The Beatles : Kinfauns Demos

THE BEATLES

KINFAUNS DEMOS

The precise date is unknown, 

but towards the end 

of May 1968 

The Beatles 

met at Kinfauns, 

George Harrison's 

bungalow in Esher, Surrey.

 There they recorded 

demo versions of a 

number of songs

 written in India, 

 which later appeared

 on

The White Album.

The songs believed to 

have been taped at

 Kinfauns were

 recorded on 

Harrison's Ampex

 four-track reel-to-reel 

tape recorder. 

They were mostly

 grouped together by

 the composer of each song,

 although 

John Lennon's songs

 were more scattered

 across the day

It is possible that 

not all of the demos

 were recorded 

at Kinfauns, 

and it has been 

speculated that some were

 recorded alone by

 the songs' composers. 

Alternatively, 

previously-made recordings

 may have been brought to

 Harrison's house for 

overdubbing,

 but, again, 

this is far from clear

Of the songs 

unreleased by 

The Beatles in 1968, 

perhaps the 

best known is 

Child Of Nature.

This was inspired by 

a Maharishi Mahesh Yogi lecture, 

and was lyrically similar

to

 Mother Nature's Son. 

Lennon later reused 

the melody for

 1971's Jealous Guy.

What's The New Mary Jane 

was based around a

 nursery rhyme-style melody, 

and in the studio 

became one of 

Lennon's first

 avant garde compositions. 

It remained unreleased 

until Anthology 3, 

despite Lennon's various

 attempts to have it released

 by The Beatles 

or the Plastic Ono Band.

Two of Lennon's songs,

 Mean Mr Mustard 

and

 Polythene Pam, 

were held back until 

1969's Abbey Road, 

when they became

 part of the

 'Long Medley'.

Just one of 

Paul McCartney's songs

 Junk 

 was unreleased by

 The Beatles,

 although they returned 

to it during the

 Get Back sessions

 in early 1969. 

It eventually found 

a home on 

McCartney's first

 solo album.

Harrison fared less well, 

with three of the 

five demos 

failing to be included

 on the White Album. 

A studio version 

of 

Not Guilty

 should have appeared

 on that record, 

although it was 

eventually included on

 Anthology 3. 

Circles, 

meanwhile,

wasn't issued until 

Harrison's

 1982 solo album 

Gone Troppo.

Sour Milk Sea

 was given to 

Apple recording artist

 Jackie Lomax. 

It was his debut single

 later in 1968,

 produced by 

Harrison 

with 

McCartney on bass

 and

 Ringo Starr on drums.

It isn't known 

whether any of 

The Beatles' 

wives or girlfriends

 were present,

 although a female voice 

may be discernible on

 Revolution 1. 

Mal Evans 

and

 Derek Taylor 

are also addressed by

 the group on

 the bootleg recordings,

 and may have contributed.

The demo songs were 

mono mixed by

 Harrison,

 with copies given

 to each Beatle. 

The general public

 first heard them in

 the late 1980s 

as part of

 The Lost Lennon Tapes 

radio series, 

and Some  had entered

 general circulation by

 the early 1990s.

" I just realized that

I've got a really

good bootleg tape

 demos we made at

my house on an

Ampex 4-track during

The White Album." 

- George Harrison

Musician magazine,

 early 1990s

" We are going in

with clear heads

and hoping for the best.

We had hoped this

time to do a lot of

rehearsing before we

reached the studios

rather than rehearse

actually on the instruments but,

as it happens,

all we got was one day."

- Paul McCartney, 1968

TRACK LIST 

CD 1

 Julia

Blackbird

Rocky Racoon

Back in USSR

Honey Pie

Mother Nature's Son

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

Junk

Dear Prudence

Sexy Sadie

Cry Baby Cry

Child Of Nature

The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill

I'm So Tired

Yer Blues

Everybody's Got Something To Hide 

Except Me And My Monkey

What's The New Mary Jane

CD 2

Revolution

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Circles

Sour Milk Sea

Not Guilty

 Piggies

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Mean Mr. Mustard

Polythene Pam

Glass Onion

Junk

 (Anthology Edit)

 Honey Pie 

(Anthology Edit)

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Sour Milk Sea (BBC Edit)

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