuing. Of course there is more there in the archives, than any of us have a clue about
and now that EMI has gone kaput, and Universal owns the show, I would think they would be anxious to get some of their investment back.

[Heysaboda]

Those are points well taken John, but I disagree. Beatles Anthology sold somewhere between ten and twenty million copies, no wonder it started to tail off, if the third installment had, had one or even two new songs, I'm sure sales would have gone up again.

You have a lot of good points in there VM.

Re: Anthology #3, I wonder if "buyer fatigue" was starting to set in anyway; after vols. 1 and 2 did so FABULOUSLY well, there was bound to be some let down.

I personally am hoping for archival releases of Shea, The Hollywood Bowl, the complete Sweden, etc.  There are several concerts that have terrific commercial potential.  Nor sure if the big wigs at Apple/EMI agree.

[Jay]

I haven't gone through every post in this thread(some are rather long lol) so forgive me if this has been brought up already. The full version of Dig It is about 15 minutes long, not 5 minutes. The 5 minutes version was just an edit for the movie. I've heard the full 15 minute version, but I very highly doubt that it would be releaseable. The 15 minute version that I have heard features Linda Eastman's daughter on "vocals". She basically just yells and moans, much like Yoko Ono. The 15 minute version has this "vocal" very high up in the mix. It actually kind of hurts to try to get through the whole thing. 

From the top of my head, there are two unreleased recordings of The Beatles that are very interesting and would probably be the highlights of any archival release. One of them is an alternate version of What You're Doing that is in a different key, and as a result sounds quite different than the officially released version. The other is an alternate take of I'm So Tired with alternate guitar and organ overdubs. In this version there is a very unique "call and response" between John's vocal and George's(?) guitar. Other than a brief very off key note from John, it is infinitely superior to the album version, and should have at the very least been included on the Anthology set. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAtJKqpohvE

[18thofMay]

I haven't gone through every post in this thread(some are rather long lol) so forgive me if this has been brought up already. The full version of Dig It is about 15 minutes long, not 5 minutes. The 5 minutes version was just an edit for the movie. I've heard the full 15 minute version, but I very highly doubt that it would be releaseable. The 15 minute version that I have heard features Linda Eastman's daughter on "vocals". She basically just yells and moans, much like Yoko Ono. The 15 minute version has this "vocal" very high up in the mix. It actually kind of hurts to try to get through the whole thing. 

From the top of my head, there are two unreleased recordings of The Beatles that are very interesting and would probably be the highlights of any archival release. One of them is an alternate version of What You're Doing that is in a different key, and as a result sounds quite different than the officially released version. The other is an alternate take of I'm So Tired with alternate guitar and organ overdubs. In this version there is a very unique "call and response" between John's vocal and George's(?) guitar. Other than a brief very off key note from John, it is infinitely superior to the album version, and should have at the very least been included on the Anthology set. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAtJKqpohvE

This is a fake recording the guitar in the background is a joke.. Yeah??

[Jay]

Where did you hear that? I've heard and read about it for a number of years, and this is the only time I've ever read about it being a fake.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Where did you hear that? I've heard and read about it for a number of years, and this is the only time I've ever read about it being a fake.

A lot of the comments on the video are questioning its legitimacy too. If it is George, it's pretty lousy guitar work at the end.

[pixletwin]

That guitar doesn't sound like Harrison at all to me. It's pretty unimaginative too. Obviously fake.

[seltaeb1012002]

Could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's legit.

I first heard it on a CD called "Control Room Monitor Mixes" which had earlier takes of stuff like "I Am The Walrus" and "For No One". Whoever made the tape (which sounds like a tape recorder capturing the sound of the master tapes being played on control room monitors.. hence the title) was isolating the different tracks as the tapes played. Vocals, guitars, drums etc. One cool thing was hearing the drum track on For No One which isn't audible on the final version.  All of the quality is the same, and they were definitely isolating stuff that can't just be OOPS'd. So I THINK it probably is a real guitar part that they mixed out of the final version.

