Info on those "stolen" Beatle Tapes

From the NYT

To read the statements made by British and Dutch officials after the arrest
of a group of bootleggers in suburbs of London and Amsterdam on Friday, one
would think that the police had apprehended a band of thieves who for the
last three decades had been sitting on a vast trove of long-lost master tapes
from Beatles recording sessions. There is an element of truth in what they
say, but also a good measure of exaggeration.

Whether the seizure of these tapes should be regarded as good news — and for
that matter whether it will have any effect on the thriving trade in Beatles
bootlegs — is another matter.

What the police seized was a collection of 500 to 550 reels of tape, each
running about 16 minutes. They were recorded during the sessions for the
Beatles' "Let It Be" album — originally to be called "Get Back" — from Jan.
2 to Jan. 31, 1969. But they are not the multitrack session masters from
which the album was made.

Those are safely in EMI's archives. Instead, they are monaural recordings
made on a pair of Nagra tape recorders for reference purposes by a film crew
that was documenting the sessions for a proposed television documentary. When
the television plan was scuttled, the film was released theatrically as "Let
It Be."

It is unquestionably an important collection. Unlike normal session tapes,
which usually include only performances, the Nagra reels, as these tapes are
known, run continuously and capture everything: rehearsals, discussions,
arguments, clowning and loose jams on Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry classics as
well as older Beatles tunes and oddities like the theme from "The Third Man,"
all in addition to the nose-to-the-grindstone work of making an album. No
other set of Beatles sessions is so thoroughly documented.

These tapes are well known to collectors. Instantly recognizable because the
film crew is regularly heard announcing slate and roll numbers, the material
was the source for some of the first Beatles bootlegs in the early 1970's.
Until the early 90's the trend in Beatles bootlegging was to compile
collections of the most interesting performances and discussions. More
recently, bootleg labels began releasing these tapes more systematically:
unedited, in chronological order and with reel numbers and recording dates
fully documented.

These tapes have also been the subject of two books: "Get Back: The
Unauthorized Chronicle of the Beatles' `Let It Be' Disaster," by Doug Sulpy
and Ray Schweighardt (St. Martin's, 1994), and "The 910's Guide to the
Beatles' Outtakes: The Complete `Get Back' Sessions," a comprehensive catalog
of the material by Mr. Sulpy (The 910, 2002).

As originally proposed, the idea for "Let It Be" was elegantly simple. Having
completed the White Album a few months earlier, the Beatles were to convene
at the Twickenham film studios in London to rehearse an album's worth of new
songs. The rehearsals would be filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, an expatriate
American who had directed their promotional clips for "Paperback Writer" and
"Rain" in 1966, as would the highlight of the project, a concert at which the
Beatles would perform their new material.

What the plan did not take into account were the increasingly fractious
relations among three of the four Beatles. John Lennon, more interested in
his collaborations with Yoko Ono than in the Beatles, wanted either to
involve her in the band or to distance himself from it. He brought a handful
of songs to the sessions, and is heard in a few hilarious monologues
(including one about how masturbation "doesn't make you go blind, only very
shortsighted") but is often passive and uninvolved.

George Harrison, by then a prolific songwriter, was disgruntled about his
paltry representation on the Beatles' albums, which were always dominated by
the music of Lennon and Paul McCartney. He was also uninterested in
performing in concert, and irritated by what he regarded as Mr. McCartney's
condescension in telling him what to play. At one point Harrison walked out,
effectively (if temporarily) quitting the band, leaving the others to pursue
a series of aggressive but fascinating jams with Ms. Ono vocalizing. Mr.
McCartney is at times almost despondent about his partners' lack of interest
and cooperation. Only Ringo Starr seems to be taking the sessions in stride.

In the end Harrison returned, but only after being guaranteed that his songs
would receive greater consideration, and that there would be no more talk of
a concert. The project was completed with a series of performances filmed at
the group's new Apple studios, and on the rooftop of their London offices.

What makes these tapes crucial to Beatles biographers and musicians
interested in studying the band's working process is that they capture it
all. The rehearsals often begin with one of the Beatles playing a new song
while calling out the chord progression to the others. The group joins in and
works through the changes, and ideas for arrangements slowly accrue. Some
songs — "Two of Us," "One After 909" and "Get Back," for example — are tried
as everything from sizzling, fast-tempo rockers to country-influenced
ballads.

The process of lyric writing unfolds before the listener's ears as well. In
one session for "Get Back," Mr. McCartney stops during a run-through and
says, "I've got it — Jo Jo left his home in Tucson, Arizona." Lennon asks,
"Is Tucson in Arizona?" Mr. McCartney replies, "Yeah, it's where they make
`High Chaparral.' "

There is also a good deal of material that, even for the Beatles-obsessed,
can be hard slogging — hours and hours and hours of "The Long and Winding
Road," for example. And the discussions, which often last several reels at a
stretch, range from the amusingly loopy to the contentious. Several are about
the proposed concert. Among the plans suggested are playing in an
amphitheater in North Africa, or on a cruise ship on the Mediterranean. When
Harrison quits, Mr. Lindsay-Hogg suggests going on with the show and saying
that Harrison is ill, to which Lennon replies, "If he's not back by Tuesday,
we'll call Eric Clapton." One reel captures a lunch meeting at which the
group airs its problems in some detail.

Had these illuminating tapes not already found their way onto the collectors'
market, their seizure would be unfortunate, because it is unlikely that
Apple, the Beatles' company, will ever sanction their legitimate release.
Apple has even tried to stifle scholarly discussion of them. When Mr. Sulpy
and Mr. Schweighardt were at work on their first book, they naïvely sent
Apple a sample chapter and sought permission to hear the studio recordings.
Apple responded by threatening legal action.

