My 5 Favorite Beatles Bootlegs

[@NLKINK]

The Decca Tapes album was available as a free gift on CD many years ago in The Netherlands if you ordered something from a mail order company called Wehkamp. I got mine from a female co-worker who ordered some clothes...To this day you can get copies of Decca Tapes on CD for one or two Euros in Dutch charity or thrift shops. The Beatles Sessions was my first ever bootleg albums I bought. Very good. I own a CD version of it as well that has some nice bonus tracks.

[@jreynosoj]

Bob the cat video compilation please

[@BrianBringelson]

It’s in the works haha

[@gordonteats298]

I had a Beatles bootleg album called LIVE IN ATLANTA GA, in the 1970s, it was recorded in 1964

[@chrismcgovern1647]

It's ok Brian, you do hand movements in almost every video 😆

[@jesmardepaula1141]

Os Beatles ainda é a maior banda de todos os tempos... ❤❤❤❤😎😎😎😎✌✌✌✌

[@fastcakes]

I always thought the main reason for blank labels was to get the music past the pressing plant, who afaik turned a blind eye if they suspected they were pressing unauthorised music, and the blank labels gave them a get out if someone asked after the fact.

[@750drums]

Great video, Brian. Beatle boots are essential. Still the only source for so much material. Been collecting Beatle Boots since 1970. They've come a long way since the white covers and slip sheets! I probably have well over 100 lps and equally as many cds, not counting solo stuff. Nice choices of what you have. There are so many really good ones. Kum Back was my first, and there's a recent issue of that called Get Back, The Electra Acetate, which has been cleaned up and speed corrected. Still my favorite version of the Get Back acetates. The Barret collection is essential, for sure. Sessions would have been a fine Apple release. The Get Back you have is called Acetate# 2, I believe. Not great sound, but cool cover. The cd versions had better sound. The Philadelphia and Indianapolis live shows have really good audio, for live shows. The 13 lp BBC series has to be among my favorites: hearing the complete un-edited programs is so cool. Apple should have made a limited edition set like this for collectors. Just too many good one to mention.. Thanks for a great video.

[@indigohammer5732]

Ultra Rare Tracks. That is all.

[@videoplusdvd]

Purple Chick has compiled the largest collections of boots, many of which can be found on Internet Archive

[@finch45lear]

I am a huge Beatles bootleg collector . Recently I have been enjoying a six volume 12 CD set entitled the complete anthology. The sound is outstanding and many of the tracks are in stereo as opposed to their mono counterparts. Another recent set is the upgraded Shea film from 2016 along with the remastered sound . Best document of this gig to date. Thanks for the interesting video.

[@elescritorsecreto]

Live at the Star Club “Zu Laut” is worth a listen. Best sound of all the Hamburg bootlegs. The vocals are noticeably clearer.

[@jestaree2]

I was wondering when a video on Beatles bootlegs would come. Great content Brian, keep up the good work!

[@CharlesHarris-cy6sl]

RINGO IS THE BEST !

[@spaceengineer1452]

Indian Rope Trick.

[@nickelias5321]

Hi Brian, I still have some favorite boots after all these years including the fantastic Beatles AtThe Beeb lp set. Tremendous covers and great sound ! Also Casualties, sort of a continuation of the capitol Rarities lp . And don’t forget some of the cool 45s like the colored vinyl Deccagone series 👍

[@videoplusdvd]

There was also a quasi-bootleg from 1979, similar to the US “Rarities” project, called “Collector’s Items”, which may or may not have been considered for official release. It certainly had a better cover, completely filled with memorabilia from the heady days of Beatlemania. The rear of the jacket had all the earmarks of a Beatles Capitol album, with an “SPRO” (promotional) catalogue number and authentic looking purple Capitol labels. Many of the tracks were fairly similar to the official US release, but included the hi-hat intro version of “All My Loving”, which was found on the international “The Beatles Box” mail order 8-LP box.

[@labajadaman]

Collector’s Items is a good one. There are two different versions, SPRO-9462 and SPRO-9463. They are nearly identical - except that track 10 on side one is different on each. The first has I’m Down as track 10, while the other has Paperback Writer. Both have the purple Capitol label. I have a copy of each that I picked up over 40 years ago when they first came out (1979). The story goes (as I remember) Capitol was toying with the idea of releasing the Rarities album as a regular release (the green label one) but when the bootleggers beat them to it with Collector’s Items (a far better collection of Beatles rarities) the project was scrapped and a better U.S. version of Rarities was officially released in 1980.

[@rocdocs]

Beatles Not For Sale looks pretty good- I dont have the Anthology records, so it would work in my collection. I actually never saw it before your short dropped today.

[@gordonteats298]

I had that Decca record on CD

[@samanello3382]

Interesting video. Thanks!

