Origin of term 'Beatleg'

[Lord Reith]

I am now on the hunt for the 1975 version of this book! I have the later version without this information for the word 'beatleg' in it.
So very cool that this has turned up. Thanks!

There's the 75 edition with a white background, a 1978 edition with a blue background (some have a yellow star with "1978 Revised Updated" in it) and a 1981 edition (some have a pink star with "New Expanded Edition" in it, and I recall seeing one that I think had a sash across the corner that mentioned something about including Lennon's last album) ETA: Reverts to white cover, and sash states "Includes the Tragic Death of John Lennon"

I have the 75 and 78, and I also have the Stones Illustrated Record. I've seen one for Bowie as well.

ETA: Illustrations of the various editions of which I am aware.

I have the 1978 edition and still love it, although their turn of phrase can be a bit odd ("takes two to heavy pet, sang John")

Do you think you could scan or do a hirez photo of those two pages for us please? It looks interesting, and I'd like to read what they said about boots in 1975. And my inner completist nerd is affronted that my copy of the book is missing these pages. We need to get them back out there!

[jgjohnson]

I looked a long time time to find that Live at Shea LP. It was a UK release and I had to find it in the days before the internet, so it was not easy!

[Derian the imp]

I may have accidentally found the origin!
There was a circa 1970 bootleg LP called "Beatlegged Live!"
https://www.beatleg.online/beatlegged

[Mr Bump]

That must be the earliest use, since it's circa 1970 and bootlegs really only came into being in 1969. Good find.

Ironic that it's so rare, since an anagram of Beatleg is getable.

[Steve J]

I have the 1978 edition and still love it, although their turn of phrase can be a bit odd ("takes two to heavy pet, sang John")

Do you think you could scan or do a hirez photo of those two pages for us please? It looks interesting, and I'd like to read what they said about boots in 1975. And my inner completist nerd is affronted that my copy of the book is missing these pages. We need to get them back out there!

Here's a link - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... drive_link

It's a large book so I've scanned it as 3 A4 pages [at 300 dpi]- but they fit together easily.

[Lord Reith]

I have the 1978 edition and still love it, although their turn of phrase can be a bit odd ("takes two to heavy pet, sang John")

Do you think you could scan or do a hirez photo of those two pages for us please? It looks interesting, and I'd like to read what they said about boots in 1975. And my inner completist nerd is affronted that my copy of the book is missing these pages. We need to get them back out there!

Here's a link - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... drive_link

It's a large book so I've scanned it as 3 A4 pages [at 300 dpi]- but they fit together easily.

Hey thanks!

[quigatolah]

I don't know about the origin of Beatlegs,
but I know for a certainty Rutlegs were invented by Ruttling Orange Peel.
Every single bit of them.

[Lord Reith]

I'm surprised the term has been around so long. Bootlegs were only just first appearing in the 70s so it's surprising that Beatles bootlegs got their own special name. I sure as hell never heard the word until Belmo used it.

So are Abba boots called Abba Legs?

[Matthias]

The German edition (from 1976) uses the term “Beatleg” as well in the god-awful translation
of the two bootleg-pages. There is no description underneath the picture and so the only occurrence of the term is within the long text.