A couple of things from around the Scorsese documentary time. This quote might be enough to make @Sean Murdock pass out: In the documentary, producer Phil Spector says he was stunned to find Harrison had “hundreds” of unreleased tracks when the two began working on “All Things Must Pass.” Olivia regarding the Scorsese documentary: OH: I was just overwhelmed with tapes. I still am (laughs). There was a huge amount of material we listened to for the director to decide what we could offer. We had reel-to-reel tapes of people up all night talking, hanging out, business meetings, demos, George and John (Lennon) working together, George’s mother singing. For a year, Giles and (recording engineer) Paul Hicks were here at George’s studio plowing through all these things that we thought Marty could use or might use. Marty was very specific about what drives the narrative. My goal was to make an archive parallel to the film. Treasure trove of George Harrison music unwrapped Also I believe Ken Scott may have helped sort out George's archive of tapes. I'd have to check when I get home.
Thanks. I was pretty sure I had read that in Ken's book, but "pretty sure" isn't good enough around here.
I'm not expecting "2 or 3 versions of every song" - with Pepper, we got one or two versions of most songs, with multiple takes of "Strawberry Fields Forever" because that song went through more of a metamorphosis than most Beatles tunes. If a song didn't change very much from the first take to the last, then there isn't much point to releasing three nearly indistinguishable recordings. Some of the songs that were well along, and then remade, would justify multiple versions - songs like "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," but was there that much variation in takes of, say, "Sexy Sadie" or "Piggies"? My barely-educated guess: One take of most, two of some, three of a privileged few. "Sour Milk Sea" has a great backing track, but that recording was never considered for use on a Beatles album. Sticking it on the White Album because it has some Beatles on it would almost be like including "We Love You" on Pepper. Now if someone wanted to put together an "Apple Sessions" compilation, "Sour Milk Sea" would be an obvious candidate. I'd buy it....
Paul should be at least be open to the idea of your #7 (edit/mashup of the 27-min "Helter Skelter"); David Kahne made a very listenable 10-minute track out of his half-hour long "Rinse The Raindrops"...
I find it extremely unlikely that George had "hundreds" of unreleased tracks in 1970. It defies logic. But yes, any time Olivia talks about the FPSHOT vaults, it just about brings me to tears....
Understandably so. Me too. Bern edit...not sure why they are sitting forever on this stuff. Makes no sense.
What I mean is that it is always awkward to run around singing the lyrics to Birthday when it's not somebody's birthday. It's a weird song to sing either alone in your car or with a group of people. I don't actively seek out and play White Christmas in July. Great song, a classic, only appropriate to listen to and sing between Thanksgiving and New Year's day "Event" songs are like that.
Maybe a Beach Boys Party! vibe? Not you, Ringo!... Donovan had recorded a very stripped down album (half of A Gift From A Flower To A Garden - a 1967 album that saw an April, 1968 UK release).
Sean my friend, surely you aren't suggesting that an honorable man like Phil Spector, a man with no blemishes of any kind on his record would lie or exaggerate ? Seriously, even if there were only 10 or 20 unreleased songs (above and beyond the Beware of ABKCO tracks) from George's Beatles years that would be incredible. Not to mention the thirty years or so worth of post Beatles songs possibly in George's archive, but I'm not telling you something you don't already know. Plus, I want to hear George's mom singing! She was a close personal friend of mine *, during the White Album era. * Well, she did write one letter to me and sent me an almost really autographed Beatles picture that she autographed on the back.in 1968.
Quality control is always important. It's just as important to know that remixes don't necessarily have to emulate existing mix choices 100%. In fact, the very idea of making vocals clearer, or placing drums in the center CHANGES the existing mix just as much as leaving a fader up or down does. Yes, it's a bit maddening when the remix sounds better, but leaves an originally unintended element exposed. On the other hand, it also creates a new anomaly... things us nutters dig a lot. My gripe would be making the mixes hotter than they need to be... apparently to satisfy Apple and its directors. Must keep the Beatles sounding current and hip ya know. Ron PS It's important to remember that even good ol' Sir George Martin and HIS team made simple mistakes through the years too. Such as: Forgetting the fader on the stereo mix of Yellow Submarine that mutes part of John's response call, extra and missing backwards guitar parts on the mono and stereo mixes for I'm Only Sleeping, single-track vocal on the mono And I Love Her, missing or extra guitar parts on the mono and stereo mixes of What Goes On and dozens and dozens more. Imagine if this forum existed in the 60's? In many, many instances, the same issues back then, as now.
The question really is...did they use all the tracks? Relaxed Esher vibe with lots to get through in a short amount of time, I’m going to venture they didn’t. That’s my gut (which has been completely wrong countless times).
At least one of the insiders here seemed very specific about the number of Escher Demos that we should anticipate. I think it was...42?
I’ve tried to ask this question before and can never get an answer. I think it might honestly be like 50 discs.
He (or she) actually said 27. I forgot who said it but it was either in this thread or possibly the other thread about the Escher Demos which was popular a few weeks ago. 27 is not bad, I'll definitely take it! I believe this number corresponds to the known number of demos that have seen the light of day on the old Lost Lennon Tapes radio show, Anthology 3 and some... other sources. So many weird undocumented Beatle things have popped up out of nowhere, like that Harrison acoustic demo of a song he offered to another singer during the Beatle era, that it is possible (but not likely) that there could be other demo songs that we don't know about, yet. But for Escher Demos the stated number was 27, enough to fill out a hypothetical Beatles Unplugged Album if someone decided to compile it.