 

Just curious... was this piece written by Allan Kozinn?

 

Yes

mud-

 

Ahh, *that's* why that article sounded a lot smarter than your average piece of media junk...

 

BTW, I just spoke with the fellow who worked on the Let It Be restoration in the early '90s. It turns out that all of the original tapes (8-track AND Nagra) are safely in the vaults, and that any "stolen" tapes are nothing more than second or third generation copies. So much for a "lost prize"!

 

That's both a blessing and a curse, Luke. Now we'll never hear any of that stuff. Apple/EMI will never release it.

mud-

 

Well, I think it's all already been released on bootleg anyway, so the cat is out of the bag, so to speak.

 

We want -FIRST- generation boots sourced from those 8 tracks...

 

Michael beat me to it. I wanted to hear some of that stuff in better quality.

mud-

 

I don't see that happening anytime soon, if ever. However, if Let It Be is ever reissued, the Twickenham stuff should be in stereo on there, remixed from the 8-tracks. At least, assuming they use the existing restoration or use the 8-tracks for a new restoration.

Are there any clips from Twickenham in Anthology? Those *should* be in stereo from the 8-tracks. Anyone?

 

No Twickenham stuff on the extremely disappointing Anthology 3.

Chris

 

I was actually thinking about the video series, not the CDs...

 

Luke, I hate to belabor the point once again, but I seriously doubt that any of the Twickenham rehearsals were recorded on eight track. First of all, at the time of these "sessions", the Beatles were preparing for a concert and documentary, not an album, and there would have been no reason to record these on eight track. No proper takes of anything were being played, only rehearsals and jams, so why would eight track machines be running? Secondly, any eight track machine would have to have been provided by EMI (re: the Apple Studio sessions) and as such, these tapes would have been documented in Lewisohn's book. EMI has always had a well organized vault. I seriously doubt any Beatles tapes have been "discovered" in the last 10 to 12 years.

The rumor has always been that Apple does not have possession of the Nagra sound reels. Whether this is a myth or reality, I do not know. It has been said that when Apple restored Let It Be a few years back, it could not be re-edited because of the missing Nagras. However, this rumor goes a long way in explaining why none of this audio material was included on Anthology 3 and why Apple did not use much, if any, previously unseen Twickenham footage in the Anthology video series.

I have to politely disagree with you concerning the existence of eight track Twickenham recordings until it is confirmed by either the Beatles, EMI, George Martin or Mark Lewisohn.

 

At this point it's a non-issue. I've been speaking with someone involved in the early '90s LIB restoration, and he's made it *very* clear that the Twickenham stuff was done on 8-track as well. He said the reason most people probably don't know about them is that they were stored in (Apple's?) film vault and were not really labeled at all. He specifically pointed out that they don't have a sync track, and that it took quite a long time to get them matched up to the film.

See above. They weren't recorded by EMI (why would they need to be?) and they weren't stored in EMI's vault. They were stored with the film elements.

I don't know where those rumors came from. For the early '90s restoration (as seen in the Anthology videos), the 8-tracks were used, and if there were sections that didn't have 8-track coverage, the Nagras were used. Both

 

It has been a few years since I watched Anthology, but I seem to remember there was not much, if any, unreleased Twickenham footage and audio used on the video release. Can anyone provide definitive information concerning this? I find it surprising that Apple would not have had George Martin go through these Twickenham tapes to find anything releaseable.

Luke, please understand that I do not doubt you, but rather the memory and recollections of your source. If the Twickenham sessions were recorded on eight track, why wasn't this same unit moved to Apple along with the other equipment and film crew? Why did the Beatles have to ask EMI to install an eight track unit at Apple? This scenario would explain why these supposed Twickenham eight tracks would be in the Apple vaults, while the Apple eight tracks are in EMI's vault. However, it does not provide a logical reason why the Twickenham sessions would be recorded on eight track in the first place. No album was planned and I do not believe they would have used multis to sync with the film for the proposed T.V. special.

 

My *guess* is that they felt the material was simply below-par and didn't want to bother.

Actually, now that I think about it, that's easy: it wasn't EMI's 8-track, it was EMI's *desks*. As per Lewisohn:

"Abbey Road duly lent Apple two four-track consoles to go with [Apple's] own 3M eight-track tape machine."

Make sense now?

Your guess is as good as mine. It's pretty clear they weren't going to use the 8-track for the film, since there was no sync track on it.

 

Luke, if you ever come across further information, please be sure to share it. As a fan of the Beatles, I have my doubts, but I hope someday the information you provided is proven correct.

 

My question is, is *any* Twickenham material in Anthology? Previously released or otherwise? If there *is* some in there, it would be nice if somebody could go listen to see if it's stereo or not.

 

There is some Twickenham footage in the video Anthology....but none on volume three of the Cee Dee Anthology.

 

Didn't Mark Lewisohn state in BRS book that the Beatles paid Magic Alex to put in a state of the art recording system in Apple, and when they came to do the film there, it was a piece of junk? They had to quickly call EMI and have them bring their mobile recording unit out to set up at Apple so they can start the sessions there. Someone out there please correct me on this story.

 

As stated above, yes, EMI lent Apple desks, but Apple already had their *own* 8-track machine.

And, yes, of course, I'm talking about the Anthology videos, not the CDs. If anyone can confirm that the Twickenham stuff is in stereo on the videos, I'd appreciate it.

 

At the moment, I cannot confirm 100%, but I am pretty sure that only Apple performances are on Anthology 3.

 

Sorry Luke. I misread your post concerning video versus cd. I believe there are no stereo Twickenham performances on the Anthology videos.

 

Actually what you say is (almost exactly) in the Anthology video spoken by George Martin.

BC