Thursday, March 4, 2010

B - 20 x 4


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Dr. Forrester said...

THE BEATLES
20 X 4 (Remastered Edition)
Remastered 2005 at Remasters Workshop

This is a restoration of the famous Beatles bootleg "20 x 4" originally issued 1977 on Ruthless Rhymes JPGR 1177. (This album is also listed in "Eight Arms To Hold You" as being on Idle Mind 1176.) It was reissued in 1979 and 1981 on JPGR REMIME OBS-204 with the last track on Side 2 omitted, in lesser sound quality. Most people who own this bootleg have one of the reissues. The original pressing is very, very scarce. Many thanks to Jeff for the original 32-bit .wav files from which this restoration was made.

The pressing was in such sad shape, I think this project has taken the longest of any I've done in the past, to get it right. Over four million scratches were removed. The sound of the turntable and the vinyl have been removed. Hum and odd frequencies have been filtered out. The recordings have been restored to true mono and pitch corrected to A=440 Hz. Of special note is "Peace Of Mind", which may or may not be The Beatles, that has had all of its pitch variations ironed out flat so that it does not speed up at any point, as the original did. This is as close to how the original tapes sounded as it is possible to get without having the tapes.

There is a song on this album that was titled "Penny O'Dell" by the bootleggers, which was said to be from Paul McCartney's 1974 Nashville recording sessions. This is not the case. Track 7 is a monitor mix, recorded on a portable cassette deck, by a person sitting in the control room at The Soundshop in Nashville. During a lull in the playback, he quite clearly says "Kenny O'Dell." That's whose session it was. Who knows how it ended up on a Beatles bootleg? This song is called "Homecoming Queen", written by Kenny O'Dell and Larry Henley (of The Newbeats) and it was issued in 1972 on the B-side of the single "Lizzie And The Rain Man" on Kapp K-2178.

Note that there are four tracks here from the as-yet-unreleased "No. 3 Abbey Road NW8" - which would not show up for another two years.

The tracks are from a data CD backup I made in 2005. There have been no CD extraction stages in this process.

Track Listing:

Side One
01 Oh! Darling - outtake with alternate vocal tracks, from Abbey Road sessions. 7-18-69 Take 21
02 Peace Of Mind - dunno who this is. You decide!
03 Blackbird - Paul & Donovan, from Mary Hopkin session for "Post Card", Trident Studios, London, 11-68
04 Things We Said Today - from BBC "Top Gear", recorded 7-14-64 and aired 7-16-64
05 Help! - this sounds like a monitor mix from 4-13-65 Take 9. It might be a fake. It's never turned up on another bootleg.
06 Every Little Thing - a monitor mix from 9-24-64 Take 4. Also never turned up elsewhere.
07 Kenny O'Dell - Homecoming Queen (monitor mix) - from The Soundshop, Nashville, 1972
Side Two
08 Imagine - John Lennon, from "Salute To Sir Lew Grade", 6-13-75
09 I Love My Suit - Ringo with Harry Nilsson and Davy Jones. Soundtrack of 1977 Japan TV ad for "Simple Life" leisure suits
10 Bye Bye Love - George with Paul Simon, from "Saturday Night Live" rehearsal, 11-17-76
11 My Carnival - Wings, WVUE-TV (New Orleans) news clip, from Sea Saint Studios on 2-13-75
12 Heather - Paul & Donovan, from "The Post Card Tape" 11-68
13 Her Majesty - unedited recording, 7-2-69 Take 3
14 Nowhere To Go + I'd Have You Anytime - George with Bob Dylan, late 11-68 at Dylan's home in Woodstock, NY
15 Bluebird + Mama's Little Girl + Michelle + Heart Of The Country - outtake from "James Paul McCartney", 03-1973 (debut)
16 Hi Hi Hi / C Moon (promo ad) - Wings, recorded specially at Abbey Road and/or Olympic Studios 11-72

Artwork is included.
Feel free to share, in lossless format only.

Remasters Workshop
RMW 307

March 4, 2010 at 4:29 AM

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