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joelcrowservo
Feb 22, 2004, 07:10 PM
After a looong hiatus, its time now for the return of... Beatles Bootleg Reviews! (or at least MY version therof...)
To begin with, its been a boom time for boots for me, so lets get started with something simple, yet good:
http://vega.c.oka-pu.ac.jp/~sakaki/BOOTLEG/BEATLES/acetates2.jpg
The Beatles-"Acetates"Yellow Dog 081, 2002
TRack Listing:
Disc 1:
Bad To Me
One and One Is Two
Waltzing Matlida
12 Bar Original
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
A Day In The Life
Magical Mystery Tour
The Fool On The Hill
Blue Jay Way
Blue Jay Way 2
Your Mother Should Know
I Am The Walrus
Flying
Christmas Time (Is Here Again)
Whats The New Mary Jane
Goodbye
Something
I Me Mine
Kenny Everett

DISC 2
A Hard Days Night
And I Love Her
If I Fell
Help!
The Night Before
I Need You
Ticket To Ride
You Like Me Too Much
Yes It Is
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Another Girl
Youre Going To Lose That Girl
Get Back
Teddy Boy
Two Of Us
Dig A Pony
I've Got A Feeling
Long and Winding Road
Let It Be
Don't Let Me Down
For You Blue
Get Back
The Walk
************
At Abbey Road in the 60s, when the Beatles wanted to hear one of their unfinished masterpieces back, they didnt get a tape. They got an acetate, a fragile record album meant to be played only once or twice, due to its fragile state. However, many of these acetates have survived, and now we can hear these works in progress on CD, which you can play forever (presumably..!)
Yellow Dogs "Acetates" discs are not new to the Beatlegging public; a version of "Acetates" came out as far back as 1988, but this is an expanded edition, with two discs and plenty of extra tracks. Many of these tracks were pre-final mixes, and thus don't have certain effects or little things we're used to; or served as demos of songs for the band or publishers to hear before they were recorded officially.
The first disc works in roughly chronological order, kicking off with John and Pauls demo for "Bad To Me", which if you have not heard, is worth price of admission alone. Billy J. Kramer wound up with this gem, and butchered it, as was Billys wont. This appearance is a bit shorter than whats out there elsewhere, but nevermind. Another Lennon-McCartney castaway is one from the island of misfit fab tunes, "One And One Is Two". Oooff. What a crappy song of Pauls! Worse than "If Youve Got Troubles"? You be the judge.
"12 Bar Original" makes another appearance here, but sounds good. Its take 2 I believe. One of the big surprises for me on this disc was the acetate for "Sgt. Peppers". Its the basic track without lead guitar or horns, and with the full, unedited ending later chopped off to make way for Billy Shears.
Most of the others you probably know; the basic take of "I Am The Walrus", Pauls "Goodbye"; Georges demo for "Something" (which differs from the "Anthology 3" version due to a piano overdub)..and then theres "Mary Jane". Hey, now theres one worse than "One and One.."! images/icons/wink.gif This is just sheer cacophany, much different from the Anthology 3 re-mix, which at least you could listen to once...And "Christmas Time" is not an actual acetate, just a garden variety bootleg, and not even the entire take (to spare us the pain of the whole thing, perhaps? images/icons/wink.gif )
Disc 2 features, OUT of chronological order, the film acetates from "A Hard Days Night" (which here apparently come from a radio program on the records publisher Dick James left behind!), "Help!" and "Let It Be". The "AHDN" acetates are the same as you hear on disc, except that "And I Love Her" is the US mix, with spare double tracking from Paul.
The "Help!" discs have a couple of interesting points: the title track as heard here is the 'stereo mix', with the fast vocals from John, while the original film soundtrack features a totaly different version of the song! Keep in mind, what you are hearing are discs cut for the films producers, so it makes me wonder which came first, the mono or the stereo mix of "Help!"..
"Youre Gonna Lose That Girl" has a different guitar solo here, and all tracks have this abrupt announcement at the beginning which I find quite funny. Also..was "You Like Me Too Much" once considered for the film? Odd.
The rest of the last disc is comprised of "Let It Be" acetates, or rather, the "Get Back" referencce acetate. Youve heard these before, and they are all different from the LP versions, except for "Get Back", which seems to have a bit more bass in the mix than the single. It all wraps up with a take of McCracklins "The Walk", which some find amusing, and this apparently includes Paul.
SUMMARY/RATING- 3 1/2 Stars: Its fun to hear these records pretty much only meant for the Beatles, or their inner circles, ears.But again, it all comes down to alternate mixes, and works in progress to hear. So is it worth it? Well, if you dont have these tracks elsewhere, totally worth it. Not one you'll pull out too often, but a fun listen nevertheless.
*******************************
Next time...maybe some solo Paul, how 'bout it? See ya then, and now, your commentary. Thanks for the attention, and see ya next week, Beatle-people, for Beatles Bootleg Reviews!!

