In this series, In The Life Of...The Beatles presents the top 10 unreleased recordings of the Beatles.
In my personal opinion, the most desirable unreleased recording of the Beatles is a live performance of "We Can Work It Out" -- which may not exist at all. Perhaps the rarest of Beatles live songs, "We Can Work It Out" was performed for a brief time during the Beatles' British tour in December 1965, following the release of the double-A-sided "We Can Work It Out"/"Day Tripper."
Unless some enterprising person recorded this using a portable tape recorder (itself somewhat of a rarity in 1965), then a live performance of this song may be lost to history. It would be interesting to hear how the harmonies translated in a live setting of this wonderful song -- a great single and a true Lennon/McCartney collaboration. For now, all we have are pictures from the tour, showing both Paul and John on organ (presented at right) and Robert Murray's attempt at coming up with what it may have sounded like, presented below, along with the Beatles miming the song from the television special, The Music of Lennon & McCartney.
In this series, In The Life Of...The Beatles presents the top 10 unreleased recordings of the Beatles.
I realize the legendary 27-minute version of "Helter Skelter" tops the lists of most people in terms of Beatles recordings they would like to hear, but just to mix things up I've decided to place it in the #2 spot. This recording has been written about extensively here and it is still no closer to being released. The last best chance was its consideration for inclusion on The Beatles Anthology 3 at the urging of Mark Lewisohn, who was asked by George Martin, "Why is this important?" For a hint of what it might sound like, here's an excerpt of take 2 from the same session, with a great vocal performance from Paul.
In this series, In The Life Of...The Beatles presents the top 10 unreleased recordings of the Beatles.
There are too many great as-yet-unheard outtakes from the Revolver sessions to choose from. Here are some examples:
"Mark I" ("Tomorrow Never Knows") - takes 2-3 - take 1 was released on Anthology 2.
"Got To Get You Into My Life" - takes 1-4, 6-8. Take 5 was released on Anthology 2.
"Love You To" - take 1 - An acoustic recording with George on guitar and lead vocal, with Paul providing backing vocals. The song was titled "Granny Smith" at the time.
"Rain" - takes 1-5
"Dr. Robert" - takes 1-7
"And Your Bird Can Sing" - take 1, takes 3-13. Take 1 was reportedly unrecognizable in terms of how it ended up on the album (take 2 was released on Anthology 2).
"Taxman" - takes 1-10 (take 11 was released on Anthology 2).
"I'm Only Sleeping" - takes 1-11 (An early all-acoustic "take 1" was released on Anthology 2).
Here's an outtake that did surface thanks to the Anthology series (released on the "Real Love" single), this is "Here, There and Everywhere" take 7 (with overdubs from take 14):
In this series, In The Life Of...The Beatles presents the top 10 unreleased recordings of the Beatles.
A Beatles song that has never been heard to this day, "Etcetera" was recorded at EMI Studios on August 20, 1968 as a demo by Paul McCartney, who had previously (back in 1965) intended to give the song to Marianne Faithfull. Paul took the tape home after the session, so he retains the only known copy. Revisiting the song in 1968, Paul may have reworked the song, as he was initially dissatisfied with it himself:
McCARTNEY: "I knew Marianne Faithfull so it was natural that I would be asked to write a song at some point. I did write a song but it was not a very good one. It was called 'Etcetera' and it's a bad song. I think it's a good job that it's died a death in some tape bin. Even then I seem to remember thinking it wasn't very good. There was always the temptation to keep your better songs for yourself and then give your next-best songs to other established people, so when it was someone like Marianne, who at that time was a newcomer, those people would tend to end up with fairly dreadful offerings of mine. I suppose, thinking back on it, after 'As Tears Go By' maybe they were looking for more sort of a 'Yesterday', something more poignant, more baroque. I probably thought, well, this is really all I've got at the moment. I'll send it round and hope it's all okay, and maybe they'll put a baroque thing on it and that'll make it okay. She probably did 'Yesterday' because they figured, 'Well at least it's better than "Etcetera"'."
Here's a set of Marianne Faithfull's early performance clips, including "As Tears Go By" and "Yesterday":
In this series, In The Life Of...The Beatles presents the top 10 unreleased recordings of the Beatles.
