Post Description

The Beatles ? Ultra Rare Trax (Volumes 1-6) (1988, 1989)
EAC RIP | FLAC+CUE, LOG | Scans @ 600 d.p.i. | 6 CDs | 1.13Gb
Genre: Rock, Classic Rock

The underground release of the first two volumes of "Ultra Rare Trax" stunned the Beatle loving world. No one had heard bootlegs with this kind of startling clarity before. Issued on the Swingin' Pig label in 1988, they were the first widely distributed bootleg CDs. Their stunning sound quality and content set a reference standard that just about every CD issued since has been measured against. Over a two year period six volumes in the ?Ultra Rare Trax? series would be released.

And it seems that the "Ultra Rare Trax" discs had only scratched the surface of material that was available. Soon more bootlegs from other companies started showing up in the marketplace. Most notably, the ?Back-Track? CDs and Yellow Dog's "Unsurpassed Masters" series. No one was more stunned by the release of these pristine sounding masters than EMI and Capitol Records, who for years had claimed no left-over recordings existed. In fact, they said (and I?m quoting here), ?Everything has been released.? Now with a considerable amount of egg on their faces, the executives circled the wagons. First they condemned the illegal releases as nothing more than "bootlegs of bootlegs" and sent ?cease and desist? letters worldwide to stop the sale of the discs. And then ? they did nothing.


By 1993 more bootleg recordings from the Beatles vaults had been released but EMI still had no definitive answer to a release date or possible track list for the much discussed and more often delayed ?official? outtakes project (which some in the industry called ?The Session Tapes?). Tired of waiting, inventive bootleggers took matters into their own hands and produced what can only be described as a prototype for the ?Beatles Anthology? series -- an exquisite "box set" containing 5 CDs loaded with newly acquired Beatles rarities lifted from the EMI vaults and presented in chronological order. The package also included a 24-page color booklet with great photos and details about the recordings. This bootleg release was called "Artifacts." It sold so well in bootleg circles that the following year, a sequel, also with 5-CDs and another 24-page booklet, was produced.

To combat the illegal albums EMI was forced to put plans for its official outtakes release on the fast track. EMI?s exhaustive "The Beatles Anthology" series CDs started rolling out in 1995, along with a companion TV mini-series, coffee table book, and VHS tapes. Many, but not all, of the songs from the "Artifacts" and the "Ultra Rare Trax" CDs can be found on the official ?Anthology? CD collection.

But it all starts here. These six ?Ultra Rare Trax? CDs ? skimpy running times and all -- are what excited Beatles fans in 1988 and 1989 ? years before ?The Beatles Anthology? and after a decade or more of being told no such recordings existed. You sort of had to be there at the time. You had to almost move heaven and earth just to find someone who knew someone that had a friend whose co-worker "knew a guy" that was selling some copies. I did. These EAC rips are taken from the original CD pressings I bought two decades ago.