Here’s an interesting article that’s a few days old. Richie Unterberger, author of the book The Unreleased Beatles: Music And Film, believes “Revolution 1” Take 20, which found its way onto the internet this week, is the “real deal.” The article explains why and discusses other Beatles unreleased tracks like the 27 minute take of “Helter Skelter” and “Carnival of Light.”
http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/beatles-expert-discusses-unreleased-revolution-1-197926
About Revolution 1, he said
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.”
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.
A few days ago, I was not so sure that this new discovery was nothing more than a brilliant “outfake” but people that know the Beatles lost studio work better than I do seem to think it’s likely a legit Beatles product. I think the fact that EMI had the file pulled from youtube within a day is quite telling.