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The "Holy Grail" of Beatles Outakes
February 25, 2009 4:16 AM Subscribe

"Take 20" of the Beatles'"Revolution 1" has found its way online.Although the authenticity of the online leak is still to be officially confirmed, the 10 minute recording has been previously documented by Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn and appears to be the gap between the White Album's "Revolution 1" and "Revolution 9".
posted by gfrobe (56 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite

It's a very interesting song and it's always nice to get essentially something new from a group that disbanded decades ago.
posted by caddis at 4:19 AM on February 25

I cannot stream it because there is no pause button and the site is slow. Am I missing something?
posted by dydecker at 4:21 AM on February 25

Never mind. I figured it out ;)
posted by dydecker at 4:29 AM on February 25

Here's an alternative link to download the track. There was a YouTube link to the full track but it has unfortunately already been taken down by EMI. Here is a link to just the second half of the recording though.
posted by gfrobe at 4:32 AM on February 25

It's a very interesting song...

It's still the Beatles at their fatuous worst, playing political footsie (Lennon's "But if you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out/in"), trafficking in lame, "good ol' rock 'n' roll cliches ("Du-um, doobie, do wop"), as if they were too good for all that now, noodling in a drag-ass tempo, on a song that just ain't that good to begin with.

The real treasure on this magnificent blog is the Emmit Rhodes material. If you love the pre-White Album Beatles, you gotta check out my man Emmit. This is where some real 60s pop magic still lived on, after the drugs, Yoko, and the times had ravaged and demolished the Fabs. It only lasted for two albums with Rhodes, whose been previously mentioned here.
posted by Faze at 4:44 AM on February 25

This is working for me, so far:

http://s20.divshare.com/launch.php?f=6646391&s=14c&e=a
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:46 AM on February 25

Wait...I don't get it. Emmit Rhodes sounds exactly like Paul McCartney. Good stuff, Faze, but why is he so superior to the Beatles again?
posted by nosila at 4:48 AM on February 25

I disrespectfully disagree.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:51 AM on February 25 [9 favorites]

Thanks, but my holy grail of unreleased Beatles songs [not f*cking Barcelona] is still, well, unreleased.
posted by marxchivist at 4:54 AM on February 25

I mean't [not f*cking Carnival of Light]
posted by marxchivist at 4:54 AM on February 25

It's still the Beatles at their fatuous worst, playing political footsie (Lennon's "But if you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out/in"), trafficking in lame, "good ol' rock 'n' roll cliches ("Du-um, doobie, do wop"), as if they were too good for all that now, noodling in a drag-ass tempo, on a song that just ain't that good to begin with.

Oh Au contraire!

It's a piss take, it's having a dig at the preponderance of do nothing revolutionists that grew out of the times.

The Du-um, doobie, do wop is meant to be there. The drag ass tempo (I can only assume you mean andante or moderato if referring to the version from the White Album and not the sprightly allegro from the version from the Hey Jude B Side) is also meant to be there, and it's meant to be ponderous.

drag ass indeed- You want to talk cliche- Birthday? Back in the USSR? Get Back, there are many examples, but not Revolution.
posted by mattoxic at 4:58 AM on February 25

mattoxic: "The drag ass tempo (I can only assume you mean andante or moderato if referring to the version from the White Album and not the sprightly allegro from the version from the Hey Jude B Side) is also meant to be there, and it's meant to be ponderous."

You're sure it wasn't because Lennon was so drugged out that he had to record some of his vocals laying down on the floor?
posted by Joe Beese at 5:13 AM on February 25

You can always count on the swell heads to jump into any music thread and start screaming "SUCKS" because they think their disdain makes them look cool. It really just makes them look puerile.
posted by caddis at 5:29 AM on February 25 [8 favorites]

is it just me or is that odd metallic guitar sound through the track just like the backwards guitar in the who's armenia city in the sky?
posted by pyramid termite at 5:33 AM on February 25 [2 favorites]

came for the beatles tracky, left with the Lenny Bruce & Boingo '94. thx.bye
posted by troy at 5:44 AM on February 25

I still think the holy grail is the 27 minute long version of Helter Skelter recorded 18 July 1968, but then I'm weird like that!!
posted by kuppajava at 5:49 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]

is that odd metallic guitar sound through the track just like the backwards guitar in the who's armenia city in the sky?

It's got a more "vocal" quality to me. I thought it was really nice in the song; maybe I'm just in the right mood today, but I liked this take much better than the actual White Album version.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:57 AM on February 25

This post just made my day.
posted by chococat at 6:04 AM on February 25

One of my co-workers just got back to the office after six months of leave due to her spouse dying of cancer. She's a monumentally huge Beatles fan, and a really great person, and everyone is tiptoeing through this brittle not-sure-what-to-say silence. And this same morning gfrobe finds this link and posts it here and I download it and pass it along to her, and now we've got something to talk about instead of something to not talk about.

