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Unreleased Fab Four tracks still mystify

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Yesterday MusicRadar reported on the unreleased version of The Beatles' Revolution 1 'take 20' that surfaced on the Internet.

It's a fascinating track, one which bridges the gap between the released versions of the mid-tempo, acoustic-driven Revolution 1 and the tape-looped experimentation of Revolution 9. The only question is this: Is it real or a modern-day mash-up?

Noted Beatles historian Richie Unterberger, author of the book The Unreleased Beatles: Music And Film, believes it's the real deal, although he does say that without access to the original EMI/Abbey Road tape it's impossile to determine the track's authenticity with absolute certainty.

Trains passing by

"With technology these days, it certainly seems theoretically possible to manufacture and overdub some effects that are heard on the circulating version," says Unterberger. "A particular feature of this circulating recording is the weird, unclassifiable flowing and ebbing swell of a note that occurs throughout - it's what I call a 'train-passing-by' sound. It seems like it could be an electronically manipulated effect or perhaps even a distorted snatch of a harmony vocal."

"The Beatles were coming up with all kinds of unpredictable and futuristic effects in the studio, especially in their final years" Richie Unterberger, Beatles historian

Even so, Unterberger believes the sounds were indeed made by The Beatles themselves. "When I hear them, they don't sound impossible to me that they could have been part of the original recording - The Beatles were coming up with all kinds of unpredictable and futuristic effects in the studio, especially in their final years."

So too, Unterberger is of the mind that the little bits of spoken chatter on the recording were from the mouth of none other than John Lennon. "It sounds like him, both in the voice and the sense of wacky humor, though I guess again it's possible a very good actor does this and we're all being fooled."

And what of engineer Geoff Emerick's famous words "Take 2," which can be heard uttered before the released version and on the unreleased 'take 20,' what does Unterberger make of them?

"Often The Beatles would do the backing tracks on take 1 or take 2 and do a lot of overdubs. So when it's called 'take 18,' or in this case 'take 20,' it probably was from take 2. The Beatles loved hearing Geoff say those words and they wanted to make sure they got on the record. As a band, they were always very good at taking advantage of keeping what other groups would throw away."