Unsurpassed! Vol. 3 - London Town Rarities!

2CD UNSURPASSED! VOLUME 3: LONDON TOWN RARITIES
HMC 063
DISC ONE

1. Girls’ School (take 1) [3:45]
2. London Town (rough mix) [4:15]
3. Girlfriend (rough mix) [4:42]
4. Girls’ School (instrumental take 2) [4:50]
5. Café On The Left Bank (rough mix of backing track) [3.07]
6. I’m Carrying (rough mix of backing track) [2:47]
7. Deliver Your Children (rough mix of backing track) [4:14]
8. I’ve Had Enough (rough mix of backing track) [3:08]
9. With A Little Luck (rough mix of backing track) [5:58]
10. Famous Groupies (rough mix of backing track) [3:35]
11. Morse Moose And The Grey Goose (rough mix of instrumental backing track)
    [6:31]
12. Don’t Let It Bring You Down (rough mix of backing track) [4:34]
13. Find A Way Somehow (rough mix of backing track) [5:34]
14. Mull Of Kintyre (unedited rough mix with count-in) [4:53]
15. Waterspout (unreleased first rough mix) [5:11]
16. I’ve Had Enough (Geoff Emerick master tape) [3:02]
17. Don’t Let It Bring You Down (Geoff Emerick master tape) [4:33]
18. Mull Of Kintyre (bagpipes only) [3:16]
    Total playing time: 79 minutes
    Tracks 1-4: Sessions at Abbey Road Studios, February 7 until March 31, 1977 from
    the Geoff Emerick master tape. NEW FOUNDS! These first sessions for “London
    Town” started in February with Pete Henderson engineering. Geoff Emerick took over
    in March after the McCartneys returned from a vacation in Jamaica. A total of six
    tracks were recorded: Girls’ School, Name And Address, Girlfriend & London Town
    (all four songs taped on February 14), Children Children & B-side To Seaside (both
    taped on February 18 – the latter by just Paul & Linda). (The master for Girls’ School
    was recorded on March 14.) This great tape from the Emerick archives offers us two
    new versions for Girls’ School (take 1 is especially great with Paul singing the song
    like Elvis), Girlfriend & London Town (both lacking several overdubs to be added at
    the last sessions for the album in late 1977 and early 1978.
    Tracks 5-13: These 2 nd batch of recording sessions took place aboard the yacht Fair
    Carol, stationed at Watermelon Bay off the coast of St. John’s near the Virgin Islands,
    between May 1 st and 31 st , 1977. This is a forty-minute compilation tape from May 27,
19. NEW FOUND TAPE WITH IMPROVED SOUND QUALITY!
    Café On The Left Bank was the first track recorded in the Virgin Islands on May 4,
    while I’m Carrying, I’ve Had Enough and Denny Laine’s Find A way were committed
    to tape the day after (May 5). Other songs recorded: With A Little Luck (May 9),
    Famous Groupies & Morse Moose (May 13), Deliver Your Children (May 18) and
    Don’t Let It Bring You Down (May 25).

Track 14: Unedited rough mix with count-in and different ending, late 1977.
Track 15: NEW FOUND UNRELEASED MIX. Recorded at Music Centre Studios on
June 29, 1977 and probably not meant to be included on “London Town” from the
start.
Tracks 16+17: from the Geoff Emerick master tape, early 1978.
Track 18: stripped down version featuring only bagpipes and drums from the
Campbeltown Pipe Band, August 1977.