Thank you so much.
posted by Shepherd at 6:12 AM on February 25 [17 favorites]

I've been kinda gunshy about unreleased Beatles tracks ever since the National Lampoon Radio Hour aired "Jumble" by the Beatles, but this is good. I always thought the false start in Revolution was just John finding his place in the song, but it happens on this take too. I'm glad it leans more toward Revolution 1 and less toward Revolution 9, which scared the bejabbers out of me as a kid.
posted by Bernt Pancreas at 6:26 AM on February 25

Is there a working link?
posted by jckll at 6:32 AM on February 25

Cool find. I never warmed to the White Album version of Revolution, only because I have always loved the 45 version so much.

REE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-de-de
REE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-de-de
REE-(THOMB) -DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-de-de
AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
posted by JBennett at 6:57 AM on February 25 [3 favorites]

Listening to it now cklennon got it from the Megaupload link without any trouble.

Great bass guitar on this take. What fun.
posted by JBennett at 7:01 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]

Is there a working link?

Try here
posted by Webbster at 7:05 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]

Thanks - I'll listen to this when I go on lunch break. Meanwhile, what I want to know is WHERE THE HELL IS THE FAMOUS 30-MINUTE-LONG HELTER SKELTER JAM!? The version on Anthology 3 was amazing, but I want to hear the Beatles jamming, damnit!
posted by Afroblanco at 7:08 AM on February 25

This is where some real 60s pop magic still lived on, after the drugs, Yoko, and the times had ravaged and demolished the Fabs. It only lasted for two albums with Rhodes, whose been previously mentioned here.

How dare you say that about the drugs?? The drugs produced some of the best music ever known to man.
posted by jckll at 7:58 AM on February 25 [3 favorites]

Thanks - I'll listen to this when I go on lunch break. Meanwhile, what I want to know is WHERE THE HELL IS THE FAMOUS 30-MINUTE-LONG HELTER SKELTER JAM!?

Everything the Beatles ever recorded is somewhere in the EMI vaults, or in Paul's closet, or somewhere. Most of the "lost" stuff has come out on bootlegs via people with an inside connection at EMI (the Ultra Rare Trax and Unsurpassed Masters series), but for those few remaining holy grails, it's a matter of getting EMI to release them (and their history with Beatles rarity releases hasn't exactly been stellar) or a bootlegger getting lucky, like with this version of Revolution.
posted by DecemberBoy at 8:15 AM on February 25

Not diminishing the awesomeness of this find, as this is pretty high up on the list of sought-after tracks, but to call this the "holy grail" wouldn't quite be correct. The full 27 minute take 3 of Helter Skelter, for instance, would be closer to the holy grail. Or "Carnival of Light", which no one other than Mark Lewisohn has even heard excerpts of.

To me seeing how Revolution 1 and Revolution 9 were actually linked conceptually is as exciting as either of those.

I don't have a lot of hope for the quality of Carnival of Light, since from everything I've read about it it sounds like the Beatles just fucking around in the studio for a while. It would be fun to hear the long take of Helter Skelter at least once, though.
posted by dfan at 8:19 AM on February 25 [2 favorites]

caddis: "You can always count on the swell heads to jump into any music thread and start screaming "SUCKS" because they think their disdain makes them look cool. It really just makes them look puerile."

Oh... I just thought that was the metafilter way.
posted by symbioid at 8:42 AM on February 25

What's the source of this track? Is it "Revolution Take ... Your Knickers Off" as mentioned in the blog post? Also, there are comments about speed-correction, and there's a torrent with the "corrected" FLAC, if you're interested.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:02 AM on February 25

A few years ago when I first heard about this I made an mp3 where bits of #9 were dubbed on top of #1, and I was quite proud of it, but this now makes my one quite obsolete.
posted by kersplunk at 9:09 AM on February 25

This is quite awesome. Thank you!
posted by vibrotronica at 9:12 AM on February 25

Great bass on this, but I got a little tired of the "Armenia City" thing floating in... enough already.

Otherwise -- ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhllll RIGHT!
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 9:16 AM on February 25

I wish an extended version would surface for "Tomorrow Never Knows." That track fades out right as it seems like it's about to kick it into interstellar overdrive.
posted by Dr-Baa at 9:32 AM on February 25 [4 favorites]

It's not every day you get to hear The Beatles again like it was the first time. Wow.
posted by cazoo at 10:08 AM on February 25

I like it.

