« Back to Top Level | Beatles, The

The Beatles - Dead Man's Walkman: Best Of The John Barrett Tapes (1970)

Track listing:
CD1
  1. There's A Place [Take 4] 1:56
  2. I Saw Her Standing There (Take 2) 3:08
  3. Misery [Takes 7] 1:53
  4. From Me To You (Take 5) 2:17
  5. From Me To You (Take 11, Edit Piece) 0:21
  6. From Me To You (Take 13, Edit Piece) 0:21
  7. Thank You Girl (Tk 1) 2:12
  8. One After 909 (Take 2) 2:57
  9. Don't Bother Me (Take 10) 2:55
  10. Can't Buy Me Love 2:15
  11. I'm A Loser 2:11
  12. What You're Doing (Take 11) 2:15
  13. She's A Woman [Take 7] 5:43
  14. I Feel Fine [Take 5] 2:26
  15. Ticket To Ride (Take 2) 3:23
  16. Yes It Is (Take 14) 2:55
  17. If You've Got Troubles (Take 1) 2:52
  18. That Means A Lot (Take 1) 2:33
  19. That Means A Lot (Take 20) 1:12
  20. Help (Take 9) 2:27
  21. Day Tripper, Take 1 2:08
  22. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) [Take 1] 2:09
  23. Norwegian Wood [Take 4] 2:27
CD2
  1. 12-Bar Original [Take 2] 6:41
  2. I'm Looking Through You [Take 4] 10 Nov 1965 2:27
  3. Paperback Writer [Take 1] 1:01
  4. Strawberry Fields Forever [Take 7] 3:09
  5. Strawberry Fields Forever [Take 26] 3:47
  6. Penny Lane [Take 9] 3:05
  7. Hello Goodbye [Take 1] 5:08
  8. Lady Madonna [Take 5] 2:17
  9. Across The Universe [Take 8] Rm2 3:30
  10. While My Guitar Gently Weeps [Take 1] 3:16
  11. I Hate To See The Evening Sun Goes Down 1:02
  12. Hey Jude [Take 10] 5:05
  13. Not Guilty [Take 102] 4:12
  14. The Way You Look Tonight 1:17
  15. Not Fade Away 3:54
  16. Come And Get It 2:29
  17. Because [Take 16] Vocal Track Only Version 2:23

Notes

When Abbey Road Studios engineer John Barrett went to studio manager Ken Townsend in 1981 and explained that he'd been diagnosed with cancer and would like to keep busy while undergoing treatment, Townsend suggested that Barrett catalog the Beatles session tapes, most of which hadn't been out of the studio vaults since they'd been recorded.
Throughout 1982 Barrett spent his free time doing just that, compiling a notebook full of colored tabs and dividers, making sense of a maze of takes and mixes that had gone into creating the most influential musical catalog of the rock era. When it was decided that EMI's Abbey Road Studios would open to the public in the summer of '83, while renovation was going on, Barrett was given the further assignment of choosing and mixing appropriate material to use on the soundtrack of the multimedia presentation that accompanied the tour.
But John Barrett went beyond his official assignment, dubbing hours of material onto cassette, taking home the recordings he himself found most enjoyable. When he died in February of 1984, there in his estate was the only collection of Beatle studio outtakes ever to make their way out of Abbey Road.
Somehow, those recordings ended up in the hands of bootlegers, resulting in the classic Ultra Rare Trax and Unsurpassed Masters series in the mid 1980's, and the most recent Turn Me On Dead Man and related releases. (notes taken from CD insert)