DISC TWO

1. Girls’ School (take 1 another version) [3:42]
2. Girls’ School (take 2 with vocals) [4:49]
3. With A Little Luck (video edited mix 2007) [3:11]
4. I’ve Had Enough (video mix 2007) [3:01]
5. London Town (video mix 2007) [4:06]
6. Mull Of Kintyre (stereo promo edit) [3:33]
7. Girls’ School (stereo promo edit) [3:21]
8. London Town (USA stereo promo edit) [3:46]
9. With A Little Luck (USA mono promo edit) [3:11]
10. I’ve Had Enough (USA mono promo version) [3:02]
11. London Town (USA mono promo edit) [3:49]
12. Girls’ School (different version) [4:46]
13. London Town (lacking the backing vocals) [4:08]
14. Twelve Of The Clock (instrumental outtake) [1:37]
15. Suicide (studio demo) [3:45]
16. Mull Of Kintyre (demo) [4:16]
17. Backwards Traveller (demo) [3:44]
18. I’ve Had Enough (live at Glasgow) [3:20]
19. Mull Of Kintyre (Mike Yarwood Christmas Show 1977) [3:39]
20. London Town (US radio commercial) [0:28]
21. With A Little Luck (rehearsal) [4:21]
22. I’ve Had Enough (rehearsal) [3:13]
    Total playing time: 78 minutes
    Tracks 1+2: Sessions at Abbey Road Studios, February 7 until March 31, 1977.
    Different versions than on disc 1.
    Tracks 3-5: Newly prepared Stereo Video Mixes for the DVD set “The McCartney
    Years”.
    Tracks 6-11: Promotional mono and stereo mixes/edits to be used for American radio.
    Track 12: Another different version taken from acetate including the ‘three cheers’
    introduction with overdubs recorded at Paul’s Scottish Spirit Of Ranachan Studio in
    August 1977.

Track 13: Another version lacking the backing vocals.
Track 14: This instrumental track was recorded during sessions, but not meant to be
included in the “London Town” album. Without anyone knowing Paul used a snippet
of this song as background music in his Oobu Joobu radio show. NEW FOUND!
Track 15: this studio demo was recorded and mixed for Frank Sinatra on March 8 th ,
1977 during the first batch of “London Town” sessions at EMI.
Tracks 16+17: demos from Paul’s Scottish Rude Studio, Summer 1977.
Track 18: Soundboard recording from the second Glasgow concert at the Apollo
Theatre on December 17, 1979.
Track 19: Live on the Mike Yarwood Christmas show, taped at BBC Television
Centre, London on December 10, 1977. Broadcast by BBC1 on December 25.
Track 20: ‘Available on Capitol Records & Tapes’, US radio ad 1978.
Tracks 21+22: Rehearsals for the cancelled Japanese Wings tour, Lower Gate Farm,
Peasmarsh, East Sussex, UK, January 1980.

From London Town Rarities – Unsurpassed Vol. 3 – beatlegdb.com:

Disc 1:

Girls’ School (Take 1) partially NEW
Circulating among collectors for a while, here it finally appears to the general audience in a more than acceptable quality (compared to the inexplicably over-processed misterclaudel version). Taken from the recently auctioned Geoff Emerick tapes, this is a fantastic recording, energetic, great guide vocal by Paul, sometimes buried. Note that the previously circulating version suffered from a few drop outs, which are totally absent on this version.

London Town (Rough Mix) NEW
Another track from the Geoff Emerick tapes, this mix is pretty much how the track stood by February 14th 1977. In order of appearance: electric piano, grand piano, bass, drums, and Paul’s guide vocal (some of which was used for the final mix). It also features 2 bars which ended up being cut for the final version, and of course a full ending and breakdown.

Girlfriend (Rough Mix) NEW
Unfortunately very lossy, this rough mix lacks a few overdubs, which are electric guitar, synths and orchestra.

Girls’ School (Instrumental – Take 2) NEW
Starting of with some chatter and Paul joking about the song being slowed down, this take is the backing track of the final version, here featuring a deeply buried guide vocal from Paul and a full ending, including a short reprise of the main riff.

Café on the Left Bank (Rough Mix)
I’m Carrying (Rough Mix)
Deliver Your Children (Rough Mix)
I’ve Had Enough (Rough Mix)
With a Little Luck (Rough Mix)
Famous Groupies (Rough Mix)
Morse Moose and the Grey Goose (Rough Mix)
Don’t Let It Bring You Down (Rough Mix)
Find a Way Somehow (Rough Mix)
This whole chunk of rough mixes is directly ripped from Mistral’s Roughs & Demos CD, with high ends boosted and heavy compression applied. No added value here, keep your Mistral CD safely.

