| This tape was originally thrown in as a bonus with the Decca tape when
the late Joe Pope and two friends bought a copy in the mid 70s. Presumably
Joe made copies for someone else too, as years later it turned up on a vinyl
lp called ABBEY ROAD NW8. Joe and his friends didn't have anything to do
with the lp.
Some years later, the master reel to reel tape was borrowed and transferred
to DAT. Someone recently sent me a copy and that has been used for this
project.
When I listened to the tape I found that the azimuth (head to tape alignment)
changed constantly. Fortunately there is now software which can automatically
track and correct the timing errors caused by poor azimuth, allowing one
to fold down the two channels to mono (note that it was a mono tape to
begin with!) and achieve a greatly improved result. There was (and always
was) a damaged section during Golden Slumbers which also needed fixing.
Some minor dropout during a few tracks I fixed too. The speed I left alone,
since it seems to match the commercial mixes of the songs.
The guitar on the Donovan tape isn't at standard tuning. I tried speeding
it up accordingly, but while this placed the guitar at standard pitch
Paul's speaking voice sounded very squeaky and unnatural. So I've left
it as it is. I figure that since the Abbey Road material is at the correct
speed there is no reason to suppose the Donovan material isn't, particularly
since it is a high quality reel to reel source. My own stance on speed
correction is that unless there is a fixed-tuning instrument present it
is impossible to know with any certainty what the exact speed should be,
therefore I adopt a 'leave well enough alone' attitude unless it is extreme.
Many of The Beatles EMI recordings are 'in the cracks' (off pitch) so
there's plenty of precedent for this.
The Donovan tape is supposed to be from Mary Hopkins' 'Postcard' sessions,
at least according to Mary herself. There seems to be a female voice present
and at one point there's a discussion with the engineer about the guitar
sound, so that would make sense. Traditionally the first song is billed
as 'How Do You Do?' but it sounds to me like there's an 'it' on the end
of it.
The bonus version of you Never Give Me Your Money is a hybrid created
by me, adding Paul's bass from the commercial mix to Track 12. The instrumental
versions are rockband mixes. Unlike most Beatles backing tracks which
are fairly unremarkable, these are unique and fascinating in themselves
and make great background music for Sunday housework! I've restored the
original endings to Mean Mr Mustard and Golden Slumbers. Let It Be is
a combination of the single and album mixes with lead vocal and drums/bass
removed by oopsing. As a result you can clearly hear George Martin's brass
overdubs and some extraordinarily beautiful harmony vocals from Paul and
George (John wasn't present), which reach a sublime climax in the last
15 seconds or so.
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2011-