Most likely: The tape for Anthology came from Emerick, but only indirectly. They used a tape copy of "Besame Mucho" that Emerick made around 1984 for Sessions, which was stored at EMI, while Emerick took his unreleased session tape back home and forgot about it (or not).
Why would Emerick use the tape for Besame Mucho on Sessions, and then 'forget' he also had Love Me Do 10 years later for A1?
Why not? It is easily the most plausible explanation. Sessions was put together by Emerick with little enthusiasm in the first place.
Granted, Emerick might have forgotten about tapes he had, but surely not the first Beatles EMI session (even with his memory). So George Martin comes in with the acetate of Love Me Do in the early 90's. What did Emerick do, feign excitement and surprise at something he knew he already had? And then not say anything, letting the acetate appear on Anthology rather than his tape source? My guess is that Emerick had the tape (one of probably hundreds he had), but didn't realise it until much, much later (after Anthology). Where Besame Mucho came from in 1984, I don't know.
It wasn’t. Also, there’s the unresolved issue of the Sessions/Anthology version being longer than the times noted on the tape box.
If you had a master tape and wanted to use it but not let on that you actually HAD the master tape you would make a relatively poor quality copy and say it was something already existing among collectors and that they gave you a copy. Did "Besame Mucho" appear before "Sessions"?
But how did Geoff Emerick come into the possession of this tape? According to his memoir, he started working two days before Beatles' second EMI session on September 4, 1962. So I turn to the gospel according to St. Lewisohn...
Because he already gave to the cause. If one assumes he knew it would stir up a legal hornet's nest (which it would have), he sat on the rest. Why would he feel compelled to add more? No one presumably knew he had the tape. He kept his mouth shut. After all, he had kept it shut for decades already.
For Sessions, Emerick was at the helm and just assembled whatever he felt would work, without thinking the final product would be a commercial success - he would have used the tape without thinking or talking much about it. By the time of Anthology, he may have realised the immense monetary value that his little tape had, and chose to hold it back as a pension fund, so to speak.
Well, most probably as Love Me Do had already been released by The Beatles on a single, a 12" single, an EP and four albums by 1984, Emerick reckoned the unheard Besame Mucho was a better choice as an unreleased song for Sessions. Besame Mucho was hardly unknown to most hardcore fans of course, as it was in Let it Be, on the Star Club tapes and on the Decca tapes.
Not just realized its value, but the legal risk of possessing it. The crowd here at the forum is pretty tough on Emerick because of the problems with his book. But if I think of myself, would I have a detailed memory of each session, know where I set up the mics, where Paul sat, etc? No, though some would be burned in, most would all blur into one another. But would I remember I took a one-of-a-kind session tape home with Pete Best performing on it? You bet I would. What his motivations were, if he copied Besame Mucho, I've no clue. You suggest he may have just done it because he could, and perhaps he did. But the part about a pension.. that assumes a darker thought, that he took it for profit. I'm not willing to make that my first stop
I was thinking more about an anniversary box. With Please Please Me having been recorded in so short a time, the sessions tapes for two of the songs (And the single version of Love Me Do on top of that) not existing and the release of Bootlegs 1963 on top of that, they will want to have some new material to include in a potential box set. I wouldn't consider that being overly naive, especially as there is most certainly a market for a box set of Please Please Me that I'm sure Apple will someday choose to appease.
It also could have been a spur of the moment thing, as he was reportedly tasked with disposing of something that had a historical significance, regardless of financial potential. The natural inclination could’ve been to just hang onto what has been deemed trash, but which he didn’t view that way at that moment,
I keep thinking it was no big deal when the tape originally went home with Geoff, regardless of what official policy might have been. And pure speculation, but my guess is it went home with Geoff a couple years after he started. At that time, I doubt anyone cared about that tape and the material on it, despite the Beatles' popularity. And I think that as others have stated, in later years he probably forgot he had the tape. As far as keeping it secret in later years for its possible monetary value, I don't see how he'd ever be able to actually profit from it. What could he do? Sell it to some fabulously wealthy collector? Surely he knew EMI wouldn't pay for it. And if he did have a plan to profit from it, I don't know what he was waiting for. It doesn't make sense (to me).
It's hard to believe that George Martin didn't know that Geoff Emerick had taken the tape home with him, even if Geoff only 'fessed up about it years later: they were very close friends and socialised regularly but something happened when Geoff's wife died in '93 (so, she passed away in the period leading up to Anthology). After she died, Geoff became estranged from the Martin family, according to Giles Martin and he wasn't the same "Ernie" Emerick any more: this estrangement might have evolved gradually over a number of years and it doesn't mean that Geoff and George became hostile towards each other or ceased having loyalties towards each other. Purloining EMI property wasn't a problem for George Martin to worry about when he ceased being an EMI employee in '65: as far as I know, Geoff remained an EMI employee for a few years after George had helped form the AIR partnership in '65. Regardless of all this, you could imagine Geoff and George sharing stories as they're sharing bottles of wine over dinner et cetera and Geoff may well have told George about the spool of treasured tape he snaffled one day. You could also imagine that George would have protected his friend to the point of feeling compelled to tell fibs about finding a pristine acetate of the "Pete Best on drums" version of "Love Me Do" in his belongings: that "LMD" audio may well have been slightly degraded to disguise a tape-to-digital lineage and enable it to fit the narrative.
I've been following this thread, and a couple of thoughts come to mind: 1) If we make the assumption that this tape came into Emerick's possession earlier rather than later, his taking it might not have been considered significant at all. The Beatles were a very popular band, but this was a tape with the long gone original drummer, whose playing nobody liked. Keep in mind that tapes were typically erased over and used again up to a certain point early on (as someone previously noted), so taking it may have been viewed as little different than throwing it away. 2) As to why Emerick took it, perhaps he just liked one or more of the songs, at least on sentimental grounds. Perhaps he just liked Besame Mucho and the other songs just happened to be on the tape. 3) A point which people seem to be underestimating is Emerick's declining memory. It's often been noted (here and there in this forum) that large portions of his book likely reflect more what ghost writers and other think he would have said versus what he did say. (Thing of Barry Chang's recent interview.) All that said, I'd love to hear it.
The tape of Besame Mucho came from a collector who lived in NYC and it surfaced in 1981.How he got it i don't know.Who he was or is i don't know.How EMI got there hands on it i don't know that either.That tape did NOT come from Geoff Emerick.
Somebody may have answered this earlier but why is it such a big deal that Geoff Emerick took a discarded early Beatles tape home? Didn't George Martin take an early Beatles acetate home and 'lose' it in his sock drawer? Did George's family have to face a legal battle to decide who owned it?
Exactly. It appears Emerick has the original tape. Is the NY story just a story? Maybe Sulpy (who is a member) has some inside information.
