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The Ultimate Collection Vol. 1

Miscellaneous Tracks

Disc 3 of the "Ultimate Collection Volume 1"
Yellow Dog, YDB103, 1994

1In Spite of All The Danger (1993 version)0:49
2The First Sounds of Strawberry Fields Forever0:36
3We Love You, Beatles1:07
4Twist and Shout2:30
5Roll Over Beethoven1:48
6I Wanna Be Your Man1:44
7Long Tall Sally1:41
8Medley: Love Me Do / Please Please Me / From Me To You / She Loves You / I Want To Hold Your Hand3:56
9Can't Buy Me Love2:03
10Shout1:59
11Girl (backing track)2:20
12We Can Work It Out (incomplete demo)0:31
13Obladi Oblada2:35
14Blackbird (demo)1:48
15Helter Skelter (demo)0:55
16Oh Darling (vocals only; voice roughening)8:27
17Think For Yourself (studio talk)5:04
18Ariel Tour Instrumental (Flying)9:39
19Ariel Tour Instrumental (Flying) - reversed9:39

Liner Notes from Booklet

Track 1 A 1993 radio-taped version of the still unheard McCartney-Harrison original In Spite Of All The Danger, played live by ex-Quarrymen Rod Davies and Len Garry. In April 1993, the Dutch magazine Beatles Unlimited organized its fourteenth Inter- national Beatles Convention at the Amsterdam Meervaart. Among the musical guests was a band called The Four Pennies, a new Liverpool group with three original Quarrymen members: John Duff Lowe, Rod Davies and Len Garry. On the night before the convention, Davies and Garry hosted a national radio show called De Avondspits, presented by Frits Spits. Following a short interview, the two played an acoustic snippet of the rare In Spite Of All The Danger, a solo penned by Paul and George and originally recorded by The Quarrymen sometime in mid-1958, inside Percy Phillips' little backroolll studio at Liverpool's 53 Kensington. Pressed onto a demonstration two-sided shellac disc, the A-side of this record, of which only five or six copies were ever made, was The Quarrymen's version of Buddy Holly's That'll Be The Day (with John on lead vocals). Years later, in July 1981, John Duff Lowe had decided he wanted his copy of this unique rccord to bc auctioned off at Sotheby's. Paul was keen to offer his one-time Quarrymen pal a generous cheque of some ten thousand pounds sterling. And so the only surviving copy of this disc is now in his possession. Only once has he since publicly played that A-side song, on a 1985 MPL musical documentary about Buddy Holly. The original B-side, with Paul taking the lead, remains unheard to date, although rumours have it that it would be included in EMI's long-awaited Anthology boxed set, due to be released some time early next year. Until then, this radio show is our only chance to hear what this tunc originally sounded like. A unique piece.

Track 2 A previously unheard brief piece of John musically experimenting on his new Mellotron, performing the first sounds of the classic Strawberry Fields Forever. This was most probably recorded at Abbey Road Studios on Thursday November 24, 1966, the first day of sessions for the newly-planned Beatles album. George can be heard shouting: "Eight o'clock channel two and three, do you want to borrow this?" Later on, Ringo finishes offwith: "Ready fellows, we're late."

Tracks 3 to 10 The Beatles pre-taped soundtrack for the Rediffusion TV Show Around The Beatles, first screened on Wednesday May 6, 1964. This unfettered soundtrack tape was recorded at London's IBC Studios on Sunday April 19, 1964. The Around The Beatles TV-show, original1y named John, Paul, George And Ringo, had The Beatles rehearsing at the Chelsea Hall Of Remembrance and at Rediffusion's Wembley Studios for three days in April 1964 (Saturday 25, Monday 27 and Tuesday 28). The one-hour show included The Beatles singing a selection of five songs, an unusual medley of their hits to date and a cover-version of the Isley Brothers 1959 hit record Shout. This was all mimed along to a pretaped soundtrack, (with lots of loud screaming girls added on Tuesday 28,) and engineered by the young producer Glynn Johns. Around The Beatles opened with them staging a humorous sketch from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. John portrays the beautiful lady Thisbe, Paul plays the role of Pyramus, George is doing his bit of Moonshine and Ringo acts as a Lion, all attired in full costume. Apart from The Beatles, the show also included such stars as PJ. Proby, LongJohn Baldry, The Vernon Girls plus NEMS artists Cilla Black and Sounds Incorporated. The opening track (listed here as track 3) is a novelty song by a group of singing fans calling themselves The Carefrees.