[Heysaboda]

Has the Original Poster set sail for other ports?  hope not!

[pixletwin]

I dunno. Did anybody show him where the delete button was? 

j/k I liked reading his posts and he usually provokes good discussions. 

[vintagemusic]

Could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's legit.

I first heard it on a CD called "Control Room Monitor Mixes" which had earlier takes of stuff like "I Am The Walrus" and "For No One". Whoever made the tape (which sounds like a tape recorder capturing the sound of the master tapes being played on control room monitors.. hence the title) was isolating the different tracks as the tapes played. Vocals, guitars, drums etc. One cool thing was hearing the drum track on For No One which isn't audible on the final version.  All of the quality is the same, and they were definitely isolating stuff that can't just be OOPS'd. So I THINK it probably is a real guitar part that they mixed out of the final version.

I have no idea if that White album stuff is real, I suspect it is, and in those days, as you young guys may not know.
Multitrack recording machines, used to have a sync button, sometimes you had to overdub out of sync, and only later
when they patched in the mix, would you hear everything in sync. Maybe that board mix or rough mix, just wasn't in sync.


Anyway here is an interesting story to ponder. I am trying to keep better notes than I used to, because I think Beatle
employees delete these stories on the internet sometimes, when people try and go back and find them for research.

Anyway after George Harrison was stabbed by that lunatic, he did recover for awhile before getting sick again, and when
he was feeling vulnerable and out of sorts from the attack, he told someone, I forget who, a friend or reporter, he said
I really need to get Paul McCartney over here, and do some playing and recording with him. Meaning over to George's
home studio at Friar Park....

There is no further record in the public archives, about whether that ever happened or not.

Here is another interesting aside, that will tie all this together in a moment. In the 79 Rolling Stone interview
with George Harrison about his first new album in three years, (George Harrison 1979) the reporter tells us
Harrison just got back for the interview, because he (Harrison) had spent the day in the recording studio with Paul
McCartney. NO further details were ever given, what Harrison just spent the day in the studio with McCartney!

Then as I stated in an earlier post, in 1981 shortly after Lennon's death, McCartney, went over to Harrison's to sing
on the Beatle reunion track, "All Those Years Ago" a Harrison song about Lennon, with harmony vocals by McCartney,
Ringo on drums, and Harrison on Lead vocals and guitar, I think Herbie Flowers played bass, and George Martin adapted
or wrote the string line, played I believe by Al Kooper. I think.. Anyway just in the last couple years, McCartney talking
about that session, says that He went over to Harrisons, to get George To play guitar on Wanderlust from the Tug of War
album released in 1982. Ringo Plays on that album, and clearly McCartney wanted Tug Of War, to be some kind of Beatle
reunion, with George Martin producing. But crafty Harrison outfoxed him, got him on All Those Years ago, and begged off
never playing on the Tug of War tracks.

After the Beatle reunion in 94-95 McCartney releases the very very Beatley "flaming pie" album in 97, no doubt in my
mind again, McCartney would have like Harrison involved, Ringo plays drums and sings on two tracks, George Martin does
some Beatley string arrangements, and Harrison Pal Jeff Lynne co-produces, the song Flaming Pie, by the way, is about
a remark Lennon made to the press, when they asked him where the name Beatles came from. Lennon replied (around 1963)
" A man on a flaming pie came to me in a dream, and he said to me, you shall be Beatles with an A!!!!!"" That quote used
to be easily found on line with Lennon saying that. But the links to that seem to have disappeared, so if anybody has that?


OK so these are some nice obscure stories, what's my point?

Well Let me answer that. First a couple more examples, then I'll tie it together for you, if you haven't already come to
a conclusion. OK?

