The Beatles - Ultra Rare Trax Vol. 1-8 (1990)

In the 80s, the Ultra Rare Trax series were one of the most famous because it gathered in an excellent quality and with reasonably exact liner notes, some of the best material available.

The disc begins with a very early take of "Can't Buy Me Love" (the second take, to be exact), which shows the remarkable transformation in style this song underwent in the recording studio. In this early take the backing vocals makes this song sounds a bit soulful and Paul's singing is more raucous than in the officially released version (in addition, George' guitar solo in this take seems to be going nowhere). Another interesting track is the outtake of "I'm the Walrus" here included, which lacks the string orchestra overdubs and has a somewhat different backing track with a heavier sound. Also of interest is the very first take of "Misery", which is virtually indistinguishable from the officially released version, save for the sound of George's guitar solo in the middle and the vocals in the fade-out. This fact corroborates the observation made by George Martin that the Beatles had already arranged and abundantly rehearsed all their material before recording their entire first album in one grueling marathon session, which lasted 12 hours. Also worth mentioning, by virtue of its mistakes, are the two takes here included of "Day Tripper". These takes in turn corroborate the assertion made by historians of the Beatles' recording sessions that the recording of "Day Tripper" was one of the most rushed sessions of their career due to time constraints (the officially released version even includes a noticeable voice dropout towards the end). Also of interest is the soaring cover of "Leave my Kitten Alone" by John and the 3rd outtake of "Hard Day's Night" here included, where George plays a very bland solo, instead of the inspired, dissonant arpeggios that he played in the officially released version.

Well, one of my favorite URT's! "Ob-la-di ob-la-da", "A day in the life" and "Yes it is" show the very good quality of this rarities' compilation. And The very intimist "While my guitar gently weeps" version. Ah, I forgot it, it's amazing the alternate version of "Across the universe"! Five star of five. Excellent. Buy or download it!

A quality sounding disk. The One After 909 is an interesting sounding version, unlike the official version or other takes of the song from the Get Back sessions. The Yer Blues song is just great, has a very Jimi Hendrix-sounding feel to it. Mailman Bring Me No More Blues is quite literally a classic, a little known gem, paying homage to Buddy Holly. Get Back sung in German is also good to hear, and not one of the songs that is commonly on boots. altho this disk has quite a variety of music from different years (from the innocent sounding Do You Want to Know a Secret? to the heavy Yer Blues) it works well as a disk.

Fantastic! The CD collects some Beatles' hits -outtakes of "Strawberry fields forever", Magical mystery tour" and "Hey Jude", for example- and fills the rest of the time with some unknown tracks, like "What's the new Mary Jane..." or "Christmas time is here again". All in CD quality, of course. Don't wait more and hear it!

Highlights on CD 6:
* 12-Bar Original : another version is on Anthology
* Come And Get It: on Anthology
* I'll Be On My Way: unreleased Beatles composition played for the BBC. Already on "Live At The BBC".
* What's The New Mary Jane: mix different than on CD 5
* Dig It: the best song on this disc IMHO.

Well, this CD doesn't have too much surprises... but if you are a Beatles' fan and want to complete your collection, buy it. Why I say there's no surprises? 'cause all tracks are live and for BBC sessions, nothing more. Perhaps the best is "Yer blues", featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. But you can hear it in URT4, too... Two stars of five.

Exactly the same like URT7: live tracks and some BBC songs. Although there's some interesting songs, like "Hey Jude" in the David Frost Show. The rest? Just the boys singing known tracks live in different countries. If you are a Beatles' fan and got it with the other 7 cd's, congratulations! You have now a very good collection in your hands!