The Beatles - Off White (1988) FLAC

GENRE: Rock 
FORMAT: Lossless (Flac) 
SIZE: 394 mb (3% Recovery) 

A set of various demos and takes recorded in 1968.
Most of these are Esher demos (John only).
Label: Not On Label - WHT 868
Country: South Korea
Released: 1988

TRACKLIST:

1 The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
2 Cry Baby Cry
3 Sexy Sadie
4 Yer Blues
5 Dear Prudence
6 Julia
7 I'm So Tired
8 Child Of Nature
9 While My Guitar Gently Weeps
10 Lady Madonna
11 Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
12 Goodbye
13 Honey Pie
14 What's The New Maryjane?
15 Revolution
16 Hey Jude
17 Not Guilty
18 It's All Too Much
19 Birthday
20 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
21 Everyone Had A Hard Year
22 What's The New Maryjane? 2

Comments:

Much of the Off-White album duplicates recordings found on Yellow Dog's "Unsurpassed Demos" and the Condor's 1986 vinyl bootleg "Not For Sale." Material drawn from the so-called "Esher Demos" was recorded at George Harrison's Esher home in May 1968. Those tracks are comparable in sound quality to the same offerings on the Yellow Dog release. Adding Harrison's "Sour Milk Sea" and McCartney's "Singalong Junk" would have strengthened Off-White immensely. Instead, a half-dozen EMI outtakes from 1968 are used to fill out a well-conceived package. Slight surface noise reveals that all of these additional EMI tracks originated from vinyl sources -- most likely, "Not For Sale" or "The Lost Lennon Tapes." As a whole, this disc is only recommended if you haven't got "Unsurpassed Demos" and "Not For Sale." 

This first edition of Off White apparently was a success, as Red Phantom has since issued "Off White Vols. 2 and 3." There's nothing to indicate that this first "Off White" Beatleg was put out by Red Phantom. 

Track Notes.

Here's what Off White has to offer that isn't included on Yellow Dog's Unsurpassed Demos: 

Track 4: The Esher demo is preceded by a short outtake from the Rolling Stones' unreleased December 1968 TV film, "Rock and Roll Circus." In it, Mick Jagger Keith Richards and Lennon offer an a cappella verse from "Yer Blues" while a young Julian Lennon fails to get any notice from the rock-star trio, despite pleading for attention: "Dad, I got a little... plane." 

Track 6: Differs from the two "Julia" demos offered by Yellow Dog. Off White's demo has double-tracked vocals and the key is in a higher register. Paul can be heard talking in the background, but his comments are indiscernible. There is a bad case of tape drop out at the middle-eight, and Lennon stumbles through the chord progression shortly after. 

Track 9: EMI session. Take 1, a.k.a. the simple acoustic guitar version without an ending. Off White has cut Harrison's end comment: "Let's hear that back." 

Track 10: A monitor mix of a work in progress. Includes Paul's laugh at the opening and the multiple falsetto ending. But this version is sped and does not include horn overdubs. 

Track 12: Paul's acoustic guitar demo for a tune that he gave to Mary Hopkins as her follow-up to "Those were the Days." 

Track 13: A very poor quality acetate of the commercial "Honey Pie." Some additional background harmonies are audible in a few places, proving that this isn't an OOPSed version. But the sound quality is really awful and the needle even jumps once. What's the point? 

Track 16: A portion of the "Hey Jude" chorus taken from a rehearsal before the band's September 1968 appearance on the David Frost show, "Frost On Sunday." Identifying elements include Lennon's apparent boredom and Paul's comment: "Everybody sing it children, thank you." A more complete version of this tape (with much better sound quality) has been offered by Swinging Pig on their vinyl version of "Ultra Rare Trax 5 & 6" Unfortunately, Off White has cut off the most entertaining part of the tape. At the end, after Paul's over-enthusiastic "Boogie Woogie! Boogie Woogie!" Ringo had complained: "I keep getting my trousers caught on the drum pedal." To this, Lennon responds sardonically: "Take them off!" 

Track 17: Probably the best, albeit the shortest, of the four common "Not Guilty" mixes from 1968. This stereo version differs markedly from that found on Yellow Dog's UM4 and from the Esher Demo. It features heavily flanged vocals, a full bass sound and some tricky splice edits that spice up the rhythm track. 

Track 18: Sourced from the film "Yellow Submarine." Good sound quality. 

Track 19: An alleged alternative mix with vocals and hand claps up front. All other tracks are audible in background. Suspiciously similar to an OOPSed track. This same cut was offered on the bootleg "Not For Sale." 

Track 20: Alternative take from the EMI sessions. Previous "best" before Lennon's drunken piano crash intro that became the commercial version. Features a bongo along with a minimal kit drum, a smooth Macca vocal and some previously "unheard" descending saxophone lines. No piano. 

Track 21: A Lennon home demo of one of his favorite 1968 finger picking mantras, reminiscent of the pattern used in "Julia." Lennon repeats lyrical phrases that he used later in "Two Of Us." He also offers few others: "Everyone put their feet up. Everyone got a face lift. Everyone got a hair cut..." 

Track 22: EMI studio session. Take 4, Aug. 14, 1968. Most interesting is a bit of conversation before the track in which a jovial Lennon instructs a group of others in the studio: 

John: 

Oh shit. (cough) Ah, don't forget to sing the chorus. You all seem to be just listening to the chorus. 

Unidentified voice (Donovan?): 

Yeah, you know. Where's the chorus? 

John: 

The chorus goes: "What a shame Mary Jane had a..." 

Yoko: 

The chorus is the most important one. The chorus is the most important. 

(sound of jarred needle sweeping across acetate)

Engineer: 

RS-5 

(Donovan?): 

Oh, I see. Hang on... well it's ok. 

At the end of the take, Lennon says: "Let's hear it!!!" But Off White cuts the tape there without his concluding description: "...before we all get taken away." 

Track listing, transcriptions and comments by Ron Synovitz.


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