A bunch of questions about the Beatles Decca audition

SNL did a very funny skit about Pete Best which showed him in the kitchen of his small and cramped flat. In this skit, The Rolling Stones called on the phone (as if Charlie had just quit). It was cruel.

 

I remember getting those Deccagone singles thru the SFF magazine/fanclub when they originally came out in 1976. 1977? It was SO exciting!!! A new Beatles record that I hadn't heard before. At the time I hadn't even heard of the titles: Hello Little Girl / Three Cool Cats. I was wondering if I was sending my $6 (or whatever scrawny amount it was) to never been seen again, or if it would be some garage band trying to sound like the Beatles. I was pretty sure I was going to get ripped off. The 45 finally arrived and OMG, it's really them!!! I was very stoked.

I even liked the follow up single better: September in the Rain / Sheik Of Araby.

New Beatles songs in 1976/77! Colored vinyl and glossy picture covers. It was very cool.

 

That's too funny!
The guys that once turned down the Fabs wanted to release the unwanted material...cheek!

 

One thing that always bugged me about Anthology 1 is that there are no Recordings ownership credits like there are on Vols. 2 & 3. There are only publishing credits.

 

To clarify this post, the Circuit Records LP was not needledropped from the Deccagone 45's. It was made from a different copy of the Decca audition tape, and included "Take Good Care Of My Baby" which was unavailable previously. It's also fake stereo, whereas the Deccagone singles are mono.

Derek

 

Anything is superior to the Raw Energy release. I own it. All the tracks are needledrops from a previous vinyl release (given the "information" about the history of the tracks in the sleevenotes, the source may be famous bootleg of these recordings), and these have been subjected to a massive amount of filtering, compression and noise-gating completely squashing all the "energy" of the performances. This process is referred to on the sleevenotes as "the revolutionary FDS digital processing system" (Does anyone know what this is?). The results sound like a non-Dolby tape played back with Dolby on. They have then been subjected to a fake stereo mix. Avoid at all costs.

The remastering engineer credited for this atrocity is Shmulik Kleinman.

 

I wonder how long before someone adopts that as their handle on here.

 

Since my edit timed out - here is what I was going to add to my post above:

I've decided to reproduce what the sleevnotes say about the FDS system - it's quite a giggle considering how bad this release actually sounds.

These twelve selections from the Decca tapes were remastered using the revolutionary FDS digital processing system, which actually repairs an improves the original master recordings. No hiss, no pops, no audio distortion.

If John and Paul were recorded while singing through one microphone, the FDS system would seperate them and reproduce them true to life. If some of George's guitar work was cancelled out by Pete's cymbal crashes, each sound would be restored, actually better than on the original master tape.

 

I have always considered The Decca tapes junk and NOT the real Beatles.

I don't know how they got away with packaging up all those Silver Beatles albums with fancy picture discs and glossy double albums. These were sold in stores, and not just underground swaps.

And for the Hamburg Cavern Club tapes, I thought the Beatles won an injunction against those tapes being issued. And after that, the reissues just kept coming. Even Pickwick issued vols. 1 and 2 of those horrid tapes. Pickwick were a real legit operation. There must have been some loophole.

 

I also had that "Raw Energy" release and it was horrid!

 

I have a copy of the Silver Beatles by Teichiku Records on CD. The sound is not bad, but really needs some EQ to make it sound better. I keep it as a curio, mostly, since I never listen to it.

 

Thanks Derek for clearing that up about the Circuit LP.

JF

 

If I recall, all the semi-legit grey-market releases did not contain the three Lennon/McCartney compositions. Only the flat-out "underground" releases had those intact.

 

I remember him opening a cabinet door, and inside was a poster of Barbara Bach. On looking at the poster, he proceeded to bang his head against the wall!

 

My original copy is like that, but I had to replace it not too long ago and I got some import version (Mexico, I believe). It does have copyright info on the recordings and if I recall correctly, it says those tracks belong to Apple.

 

Certainly not my copy of the LP. It is mono and sounds every bit as good as Joe Pope's 45's, eventhough a slightly different source tape was used. The original 45's have some extra bits and/or slightly longer fades on a few songs. However, they also play fast. It was obvious to me that the songs were all fast because none of them played in the correct key. Thankfully, my trusty variable-speed Thorens did the trick. My reel-to-reel dub of the speed-corrected 45's is the best-sounding version of the tracks that I've heard... including the assorted boots out there. Ron

 

All I had on these was one 45 of "Hello Little Girl" / "Three Cool Cats" on green vinyl (I bought this around 1980-1981, and the guy had "The Decca Tapes" album and all the other Deccagone singles, including the "Royal Variety Performance," but I never went back and got more) and it sounded better than any other vinyl version I've ever heard. This is the first I'm learning of the Decca Tapes album being fake stereo; guess I didn't miss much there. I always regretted not getting it, mostly because of the cool cover.

I later got an album called "Silver Beatles" from Holland, which had an artist's rendering of a Cavern Club photo of the four (with Pete Best) on a silver background. It had ten Decca tracks and a couple songs from the Star Club tapes, and the songs were not listed 100% accurately. This didn't sound as good as the Deccagone 45 I had. I don't think I ever got all 15 songs until...well, until the early 90s, and I'll leave it at that.

The few tracks on "Anthology 1" sound better to my ears than any other versions I've heard.

 

Feminine deodorant spray?

 

Don't you just love the picture disc with the White Album photos?

 

I had that. There was a skip in "Take Good Care Of My Baby." Other than that, it was OK.

 

I would think that Apple probably just dubbed the tracks from a bootleg CD...they obviously took the Tony Sheridan tracks from the existing(at that time)CD..."Ain't She Sweet" in mono being a big clue.

Evan

 

Errrrr,no.Compair the Tony Sheridan tracks on the Polydor CD to the versions on Anthology.Polydor:sounds great,good mastering--Anthology-no-noised & compressed,with the life sucked out of them.....

 

Still doesn't mean they couldn't have just taken an existing CD and sonically sucked the life right out of them!


Evan

 

Never thought of that.

You're right...

 

nobody knows.