Beatles (2/Cd) Bare It All Vol 3 & 4

The Beatles “Bare It All volumes 3 & 4” (Masterjedi MJ 1311 – 3/4)

Volume 3 – That Means A Lot (Take 1) 3:01 / That Means A Lot (Take 2)0:42 / Norwegian Wood (Take 1) 2:09 / Norwegian Wood (Take 2) 2:32 / Norwegian Wood (Take 4) 2:33 / I’m Looking Through You (Take 1) 3:15 / I’m Looking Through You (Take 4) 2:50 / 12-Bar Original (Takes 1-2) 7:24 / How Do You Do It 1:59 / One After 909 (Take 2) 2:49 / One After 909 (Edit Of Takes 4,5) 2:56 / Leave My Kitten Alone 2:53 / If You’ve Got Troubles 2:50 / That Means A Lot 2:31 / Norwegian Wood (Take 1) 2:00 / I’m Looking Through You (Take 1) 2:55 / Not Guilty 4:24 / What’s The New Mary Jane (Incomplete) 5:42 / Come And Get It 2:31 / Rip It Up, Shake Rattle And Roll 2:04 / Kansas City, Miss Ann, Lawdy Miss Clawdy 3:55 / Blue Suede Shoes 2:17 / Cannonball, Not Fade Away, Hey Little Girl, Bo Diddley 3:55 / Mailman Bring Me No More Blues 1:35 / 12-Bar Original (Take 2) 6:45

Volume 4 – Love Me Do 2:32 / How Do You Do It (Incomplete) 0:55 / I Saw Her Standing There (Composite Of Takes 1, 6, 11, And 12) 4:39 / Twist And Shout (Edit) 2:40 / One After 909 (Take 4 – Incomplete) 1:29 / Don’t Bother Me (Takes 11 And 12 Edit – Incomplete) 0:52 / A Hard Days Night (Composite Takes 2, 3, 4, And 9) 2:57 / Leave My Kitten Alone (Incomplete) 1:25 / I’m A Loser 2:32 / She’s A Woman (Take 1), Ticket To Ride 4:04 / Help (Take 4) 2:18 / Norwegian Wood (Take 1), I’m Looking Through You (Take 1) 2:14 / Paperback Writer 2:22 / Rain 2:59 / Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 1) 4:20 / Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 7 – Incomplete) 1:55 / Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 26 – Incomplete) / A Day In The Life (Barrett Mix) 7:53 / Hello Goodbye, Lady Madonna (Take 4 – Incomplete) 5:34 / Hey Jude (Take 9 – Incomplete) 2:47 / While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Unedited Take 1) 3:18 / Because (Barrett Mix) 2:15 / #9 Dream (Spoken Intro By Ringo) 2:49

The companion piece to Vols 1 & 2 of the “Bare It All” series combines the rest of the outtakes collated by John Barrett and the material used for Abbey Road’s special event, ‘The Abbey Road Video show’ a mixed media event showcasing 2 hours of the studios most famous entrants topped off with a tour around the hallowed building. Again, as mentioned in my review of the first volumes, ‘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.html’

Vol. 3 is a mixture of tapes, tracks 1-8 are tape ‘X12’ – 1965 era recordings – and the rest a Barrett self compilation made for his own amusement. The first segments features multiple takes of “That Means A Lot”, “Norwegian Wood”, “I’m Looking Through You” and “12 Bar Original” – the first version of “Bare It All” was missing a partial ‘rehearsal’ take of “12 Bar Original” at the end of take two. This, the compiler promised, would have been taken care of by the time of the sets re-issue. The pressed CD however does not feature this snippet, ensuring that it’s already incomplete. If you own Black Dog’s “Hodge Podge Vol. 1”, you have it (albeit in dismal quality) already.

Regardless of this it all sounds great again. Masterjedi has done a fantastic job with compiling this set and it’s one that deserves to be in your Beatles collection.