Beatles Black Album?

congerz83 · Post by **congerz83** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 11:23 am

All I know is that this album is all unused Let it Be recordings. Does anyone have info? Does anybody own the cd?

beatlefreak · Post by **beatlefreak** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:12 pm

Calling the rehearsals that the Beatles did at Twickenham Film Studios 'unused recordings' is a stretch. There are countless bootlegs out there with dozens of hours of the Fabs mindlessly jamming to old rock'n'roll hits, and working out song ideas - some of which would eventually end up on Let It Be, Abbey Road, All Things Must Pass and McCartney.

Most of the songs are not complete, the Beatles gave lackluster performances, and the sound quality is only fair mono (they were taken from the film crew's recorders). The whole Get Back sessions just kind of depresses me. I gave up collecting the boots from these sessions long ago.

fran4001 · Post by **fran4001** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:36 pm

I have it on cassette of all things, and as much as I LOVE THE BEATLES, this is a real hard listen. I haven't listened to it in over 20 years.

beatlefreak · Post by **beatlefreak** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:58 am

Don't get me wrong. There are a number of gems in the Get Back sessions. It's just tedious plowing through the myriad of bits of songs, endless noodling, arguments between the Fabs, Yoko putting her two cents in on a regular basis, making fun of each other's song ideas (not in a nice way), and half-baked performances. As I said, most of the sound from these sessions is mono, taken from the film crew's recorders, and is interspersed with occasional annoying beeps for syncing up to the film. The bass is dull and hollow sounding - George or John were playing the Fender baritone for bass, as Paul was sitting at the piano whenever he could. George's guitar sound is particularly bad, as he ran it through a wah-wah a lot of the time.

It's no wonder the Beatles shelved this project for a year, after the filming and rooftop/studio performances were 'complete'. I have loads of pity for Glyn Johns, who had the unenviable task of assembling a releasable Get Back album. He tried twice - Both were rejected. I don't have as much pity for Phil Spector, who was given the job of assembling Let It Be. He, at least, had Glyn's assembled tapes to work from.

As for the Black Album - When it first came out in the mid-seventies, it was a three record set. It had a gloss all black cover with 'The Beatles' embossed on the lower right front cover (like the White Album), but no sequential number. It contained a collage style poster, but no photos. A fairly good packaging job has made this release quite collectible. But the material can be found on lots of other boots. If you're really into listening to these sessions, there is a CD box set that exists called Thirty Days, which reportedly contains all <yawn...> of these sessions.

rumbush · Post by **rumbush** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 5:11 am

Thirty Days is out of print and has been for several years. The uh..ahem "company" that manufactured the set got popped and were shut down. I have the set and while it contains a lot of the less ****** stuff, it certainly doesn't have all of the Get Back recordings. Still, it was worth my 3 bills

If you're REALLY interested in studying Get Back , check out this book. It has pretty much all avaialable notes from the "sessions."

There are actually hundreds of hours from the Get Back folly that were "unused" err, actually, unusable!! It's mostly throw-away, half-drunk noodling with as Kris says loads of commentary by pretty much anyone and everyone who was hanging around. That includes Yoko, the film directory Michael Lindsay-Hogg (who incidentally was not spared The Beatles' cantankerous barbs), a very amusing and tense visit by Peter Sellers who was working/about to work with Ringo on The Magic Christian, and many others.

Really though the sessions were a remarkable look into the fascinating dynamic between the guys. They had this sort of semi-psychic language that is consequently difficult to understand a lot of the time. On the whole, it's really neat and there are a bunch of gems and great off-the-cuff jams - especially when Billy Preston joined the band.

lyle_from_minneapolis · Fri Sep 14, 2007 5:14 am

It's like listening to a tape of all the arguments that brought about your friends' divorce.

I found Lewisohn's "The Beatles Chronicles" at the library, and I was glancing through the timeline of their early career. Holy cow did they ever get beat up. Seemed like every single day was packed with too much to do, just an exhausting, neverending grind with no breaks, no "weekends" and rarely a day off. You'll see these massive events strung together back to back, then in one recording session wedged between touring dates, they will knock off two or three colossal recordings (like "I Want to Hold Your Hand") in a matter of a few hours, then off again to the next huge event. And it appeared to me that they never got a breath of air until September 1966 when they basically disbanded until November and began work on "Strawberry Fields Forever." This was the beginning of a new era in music, but it was also the beginning of the end of the Beatles.

By the time of the "Get Back" sessions they were so, so sick of each other. I wonder if things would have been different if they had decided in 1967 to only work six months out of the year from then on. Maybe they would have enjoyed each other's company a little better.

brammy · Post by **brammy** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 7:19 am

dittos... a hard listen but with an occasional gem. Like when George walks out and John says something to the effect "ok, we'll just get Eric"

rumbush · Post by **rumbush** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 9:01 am

Someone quickly hammered the "stop" button on the tape machine when George walked out. Kent I don't recall hearing John say that when George leaves, but maybe he did sometime after George's initial departure.

"I'm leaving the band...," George states matter-of-factly.

John quickly says, "When?"

George replies, "Now."

There is a lot of environmental noise on the tape but you can make it out.

What happened after George split was nothing short of chaotic (and fantastic!). The three other lads then proceeded to bash through some stuff; they just completely went bonkers. It was an insane reflex- like panic, anxiety, dread, and euphoria all rolled into a series of bizarre, charged "performances." If anyone's interested I can try to rip some of this stuff and post it for download. It's a real kick in a disturbing kind of way.

dudley07726 · Post by **dudley07726** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 9:11 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XLFTy0BoNQ

firstbassman · Post by **firstbassman** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 9:31 am

For someone like me who is not very knowledgeable about inside Beatles lore (and has never seen Get Back) this kind of stuff would be gold.
I have a couple of traded boots (“Acoustic” and the “Rooftop”) but neither of them are really enjoyable to listen to.

RE: ”It's like listening to a tape of all the arguments that brought about your friends' divorce."

That’d be kinda interesting. Remember An American Family on PBS?

dustymurphy · Post by **dustymurphy** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:43 pm

J. Oliver- I'd be interested in that.

Back to topic:

I have a bootleg called the Black Album that seems to be True Stereo and outtake versions of all George Harrison songs. I got it on a cd that in was a box of reel to reel tapes I bought recently. It's not the Get Back sessions, which makes me wonder if it was something that somebody gave a home title to.

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 12:09 pm

In the late '60s I bought "Kum Back," one of many bootlegs of the Let It Be sessions. It had the version of I've Got A Feeling that eventually wound up on Anthology III -- the one where Lennon screws up on guitar and says, "Aw, I cocked it up tryin' to get loud!" I've always preferred this version to the "official" one from the rooftop session. McCartney vocal is much more lively, as is Lennon's interjection of, "On your what?" after McCartney sings "Keeps me on my toes..." They were still capable of having fun.

rumbush · Post by **rumbush** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:20 pm

Sure Dusty, this week I'll dig up the outtakes I mentioned & will post them in MP3 format.

congerz83 · Post by **congerz83** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:41 am

I'd love to get my hand on some of this footage.

rickfan63 · Post by **rickfan63** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 1:39 pm

That clip of Yoko squealing sounds like an angry chimp in the zoo. Yikes!