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Well, right off the bat I went to "the third disc," of course of course. I was anxious to hear the remixes of the original album, but not nearly as anxious as I was to hear Beatles songs I'd never heard before. So...
Disc 3
The first 19 cuts are demo versions of songs which appear on The White Album. They're interesting...especially in the way that some of the lyrics deviate from the versions we know and love now. ("Clutching forks and knives to cut their pork chops" just doesn't have that killer resonance, does it?)
And then came the Not On That Album Songs:
"Sour Milk Sea"--a George Harrison song which saw release as a single by Jackie Lomax in 1968.
"Junk" which would end up on Paul McCartney's first solo album, McCartney, released in 1970.
"Child of Nature--whose lyrics would be re-written as "Jealous Guy" and which would end up on John Lennon's Imagine album in 1971.
"Circles"--another George Harrison song. This song eventually ended up on Gone Troppo, his 10th studio album, which was released in 1982.
"Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam," which would end up on the Abbey Road album (1969).
"Not Guilty"--another another George Harrison song. This song eventually ended up on George Harrison, his eighth studio album, released in 1979.
"What's the New Mary Jane"--saw release on Anthology 3 in 1996.
So in a way none of these tracks were unreleased unreleased, I suppose, but it was still quite a thrill to hear them.
Disc 4
All but 1/2 of these tracks were The White Album bits, including three different takes on "Revolution" and three different takes on "Good Night." The first version of "Revolution" here weighs in at ten and a half minutes, and it becomes pretty unbearable about midway through when Lennon kind of goes nuts and keeps screaming and saying the same things over and over and just making stupid noises. I really could have done without that. Interesting that this is labelled as Take 18. Maybe it was just a Let's Get Really High And Play session. I don't know why it was included, though, as there's really nothing to recommend it so far as I can hear. The 1/2 track was a one sentence introduction and then a classical music-y prelude (obviously a George Martin thing) to "Don't Pass Me By." Speaking of...Ringo's vocal sounds a bit off to me on this, as if the tape had been speeded up a smidge. Maybe just a mastering problem, like Billy Joel's first release of Cold Spring Harbor.
A most excellent instrumental version of "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except For Me and My Monkey."
A cute little flubbed intro to "Good Night" from Ringo, followed by a rather atrocious three (maybe four?) part harmony vocal on the same song. (Kind of like a barbershop quartet gone wild with drink.)
A guitar driven version of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" (sans piano, sans horns) which I thought was superior to the album version. For one thing, the vocal is a bit stronger...not as breathy, y'know?
An instrumental version of "Revolution" in which both John and George's guitars sound really tough...is it just because the vocal is missing, or does the lack of vocal encourage them to hit those strings harder? I don't know. It doesn't sound like the music on the released version to me, though. Have to go back and do a taste test, I suppose.
A take on "Cry Baby Cry" with a weird / silly spoken introduction (featuring a reference to Semolina Pilchard), and a vocal from John which actually felt more real and more sincere than just about anything I've ever heard from him. He sounded like a real person instead of John Lennon. (A real person who sounded like John Lennon, though.) I liked it a lot. Yes, more than the album version.
A very weird, slowed down, unrecogNIZable version of "Helter Skelter." Had a really weird groove.As much as I love the album version, I really wish they had put this one up as well.
Disc 5
16 tracks, 10 The White Album things--two of them takes on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"--and also a "Hey Jude,""St. Louis Blues," "Not Guilty," another "What's the New Mary Jane," a short bit of "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care" and a "Let It Be." I wonder why The Beatles...or possibly it was just John...liked "Mary Jane" so much. It seems like a pretty weak bit to me.
Anyway.
Unfortunately, "St. Louis Blues" is just Paul singing the first line of the Bessie Smith song. It was a good fifty-two seconds, but I would have liked to have heard more.
This version of "Not Guilty" was a much more finished piece...seemed to involve the whole band. With a little harpsichord thrown in for good measure. Not bad...but this song doesn't really do much for me, sorry to say.
There was a really goofy and weird little bit of "Let It Be." And even though I'm not a big fan of the song, I was impressed that there was a "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" labelled as Take 27. That's a whole lot of work for a song, ennit?
At the end of a take on "Helter Skelter" which is much closer to the finished version that the previously noted one, Paul says, "Keep that one. Mark it FAB."
Disc 6
A whopping 22 tracks on this one. 16 of them are The White Album bits, and then there's "Blue Moon" (which doesn't seem to have wound up on any Beatles albums, but which Paul did put a version of it on his 1991 album, Unplugged: The Official Bootleg), "Step Inside Love" and "Los Paranoias" (both of which were released on Anthology 3 in 1996), "Can You Take Me Back," (which doesn't seem to have appeared anywhere else prior to this), "The Inner Light" (which eventually saw release in March 1968 as the B-side to "Lady Madonna"), and "Across the Universe" (which, of course, appeared on the Let It Be album in 1970).
Things of note (imho):
After a flub on "I Will," there's a bit of funny Upper Class Dialect humor: "I hardly think so!" "What the hell's going on?" "I don't know, gentlemen, I mean...." It made me feel all warm and gooshy inside. Also interesting that Paul went right back to work after this bit without missing a beat and delivered a wonderful take on the song.
There's a version of "Long Long Long" here which is labelled as "Take 44." Yowza. And what's more, this is still not the final version. In fact, George gets a bit silly about 3/4ths the way through.
5 of the songs on this cd are labelled as "instrumental backing track," and while they're interesting, I kind of wonder why they're included here. There were only 2 ibts on the previous three discs. Maybe there's some subtle difference between the music here and the music on the final versions? It's possible, but I couldn't tell. There's also a "Martha My Dear" which sounds like the final album version but "without brass and strings." It was cool...but I like the brass and strings. And oh, there's a "Lady Madonna" track here that's just piano and drums, and it sounds exactly like the album version, so maybe it's an ibt as well.
Speaking of "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill," it only just now occurred to me that the female voice on this song was Yoko Ono. I looked it up just to make sure (we check our own facts here, man) and saw that I was only partially correct: the female vocal was provided by Yoko and Ringo's wife Maureen. Apparently they were the only women who had a lead vocal (for one line) on any Beatles song.
So this was definitely my least favorite of the four Deluxe Discs, but even having said that there were some loverly moments, and I will mos def listen to at least a few of these tracks again, you better you bet.
So that was a tasty dish to sit before. Funny, too, because instead of satiating my appetite for The Deluxe The White Album, listening to it on Spotify has actually made me want it even more. Hmpf. Go figure. Maybe this home taping thing won't destroy the record industry after all, Kenneth.
ANYway...about those first two discs: well, it's like this. The White Album is one of my favorite albums of all time. I know every word and every note of it. And although I could only listen to this remix on the computer (at least at this point, nudge nudge wink wink know whotahmeen), it sounded rail good. RAIL rail good. Thicker, if you know what I mean. There were sounds that I had never heard before, too, and I'm not talking about things that were added in...just things that had been buried in the sound before were now sharp and clear. Loverly stuff, just loverly.
Anybody got $150 they don't need?
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