What Goes On 1963

What Goes On demo label.

Christmas really did come early for those eager to hear “something new” from The Beatles.

First, remixes of “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love”, plus outtakes and demos on the “Anthology 4” release (rumoured to be available only in the “Anthology” boxed set as soon as they run out of individual copies). Bootleggers also released demos of “Love of the Loved” and “Misery”, and now, the famed 1963 demo acetate of “What Goes On” is out and about on the internet.

On 5 March 1963, during a session for “From Me To You” and “Thank You Girl”, the Beatles wanted to record “What Goes On” and “One After 909” (then titled “The One After 909”). With only enough time remaining to record one more song, they opted for “The One After 909”. John Lennon and Paul McCartney recorded a demo of “What Goes On” in 1963, but the song was not used until 1965 as Ringo Starr’s vocal piece for Rubber Soul.

This acetate is that 1963 version of the song, featuring different lyrics and a different melody, but the chorus is like it later sounded like when Ringo sang the tune on “Rubber Soul”. Likely, his co-credit upon release may have been a token gift from Lennon and McCartney.

The acetate was part of a collection of things from the The Harrison Family, consisting of items given by George Harrison to his brother, Harry, and other members of his family.

Here’s the description from the 2012 auction at Bonhams:

This track was due to be recorded on 5th March 1963 but the group ran out of time. They revisited the track during a recording session on 4th November, when they were just a month away from the release of the next album, ‘Rubber Soul’, and had only completed half of the tracks for it. The acetate offered here is a demo with vocals and guitars only.

Five years later, the buyer put it up for sale on ebay, with this description:

The acetate on offer here however contains the original home demo version recorded by John & Paul in early 1963. It features a lead vocal by John on guitar with Paul on harmony. Some piano notes can also be heard in the background towards the end of the track. The 1:54 minute track has the familiar ‘What goes on…’ chorus similar to the released track, but the two verses reveal John’s original lyrics which are completely different those on the released version.

The recording of ‘What Goes On’ on this acetate is one of the rare tracks/performances by The Beatles which has never been released either officially or unofficially. The original tape of this demo recording is not known to exist and is presumed lost.

This disc itself is a 1-sided 7″ lacquer-coated metal disc (acetate) bearing a red and white typewritten ‘Dick James Music Limited – Demo Disc’ label on one side.

The record was sold for GBP 10,200 in October 2017.

Andrew from Parlogram Records have been playing snippets from the record on his vlog channel and Facebook page, so several people have been posting these unfinished versions on YouTube, like here.

Now the whole song has been posted, somewhat cleaned up, due to the wear, clicks and pops acetates usually have after more than fifty years after they were made.