Acetate Collection Vol. 3 (Unicorn Records UC-145)
(68:59): Kansas City (EMI acetate), Some Other Guy (EMI acetate), Bad To Me (Dick James acetate), One & One’s Two (Dick James acetate), Keep Your Hands Off My Baby (Phillips acetate), Some Other Guy (Phillips acetate), Beautiful Dreamer (Phillips acetate), You Can’t Do That (EMI acetate), And Your Bird Can Sing (Dick James acetate), Not Guilty (Apple acetate), Hey Jude (American Pocket Disc 3.25 edit), The Beatles Box (World Records flexi), Sound Of The Stars (Disc & Music Echo flexi), The Beatles Live! (flexi), The Beatles singles 1962-1970 (flexi), Ballad Of John And Yoko (Apple acetate). Bonus tracks: Another Day (8″ mono acetate), Sisters O Sisters (10″ main room acetate), Go Down Go (10″ Metromedia acetate), Thingumybob (7″ acetate)
The Beatles Acetate Collection Vol. 3 collects together various rarities from the band’s career. Like with their other releases, Unicorn Records didn’t alter or remaster the tapes, but present them in their primal state. All of them are in excellent condition and with great sound quality. Some are more scratchy than others, but overall all are very good.
At the beginning of the disc are some of the earliest starting with the “Kansas City” fragment. Lasting a bit over a minute, it is a copy of the acetate auctioned at Christie’s in 1993 and purchased by Apple. “Some Other Guy” is another early Brian Epstein acetate which was, like “Kansas City,” recorded at The Cavern in Liverpool on September 5th, 1962.
“Bad To Me,” “One & One’s Two” and “And Your Bird Can Sing” are from the Dick James acetates, once owned by Epstein and then owned by Alistair Taylor, Brian’s assistant. Taylor auctioned the acetate at Sotheby’s on 22 December 1981.
“Bad To Me” was probably recorded for copyright purposes, and not to demonstrate the song to Billy. “One And One Is Two” is sourced from a Dick James acetate recorded at the Hotel George V, Paris sometime between 18 January18th and February 4th, 1964 as a demo for Billy J. Kramer who rejected the song. (Ultimately, the song was recorded by The Fourmost).
“Keep Your Hand Off My Baby,” “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Some Other Guy” come from the January 26th 1963 episode of “Saturday Club.”
Other curiosities include the 3:25 edit of “Hey Jude,” the shortest cut of the song on record. Also included is a flexidisc released in 1977 to promote the release of The Beatles Box, and The Sound Of The Stars. The latter is the longest track on the disc, clocking in at over eleven minutes. It was released in 1966 and given away with the first issue of Disc and Music Echo, featuring an interview with the Beatles by Caroline’s Tom Lodge.
Unicorn include several bonus tracks from the Beatles’ solo releases in the 70’s. “Another Day” is a mono cut of the song from McCartney in 1970 followed by Yoko’s “Sisters O Sisters” from 1972. This is a rough stereo mix lacking the orchestral overdubs of the final version.
“Go Down Go” is a funky 10″ Metromedia acetate recorded by the Elephants Memory. It was re-titled ‘Everglade Woman’ and was an unreleased Apple Single P-1856. Finally, “Tingumybob” a 7″ EMI disc acetate with hand written label, this is an rare acetate of the Black Dyke and produced by George Martin and Paul McCartney. The final two are more curiosities than important pieces of Beatles history.
Acetate Collection Vol. 3 is certainly an interesting collection of rarities worth investigating.
