Hey, I rather like “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)”! And “What’s the New Mary Jane” too…

I do quite like What’s the New Mary Jane, I admit…though I’ve only heard the Anthology version and I believe there are two or three other versions that circulate.

If this is the more playfully experimental side of the band, it could be great fun even if it’s not…you know…good. The recording took place in 1967, which is the same time as Sgt. Pepper and just before the White Album…which means it could fall absolutely anywhere on the scale of Beatle Fun-ness.

“You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)” is one of my favorites… Well, a guilty pleasure, at least. (And I actually really like “Revolution 9,” too.)

And I don’t care how bad it is, I want “Carnival of Light” to be released.

Hey, I have a great deal of respect for Revolution 9! I wasn’t trying to disparage it with the comparison…it just seems that Carnival of Light isn’t as…you know. Composed.

You Know My Name is not one of your favorites, Ross, and I will beat you until you admit that.

It’s the GREATEST BEATLES SONG EVER.

That’s clearly a lie. Anyway, the weakest “unreleased” Beatles track I’ve ever heard is probably “There You Are, Eddie.” But even that is kind of catchy.

I do wish Carnival of Light been included on Anthology 2 in the first place, as it’ll really have the spotlight on it now, and I’m not convinced that it’ll stand up well if it looks like it’s being promoted as a kind of wondrous “lost” Beatles track. This really isn’t going to be Brian Wilson’s Smile, or even Let it Be… Naked. Without Harrison around to veto the release, it comes across a bit like McCartney’s taking his last opportunity to prove he was more experimental than Lennon, or took the greater risks first, and it is a shame if this is the motivation. That said, I certainly am keen to hear the piece, as I read about it in the mid 90s, and it seems to be one of only a few unreleased tracks not to have made its way onto a bootleg.

If it is released as a single (I presume this is the form it’ll take?) do you reckon it’ll be accompanied by additional material? There are other tracks that didn’t make it onto the Anthologies and their inclusion would make this a welcome release indeed. A fragment of “the” slow version of Helter Skelter appeared on one of the sets, but the full version ran to 12 minutes and is pretty legendary. Even more interestingly, there’s an early version of Revolution 1 that ran into a jam session, part of which became mixed into the introduction for Revolution 9. Since there’s no way they’d have been able to fit all three of these tracks onto the Anthology sets, it’d justify the release of Carnival of Light in its own right rather than as something that should have been available before but wasn’t.

> the weakest “unreleased” Beatles track I’ve ever heard is probably “There You Are, Eddie.”

Do you include Anthology-released amongst the Beatles unreleased? If so, “If You’ve Got Troubles” is pretty shocking.

> If it is released as a single (I presume this is the form it’ll take?)

According to Mojo a few months ago, they’re supposed to be releasing remastered versions of all the albums (plus the original mono and stereo mixes) sometime next year, as both physical CDs and digital downloads. Maybe those sets will include Carnival of Light and other material not on Anthology?

> they’re supposed to be releasing remastered versions of all the albums (plus the original mono and stereo mixes)

About time. I have stereo versions of the first four albums on bootleg and the clarity is extraordinary. The quality of the instruments and voices is much higher than the official releases (in part due to the stereo, but they’re also richer than the stereo releases of their later albums). I also have a mono version of Sgt Pepper (which was mixed differently to the stereo version, with more time put into it, certain other effects and timing differences, while the Beatles themselves were in attendance). These all deserve to be officially released - they add a lot to the original listening experience and won’t be seen as just penny-pinching releases, as long as people remember that the CDs currently available remain the 1987 versions; apart from the tracks on the Yellow Submarine “songtrack” and the “1” singles set, their catalogue has never been re-released in cleaned-up and form.

> Maybe those sets will include Carnival of Light and other material not on Anthology?

The bootlegs I mentioned above have additional tracks after the albums, including all the original takes of One After 909 (of which a couple were included on Anthology 1), several takes of A Hard Day’s Night, and several takes from the various stages of Strawberry Fields Forever (featured in a few versions on Anthology 2, but not as many, and much more edited). They also include stereo versions of the singles that exist in mono on the Past Masters sets, and many other rehearsal tracks, all great quality.

I do suspect that Carnival of Light will get its own release provided Harrison’s wife doesn’t veto the project (even if it finds a more permanent home on a Sgt Pepper box set later), and there’s a wealth of material out there that can supplement the albums and singles without rendering the Anthology CDs irrelevant.