Paul McCartney purchased at Sotheby's in 1985 a tape of a live set of the Beatles performing at the Cavern circa July 1962. None of it has since seen the light of day, but the song titles alone make it an extremely unique item. The set list includes:
"Hey Baby"
"If You Gotta Make a Fool Of Somebody"
"Hippy Hippy Shake"
"Please Mr. Postman"
"Roll Over Beethoven"
"Ask Me Why"
"Sharing You"
"Your Feet's Too Big"
"Words Of Love"
"Till There Was You"
"Dizzy Miss Lizzie"
"I Forgot To Remember To Forget"
"Matchbox" (vocal: Pete Best)
"Shimmy Shake"
"Young Blood"
"Dream Baby"
Here's an example of what some of it may sound like. This is "The Hippy Hippy Shake" from a few months later, at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany, December 1962:
In this series, In The Life Of...The Beatles presents the top 10 unreleased recordings of the Beatles.
In October 1960, Allan Williams arranged a recording session for Lu Walters (bass player from Rory Storm & the Hurricanes) at Akustik Studio in Hamburg, Germany. Backing him that day was the Beatles, including Rory Storm's drummer at the time, Ringo Starr. The cut that the Beatles played on, George Gershwin's "Summertime," may be the first recording ever to feature all four Beatles (John, Paul, George, and future Beatle Ringo; left out were Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe, who were also members of the Beatles at the time). When Allan Williams visited the Beatles during the making of Let It Be, he mentioned that he still had an acetate of this recording (unfortunately, he didn't bring it along while the cameras were rolling!). Unfortunately, Williams later lost the disc after leaving it behind it at a pub. It hasn't been seen since, making it perhaps the rarest Beatle recording known to exist. Whether it really still does exist, however, is anybody's guess.
This version by Gene Vincent may be how the Beatles approached the song:
In this series, In The Life Of...The Beatles presents the top 10 unreleased recordings of the Beatles.
For whatever reason, John Barrett neglected to make a tape copy of take 3 of the superb "Norwegian Wood (Third Bird Has Flown)" when dubbing copies of certain session tapes while he documented Beatles recordings for the Beatles at Abbey Road studio tour that occurred in 1983. Mark Lewisohn, one of the few to have heard it, described it as follows: "Take three was predominantly acoustic, with two acoustic guitars and Paul's bass, and nothing else bar vocals from John and Paul. This take saw the introduction of the acoustic opening which was to remain for the final version. Take four was that final version, with sitar reinstated."
Here's take 4, where John shows that he can master the guitar intro: "I showed ya!"
In this series, In The Life Of...The Beatles presents the top 10 unreleased recordings of the Beatles.
By some mysterious stroke of good luck, Bob Molyneux happened to record two songs of the Quarry Men's Woolton Fete gig on July 6, 1957 -- the day that John Lennon met Paul McCartney. The tape was put up for auction at Sotheby's in 1994. Molyneux said of the recordings, "They still give me goose pimples after 37 years." It eventually sold for £78,500 to EMI. Though the recordings are of poor quality, they would still be interesting to hear in their entirety. Here are fragments of the two songs recorded that day: Lonnie Donegan's "Puttin' On The Style" and Elvis Presley's "Baby, Let's Play House."
In this series, In The Life Of...The Beatles presents the top 10 unreleased recordings of the Beatles.
On June 3, 1964, the Beatles (without Ringo) recorded three demos of new songs that they were working on. Two of these recordings were eventually released on The Beatles Anthology 2, which included George's early composition "You Know What To Do" and John's "No Reply." Paul also recorded a demo of a new arrangement of "It's For You," intended for Cilla Black. The demo remains unreleased to this day.
Here's Cilla miming to her recording of the song as part of the television special The Music of Lennon & McCartney:
In this series, In The Life Of...The Beatles presents the top 10 unreleased recordings of the Beatles.
Actually untitled when the Beatles committed it to tape, this "song" has become the most famous unreleased avant garde recording by the Beatles. While I don't think it would be a particularly enthralling listen, its status among Beatles fans alone makes it worthy of inclusion on this list.
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"Carnival of Light" is an unreleased experimental piece by The Beatles. It was recorded on January 5, 1967, after the vocal overdubbing sessions for "Penny Lane". The track was created for The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, an event held at the Roundhouse Theatre on January 28 and February 4, 1967.
History
The genesis of the track came in December 1966 from designer David Vaughan (part of the designer trio Binder, Edwards & Vaughan), who had recently painted a psychedelic design on a piano owned by Paul McCartney. About the same time as he delivered the piano to McCartney's Cavendish Avenue address, he asked if McCartney would contribute a musical piece for the upcoming The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave. To Vaughan’s surprise McCartney agreed to make a contribution.