Sometime around pre Cloud Nine, lets say around 84 or so, And forgive my lack of citing sources, but this is all well known
stuff to Beatles freaks and scholars, sometime in the early eighties,  there was a big public story, McCartney wants to write
songs with George Harrison! The world press trumpets! All our little Beatle hearts skipped a beat I can tell you!

So Harrison goes on TV Maybe for Gone Troppo or Shanghai surprise, I forget what, and Harrison answers that question
he says, Paraphrasing now "Well I've been around for 25 years, Paul could have asked me anytime to do that, maybe
it's a little late now" then Harrison adds "maybe its a good idea I don't know, I'll have to think about it"

OK, Lets flashback to around 1977-79, McCartney drops by the Dakota in New York several times over the years to
hang out with Lennon,  They hang out a few times, Lennon finally says (Lennon talks about this to Rolling Stone in 1980)
Lennon says, hey it's not 1958 anymore, you cant just drop by I have the baby (Sean) etc etc. They also do the "they almost
went and played live on Saturday Night Live" for a hundred bucks one nights.

Also actually Lennon and McCartney actually had one songwriting session, nobody knows what the name of the song is,
and there was a second writing session, but Yoko and her staff intervened, and told Paul Lennon was not home, and they
told Lennon McCartney never showed up that day.

OK, finally recently Jack Douglas,   Lennon record producer on Double Fantasy, let slip, that Lennon and McCartney had
agreed, to record and write together, for Ringo's new album, which later became "Stop and Smell The Roses" 1981, both
McCartney and Harrison contribute heavily to the album, but Lennon's contributions were never used,because of his death.
Although we know two songs, Nobody Told Me There's be Days Like These, and Life Begins at 40 were slated for the album
Maybe One of those is the one McCartney co wrote with Lennon who knows.


There was also testimony by May Pang about 1974-5 Lennon was gonna go to New Orleans and record on McCartney's
Venus and Mars album, but he went back to Yoko instead, so he didn't, in fact McCartney acted as a go between and talked
to Yoko on John's behalf, and John went home to her instead. He didn't record in the studio again until Double Fantasy.


So what is the point of all those stories, well two points, One McCartney made strong overtures to write and record with
a Beatles reunion on several occasions, actually going t John's, going to George's, writing songs in a Beatley style, hooking
up with George Martin,   Ringo always went along and played with Paul, Lennon intended to, but died, and Harrison always
played hard to get, perhaps feeling some resentment, or stress, he loved Paul, but not until 94-95 did a reunion take place.

OK one more clue, this will put it in place for you,   in around 2008, or 2009, someone asked Dhani Harrison at a rock concert in
Coachella California, about a box set of Harrison rarities, Dhani Harrison, got upset, said he had a set ready for several years, but
EMI had given him grief about releasing the material he had chosen for the set.

Then Dhani Harrison said "you have no idea what's in my dad's archives, you have no freaking idea"

What does that mean? we know there are Beatle Demos, unreleased albums and songs, demos, all kinds of stuff, live
stuff from the Dark Horse tour, we know all that  already, what did Dhani Harrison mean? we already know Clapton, Ringo
Ray Cooper, The guys from Deep Purple, Neil Innes, Jools Holland from the Squeeze, Joe Brown, we know those guys went over
and recorded dozens or hundreds of songs, regular songs, ukulele songs from the thirties, we know all that...



OK so we know two things, one Paul McCartney tried very hard on numerous occasions to interest Lennon and Later
Harrison in recording.   We know Harrison recorded zillions of unrecorded songs, privately for his own amusement, this
is where the "Brainwashed tracks were culled from in part"


Are there secret Harrison, McCartney, Starr recordings in Harrison's archives, I tend to bet there a few, they did write and
record "ALL FOR LOVE" Together  in 1995 for the Anthology reunion, they argued, Harrison pulled the plug, then later
Harrison and McCartney got very close again, towards the end, are there more secret Harrison/McCartney   recordings,
Threetles recordings, done just for their own pleasure. I Think there are , do I have proof.

