A 10-minute, freak-out version of The Beatles' track "Revolution 1" leaked onto the internet this week, exciting Fab Four archivists and download enthusiasts alike.
And for good reason: "Revolution 1 (Take 20)," as it is colloquially named, fuses parts of both the classic White Album rocker 'Revolution 1" and its less-accessible counterpart "Revolution 9" into a long, psychedelic head-trip of a tune.
But should it have stayed in the vault?
The tune will reportedly appear on a forthcoming U.K.-only bootleg collection called Revolution: Take ... Your Knickers Off!, where it will be complemented by outtakes of well-known songs like "Julia" and lesser-known ones like "Come and Get It."
The timing for the tune to resurface is right, given that Paul McCartney is currently seeking permission from Ringo Starr and the estates of George Harrison and John Lennon to release the much stranger, 17-minute epic "Carnival of Light," which was once rumored to be a figment of fandom's imagination.
The internet, love it or hate it, waits for no such permission. As such, the leaks of "Revolution 1 (Take 20)" and other Beatles miscellany could tip the scales in favor of a legit release sooner than expected. After all, fake versions of "Carnival of Light" have already made the rounds, but it is only a matter of time before the real thing shows up on torrent trackers or other download sources.
Not convinced? Consider the case of "Revolution 1 (Take 20)." Rolling Stone reports: "According to Mark Lewisohn's book The Beatles: Recording Sessions, only two copies of the take were made when recording the song was completed on June 4, 1968. One copy left the studio with Lennon that day, and the other remained behind."
Who ended up leaking the lost track? Who cares? The point is that even with seriously narrow ownership, the file made it to the internet, and onto a bootleg.
If information wants to be free in the information age, then so does music. And so it shall be, evidently, whether the surviving Beatles, or the late band members' estates, like it or not.
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