Your best bootleg moments

[MarkRJones1970]

What were your best bootleg moments? To give you the gist here's some of mine:

1) In 1983/84 (I was 13 or 14) hearing the 1st track on the NEMS bootleg 'Strawberry Fields Forever' which was an acetate of the full version of the 1st half of the released version. I had gone to a record fair and saw these tapes for sale by The Beatles that had weird song titles I'd never heard of. I had no idea you could buy Beatles songs that weren't on the regular albums. Over the last 3 years I'd just worked my way through all the released Beatles recordings after starting with 'Help!' when I watched it with my Dad on the night John died. I picked this one because SFF was one of my fav Beatle tracks. When the track carried on with the rest of the softer version and didn't go into the orchestral version my jaw dropped. I listened until the end and heard that completely different ending. Well that was the moment I bitten by the Beatles bootleg bug. I paid £3.50 (the total I got each week for my 6 morning a week paper round. A weeks wages!) for the tape and couldn't wait to get it home to listen to the rest of the album.

2) When I got my copy of 'Liverpool May 1960' in 1987. I had no idea these recordings existed. I had the book 'Shout' where they are mentioned but I had read that before I had really got into bootlegs and, even if I did notice it, had no idea I'd ever be able to actually hear it. To hear the Beatles practiscing in 1960 with Stu on bass was amazing. I know it's pretty awful but there's an atmosphere on those recordings. In fact, I'd rather listen to them than hours of Get Back sessions. I have listened to it all so much over the years that I even whistle the bum notes! I know exactly where they come in.

3) Ultra Rare Trax - Obvious choice! 1 and 2 on CD then those BBC Transciption vinyl copies of 3&4 and 5&6. The flood gates had opened. Amazing experience listening to these for the 1st time and KNOWING that we shouldn't really be doing this! (Anyone notice that it's a bit less thrilling listening to officially released outtakes? Is it because we've been ALLOWED to listen to them? Bootlegs are naughty!)

4) When the long version of Revolution appeared on 'Take Your Knickers Off'. I loved it (and still do). Never thought we'd actually get to hear it once the well of illicit goodies from the late 90s and early 90s had dried up. Loved the madness of it and those 'Mama Dada' backing vocals are my fav part. Anyone know how this escaped so long after all the studio stuff Roger Scott liberated for us? Did it escape then and was sat on? Or did it get out some other way?

Anyway. I could go on and on, but I'd love to hear some of your tales!

[Peter77]

4) When the long version of Revolution appeared on 'Take Your Knickers Off'. I loved it (and still do). Never thought we'd actually get to hear it once the well of illicit goodies from the late 90s and early 90s had dried up. Loved the madness of it and those 'Mama Dada' backing vocals are my fav part. Anyone know how this escaped so long after all the studio stuff Roger Scott liberated for us? Did it escape then and was sat on? Or did it get out some other way?

I really love that version too.

My first introduction to bootlegs was the "March 5, 1963" Vigotone CD which also included the Decca Tape. It was the first time I'd ever heard a raw studio session recording in full - I couldn't believe it had survived all those years! And it still amazes me how much rare audio and visual material was saved when the most common thing to do back then would be to junk it immediately.

[CooperCat]

My best moments were learning what a bootleg was in the mid 70’s (I think I read about them somewhere then started fishing around to find them) and my first initial purchases when I was 13 in 1976, then building my teenage years around my love of bootlegs. Greenwich Village became the center of my social activity, and I had a couple of friends who shared my interest. I got more of a thrill from those 70’s boots than for anything that came out after. It was just a whole new world that opened up to me socially that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. There were classmates and musicians who weren’t so interested in them and gladly sold them to me for pennies on the dollar. Then I learned about Beatles Conventions and bought some boots at the 3rd annual convention in New York City. But the first couple of years brought me Shea Stadium, Hollywood Bowl, Whiskey Flats, Sweet Apple Trax, The Who Fillmore East, Tales, Who’s Zoo, and Radio London, the list goes on and on. Dylan Royal Albert Hall 1966 was as apocalyptic as I’ve read about it, and recording him on David Letterman in 1984 is still the best thing I’ve ever recorded. Tracking down The Great Lost Kinks Album, Smile, Pink Floyd early Syd singles, and putting together tapes of Who and Macca non album tracks I grabbed in Greenwich Village deserve mention. But by the late 70’s I had every Beatle and solo recording available on bootleg and commercial releases. I pretty much stopped buying and started trading tapes before the BBC boots came out.

