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Fab Find: Cops Recover Beatles Tapes
Thanks to European detectives, some classic--and long MIA--Beatles recordings finally have gotten back to where they belong.
Anti-piracy police in England and the Netherlands raided separate locations near London and Amsterdam and uncovered some 500 Beatles tapes--apparently original Fab Four masters that had gone missing nearly 30 years ago.
The reel-to-reels captured the band's legendary Get Back sessions in 1969--the fractious recording period documented in part on the Let It Be film and album--and included several never-released tracks.
Although much bootlegged over the years, Get Back's original reel-to-reel master tapes disappeared in the early 1970s and, if authenticated, represent a major find for Beatlemaniacs.
"The tapes themselves are the only original recordings made and may contain material which has never been previously released," London police said in a statement. "This fact renders the tapes to be priceless to the record industry and collectors of Beatles memorabilia."
Dutch police, the ones who actually recovered the tapes at an undisclosed location outside Amsterdam, are currently going through the cache to figure out exactly what's there.
"We're currently investigating whether they really are the originals, but it appears to be so," Amsterdam-based prosecutor spokesman Robert Meulenbroek told the Associated Press. "There are about 500 tapes, so there's quite a bit to research."
In all, five people were arrested, two in suburban London and three others in the Netherlands. Their identities weren't immediately disclosed.
The sweeps were orchestrated by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives. After fingering the likely suspects in the theft of the tapes, the authorities fanned out across Europe, leading to Friday's joint operation.
If the tapes prove to be the missing originals, the discovery couldn't have come at a more fortuitous time.
Paul McCartney announced last summer that he wants to reissue a special-edition Let It Be album in 2003 to coincide with the DVD release of the film, which is getting a digital polish and will include unreleased archival footage.
The project was originally called Get Back because the Beatles had hoped to recapture the raw, live-in-the-studio sounds of their early albums, but it ultimately got shelved amid band squabbling. Phil Spector was brought in to salvage the sessions, which he did by adding orchestrations and chorale arrangements to the sparse songs.
McCartney, who has long proclaimed his distaste for Spector's stings-saturated album, wants the new release to be true to its rough-edged roots.
"The next firm plan that has actually been worked on is to do a nude version of Let It Be, because it was always overdressed, I thought," Sir Paul told the Newark Star-Ledger last year.
"I really liked the stark original. I remember sitting around after we'd made it, thinking, 'God, that's a very sort of bare, daring album.'"
No immediate comment Friday from McCartney or the Beatles' Apple Records on the discovery of the tapes.
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