Beatles Abbey Road Allied NY mono acetate

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by owsley, Aug 12, 2018.

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  1. owsley

    owsley Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boston
    My friend just brought over an amazing piece. It's a two disk acetate of the Abbey Road lp on two discs. No labels but each side is stamped "Allied New York USA". Here's the lineup:
    Side 1:
    Come Together
    Something
    Oh Darling
    Side 2:
    Octopus's Garden
    I Want You
    Here Comes The Sun
    Side 3:
    Because
    You Never Give Me Your Money
    Sun King
    Side 4:
    Track 1: Mean Mr. Mustard/Polythene/Pam/Bathroom Window
    Track 2: Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End

    No Maxwell or Her Majesty

    Sound quality is rough, many songs fade early and many have weird edits (ie. the second half of the first verse of Come Together is edited out). A close listen indicates a tape machine starts each song separately, many songs start with a bit of a glitch. The mixes correspond to fold downs of the official stereo mixes. It appears to be a worthless hack job.......until we get to the end of "The End".
    The last track features a longer ending: 6 seconds extra of the final guitar/piano chord after the orchestra has faded. The common version ends with orchestra. I played the rough mix of the mono 'Huge Melody' and can confirm that original backing track to The End (with no orchestra or lead guitar overdubs) does indeed end with a long leslied guitar and piano chord, like the acetate. This version on the acetate appears to be legit and not an 'outfake'.
    I believe this acetate is the real deal. Those 6 seconds of extra music turn this item from a useless piece of junk into a Sotheby's auction item IMO. But I cannot find any references to it whatsoever on the Net.
    Many questions here:
    1) Why was this acetate made with stereo folddowns, hacked up songs and less than stellar sound?
    2) Why two acetate discs?
    3) What is the US New York connection for making an acetate of the Abbey Road lp in progress?
    4) Was this acetate made before the lp's official release?
    5) Where did this mix of The End originate? Was this intended to be on the finished production master?

    AFAIK this variant of The End has never been bootlegged and is unique to this acetate. Anyone have more info on this?
     
  2. DaleClark

    DaleClark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio
    Were you able to get a picture?
     
  3. owsley

    owsley Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boston
    I have a pic. Send me a PM
     
  4. Maranatha5585

    Maranatha5585 BELLA + RIP In Memoriam

    Location:
    Down South
    Many variables involved re: Beatles acetates.
    Most are bogus- need to at least see the photos.
    Been collecting them awhile now.. Can compare to a large photo archive.
    What harm to post the pic ? Someone my have an answer...
     
    john lennonist likes this.
  5. owsley

    owsley Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boston
    FYI, here is a scan of one side of the Abbey Road acetate. You'll see the Allied NY logo. Legit acetate with Beatles/EMI/Capitol involvement? Or just a custom acetate someone made for themselves? Still doesn't answer the question about the source of the alternate The End. Where did that come from? More questions here than answers

    Beatles Abbey Road mono acetate
     
  6. forthlin

    forthlin Member Chris & Vickie Cyber Support Team

    Is that an acetate? It doesn't look like the acetates I've seen but maybe it's just the photo. This could get interesting :)
     
  7. revolution_vanderbilt

    revolution_vanderbilt Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    There is a version of The End on bootleg that seems to match your description. It's also edited, missing some of the "love you" chants and some of the guitar solos.

    The Beatles - Abbey Road Deluxe Edition Vol. Two

    It's disc 2, track 15 on there. Even the brilliant folk behind Purple Chick questioned the authenticity of it. That doesn't really answer any of your questions except that it does seem to be bootlegged after all.
     
    owsley likes this.
  8. owsley

    owsley Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boston
    Yes it's an acetate
     
  9. owsley

    owsley Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boston
    The description of the source of alternate The End on the 'As It Happened Baby' CD seems to describe my acetate track. One of the instrumental stanzas is edited out on the acetate version and it does have a piano ending as described. I know I read in some article many years ago about an alternate longer ending mix of The End from a test pressing. This is more evidence my acetate is the real deal.
     
    forthlin likes this.
  10. Walter H

    Walter H Santa's Helper

    Location:
    New Hampshire, USA
    The only New York connection is that Allied, manufacturer of the blank lacquer disc, was based in New York.
     
