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5.15pm
5 February 2010
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I did a forum-wide search and saw that this bootleg album came up as an aside in one post on an Anthology thread. I’d like to know more about it, though, and since it’s not really part of the Anthology, I’m starting a separate thread for just this album. I was able to track down a copy, and I have to say, I really, really enjoyed it. I’m not sure if it’s just the way the tracks were mixed, or if I just haven’t heard some of these alternate-take songs in a long time, but I listened to it “front to back” twice in a row.
The previously mentioned post in the Anthology thread linked to this site for more information but I still had some questions that maybe some of the smarter audiophiles here can answer. The disc says it’s a “collaboration between Darthdisc and Helter Skelter Records”, but it also seems (from some of the comments on that site’s thread) that EMI was somehow involved in some capacity.
Anyone know the back story on this? Was it once-upon-a-time intended to be an official release that just got shelved? Or did this “Darthdisc/Helter Skelter Records” group somehow get ahold of some original tapes?
The mixes of “Come And Get It ” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da ” sound slightly different to me than what appears on the Anthology discs — maybe some extra echo on the drums, or a bit of bass boost? Those tracks just sound somehow “bigger” to me on this bootleg. I really love the “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da ” mix in particular. I think that version should have been the one on the White Album .
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meanmistermustardNot a bit like Cagney.
5.40pm
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1 May 2011
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I believe it was an early collection of tracks that EMI drew up on the quiet before it suffered further editing and mixing and was slimmed down for what became ‘Sessions’, a work in progress if you like. A handful of the tracks are definitely pre-‘Sessions’ as the edits are either not there or are different. The album was originally going to be titled ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ before it became ‘Sessions’.
EMI wouldnt have been involved in the bootleg getting out but the source for the tapes might have been someone who worked in EMI who managed to get a copy of the tape when working there. As with many bootleg the sources for the material are not disclosed.
Thanks for the reminder of this by the way as i lost a lot of files when a hard drive died and i cannot remember if my copy is anywhere or not. I managed to find a working link to grab it again.
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Necko"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
5.57pm
5 February 2010
Offline meanmistermustard said
I believe it was an early collection of tracks that EMI drew up on the quiet before it suffered further editing and mixing and was slimmed down for what became ‘Sessions’, a work in progress if you like.
Ah, thanks for the info. I still wonder if EMI was at some point planning to release this collection, before the Anthology happened and probably overshadowed this.
BTW, I’m not familiar with “Sessions.” Is that another bootleg?
Now that you’ve got a working copy of the “Basement/Boardroom” tapes, I’m interested in your take: are those versions of “Come And Get It ” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da ” different from what you hear on the Anthology tracks? Or am I just hearing things?
Not a bit like Cagney.
6.56pm
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1 May 2011
Offline I’ll upload it to my ipod tonight, play it the whole way and get back to you in a day or so. I download whatever grabs my attention, eventually get around to adding it to my itunes library (needs to be done properly), then get around to syncing it to my ipod and then get around to actually playing it. I have such a backlog of music to listen to its beyond a joke.
‘Sessions’ was an album EMI planned to release in 1985 and was in the making for a good few years before. EMI kept it all quiet from Apple whilst compiling and getting the album into a releasable state (even creating cover art and getting LPs pressed), Geoff Emerick did a lot of the mixing for it. When Apple eventually found out they blocked its release and so the album quickly fell into the hands of bootleggers and has been put out hundreds of times in various guises.
It was to these mixes that Apple went back to for the ‘Anthology’ series (sadly as many of which were horribly mixed (due to it being the 80’s) and had awful, pointless edits) instead of creating new ones.
Far more can be read here – and its well worth doing so.
[Warning – contained in the spoiler below is a rant which contains some words that are not very nice. If you dont want to read the rant please dont open the spoiler. Thank you.
]
This is where a lot of my annoyance for Apple comes from. That and cancelling a 30th Anniversary White Album box of outtakes which was well down the production line and instead giving us a limited edition pen that cost $200 (or some other rip-off amount). It still pisses me off. A f*****g pen!!!!!! Forget outtakes here’s an overpriced biro you couldn’t give a s**t about because thats why we all got into the Beatles in the first place.
And breathe.
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Zig"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
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