Date:   3/26/2008 12:39:51 PM ( 17 y ago)
Hits:   2,838
URL:   https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=1140860

Over the years several people have been tagged with the honor of being the "fifth Beatle".  The first was Stu Sutcliffe, who actually was the bass player before Paul (who was on guitar) and who played with them when they were a five piece. Next was George Martin, who produced everything but the album Let it Be and the track She's Leaving Home from Sgt. Pepper.  Some cynics call Yoko the fifth Beatle because she was present at a number of sessions in 1968-69.  I collect Beatles memorabilia, mainly autographs and rare vinyl, and the foremost Beatles memorabilia expert in the world, Perry Cox, is sometimes jokingly called the fifth Beatle. The first Beatles LP (12 inch) released under the name The Beatles was released in March of 1963 and was called Please Please Me. The earliest first pressings had a black and gold record label and are referred to among collectors as "Black and Golds", which is where my username came from.

Back before digital had been invented and everything was analog, when musicians wanted to take home some music they were working on so they could listen to it at their house, a metal disc called an acetate was made from the master tape. These were cut right in the studio and were not made to last for lots of plays, as the metal does not hold up as well as vinyl. I have an acetate of Please Please Me that was cut at Abbey Road (then called EMI studios).

What is extraordinary about this is that it was cut while I Saw Her Standing There was still being referred to by its working title of 17 (from the lyric line "She was just 17, if you know what I mean"). Also of note is that this acetate contains the version of Love Me Do with Ringo on drums. Most of the Please Please Me album was recorded  in February 1963, but their first single Love Me Do was recorded in September of 1962. Two versions were recorded- one with Andy White on drums and one with Ringo. The one with Ringo was used on the initial 45's released that fall. However, for the LP the Andy White version was used and supposedly the master for the Ringo version was destroyed so that only the White version would be used on all future releases. Since my acetate was cut directly from the master it is one of the highest surviving generations of the track. The acetate is one of the earliest 12 inch records with original Lennon-McCartney songs on it. 

 In 1961 the Beatles recorded a record with Tony Sheridan while they were living and performing in Hamburg. For this record they were called the Beat Brothers because supposedly the word Beatles sounded similar to a German slang word for penis. In the early 60's almost everything was put out in mono. Stereo discs required expensive equipment to play it on. Thus, stereo records from this era are worth a lot more then the monos because of their scarcity. I have a white label stereo promo of this first album of theirs.  At this point it is the only known surviving copy. It has 11-4 written on the record label. In Europe they do their dates backwards from the USA so that 11-4 really means April 11, which is the day that the promos were cut. There are factory sample labels on one of the record labels plus the front and back covers. Suffice it to say it is a pretty rare duck.

<< Return to the standard message view

fetched in 0.05 sec, referred by http://www.curezone.org/forums/fmp.asp?i=1140860