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Friday 20 December 2013

Bootlegs of the bootleg

Asian bootleg of the Beatles "Bootleg Recordings 1963"

You saw that one coming, didn't you? Here are the first Asian hard copies of the Beatles' "Bootleg Recordings 1963". Of course, not every Beatles fan everywhere in the world is able to download songs off the internet. In Asia, a lot of them don't even own computers. Heck, even in Europe and the USA, many collectors will not purchase records that are not available on physical discs.

Thanks to Dirk Bock, who first posted the photos of these underground releases. Of course, we shouldn't call these bootlegs, but I thought that was a good title for the story. Technically, these are not bootlegs but pirate records, bordering on counterfeits.


Dictionary:

Counterfeit: Mimics a real record, trying to pass it on as the real deal. Purchased by the general public or fans who can't afford the real record. The artists lose money.

Pirate record: Puts together official tracks on a disc and does not attempt to mimic an official record. Purchased by the general public and sells in large quantities. The artists lose money.

Bootleg: Contains only material that the artist has not given an official release. Purchased by only die-hard fans who needs to have every scrap of material from the artist. The artists do not lose any money, because they have chosen not to release it for money themselves.

Traditionally, the record industry doesn't distinguish between these different types of underground releases, typically branding all three categories as "pirate records".

Isn't it funny that this release, which the record company was originally just going to "sneak out", ended up doing so well on the iTunes charts worldwide, even at the inflated price tag they put on it? With a little help from this blog.

6 comments:

James19 said...

Where can I buy this?

Unknown said...

Just found out that the date and venue is wrong on " Too much Monkey Business" they never broadcasted that the 26th of january on Saturday club, it's from Saturday Club 16 Mar '63, ref Mark Lewisohn The Beatles Chronicle and compared it with bootleg recording and they match.

wogew said...

I did a few corrections in the artwork I posted.

Track 18: "Too Much Monkey Business" is not from 26. January, but actually from Pop Go The Beatles episode 2, from 11. June. Apple took this track from what they thought was the March 16th broadcast, but didn't realise that the Great Dane/Purple Chick bootlegs (from which they sourced it) initially included the wrong version (from 11 June). Purple Chick corrected their track list via a distributed patch, which Apple/BBC probably missed.

Track 20: "Do You Want to Know a Secret" is from Saturday Club 25. May.

Track 21: "From Me To You" is also from Saturday Club 25. May.

Track 22: "I Got to Find My Baby" is not from 26. January, it's from Saturday Club 29. June.

I updated the track info on the back cover artwork I posted on this blog.

Furthermore: The collection contains two different recordings of the same performance of "She Loves You", because the BBC initially reprised the song.
Track 46 is (in slightly poorer quality) the same performance as Track 39.

Elliott Marx said...

I suppose a bootleg record could cost the artist money if the material was vile or held back for a particular reason. It is conceivable that a track like No Pakistanis could possible offend someone to the point of deciding to never support that artist again. Another example maybe when some shock radio DJs aired what was purported to be Linda's isolated vocal from a live version of Hey Jude. Again, a financially strapped potential ticket buyer may choose to not fork over his dough in fear of a perceived lack of quality control. This is really just thinking aloud, and I must admit all of the Christmas traffic on the way from work but me in a contrarian mood.

Unknown said...

Someone, who Hangs out on the Maccaspan.proboards.com site Created the Covers, from what I understand...

Whitcomb said...

Do you think there's any chance that these 1963 bootleg recordings now online will one day be released by Apple on CD and vinyl?

For that matter, might we see a Volume 3 of the BBC recordings?

In short, will the copyright laws force Apple's hand,leading to multiple releases of rare recordings, out-takes and such?