Beatles (2/Cd) Bare It All Vol 1 & 2

The Beatles “Bare It All Volumes 1 & 2” [MasterJedi MJ1311-1/2]

Volume 1 – She Loves You (Rs 1) 2:29 / She Loves You (Rs 2) 2:29 / This Boy (Rs Of Take 15) 2:45 / That Means A Lot (Takes 20,22) 3:26 / That Means A Lot (Take 23) 2:10 / That Means A Lot (Test Take) 0:56 / Strawberry Fields Forever (Rm3 Of Take 7) 3:29 / Strawberry Fields Forever (Rm9) 3:41 / Penny Lane (Rm8) 3:21 / Penny Lane (Rm9) 3:13 / Penny Lane (Rm10) 3:25 / Mr. Moonlight (Vinyl) 2:40 / Mr. Moonlight (Take 4) 2:34 / Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Take 5) 3:05 / What You’re Doing (Take 11) 2:17 / From Me To You (Master Take) 2:06 / From Me To You (Edit Of Takes 8 And Master) 1:58/ Thank You Girl (Take 14 With Edit End From Take 30) 2:14/ Thank You Girl (Rs 30) 2:08 / Yes It Is (Rs 1) 2:44 / Down In Havana 0:47 / Step Inside Love, Los Paranoias 5:21 / The Way You Look Tonight 1:15 / Jamming 1:14 / Can You Take Me Back 2:00 / Bonus – Can You Take Me Back 1:09

Volume 2 – One After 909 3:08 / Rocker 0:35 / Save The Last Dance For Me 0:33 / Don’t Let Me Down 4:28 / Dig A Pony 4:10 / I’ve Got A Feeling 2:43 / Get Back 3:21 / Let It Be 4:08 / For You Blue 2:46 / Two Of Us 3:29 / Maggie Mae 0:43 / Dig It 3:58 / The Long And Winding Road 3:54 / I Me Mine 1:46 / Across The Universe 3:30 / Get Back (Reprise) 0:44 / Teddy Boy (Glyn Johns Mix) 5:50 / Teddy Boy (Phil Spector Mix) 4:43 Old Brown Shoe (Take 2) 3:11 / All Things Must Pass (Take 2) 3:17

In 1999 as we know the floodgates opened for a great explosion of Beatles outtakes – a trench not seen since the likes of Yellow Dog’s “Unsurpassed Masters” or The Swingin’ Pig’s “Ultra Rare Tracks” around 10 years earlier.

The John Barrett tapes were therefore a master grab bag for Beatles collectors, a monster that continues to feed our hobby – specifically 2013’s “Take It Off” on the HMC label – which featured around 8 minutes of new material that was dug up after the span of years.

Prior to that release though, Fully paid up member of the Beatles Fan Club and internet forum user, Masterjedi, put together a comprehensive set of the Barrett tapes. For anyone still unaware of what happened there, a quick rundown – The Barrett tapes were divided out between a few bootleggers – of the established names to be offered them were Vigotone, Roaring Mouse, Unicorn and Strawberry Records (Yellow Dog or Rattlesnake under a pseudonym) – each had their own theory as to how these tapes were to be presented – Vigotone releasing around 5 CDs covering the main outtakes, Let It Be tapes and solo oddities while Roaring Mouse diced their stash over 7 CDs then Unicorn got a few odds and ends and Strawberry created 3 boxed sets and 4 singular CDs covering the rest with some additional substitution.

Each manufacturer got a lot of the same things BUT each set was also butchered – seconds missing here and there, shades of quality differing so none of the bootleggers came out with the correct timings. A nightmare for collectors as to which set to choose. Let’s forget label loyalty, ideally we wanted the best quality and longest takes. And all of them together.

Thankfully, this is where Masterjedi steps in. Taking Roaring Mouse’s sets (“More Masters” and “True Masters”) as a base, adding bit-parts from Vigotone’s various versions and also using the oddities from Unicorn’s “Down In Havana” CD, eschewing the material supplemented from the Roger Scott tapes that some labels added to make a slightly more cohesive whole. Helpfully there is a full rundown posted on to the internet here of where these tracks come from – http://877.fc2web.com/2003/jbt2.htmlTruly a labour of love

(Sitting through various different takes of one song and surgically repairing missing bits and pieces where they allow) this set must be tendered as one of the final words on the Barrett tapes (Were it not for that pesky HMC release!) and thankfully it sticks true to his compilation ethos – Disk one specifically, running haphazardly through out the years through everyone’s favourite, “She Loves You” to no-ones favourite “That Means A Lot” via Psychedelic era Beatles on “Strawberry Fields Forever” to the middle-pop years of “Yes It Is” concluding at the jagged ends of their ‘White Album’.

Disk two rounds up the less boring parts of the ‘Let It Be’ sessions on one of the final non-Spector compilations of “Get Back” (Finished by Glyn Johns the way it SHOULD have been) and tops them off with George’s demos recorded in 1969 on his birthday. [pullquote]For anyone familiar with these compilations, these are still necessary because of the time taken in restructuring these compilations[/pullquote]. For anyone new to these outtakes or considering completing their collections with them, this MasterJedi collection is essential in dictating them as a solid set.

The bootlegger who took this set from the internet helpfully (cheekily) kept the rather handsome covers that MasterJedi created – Imitation is the highest form of flattery after all – Regardless to paraphrase a well known song – All you need are these.