My two-year-old is dancing up a storm right next to me. It's like a teeny Woodstock.
posted by codswallop at 10:49 AM on February 25 [2 favorites]

Didn't "Carnival of Light" turn up somewhere last year? Thanks for posting, btw, cazoo is right on.
posted by Curry at 10:53 AM on February 25

This is good, but why is this more of a treasure than any other previously unreleased goodie that we may have heard on Anthology 1, 2, or 3?
posted by jeremy b at 10:53 AM on February 25

Dear Sir Paul,
Because of the historical relevancy due to the Beatle's unique place in shaping popular culture in the Western world, we, the undersigned, do hereby request that you just up and release all the shit, now.

Thanks,
DR, etc.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:37 AM on February 25 [4 favorites]

Still waiting for Revolutions 2 through 8.
posted by ALongDecember at 12:30 PM on February 25

Wonder if there are any Paul Is Dead clues in it...
posted by johngoren at 12:50 PM on February 25

Demonoid have a lossless torrent
posted by Lanark at 1:17 PM on February 25

For any Beatles fan (or art lover in general) this is just mind bogglingly awesome. My jaw is still hitting the space bar at hearing how Revolution 9 evolved so directly from this take.

The process reminds me of this Frank O'Hara poem:

Why I Am Not a Painter

I am not a painter, I am a poet.
Why? I think I would rather be
a painter, but I am not. Well,

for instance, Mike Goldberg
is starting a painting. I drop in.
"Sit down and have a drink" he
says. I drink; we drink. I look
up. "You have SARDINES in it."
"Yes, it needed something there."
"Oh." I go and the days go by
and I drop in again. The painting
is going on, and I go, and the days
go by. I drop in. The painting is
finished. "Where's SARDINES?"
All that's left is just
letters, "It was too much," Mike says.

But me? One day I am thinking of
a color: orange. I write a line
about orange. Pretty soon it is a
whole page of words, not lines.
Then another page. There should be
so much more, not of orange, of
words, of how terrible orange is
and life. Days go by. It is even in
prose, I am a real poet. My poem
is finished and I haven't mentioned
orange yet. It's twelve poems, I call
it ORANGES. And one day in a gallery
I see Mike's painting, called SARDINES.

* * *

Revolution 1, it turns out, was the SARDINES of Revolution 9.
posted by Toecutter at 4:25 PM on February 25 [4 favorites]

I haven't had this much fun since Cracked Pepper.

Thank you!
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 5:52 PM on February 25

This is good, but why is this more of a treasure than any other previously unreleased goodie that we may have heard on Anthology 1, 2, or 3?

Because it wasn't on Anthology 1, 2, or 3. They should just keep releasing anthologies of this stuff; there's clearly a market based on the bootlegs.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:59 PM on February 25

Revelation Chapter 20. Thank you so much!
posted by metaplectic at 8:58 PM on February 25

whay I like about White Album outtakes..you get Naked...
posted by celerystick at 10:16 PM on February 25

sounds like Tyrannosaurus Rex.
posted by celerystick at 10:19 PM on February 25

I don't think it's them. Maybe I'm wrong?
posted by funkbrain at 12:10 AM on February 26

I'm no Beatles expert, nor especially fanatical. But to me, it sounds like the Beatles having fun, instead of being commercially correct. I'd like to hear more fun from them, please.
posted by Goofyy at 1:49 AM on February 26

good ol' rock 'n' roll cliches ("Du-um, doobie, do wop")

By the way, George is singing "Om, shooby do-wop".
posted by metaplectic at 5:31 AM on February 26

filthy light thief, "Revolution take... your knickers off" is now linked in the comments: 1, 2.

The verison of Rev1Tk20 from Knickers runs 11:35, sounding draggy and low-pitched,
while the newly released flac is purely speeded up, with accompanying pitch increase.

Has anyone compared these with the outtakes on Purple Chick's The Beatles Deluxe?
posted by metaplectic at 6:22 AM on February 26

I don't think it's them. Maybe I'm wrong?

All the early links have been shutdown so I guess at least the RIAA think this is real. {not that that counts for much}
posted by Lanark at 10:25 AM on February 26

I don't think it's them. Maybe I'm wrong?

If it's not them, it's a frickin' *brilliant* forgery. But I'd be really, really surprised.
posted by Toecutter at 3:37 PM on February 26

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The "Holy Grail" of Beatles Outakes February 25, 2009 4:16 AM Subscribe

The "Holy Grail" of Beatles Outakes
February 25, 2009 4:16 AM Subscribe