Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane Sessions (2006)

Made by one of the more important names in Beatle bootlegs since the new millennium, Misterclaudel, comes a dedicated bootleg compiling the expansive sessions of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane", as well as tossing in a couple of miscellaneous versions of other songs spread through two discs.

Disc one is strictly "Strawberry", beginning with John's solo takes on the song. These take up tracks one through 16. These are fascinating, as you get to hear John come up with the lyrics through them. One of these solo John demos had already been released on Anthology 2 by this point, but the rest being shown are nice. Where it gets interesting is when the full band takes are recorded. 

Take one with the band is a rough outline, but the instrumental take two lays out the basic instrumentation, including the mellotron. A couple of takes later, we get to what is one of the more well-known things about "Strawberry" - the differing takes stitched together to create the final version. There's a great video by the YouTube channel "You Can't Unhear This" that goes into more detail about it than I could here, but I'll give it my best shot. Take 7 of the song is what we hear for just under the first minute of the final version. At 59 seconds in, it smoothly switches into take 26, recorded later. Hearing both these takes in their entirety is sweet, and while take 7 was available through the previously mentioned Anthology 2, the full take 26 wasn't available publicly until the Sgt. Pepper Super Deluxe Edition in 2017. Personally, I like the mix of take 7 from Anthology just a little bit more than the released version, but it's not by much. 

Disc two is where we get to "Penny Lane". Not many different takes here to comment on, but... I mean, it's "Penny Lane". What is there really to say that hasn't been said. The remaining space on the disc is filled by versions of "Hello Goodbye", "Baby You're a Rich Man", and "All You Need is Love". Nice additions.

Overall, I'd say this bootleg is worth seeking out if you're interested in both these songs' recording history. If not, maybe it might not be for you. I personally think it really allows you to see how these two songs that, in no small part, changed pop music as we know it were made. And for that, I give it a 4/5.

'69 Rehearsals Volumes 1-3 (1991)

 ...And we go from a high-concept, deep compilation to what was probably a lesser bootleg series, which I feel is better combined into one post.  '69 Rehearsals, as the title suggests, is a compilation of recordings from the Let It Be sessions. All three were released in 1991 by Blue Kangaroo Records out of Australia. These really aren't much of note, as you can easily find them in higher quality elsewhere. I wouldn't even really say it's for the completionists, as it's more likely they have something like the enormous Thirty Days bootleg (which we will definitely get to). Non-essential, but I suppose it's better than nothing if you can't get your hands on a copy of anything else.

Verdict: 2/5. You can find this stuff elsewhere and in better condition, but it definitely isn't the worst way to listen to it.

The Lost Album (2017)

Welcome to the first post on this blog. My name's Katie. I run two blogs called katie's music blog and reviewingeverylrdrelease. This is the latest adventure into making a form of an archive where I can talk about something I'm passionate about. First general music, then Les Rallizes Denudes, and now... The Beatles.

A quick overview: I have a much stronger connection to The Beatles than to LRD. I've been a fan of them since I was a small child. The 1 album was the first album I have memory of playing on CD. There are recordings of me in kindergarten singing many of their songs. It became a massive part of my life to the point where it was part of my identity for years. Teachers of mine would note how odd it was for a child in 2013 to know every lyric to songs that were decades older than their parents. It did go to the wayside as I began to get obsessed with punk during middle school, but it came back full force within the last few years. And with my joint discovery of a certain Windows application with a blue bird as its logo and iBroadcast... this is why this blog exists.

The first album I plan on speaking about is one of importance in recent memory: 2017's The Lost Album. An attempt by various fans to collect all of the band's unreleased music and alternate versions/mixes from across their time together. Spanning across six discs (and two bonus discs), it's a massive collection... which is somewhat overshadowed by the fact that it wasn't the last in this series. But that can be for another post(s).

