Clinton Heylin's book about the bootlegging industry mentions an English fellow named Alan who was hawking tapes (from live Bob Dylan to various Beatles reels) for ready cash, so he might well be the conduit by which Besame Mucho slipped out (his hoard included "How Do You Do It?", I think).
“There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, 'Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.' The other one says, 'Yeah, I know; and such small portions.'"
I don't think George Martin ever commented on it publicly, but the likely scenario is that he simply gave the acetate back to the Beatles (since it was used in Anthology). I don't think he ever claimed ownership of it. What makes this situation "a big deal" is that the Emerick family is asserting ownership, and presumably wants either a payout or some sort of profit-sharing arrangement in exchange for its use. Or failing that, they want right to sell it at auction. And Universal apparently doesn't want to pay what they are asking, or flat out doesn't want to pay anything, or possibly is unwilling to negotiate.
Thank you for this clarification. I suppose the acetate could have been a 'gift' to George Martin. But you're right, he could have returned it to EMI or Apple.
If this is the tape box: Looks like we got the only version of Besame Mucho recorded. There's only one other full take of "Love Me Do" and the "BEST" was the acetate on Anthology 1. The others are marked BD. Does anyone know what BD stands for? I'm guessing FS means "False Start" Three full takes of "P.S. I Love You", one false start and one BD. Only one take of "Ask Me Why". Is it possible that the takes of "P.S. I Love You" and the single take of "Ask Me Why" were known about by George Martin at the time of the Anthology and just rejected? Is it possible that George's acetate was superior in sound quality to the tape (tape damage?).
As noted, it isn't clear if the Sessions/Anthology version of Besame Mucho actually comes from this session or not. The times on the tape box - 2:17 or 2:20, depending on what one goes by - are much shorter than the time of the existing recording. Breakdown. Doubtful on all counts.
One person who mentions it is Mark Lewisohn in Recording Sessions.I had heard about it before ML mentions it in his book.I heard about it through the grapevine back in the 80s.
Does this figure in the looped ending on the Sessions/Anthology 1 edit? I think this has been brought up before, but this has been a long thread. So is there any documentation of where the "Besame Mucho" tape came from back in the 1980s?
I heard he collected Beatles bootlegs. I don’t know if that’s true or not. He did have a copy of the boot Yellow Matter Custard which contained BBC recordings that he mistakenly thought were recorded at the audition for Decca, or so it goes..
In Tune In, Lewisohn says that while the session was planned to be recorded to both formats, probably only mono was used in the end. I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion though.
Yes, the timing of Besame Mucho is puzzling (and the 'BEST' annotation has been crossed out). And while the takes of Love Me Do and PS I Love You seem about right timing wise, the 'take' of Ask Me Why seems to last 4:20 (maybe 2 takes?)
I don't know all the technicalities, but George Martin was head of Parlophone 1962, and therefore presumably had a degree of discretion not found in new, teenaged hires. Also, acetates can't be reused. Tapes can be, and were at the time. Its continued usefulness would presumably give the company a greater interest in its continued possession.
Yes, he did. John even traded an autographed Butcher cover (see next post) for the Yellow Matter Custard bootleg, which contained BBC radio tracks --- although John thought the songs on it were from the Decca audition. And John was so excited about it that he sent a note to Paul and Linda to let them know (see below) !!!: Other details: Meet the Beatles for Real: Yellow Matter Custard
I'm not sure either, since the tape log indicates otherwise. Also...does Lewisohn say that? Skimming now, I see he says this for 4 September: "The red form says the session was to be recorded in mono and stereo but only mono was used..." But the only thing I see for 6 June is: "...the gods in the upstairs control room would be sending the Beatles' sound to two quarter-inch tape decks." Where has it been indicated that tapes were reused?
It wasn’t Yellow Matter Custard, it was a boot of BBC recording that claimed to be the Decca audition. I had that boot. Pretty lo-fi as I recall. John thought it was the Decca audition because it said it was.
It was Yellow Matter Custard: The fellow (Dave Morrell) who gave John the bootleg in 1971 said it was Yellow Matter Custard: This is where Dave Morrell comes into all of this. He had gotten into collecting rare Beatles bootlegs. He had a mail-order brochure for a placed called Godzilla records in California and he ordered a Beatles bootleg called Yellow Matter Custard. Dave had what was a “phone relationship” with Howard Smith, a guy who was a radio DJ and writer for the Village Voice. Howard Smith had interviewed John and Yoko (and George as well) and had a working relationship with John. After Dave received the album, he calls up Howard and explains that he has some rare early Beatles recordings. He gave Howard a list of the names of the songs on the album and asked if he would pass this information onto John Lennon and ask him what he thought it might be. Howard took the note from Dave with the names of the cuts on Yellow Matter Custard and showed it to John Lennon. At first John did not think it was the Beatles, but then he figured out that it must be the January 1, 1962 Decca auditions. When John saw this list of songs, it had been just a little less than 10 years since the Decca auditions took place. And while ten years ago to me seems like a blink in time, it must have seemed like a whole other life to John. So much had occurred in his life in those 10 years. Two of the songs on that list were indeed songs that were sung at the Decca auditions (Crying, hoping Waiting and To Know her is to Love her). None of the songs on the list were Ringo numbers and let’s all face it: John had a terrible memory about this stuff. [A few weeks later] Dave met up with John at the Record Plant and exchanged Yellow Matter Custard for John’s original copy of the Butcher album, which John autographed for Dave.