Beatles' tapes surface

Earlier this month, the doors of musical history were re-opened by what some are calling one of the greatest recoveries in the history of rock music. On Jan 10, police recovered 500 reel to reel tapes of the Beatles recording sessions. The tapes were recorded during the 1969 "Get Back" sessions and are considered to be priceless. \nAccording to press reports, the raid took over a year to orchestrate and was a joint effort by police detectives in London and Holland and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Police heightened their investigation after the tapes became available on the black market for a mere $730,000. The inexpensive price made police skeptical as to the authenticity of the tapes. However, undercover officers were led to a warehouse near Amsterdam where the tapes were hidden and later confirmed that they were indeed the actual stolen tapes. So far, three arrests have been made in Holland and two in London, while more suspects are currently under investigation. \nThe tapes chronicle a somewhat dismal period in the musical history of the Beatles. The sessions were organized in an effort to resolve some of the tensions experienced in recording the "White Album" in 1968. The Beatles were trying a back-to-basics approach, recording and filming much of the sessions in January 1969. The sessions were supposed to culminate with a series of live performances by the Beatles, which had been exclusively a studio band since 1965. In the end the band compromised with a now-famous live performance on the rooftop of Abbey Road Studios. Sadly, these sessions also mark the beginning of the end for the Beatles. \nAfter the sessions were recorded, the project was shelved for a while as tensions continued to grow within the band. Much of the material on these tapes was later filtered through the famous American producer Phil Spector and compile much of what was released as the Let It Be album in 1970. Because the sessions were not recorded at Abbey Road Studios, the tapes were not stored in the secure studio vaults and were thus more susceptible to theft. \nIU's foremost Beatles authority, Glen Gass, has mixed feelings about the recovery of the tapes. The instructor of the Beatles class is pleased that the tapes were found and will be returned to their proper place, but describes his initial reaction as "more of everyone's least favorite Beatles period." Gass describes this time in Beatles history as the most well-chronicled, but the worst period in the band's history. He believes much of what the tapes contain will be the band jamming aimlessly for hours, sometimes playing one song over and over and that the recordings themselves will be tedious and strained. He also says there is not enough fun in these recordings and the listener can really feel the tension between the band. Gass also suspects that these recordings will bring nothing new to the casual Beatles fan. Much of the salvageable unreleased material found on these tapes has already surfaced in the form of bootlegs throughout Europe and the United States over the past 30 years. \nIn addition to musical recordings, the tapes also catch arguments, tensions and private conversations between the Beatles themselves. John Lennon's new wife Yoko Ono was always present during these recordings, much to the annoyance of the band, and it was during these sessions that George Harrison actually quit the band for over a week. Gass says that the rooftop concert was a compromise for the band and that it happened because Harrison was eventually convinced to go upstairs. By the end of these sessions, many thought that these sessions would be the last of the material released by the Beatles. \nInstead, members of the Beatles decided they didn't want to go out like that. The group put its egos and differences aside and went back into Abbey Road studios to create one final album with producer George Martin. Abbey Road, the Beatles final album, turned out to be a masterpiece in its own right, and many consider it to be the best Beatles album ever recorded. Gass describes the making of Abbey Road as a miracle, but says that he still considers the album to be a sad epilogue to the Beatles catalogue. \nWhile Gass remains unenthusiastic about the tapes and thinks they will increase tensions between surviving members of the Beatles and the legacies of Harrison and Lennon, he still considers the find as a significant one. "It's like unlocking an attic stacked full of Picasso sketches," Gass says. "A glimpse into true genius"