[@hootenhtn]

"Sessions" even got a premature listing in the Schwann Catalog.

[@CharlesHarris-cy6sl]

HEY, BRIAN I LOVE MY BEATLES

[@nankypooh655]

As far as what you presented, there are sooooo many Decca audition Beatlegs, and they're all the same. I dig that. I like hearing the band before they became famous. Not For Sale is also a good one. If You've Got Troubles is a great song, and i think it's criminal that the rest of the world had to wait until Anthology 2 to hear it. (But I'm an unabashed Ringo fan) I always enjoy the Get Back, album. And FYI, technically The Star Club albums, aren't Beatlegs, per se, but they were not approved by The Beatles, their legal department, or their estate. To make a very long and drawn out and complicated story short, they were released to fulfill contractual obligations, along with The Beatles Featuring Tony Sheridan. Now, if you want to hear a BEATLEG of The Star Club performances, you should do a little leg work, and try to find The Beatles Star Club on the Purple Chick label. It is very extensive, but BE WARNED: A) NOT ALL THE SONGS ARE BY THE BEATLES! There was a band that they used to perform with called King Sized Taylor and at least 25% of the material is them, and secondly, the sound quality can vary from song to song. Some songs have great sound quality, while others are horrendous, and some songs are even cut off at the end, but if you want to hear The Beatles in their early days at their rawest, most brutal, if your ears can handle the shift in sound quality from song to song, this is an essential Beatleg to have. (It's hands down one of my favorites, but I've always been a fan of punk rock to begin with, and this PROVES that The Beatles WERE A PUNK ROCK BAND!) Some songs appear twice, but if they do, they are from different performances. Also it's a two disc set.

[@WilG082]

George sounds the best on the deeca tapes

[@spaceKadz]

How do you find bootlegs? I usually have to download them and burn them to a cd, I've never found them online or in the wild.

[@BrianBringelson]

My local record stores have some occasionally. Over the years I’ve picked them up here and there. I tend to only go for vinyl, but I’ve found some cool ones online as well. They’re easy to find online if you just do a google search.

[@NoMoreMrNice]

eBay is a great place to start.

[@michaelpinckney2]

The Beatles Vs. Don Ho

[@johnnydelight4586]

How’s the sound quality on the sessions album??

[@BrianBringelson]

It’s not that great honestly. The anthology versions are all much better. I think the sessions bootleg was created from a cassette tape.

[@tomfurgas2844]

What about "Kum Back"?

[@BrianBringelson]

all the Get Back/Let It Be boots are fascinating to me. I do own "Kum Back" and "Get Back To Toronto" and many other Get Back era boots. Thanks for the comment!

[@tomfurgas2844]

@@BrianBringelson The story behind "Kum Back" is interesting. Seems that The Beatles asked their engineer Glyn Johns to put together an album for their approval, so he did and made acetates for all the members of the band. They soundly rejected it, but John Lennon brought his copy to a radio station in Boston and when they aired it several people taped it off the air. At least one of those tapers had it pressed into an album, but naturally they couldn't have the pressing plant print up covers and labels saying it was by The Beatles. So the bootlegger just had them make plain white labels and covers and he rubber-stamped the "KUM BACK" title on the front. The only other indication on the album is the "Side 1" and "Side 2" scratched into the runout grooves on the record. I believe John Lennon offered the acetate in exchange for something from the DJ in Boston, but I forget what it was.

[@750drums]

@@tomfurgas2844 Actually it wasn't in Boston, I believe it was in Toronto when Lennon did the show there, but WBCN in Boston managed to get a copy of the tape, and they were one of the first (I think a station in Buffalo was first) to air it. I remember when WBCN did it, as they had advertised, they were going to broadcast it that night. I taped it off the radio myself, unfortunately very low fi, with a mic held in front of the speaker. A few days later, a local record shop had copies in a white jacket, with nothing at all on the jacket or the plain orange labels for identification The record store owner said they were "promos", of the new Beatle album, and they sold out very quickly. Little did we know that would be the beginning of a Beatle Bootleg addiction, which persists to this day. Yellow Dog records put out a cd a number of years back, which has the complete WBCN broadcast, with announcements and all.

[@chrismcgovern1647]

The Sessions album would have been interesting--I think it would have been the first real official outtakes collection. But good God, I hate the mixes/remixes of these tracks. That remix of "What's The New" is abysmal (Why they repurposed this version for Anthology 3 is beyond me, just give me the original Take 4). I also never cared for the repeated endings on "Besame Mucho" or the acoustic WMGGW

[@750drums]

The mixes are awful, to be sure.

[@anthonyvigliotti6560]

"Bootlegs"? You should call them "Boblegs". 😹