Your favourite Beatles bootlegs

One of these days, I'll delete everything on my phone except for A/B Road and get through the entire thing.

 

Ultra Rare Trax 1 & 2 were the first must-have and hold a special place on my shelf. The Great Dane BBC box was the best bootleg I've ever seen. Both have been eclipsed by better sound quality and\or more complete releases, but these releases set a high standard for collectors.

 

I read about Sweet Apple Trax in Nicholas Schafner's book and became obsessed to one day hear it. I first heard tracks from it visiting friends at Oswego State in 1980, when a DJ played them on the school radio. I know now that they were just Nagra takes but at the time was very cool to hear them. I think the first boot I bought though was Decca, excellent quality- playback speeds not withstanding.

 

The great thing about boots is you can download them guilt free

 

all the lps released by the swinging pig label in the late 80's early 90's

 

Up until the mid-'90s, I had every Beatles and solo bootleg so I'm working from my 49-year-old memory:

Vinyl :
Broadcasts
Yellow Matter Custard
The Beatles At The Beeb - 13 volumes of BBC sessions in unbelievable sound quality

Ultra Rare Trax 1-6 ; the first two were drop-dead fabulous quality; 3&4 had their moments, 5&6 were merely recycled stuff
Sessions
Get Back (several versions)


Live In Paris 1965 - Swingin' Pig 2lp (red & blue vinyl)
Stars Of '63 - Swingin'Pig (blue vinyl)
Budokan '66 - Swingin' Pig (blue vinyl)
From Us To You - Swingin' Pig 3lp (blue/yellow/green vinyl)
Sam Houston 2lp
Five Nights In A Judo Arena
300, 000 Fans Can't Be Wrong - Australia 1964
Hollywood Bowl
The Decca Tapes (Circuit Records)
Deccagone coloured vinyl singles
Airtime (BBC tracks & Swedish Radio Show)
Studio Sessions 1&2 (actually BBC stuff)
Not For Sale
Not Guilty
Silver Lining (a mish-mash of poor-to-decent-sounding stuff, but I always liked it)
File Under: Beatles

And lots, lots more. Sigh.................................

 

Back trax is a nice bootleg greatest hits. I can play it for the family.... I mean COULD play it ...... Without making them sit through unfinished stuff

 

Stockholm radio broadcast 1963 aka Stars of '63
From Us To You (BBC Sessions)
The Ultra Rare Trax Series and Dead Man's Walkman
Atlanta '65 ("Loud, isn't it!")
It's Not Too Bad (The Strawberry Fields Forever Sessions)
The Black Album
Get Back - Glyn Johns Final Mix

 

My favorite parts are the emcee announcing upcoming shows, telling the crowd to STAY SEATED and the wall of screams when they hit the stage and start playing.

 

The Anthology series is knocking on the door for this sort of thing, but The Beatles are the obvious candidate for a Bootleg Series of officially released and cleaned up versions of some of these. "It's Not Too Bad" and "Revolving" are fantastic candidates for starting places. I adore those both.

There are also a whole bunch of bootlegs of The White Album in various stages. All that I've heard have been nifty. I'm especially fond of the Esher Demos, which are largely acoustic. Is pointing out that they're on YouTube within the rules? If not, forget that I even asked.

There's a marvelous 5-disk set called The Abbey Road Sessions that's a hybrid -- it covers the songs on Abbey Road, in order, with multiple takes that of course span some Let It Be Sessions. The front cover is one of the alternate takes of the Abbey Road cover, with them walking right to left, but the back cover tells the tale:




There are acres of great Beatles video boots, too. The promotional films have already been mentioned, and they're absolutely stellar. There's also what appears to be every dang second of footage from the Let It Be sessions. Most of it's not compelling, and given that the finished version still isn't out, it seems inconceivable that additional footage will see the light of day -- although, ironically, the stuff with them actually PLAYING could well be more palatable to Paul, yes? Certainly much pleasanter to watch.

One of the absolute gems was a documentary on the 1965 Shea Stadium concert that Ed Sullivan produced, cleverly entitled The Beatles At Shea Stadium. It aired in a number of places in 1966 and 67, then pretty much disappeared. It starts with their helicopter ride and some backstage footage (no real structure or narration, borderline avant-garde actually), as well as some footage of the other performers on the bill. I wound up really enjoying that, because it gave a sense of the "revue" aspect of the festivities I'd never gotten before. The Sounds Incorporated guy in particular was insane. I'd never even heard of them before, but they were mesmerizing.

The description at Wikipedia goes into some of the reasons it could use revision, and could definitely use restoration if the original film footage is available....but it really is something special.

 

the pig always had great artwork

 

I will download anything like I will not be shamed. in fact just found deep purple graz only thing missing is the booklet

 

I remember walking into a record store and the guy behind the checkout counter was playing "Ultra Rare Tracks". I was mesmorized at how good (and sometimes even better) the alternates and dry takes sounded. Seems I recall "Cant Buy Me Love" as a stand out.

 

Yes, this!... regarding BBC perhaps...
... but I respectfully disagree about URT being eclipsed in SQ...
that is, by the original first two though, of course, in all their dayglo glory:

 

I have up boots a long time ago. But, I have kept and will always treasure

1. Swinging Pig's Ultra Rare Trax 1 and 2 with the day-glo covers. Historical value and better sound than the Anthology.

2. Great Dane's BBC box (9 CD's + 1) Best packaging of any official or unofficial Beatles release.

3. The solo years Anthology Box.

 

Nice job on this posters. Collecting Beatle Boots took up a lot of time and money. I might have missed it, but how about The Black Album?

 

Yes, a beauty.

 

I remember when I was in the UK in 1989, and quite a few dealers in the Beatles convention at the Adelphi Hotel had boots that they needledropped to cassettes. I was able to pick up the first couple volumes of Ultra Rare Trax, as well as others that folks had made up from existing bootlegs (Off White, The Real Case Has Just Begun, etc.)

I thought I was a consummate fan when I found a copy of Indian Rope Trick!