Posters, Incense and Strobe Candles
The 1969 WBCN "Get Back" Broadcast
During the late 1960s, radio broadcasting underwent a revolution. FM radio disk jockeys (DJs) set themselves apart from commercial AM radio by playing album tracks, as well as entire albums. Sometimes DJs would skirt copyright law by playing unauthorized (bootleg) recordings. On September 22, 1969, WBCN radio in Boston gained notoriety by playing an unreleased version of The Beatles' troubled Get Back album.
Glyn Johns Prepares the Get Back Acetate
In March 1969, some six weeks after the Get Back sessions had finished, engineer Glyn Johns was called into Abbey Road Studios by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. According to Lewisohn (2008), Lennon and McCartney pointed to a stack of eight-track reel-to-reel tape boxes on a table and told Johns to make an album from those Apple Studio recordings.
Johns produced a rough acetate disc of 11 songs on March 10 and gave a copy to The Beatles for review. The group rejected the proposed album, but a reel-to-reel copy of Johns' acetate made its way to the United States. Local radio stations there began playing the disc without the permission of The Beatles or their record label.
WBCN Broadcasts Get Back
On September 22, 1969, WBCN played the Get Back acetate along with cuts from the upcoming Abbey Road album, which was not scheduled for release until September 26. The entire broadcast was saved, with DJ announcements and commercials. In 1993, the Vigotone label issued the complete broadcast on compact disc (CD) as VIGO 109.
The CD is sourced from a tape of the original acetate disc, so pops and hisses can be heard throughout. Nevertheless, the acetate performances differ from those found on any official Beatles' album, which makes the recording unique.
Side Two of the Get Back Acetate
The illegality of the acetate was not lost on the WBCN DJ, who advised his audience to “listen while you can” before the record company intervened. It is not known how soon the acetate was pulled, but both sides of the unreleased Get Back album were played that day.
Side Two was played first, in the following order, with performance source dates listed in parentheses:
Side Two
- “Let It Be” (January 26)
- “Don't Let Me Down” (January 22)
- “For You Blue” (January 25)
- “Get Back” (January 27)
- “The Walk” (January 27)
The Side Two Performances
“Let It Be” differs from the released version because a third verse had not yet been written. Instead, McCartney improvises an ending by combining lines from the first two verses. The performance of “Don't Let Me Down” is somewhat mechanical, but distinguished by a few Lennon witticisms. First, he calls out, “Hit it, Bill!” to keyboardist Billy Preston before the electric piano solo. Then, he ends the song by saying, “Well, ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to change the tempo a little,” before improvising a fast coda.
“For You Blue” begins with a few seconds of an ice cube rattling in a glass. Lennon shouts, “Quiet, please,” as the song starts. The instrumental performance is the same as the final release, but George Harrison later recorded a new vocal. “Get Back” is identical to the single release, except the song ends cleanly without the familiar reprise. For the single, the reprise from a January 28 performance was electronically added to this version, along with crowd noises from the January 30 rooftop concert. The fragment of “The Walk” is the only cover version on the acetate, and shows McCartney trying to remember words to an old Jimmy McCracklin song.
Side One of the Get Back Acetate
Side One of Get Back was played next. The performance source dates (where known) are listed in parentheses:
Side One
- “Get Back” (unknown)
- “I've Got a Feeling” (unknown fragment)
- “Teddy Boy” (January 24)
- “Two of Us” (January 24)
- “Dig a Pony” (January 23)
The second “Get Back” performance (2:39) is an oddity. It has a false start, is shorter than the version on Side Two, and is not the 0:40 reprise used on Johns' acetate. “I've Got a Feeling” is an 0:11 fragment from the acetate, but not the complete version.
“Teddy Boy” is an extended and unedited performance, notable mostly for Lennon's improvised 'square dance' calls at the 4:45 mark. “Two of Us” has two false starts and lyric changes in the first verse (“going nowhere” instead of “riding nowhere”) not found on the final release. “Dig a Pony” starts with Lennon telling Johns to cue the tape (“OK Glynis, we're off again”), ends with a comic “Yes I do-o-o” voice, before moving into a few bars of “I've Got a Feeling.” The tape then ends abruptly.
VIGO 109
It was long rumored that WBCN played a legitimate promotional copy of the acetate, but it now appears that the tape was obtained through dubious means. Radio stations in St. Louis and New York also played a rough copy of the unreleased Get Back album, so the source likely was the same.
The recording industry is far less permissive today than it was during the 1960s. At one time or another, however, all The Beatles freely gave samples of their ongoing work to friends, and some of what is on the market today likely came from music sharing.
Although violations of an artist's copyright cannot be condoned, music lovers now can study how songs evolved in much the same way that critics pour over early drafts of novels and short stories. In the case of Get Back, the unreleased material provides insight into a classic album that would otherwise have been lost forever.
References
-------. 1993. Posters, Incense and Strobe Candles. [CD] Vigotone VIGO 109.
Lewisohn M. 1988. The Beatles Recording Sessions. London: EMI Records, Ltd.
Apple Studio, 3 Savile Row, London
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