Track 11 A previously-unheard instrumental 'backing track' for the Rubber Soul album included Girl, recorded at Abbey Road Studios on Thursday November 11, 1965.

Track 12 An incomplete but unique McCartney home demo of We Can Work It Out, taped sometime in the autumn of 1965.

Track 13 An alternative all-acoustic early version of the White Album's opening- track, released in 1968. At this stage, Paul's Obladi-Oblada is still very much a calypso-type tune. Saved here is take #5, recorded at Abbey Road Studios on Thursday July 4, 1968. Moreover, the title of this song is supposed to come from the name of a Calypso group called Johnny Scott And His Obla Di Obla Da Band.

Track 14 A unique and unheard McCartney studio rehearsal of his new ballad Blackbird. Taped on Tuesday June 11, 1968 at Abbey Road Studios, this is one of 32 different all-acoustic takes recorded that long afternoon. It includes various false starts, foot-taps and numerous mistakes in the still unfinished lyrics. Paul's only comment at the end: "I think I just forgot the format."
This recording, plus the next unique track 15, was taken from a privately-shot 16 mm colourfilm, directed by Tolly Bramwell, to promote Apple Records. The finished film, which also includes Apple's new discovery Mary Hopkin plus "Electric" Alexis Mardas and Dick James, was later shown to some folks at Capitol Records and at a Derek Taylor-hosted EMI sales conference. No public broadcastings to date, so let's just cherish these two mementoes.

Track 15 Another unique and unheard McCartney studio rehearsal of Helter Skelter, with John busy talking business in the background; Paul in a rather high voice, do-da- do-da-do, Ringo hand-clapping along.

Track 16 An enjoyable, long-running, vocal track-recording of the track Oh Darling (8:27), included on the Abbey Road album. This is one of various over-dubs taped at Abbey Road Studios on Saturday April 26, 1969.
Paul playing with the echo and joking over the absence of sound in his earphones, before the other members of the band arrived. "Hello there, can I hear something in the earphones. There's too much replay there, it's beginning to feed back. Singing: "Let me tell you how much I love you, love you, love you", joking with the feedback. More spontaneous lyrics: "Well, you said you wouldn't leave me mama, but you know you went and did it, sure you did. Well well well, when you told me that you love me. I can't hear nothing in my earphones, yodalahiti, yodalahiti. Cuckoo, cuckoo. It sounds alright then, funky. Is that three-and-a-half there? Yes it sure is, you better believe it. Come on, let me hear it. There's quite a cracker off the replay speaker, is that the three-and-a-half ?" Then finally going into a full-voiced, incomplete rendition of Oh Darling, attempting to make his voice sound rough as though he had been on the road for a hard long tour recently. All previously unheard.

Track 17 An Abbey Road studio-rehearsal for Gcorge's Think For Yourself, recorded on Monday November 8, 1965. The foursome practising the lyrics and chatting over the chords, listening to numerous tape playbacks with producer George Martin commenting from the control room.
George: "It's hard to recognise just on the chords exactly which line I'm up to." John: "We've never heard them once you fool, no wonder we've been getting it wrong". Paul: "It's a Woody Woodpecker Song, tidilididi-tidilididi." George: "Let's just swap mikes. Let's do it on double-tracking right away, I'll go on the other mike. No harm in that. Do what you want to doooo. Mal, will you shut the door please." John (singing): "Lukewarm baby's got a custard face, doola-doo. Let us hear them tor god's sake. There's no need to come down Norman."
Please note that this 5:04 piece is totally different to the bits included on Yellow Dog's "Unsurpassed Masters Vol.7 CD.(YD 013)"

Track 18 A complete unreleased long version of Aerial Tour Instrumental, read the instrumental track Flying, composed by all four Beatles. This is an early take, complete and unedited. It is most probably take #8, recorded at Abbey Road Studios on Friday September 8, 1967.
This 9:39 minutes original alternative piece includes three separate backward organs plus separate tracks of mellotron music by John and all over-dubbed chat chant by all four.

Track 19 A reversed version of the previous song, complete and unedited, again 9:39 minutes long.

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