  11. owsley

    owsley Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boston
    You are correct. Someone else told me the same thing. It's the same as say a blank Scotch open reel tape. So scratch any NY connection. I have confirmed the dub that appeared on the Purple Chick cd posted by revolution_vanderbilt is the same exact edit and version and sounds like it was sourced from this acetate. So this mono acetate appears to be for real and not a bootleg. I'm still puzzled why a double acetate of rough sounding mono reduction mixes with some clumsy edits (not good enough quality for broadcast) was pressed on to two acetates, who was behind this?
     
  12. stereoguy

    stereoguy Its Gotta Be True Stereo!

    Location:
    NYC
    owsley...thats a very cool item you have there and I believe its the real deal as well. Sounds to me like this was made for a specific reason, i.e, someone at EMI wanted to be able to hear the songs at home asap.

    I've actually got a Monkees Acetate. Its early versions of two songs, that were first released on "Missing Links" in the 90s.
     
    JuanTCB, cwitt1980 and owsley like this.
  13. owsley

    owsley Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boston
    Are those Monkees mixes unique w/vocals and still unreleased, even on the recent Rhino Handmade editions?

    As for Abbey Road acetate, I'm back to thinking this acetate has US and Capitol origins. An acetate made in Britain would have likely appeared on 'Emidisc' or an Apple custom label. So who was the American party that had access to Beatles works in progress? Livingston?
     
  14. Walter H

    Walter H Santa's Helper

    Location:
    New Hampshire, USA
    Audio Devices made Audiodisc brand lacquers, and that company was bought by Capitol in 1968, so I'd think that's the brand Capitol would have used. (That's my surmise; evidence to the contrary welcomed.) Apple NY office, maybe?
     
  15. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    I heard Denny Seiwell mention that at Paul's request Denny oversaw the mastering of Wild Life in NY at Sterling and then took the master to Apple, where he met John Lennon for the only time. Not especially relevant to this Abbey Road discussion but it was an interesting story.
     
    Ken Wood likes this.
  16. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Can a CD be an acetate? I mean, they are much easier to bootleg over an LP, right??
     
  17. revolution_vanderbilt

    revolution_vanderbilt Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    The version I sent was first on a bootleg As It Happened Baby, and it seems the origin was pretty murky. Now we know that it comes from this acetate. Unfortunately that doesn't get us any closer to knowing the story behind the acetate!

    It sounds like it's the same mix, just left unfaded. So, a set of acetates containing finished mixes of almost an entire album? I'd guess that they were either for personal use, or for some professional purpose like publishing. I would consider the possibility that they were meant to listen to and copy the lyrics from, but if half a verse of Come Together is missing then that wouldn't work!


    EDIT:

    I did a bit more digging. It looks like this version actually was first bootlegged on Abbey Road Talks.

    BootlegZone : The Beatles -- Abbey Road Talks

    Any dates on it? Could it have been meant to preview the album on radio? That could possibly explain the weird edits. Maybe they didn't want to give it all away...
     
    Ken Wood likes this.
  18. owsley

    owsley Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boston
    Do you know for sure if the Abbey Road Talks mix is the same as the acetate? The song line up suggests this is a tape of the second part of the Big Medley which contains the full length version of The End, without any lead guitars BUT with the longer ending (piano and guitar chords). You make a good point about the possibility of acetates for publishers, but then again there are a bunch of weird edits throughout the acetates and the fact that Maxwell and Her Majesty are missing kind of make you wonder if that was the intention. For now we have to file the Abbey Road acetates with the Help Production acetates: things that exist but have zero information on the Net or elsewhere.
     
  19. revolution_vanderbilt

    revolution_vanderbilt Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    the file from the Purple Chick set is tagged as "Abbey Road Talks" mix
     
  20. owsley

    owsley Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boston
    The bootleg-addiction site entry for PC Abbyy Road Deluxe Edition Vol. 2 site claims it's from 'As It Happened Baby'. But you have this set and I don't :)
     
  21. soniclovenoize

    soniclovenoize Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minneapolis, MN
    Oh, one of those? lol I have like five of them.
     
  22. revolution_vanderbilt

    revolution_vanderbilt Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I just downloaded it lol. The set does indeed say that. But the file is tagged as "abbey road talks mix" and it seems like As It Happened Baby was the first CD version of this mix, so that's probably the source that Purple Chick used, rather than taking it directly from a vinyl of Abbey Road Talks.
     
    owsley likes this.
  23. stereoguy

    stereoguy Its Gotta Be True Stereo!

    Location:
    NYC
     
    owsley likes this.
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