Mull of Kintyre (Unedited rough mix with count-in
This horrific reconstruction of what the complete recording should be like, using bits from the 360° Pure McCartney video on that specific song, sounds worse than the worst mp3 file you ever heard. Avoid.

Waterspout (Unreleased first rough mix) NEW
This one is sort of a mystery which I claim to have solved.
Although claimed to be a first rough mix, this (lossy) version not only features one of the two lead vocals and previously unheard/buried ad-libs, but previously unheard backing vocals, and quite a huge choir of them !
But most troubling of all, it also features the horns overdubs, which were recorded in January 1981. Therefore, this can’t be a 1977, first rough mix. Which leads to my theory: this is a 1987 rough mix, back when the track was further reworked, first for another Cold Cuts variation, then for All the Best, and ultimately dropped. This must’ve been mixed after the lead vocals were stripped to ‘single tracked’, and new backing vocals were recorded. There could even be further more overdubs, but it’s quite hard to decipher due to the poor quality.

I’ve Had Enough (Geoff Emerick master tape)
Don’t Let It Bring You Down (Geoff Emerick master tape)
Taken from the Geoff Emerick auctioned tapes, these mixes have very little difference (if any) with the final ones, besides the unbearable compression applied after the fact by whoever was in charge for this boot …

Mull of Kintyre (Bagpipes only)
Isolated from the McCartney Years 5.1 rear channels.

Disc 2:

Girls’ School (Take 1 another version)
Girls’ School (Take 2 with vocals)
Directly taken from misterclaudel’s Recording Vaults Underdubbed Volume 1 set (respectively D2T12 / D3T11), which means over-processed mashed-up limited versions. Absolutely pointless.

I will leave off the following tracks from this review, as there’s very little to say about them, nor they sound particularly better or worse than previously booted versions :
With a Little Luck (2007 Video Mix)
I’ve Had Enough (2007 Video Mix)
London Town (2007 Video Mix)
Mull of Kintyre (Stereo Promo Edit)
Girls’ School (Stereo Promo Edit)
London Town (USA Stereo Promo Edit)
With a Little Luck (USA Mono Promo Edit)
I’ve Had Enough (USA Mono Promo Edit)
London Town (USA Mono Promo Edit)
London Town (US Radio Commercial)

Girls’ School (different version)
The acetate mix, same Soundcloud rip we’ve had since 2016, here presented in glorious lossy quality …

London Town (No the backing vocals)
Another mix made with the McCartney Years 5.1 channels …

Twelve of the Clock (instrumental outtake)
Exactly what I expected it to be : a spectral isolation of that Oobu Joobu background music heard in Episode 1, removing the voice over with an ancient AI tool.
Although some have theorized that this short bit of music is Twelve of the Clock, the production sounds nothing like a 1977 outtake, and besides the intro having a clock sound, there’s very little evidence. I’m not saying it’s not it, but I’m skeptical

Suicide (studio demo)
Same source we’ve always had, surprisingly not lossy. High ends slightly boosted, but that’s about it.

Mull of Kintyre (demo)
Same previously heard (vocal) demo, which might be taken from a different source, as it features no drop outs this time around, but a few interferences in the left channel whatsoever.

Backwards Traveller (demo) partially NEW (?)
Unless I’m missing one specific bootleg (which is entirely possible), this version appears to be slightly longer than any previously booted version, which all start and end with fades.

I’ve Had Enough (Live at Glasgow)
Taken from Last Flight.

Mull of Kintyre (Mike Yardwood Christmas Show 1977)
A lossy downgrade. Taken from the 1999 Water Wings bootleg, this version omits the Yardwood introduction with a fade in.

With a Little Luck (Rehearsal)
I’ve Had Enough (Rehearsal)
Taken from the 1980 pre-Japanese tour rehearsals. While I’ve Had Enough sounds about the same as on previous bootlegs, With a Little Luck sounds richer than any previously booted version I could find, although the same source. More (real) noise and stereo. One let down, about 18 second are omitted, for some reason.

By forum user CharlesHawtrey

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