[Megazeti]

A music shop giving away old window stock in the early 90s of old color LPs 2 Bob Dylan's amongst them:
- While The Establishment Burns - purple vinyl
- Talkin Bear Mountain Massacre Picnic Blues - only labels
with 1 and 2 on half clear half red vinyl but finding out later what it was.

[MrMurphMcgee]

Getting File Under in December 1984. I remember making the trip back down to school and playing it for the first time. It’s not a perfect boot, but it’s the first time I heard many of those recordings. The pirate London Wavelength Beeb boot had the same effect. Sessions and Not for Sale. Backtrack. All milestones

[billylentz]

Oh, there´s so many great stories... I´ll pick one...

Back in the very early 90s, I was still learning such things as bootlegs even existed, when I read about the Black Album on a magazine and went nuts. Of course, obtaining such a treasure in Brazil was impossible at the time, specially for a teenager.

But to my surprise a copy was being sold at a local exhibit, at a unpayable price. Still, I used to go there after school so I could at least get to look at it. One day, it wasn´t there anymore, and I felt so sad about it, although I would never get it myself, of course. "I hope that´s someone who will enjoy it", I told the guy, and he replied me back: "Oh, I´m sure that´s someone who will enjoy it very much. You can be relaxed about that".

Jump a few weeks to my birthday, and, as you probably guessed if you read this far, I found a big 12 inch square on my place at the breakfast table, all wrapped in a pink paper. My parent had managed a complex secret messages scheme with the people on the exhibit so that they could close a deal on the Black Album.

Needless to say, it´s still one of my favorite items on the entire collection. Over the years my parents have provided me with a lot of incredible Beatles-related surprises, but as far as bootlegs are concerned I think the Black Album story is hard to beat.

[Nimbus]

A relatively recent one for me when the holy grail of recordings came out - the multitracks of Sgt Peppers. My favourite is John & Paul's backing vocals to 'With A Little Help From My Friends'. With the headphones on, you're stood at the side of them in Studio 2.

[Lord Reith]

Oh now here's a thread after my own heart.

The day I found the Deccagone singles. Someone I knew had got them but wouldn't tell me where. I went to every single record store (dozens...) until I found them. So exciting. They were my very first bootlegs and I gazed adoringly at them for months.

The Beatles At The Beeb 1983 US radio special, three lps in a big black box with a photocopy of the cue sheet. It was a counterfeit but I loved that it was a sort of real official album.

The Beatles At The Beeb Vol.1 on vinyl. Had no idea what the quality would be, but when Too Much Monkey Business came on my jaw hit the floor. Then I'll Be On My Way, Some Other Guy and a bunch of other great songs in great sound. That was a wonderful day.

Backtrack Vol.1 - I was one of the people who bought Backtrack Vol.2 and 3 on cd instead of the Ultra Rare Trax vinyl lps Vols 3-6. But I could never find Vol.1 Finally I asked my record dealer to keep his eyes peeled on one of his trips to Japan. He came back a few weeks later with my prize! He charged me 100 smackeroos the bugger, but I didn't flinch. I just had to have all three. And I didn't even own a cd player! I spent months looking at them and reading the liner notes drooling over the contents. Finally someone I knew got a cd player and he allowed me to tape them to cassette. So I first heard them with him, and even though he was not a huge Beatles fan he was really astounded by the contents, just like me. That was in 1989. A lifetime ago.