Original 1966 Beatles Audio Recording at Auction Aug. 29 A previously unknown audio example of the entire Toronto concert as a 2 hour and 20 minute documentary detailing one family's experience at the final concert appearance of the Beatles in Canada.
to a frantic close with the new for ‘66 arrangement of “Long Tall Sally”. As
the cheers die down (@ 1 hour and 50 minutes) Dad utters the everyman-esque “Is that the whole show?”
He turns his attention to after show fan reactions which are both unique and entertaining. Breathless young
women, hoarse-voiced little boys and philosophical adults all offer their immediate, unprocessed opinions
over a sound bed of motorcycles, excited fans and general after show ambience. “Mom” responds to Dad’s
prompt with the most interesting answer to “Why did you come here?”—”I wanted to see what mass
hysteria was like!” To my knowledge, aural documentation after a Beatles show exists nowhere else.
At about the 2 hour mark, Dad gives us a weather check and reports about crowd disbursement and police
presence. A sudden wave of teenage squeals is explained as some of the opening acts leaving The Maple Leaf Garden, supplying a segment of marvelous ambient street sounds. The final 20 minutes are spent driving home in the family car with all members recounting what they saw and thought of this historic concert.
Conversation then veers into subjects as wide ranging as urban preservation, the intensity of Remains
drummer N.D. Smart, sobbing girl fans, the possible “Caribbean” origins of The Ronettes (clearly he was unfamiliar with a New York accent!) and some unusual observations of race relations in the United States.
Mom noticed that nothing from “Revolver” was played— remarkable in that the album had only been
released nine days earlier! One of her sons theorizes that “Yellow Submarine” might have been performed,
if they could work out the “sound effects”...proving that even the average fan had begun to realize that
The Fabs were now making music that was too difficult to reproduce in their stage show. Dad sums up the
experience as “...Trying to listen to some very, very famous young men who have revolutionized a great
many things”. Time has proved him so very right.
Having dealt with many audio and video transfers over the years, I strongly believe that this tape will yield
superior audio quality to the review copy if it is transferred by a more experienced technician. The reel was recorded on both sides at 1 7/8 ips, however such mono half-track machines are scarce these days and it
is obvious that this transfer was played back at a faster speed and slowed down digitally. Using the tracks
from Rubber Soul (played over the PA system before the concert) as a baseline, I estimate that the current
transfer runs at just over a half of one semitone (-.65 cent) too fast. The current transfer also appears to
have been transferred out of phase in certain segments. Adjusting the azimuth of the playback heads to line
up with original record heads of the UHER 4000 Report-L would vastly improve this as well as revealing
more detail in the recording. The Amos tape is a treasure affording the listener a chance to attend
one of