The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave (sometimes referred to as The Carnival of Light Rave) was an art festival organised by Binder, Edwards & Vaughan as a showcase for electronic music and light shows. It was held at the Chalk Farm Road Roundhouse Theatre and featured on the bill not only a public playing of 'Carnival of Light' but performances by Unit Delta Plus, whose members included early electronic music pioneers Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and fellow electronic artist Peter Zinovieff. "Carnival of Light" was created for this event.
Recording and mix
Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn, who listened to the song in 1987 while compiling his book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, says the song included "distorted, hypnotic drum and organ sounds, a distorted lead guitar, the sound of a church organ, various effects (water gargling was one) and, perhaps most intimidating of all, John Lennon and McCartney screaming dementedly and bawling aloud random phrases like 'Are you alright?' and 'Barcelona!'"
Barry Miles, the official McCartney biographer, wrote in Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now that the song had "no rhythm, although a beat is sometimes established for a few bars by the percussion or a rhythmic pounding piano. There is no melody, although snatches of a tune sometimes threaten to break through."
"I said all I want you to do is just wander around all the stuff, bang it, shout, play it, it doesn't need to make any sense. Hit a drum, then wander onto the piano, hit a few notes and just wander around," said McCartney in November 2008.
The basic bed track of an organ playing bass notes and drums was recorded at a slow speed, giving them a deeper sound. There is also a huge amount of reverb used on the instruments and on Lennon's and McCartney's vocals (the only two voices on the track); Lennon and McCartney also recorded Native American war cries, whistling, close-miked gasping, genuine coughing and fragments of studio conversation. Other overdubs to the song include bursts of guitar feedback, schmaltzy cinema organ, snatches of jangling pub piano and electronic feedback with Lennon shouting 'Electricity!'. The track concludes with McCartney asking the studio engineer in an echo-soaked voice, "Can we hear it back now?"
Also, according to Barry Miles, musically it "resembles "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" from Frank Zappa 's Freak Out! album, except there is no rhythm and the music ... is more fragmented, abstract and serious."
Dudley Edwards (one of the organizers of The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave and friend of McCartney's) said that an early take of "Fixing a Hole" (from Sgt. Pepper's) with a piano appeared during the song. It is unlikely that a sample of an early take was heard since the recording of "Fixing a Hole" did not commence until five days after the last The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, but it is not impossible that McCartney played a few bars of the song on the track.
Some reports indicate that it is around fourteen minutes long and Paul McCartney has said it was around fifteen minutes. In The Complete Beatles Chronicle it is listed as lasting 13 minutes and 48 seconds.
Although Lewisohn's book says that a rough mono mix was given to Vaughan, Miles claims that the mix down “was made with full stereo separation, and is an exercise in musical layers and textures”. Whether a second mix was made after the event or Vaughan was in fact given a stereo mix which was not logged in Abbey Road’s records is unspecified. Edwards has said the tape was taken to America by one Ray Anderson (who was brought over from the U.S. to assist with the light show). The master session tapes of Carnival of Light are still at Abbey Road Studios.
Unreleased status
"Carnival of Light" has not yet appeared on any release, either official or a bootleg recording. In 1996 McCartney tried to release the track on the compilation album The Beatles Anthology 2, but George Harrison voted to reject it. According to McCartney, the reason was that "he didn't like avant garde music" and referred to avant garde as 'avant garde a clue' ("I haven't got a clue"). George Harrison had also created avant-garde music as a solo composer (in 1969 he released an experimental album using the then new Moog synthesizer called Electronic Sound), and dabbled in the avant-garde with a couple of his Beatles compositions.
In August 1996, McCartney claimed (in an interview for Mojo) that he was working on a photo collage film of the Beatles that was similar to a film made about the Grateful Dead in 1995 called Grateful Dead -- A Photo Film. He was planning to use "Carnival of Light" in the soundtrack, but this project has yet to be seen and McCartney has not commented on the film's status since 2002.
In November 2008, Paul McCartney confirmed he still owned the master tapes, adding that he suspected "the time has come for it to get its moment. I like it because it's the Beatles free, going off piste." McCartney would need the consent of Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison, as well as Ringo Starr to release the track.
In this series, In The Life Of...The Beatles presents the top 10 unreleased recordings of the Beatles.
Unless some enterprising person recorded this using a portable tape recorder (itself somewhat of a rarity in 1965), then a live performance of this song may be lost to history. It would be interesting to hear how the harmonies translated in a live setting of this wonderful song -- a great single and a true Lennon/McCartney collaboration. For now, all we have are pictures from the tour, showing both Paul and John on organ (presented at right) and Robert Murray's attempt at coming up with what it may have sounded like, presented below, along with the Beatles miming the song from the television special, The Music of Lennon & McCartney.
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