[ Feb 22, 2004, 08:36 PM: Message Edited By: joelcrowservo ]

Legs
Feb 25, 2004, 01:41 PM
You can download the Acetates from here: Acetates download (http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Performance/1303/Page2.htm)

The webmaster has only 4 songs up at the time so it might take awhile, also the site isn't always up but I just been there and have downloaded a mp3 so it is working, when the site is down try a little later.

onosideboards
Feb 25, 2004, 04:21 PM
Acetates are boring. Glad I never spent money on my acetates disc. images/icons/smile.gif

beatlesfan2003
Feb 25, 2004, 07:08 PM
Hey Legs. Thanks for the Acetates website. Bad news is I discovered it to late and i missed the first 5 tracks. Can anyone please send me these tracks if they have they are...
Bad To Me
One and One Is Two
Waltzing Matlida
12 Bar Original
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

Thanks very much to anyone that can help me. Joe.

Legs
Feb 25, 2004, 11:36 PM
Thanks for the review, now I know I won't buy the cd! I've got the first accetates cd, which I believe was released in 1991, and this set really has nothing new to offer. The Sgt. Pepper one is about the only new and interesting outtake, and why do they bother to put more Get Back stuff on the cd when it all has been released before.

Accetates isn't the only re-release by Yellow Dog, they manage to release a double cd of the Rooftop concert, after first saying that the original cd was complete, and we have a double set of the Control Room monitor mixes, with on disc 2 even some tracks that are on disc 1.
The later Yellow Dog releases imo are not as good as what they released in the passed.

Still if I could only found someone I could trade with, I wouldn't mind, if only for the Sgt. Pepper's outtake, but I am not going to buy it.

Legs
Feb 28, 2004, 02:44 PM
Originally Posted By onosideboards:
Acetates are boring. Glad I never spent money on my acetates disc. images/icons/smile.gif <font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">What do you mean acetates are boring, it depends on what is on the acetate. There are acetates of complete outtakes the Beatles were working on, songs like "Goodbey" the take 2 of "A Day In The Life". It is the same if you said you don't like outtakes.

Maybe you're confusing acetates with control room monitor mixes, which are often incomplete, has talking throughout the songs, either of the Beatles or that of engineers, and are often in not so good sound quality.

Joe I discovered the update to late myself.I thought the site has gone kaput.I was just searching for some sites with mp3's and found it was updated.

I might be able to upload "Bad To Me" and "One and One is Two". "12 Bar" is to long for me to upload, and I don't know what "Waltzing Matlida" is supose to be, I also don't have the version of "Sgt. Pepper".

Legs
Feb 29, 2004, 02:35 AM
Originally Posted By beatlesfan2003:
Hey Legs. Thanks for the Acetates website. Bad news is I discovered it to late and i missed the first 5 tracks. Can anyone please send me these tracks if they have they are...
Bad To Me
One and One Is Two
Waltzing Matlida
12 Bar Original
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

Thanks very much to anyone that can help me. Joe.<font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">Hi Joe I've uploaded "Bad To Me" and "One and One is Two.You can download them from
downloads.htm (http://home.zonnet.nl/carryingwords/downloads.htm)

joelcrowservo
Feb 29, 2004, 07:17 AM
I realised after I wrote the review that my disc does not have "Waltzing Matlida" on it, so I'm not sure what it is either. But yes, acetates can be a cool source of alternate mixes and such. I suspect theyre more fun to actually OWN one, but..
and the "Sgt Pepper" version here is indeed a must have.
Be back soon with that McCartney review..or rather reviews.... images/icons/smile.gif

onosideboards
Mar 02, 2004, 07:06 AM
Originally Posted By Legs:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">Quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">Originally Posted By onosideboards:
Acetates are boring. Glad I never spent money on my acetates disc. images/icons/smile.gif <font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">What do you mean acetates are boring, it depends on what is on the acetate. There are acetates of complete outtakes the Beatles were working on, songs like "Goodbey" the take 2 of "A Day In The Life". It is the same if you said you don't like outtakes.

Maybe you're confusing acetates with control room monitor mixes, which are often incomplete, has talking throughout the songs, either of the Beatles or that of engineers, and are often in not so good sound quality.

Joe I discovered the update to late myself.I thought the site has gone kaput.I was just searching for some sites with mp3's and found it was updated.

I might be able to upload "Bad To Me" and "One and One is Two". "12 Bar" is to long for me to upload, and I don't know what "Waltzing Matlida" is supose to be, I also don't have the version of "Sgt. Pepper".</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">Nope, I'm not confusing acetates with control room remixes. Those can be boring too, but it can be funny to hear them fast forward the tapes. images/icons/wink.gif

I mean that Yellow Dog's Acetates disc didn't bring anything new to my collection and the sound quality was worse than elsewhere.

Legs
Mar 02, 2004, 07:33 AM
Yellow Dog was the first one to release these Acetates, on their first Acetates disc. At that time they were the first and had the best sound avaiable.

The re-release tho doesn't offer anything really new.

Still I don't understand why acetates are boring, they are outtakes, taken from acetates.

Legs
Mar 21, 2004, 10:28 AM
I forgot that I do have the accetate version of "Sgt Peppers" afterall! It's on the alternate Sgt. Peppers by Pear, so I really don't have to buy this Acetates set, or trade for it.

So Joe, if you still are around, I can upload the version of Sgt. Peppers to, that leaves us only with Waltzing Matlida missing.