All I have is the circumstantial case I just laid out for you. There is a lot going on in Denmark (beatle world) Ladies and Gentleman
that we don't have a foggy clue about. Not only will the Beatles, so far, refuse to release Now and Then and All For Love, or even
talk about it, but I think the Harrison and McCartney archives have stuff that has never been discussed openly ever.
purely a circumstantial case, but after over a decade of study, that's what I think

The desire to not reignite Beatlemania,, the desire to stay low profile, Lennon was murdered, another nutcase tried to kill
Harrison, I saw Ringo at the studio, sure enough he travels with security, but I digress.

What was Harrison doing with McCartney in the studio in 1979? as he says in the Rolling Stone interview, what happened
to the song, Lennon McCartney wrote at the Dakota? where's the tape? Keith Badman says in his book, Lennon made a studio
recording of "Life Begins at 40 for Ringo" The Bootleg demo we have heard is clearly not the studio recording.


There is a lot more unreleased Beatles, and Beatle reunion stuff, that we have no idea about, that's my view. I have no interest
in intruding on the privacy of the Beatles, but I sure as hell want to hear the recordings, and read about the sessions as we did in
Lewishons. book. Guess who knows abut this,  Mark Lewishon, Guess when his book covering all this stuff is due to come out, in about
10-15 years. I"ll be dead by then probably, I'd like to read about, and hear that stuff, while I am still breathing

Anybody got something to add..

[Jay]

There was also the time where Mccartney, Harrison and Starr reunited for an impromptu jam when they all attended Eric Clapton's wedding in 1979. Supposedly John later said that he would have gone too had he been invited.

[Lonely Summer]

My feeling about archive releases from the Fabs is this: they are known as the #1 group of all time, and they don't like to put anything out unless it is a guaranteed #1. Yellow Submarine Songtrack and Let it Be Naked were exceptions. The Anthology albums were all chart toppers, although each sold less than the one before it. It was gonna be hard to top that network premiere of the Anthology series and Free As a Bird. You can only have the first new Beatles song in 25 years once. The 1 CD was a no brainer, fans had been clamoring for a single disc hits collection for years - still seems silly that the Red Album has to be spread out over 2 cd's, it could easily fit on one with room to spare. If they had any intention of putting out further rarities, they would have done so by now. The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl should have been on cd years ago; Shea Stadium footage was cleaned up for use in the Anthology, ditto for Let it Be. Paul doesn't like LIB because parts of it show the Fabs being less than fab; Shea? Who knows. In a better world, they would have something similar to Dylan's Bootleg Series, or the FTD (Follow That Dream) label that releases rare Elvis stuff. Not gonna happen.

[vintagemusic]

My feeling about archive releases from the Fabs is this: they are known as the #1 group of all time, and they don't like to put anything out unless it is a guaranteed #1. Yellow Submarine Songtrack and Let it Be Naked were exceptions. The Anthology albums were all chart toppers, although each sold less than the one before it. It was gonna be hard to top that network premiere of the Anthology series and Free As a Bird. You can only have the first new Beatles song in 25 years once. The 1 CD was a no brainer, fans had been clamoring for a single disc hits collection for years - still seems silly that the Red Album has to be spread out over 2 cd's, it could easily fit on one with room to spare. If they had any intention of putting out further rarities, they would have done so by now. The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl should have been on cd years ago; Shea Stadium footage was cleaned up for use in the Anthology, ditto for Let it Be. Paul doesn't like LIB because parts of it show the Fabs being less than fab; Shea? Who knows. In a better world, they would have something similar to Dylan's Bootleg Series, or the FTD (Follow That Dream) label that releases rare Elvis stuff. Not gonna happen.

Well friend, your views are the prevailing views, of deep Beatles and classic rock fans who post on these type of forums.
I certainly hope you are wrong in spades.


