Strange Beatles Story

kenindfw · Post by **kenindfw** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:00 am

Here's a story posted by Terry Manning on another forum that is Beatles related. For those of you who don't know who Terry Manning is, he is a recording engineer who has worked with a number of big names over the years (Zepplin, ZZ Top, Lenny Kravitz .....). A link to his Bio is here:

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/t/3731/0

Anyway...on to the Beatles part of the post concerning A Day in the Life. See this link for the post. Some may find it interesting or at the very least strange. It was definely a story I had never heard before.

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/t/4157/0

Ken

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:01 am

Ken: I read through the thread. Call me a skeptic. I don't have any of my Beatle resources at hand, but I suspect there's enough detail provided to shoot this story down. I may look into it when I get home tonight.

Stories like this pop-up occasionally. Just the other day a friend who owns a record shop was telling me a story. He said that a mailorder customer of his (can't recall the name) appeared on the cover of 'Sgt Pepper'. Apparently the guy was a California surfer who played in some minor bands and later created psychedelic posters and album covers. I said, "No way". He showed me the guy's website that had one of those diagrams identifying all the faces and his name was on there followed by the description "surfer, artist". We went to several other Beatle websites and found the same diagram with him listed. I then went home and consulted several older books in my library. Apparently the diagram originally appeared in 'Seventeen' magazine back in the 1960's. The original diagram correctly identified the face in question as 'Dion - singer'. The surfer guy apparently modified the diagram and other websites had uploaded the same modified diagram.

Why would his studio (an ocean away from Abbey Road) have an acetate of a Beatle track recorded only days before? Why did it both magically appear and disappear? How could the same thing happen at Motown?

Sounds fishy to me...

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:33 am

After a bit of web surfing, I have found that the recording dates of 'A Day In The Life' and 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' fit perfectly within the context of the Terry Manning story. However it seems suspicious to me that during his phone call to George Martin, he says that he could hear the drum tracks to 'Lucy' being recorded in the background. Whether or not it would be possible to hear them on a transatlantic phone call while talking to George is very questionable, but how would he have known he was hearing the Beatles at work? 'Lucy' was being recorded on or about the purported date, but it was a new unheard track. He therefore wouldn't have recognized it as a Beatle track. And it's unlikely he would remember a few random drum beats months later when the album was released. The fact that he nails down his phone call to exactly the days 'Lucy' was being recorded hints that he may have constructed his story around these dates for reasons of apparent authenticity. He also says that the voices on 'Day' were obviously those of John and Paul. A very sharp listener at that point in time might recognize John's voice, but Paul doesn't sound at all like Paul on 'Day'. I can't explain why anyone would make up a story like this, but it isn't believable to me. And where did the acetates go?

kenindfw · Post by **kenindfw** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:49 am

Well I didn't say it was true

.... just interesting. I must admit I was skeptical as well. How did they break into the studio to drop it off and then they hid it in a seemingly obscure place only to have it disappear the next day. hmmmmmmmm

But who knows...

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:09 am

Ken: I realize that you're just the messenger. The story sounds phony to me. Besides the sudden appearance/disappearance angle, there are too many other questions. For one, I don't think that transatlantic phone calls in those days would have been clear enough to later recognize the drum pattern to 'Lucy'. Of course if the storyteller had been recently reading one of many written accounts of the 'Sgt Pepper' sessions, he would know what days they were working on it. Then he could add this detail to the story in an effort to nail down the date that the mysterious acetate appeared in his studio. Those wanting to believe the story might be suckered by that bit of detail, but I think it's all too convenient. And of course the main object of the story, the mysterious acetate, disappeared leaving nothing behind by a dubbed recording that he made. Sure!

winston · Post by **winston** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:09 pm

Sounds like a far fetched ghost story to me. I would not think that there is any substance to it.

studiotwosession · Post by **studiotwosession** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 4:25 pm

Speaking of cheesy classic rock stories, I just read someone has invented software to play itunes tracks backwards. So, once again, we'll probably soon be flooded with stories filled with all this rubbish about "I buried Paul," and worse, all devil worship sang backwards put into albums so kids go nuts stuff. Well, it was nice to get a break from that for 20 years. I still have a turntable but haven't played anything backwards since the 70s.

brammy · Post by **brammy** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 4:42 pm

How conveeeeenient that it suddenly appeared and then oh_so_mysteriously disappeared. I dont believe a word of it.

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 6:33 pm

Methinks he just made acetate of himself with this tale ....

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 4:17 am

Dave: I think you summed it up perfectly!

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:07 am

Sounds like, eh, a story a certain corrector told us: she cannot bring her work on time because she left it in the bus, then the bus driver phoned her saying he found poor pieces of paper but couldn't deliver it to her right now because he works until 8 PM... etc... Well, she brought it - finally... nothing done in fact, just "long" (em) dashes changed to even longer dashes... no wonder she was fired shortly after...
So... Mr Manning, with all respect due to you... looks like you're fired...
(sorry for another offtopic...)
One more "legend" for my collection...

chingnchime · Post by **chingnchime** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 7:56 am

I know there's been a bootleg around forver w/ a Lennon acoustic version of the song. Don't know what purpose it would really serve to even present the story. Very curious...

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:15 am

Steve: About twenty years ago, I bought a vinyl bootleg of a supposed alternate mix version of 'Sgt Pepper'. The story was that the boot was dubbed from an early mix of the album, taken home on tape by Paul McCartney. Imagine my disappointment upon listening to find out that it really came from a tape of somebody's idiot brother playing bass along with the record. Not a wise purchase!

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:19 am

I also recall many bootlegs that purported to include "rare backing tracks" to Beatle tunes. They usually came from fake stereo mixes that had all of the vocals on one channel. The bootleg would provide a mono "backing track" that was just the other channel.

brammy · Post by **brammy** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 3:56 pm

In the fall of 1961, in Blackpool England, a woman by the name of Mrs Arleen Baumgarden had set out to film her daughter's recital at the local town hall. The recital was scheduled for Sunday evening, so to be prepared, and to test the system, she set up her new 16mm film camera in the balcony (complete with a 2-mic reel to reel tape recorder) on Saturday afternoon. What she did not know until the last minute was that a group called The Beatles was scheduled to play there on Saturday night. Undeterred, Mrs Baumgarden used the occasion of the rock and roll concert to test her camera and tape deck.

The so-called "Baumgarden Film" (complete with audio tape which remained in remarkably good condition) was recently discovered by a man named Jason Silversmith in a trunk in the attic of the house he purchased in 2004 from Mrs Baumgarden's son Nigel (now deceased). Mr Silversmith has sold the items to the BBC which plans to release the material as special DVD package later this year.

If only it were true.