Disc one's notable tracks include a great take of "Not Guilty" (which would eventually be released by George on one of his solo albums, but appears here with the full band), "Come and Get It" (which would be given to Badfinger), "There You Are, Eddie" (which is a fun little song by Paul that I find myself humming often), and, of course, the two Anthology special songs "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love".

Disc two opens with a version of "Teddy Boy" from the Let It Be sessions and an amazing acoustic take on "All Things Must Pass". This is also when it comes to an interesting thing this bootleg series does: it combines multiple songs into a larger track to create a medley of sorts. It's shown best on this disc with "Down in Havana", which combines the title track, a take of "Honey Pie", a great acoustic version of "We Can Work it Out", and a few other snippets. It closes with "Watching Rainbows", an unreleased song that's presented here in an edited form that combines both takes from the Let It Be sessions.

Disc three is mainly made up of these "medleys" I previously mentioned. "He Said, He Said" features an absurd 20 "sub-tracks", the namesake of the song only appearing as the second-to-last song over a 25-minute-long run. "Dig It" follows this theme, mainly making up songs that would eventually become Lennon solo songs. "River Rhine" mainly focuses on covers. There's a version of "Now and Then", which I believe I've heard on other bootlegs as being a version by an unknown band rather than the version done during the Anthology sessions, but I could be incorrect. It's still nice. The closing track, "Every Mother Comes Anytime", is a collage that works more as an interlude into the next disc.

Disc four seems to have a focus on the band's early years. It includes songs from the Decca audition, their early BBC sessions, the Quarrymen recordings that also appear on Anthology 1, and a smattering of other recordings from that time. One song of note is "Bad to Me", which appears here as the Lennon demo... with a backing band. I remember reading somewhere that it's either sampled from other Beatles recordings or it's performed by a group. I'm not sure. Otherwise, there's not a whole lot to detail; it's pretty straightforward.

Disc five keeps with this theme from the last disc, including more from around 1962-63. It's almost completely full of covers, featuring ones from BBC sessions as well as the previously mentioned Decca audition. One track of note is "Star Club", which is a medley of Beatles performances from the Star Club. Otherwise, again, not really a lot to note. It does feature, in my opinion, the better of the two takes on "The Hippy Hippy Shake" we got from the official BBC session compilations, so that's something.

Disc six, much like disc three, is mainly made up of medleys. Four tracks combine to over 80 minutes and 43 sub-tracks. The first of these main tracks, "Gnik Nus" (no relation to the song of the same name from the LOVE remix album), focuses for the most part on Magical Mystery Tour, with a couple of other miscellaneous songs thrown in. "Let It Back" focuses on the Let It Be sessions. "I Told You Before" doesn't have a main focus, but it has a lot from their early years. Finally, "Revolution 20" focuses on White Album material (with a part of "A Day in the Life" in it for good measure).

Finally, we reach the two bonus discs, which I'll summarize in one paragraph here since this is all getting quite long. The first doesn't have a theme to it, which I don't really mind. It has a version of "I'm Looking Through You" from Rubber Soul with a more subdued feel, which I kind of like more than the album version. "She's Leaving Home (Strings)" is nice on its own. The second also doesn't have a theme. "The House of the Rising Sun" is a very jokingly done cover of the song, which is combined with a pretty good rendition of "Stand by Me". "Thirty Days", likely in reference to the extensive bootleg of the same name, is a medley of recordings from the Let It Be sessions. The closing track, "Bye Bye Love", is another medley, but it ties together the ending of the bootleg nicely.

So... do I recommend this? Well, it's basically a comprehensive look at everything that wasn't released on a studio album by the band. Half of me wants to say that this is certainly way too much for one person to sit down and listen to... but the other half wants to say that there is so much music that makes this a good jumping-off point to get more in-depth into the Beatles bootlegs out there. Listen at your discretion, I suppose. If you feel it's worth it, go on. This is more or less a gold standard of sorts.

Verdict: 4/5. Lingers a little long, but is worth it in the end.