Remember no one ever thought the anthology with several new songs being recorded would ever happen. It was unthinkable.
Now with only two Beatles left, and pushing 70 years old no new or additional Beatle recordings are possible. However there
are two more reunion songs in the can, and it was fair game for McCartney to finish off Now And Then, after all it was intended for
this purpose when Yoko gave them the tape. All For Love was created for the same reasons, except it gave Paul and George a chance
to write and sing, which any Beatle reunion needs, a writing/singing contribution from McCartney and Harrison. Sour Milk Sea can easily
be outfaked into a legit White Album type record, Carnival of light, though noncommercial, is a historic important piece. Plus all the other
songs and recordings we have talked about in the thread.

The Beatles are people like anybody else, who can change their mind anytime, and they have, and hopefully will again, McCartney
has wanted this stuff out, although this isn't a big issue to these Busy, wealthy ex Beatles and their widows, from time to time
they have an awareness of this issue, and I personally don't accept the idea it is taboo, or out of bounds, or some group of Apple
records lawyers or employees, have decreed it's out of bounds. Hell no. I believe the Beatles would be moved to reconsider if the
case was brought to their attention. We have an army of self serving employees, who believe it won't make money or it will damage
the legacy or whatever views they hold. I remind you again, Jeff Jones  was brought on board at Apple to take over for Neil Aspinall
and Jones is an archival specialist, whose greatest accomplishment in the professional world of music executives, was his oversight
and compilation of terrific sets of Archival music from name artists. This is the man's specialty. He doesn't come cheap.

The question in my mind becomes, how to best package this remaining material in a profitable and tasteful way. Simply an anthology
four or download bonus tracks, misses the boat on something, if done right could be very very big, true they shot their wad on the anthology
but in retrospect, as John Mill so clearly pointed out, there is a helluva lot of good stuff remaining in the archives.

very quiet whispers deep inside Apple, indicate two competing plans, one a new stand alone compilation album of some kind featuring
both well known and unreleased material, or two, some sort of remixed Beatle catalogue on the later albums, including bonus discs of
extra tracks, alternate mixes and so forth.


Maybe Olivia or Dhani Harrison, or someone else has temporarily put a deep six on it. Dhani Harrison wanted to pursue his own
career for a few years before diving back into his fathers archives. Maybe the demise of EMI has had an effect on plans, If you
noticed the ITUNES exclusive was ended the other day, A digital juke box company with fifty thousand machines was given the right
to play Beatles songs in 50,000 locations, that was a first. With the fiftieth anniversary fast approaching, and the Itunes exclusive ending,
with the demise of EMI whom the Beatles hated, for being treated and cheated so badly, there are signs something may be happening.
We are pretty certain a revamped Magical Mystery Tour is coming soon, the film that is. That is not a big release, although it will contain
new audio mixes and bonus footage.

I think in the next two years, many serious analysts expect possibly to see these songs begin to surface. But that is not a sure
thing by any means. But to say the archives is off the table is untrue. There is too much value and history there. Also look at McCartney's
new cloud service, they may be looking at that as a model, for future archival releases. We'll know  more as time goes on.

I certainly hope your views are wrong friend, that would be like the end of summer and no more Apple pie! There are some good
Beatle tracks, and we need to keep reminding them we want to hear it. What would you rather have another greatest hits album?
The archival material and new mixes is all they have left. Paul McCartney is a smart guy, he didn't go in an finish Now And Then not
to use it. I wonder if the engineers cried when they heard the playback, I think they might of.

[Heysaboda]

FYI

This is an interview with Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who speculates that Let It Be "may" see the light of day on DVD/Blu Ray in the year 2012.

Wouldn't it be nice!  (Won't hold my breath though.)

http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2011/10/the_beatles_let_it_be_and_magi.html

[Lonely Summer]

I do hope they change their minds about this stuff. Would love to have a cleaned up Shea disc in my collection, complete Hollywood Bowl concerts, Let it Be on dvd with bonus footage, and whatever is left of the Threetles reunion. But, yeah, not holding my breath.