ALBUMS: Beatles Alpha Omega (1972), The Beatles/1967-1970 (Blue Album 1973)
MVC Rating: Alpha 4.5/$$$$$/Blue 5.0/$$$$$
I want to write about the Beatles. I really do.
But I find I don’t have the words right now to describe what they did and what they mean. They were in my opinion the greatest rock band ever and possibly in the top 5 of greatest musical artists in terms of breaking new ground and influence.
But I gotta back that up, and right now I’m going to think about it a bit more as I go through my 678 vinyl records that I am reviewing for www.myvinylcountdown.com.
Meanwhile …., I’m going to offer up a little look at the two Beatles albums I have — again not a review of the music but a little story behind the origins of these two albums.
Two you say? Doesn’t sound like the Beatles collection of someone who thinks they are all that.
Well my two ‘albums’ are two anthologies totaling six vinyl discs in all. (Plus I have a lot, probably most of the Beatles catalog digitalized.)
One of the collections is a box 
The other collection I have is commonly referred to as the Blue Album which covers Beatles from 1967 to 1970. My brother had the Red Album which covered 1962 to 1966. If you have the red and blue albums, 2 records in each set, you have the essence of the group’s great work, but I would recommend the separate albums as well, especially Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and the White Album.
Now funny thing about the 4-record Alpha and Omega. It’s a bootleg. They call it a needle-drop bootleg because the bootlegger recorded these records right off the original records. Dropped the needle on a record on a turntable turned on a microphone and pressed the results in vinyl.
The sound quality is not supposed to be as good but I can’t really tell. The discs themselves contain songs in a peculiar order, sometimes alphabetical sometimes not. The only address on the albums is a P.O. Box from Asbury Park, N.J.
There’s also mixed in with the Beatles songs some solo songs such as McCartney’s Uncle Albert and Lennon’s Imagine.
Odd.
I’m not exactly sure where I got this. My wife, Catherine, says she thinks it could have been her sisters or her brothers’. It’s possible I found it at a flea market.
I know I got my ‘blue’ album as a Christmas present from my parents at about age 12 or 13.
The Alpha Omega album was actually sold on late night TV in the US. Apparently copyright laws varied from the UK to USA and gave someone the audacity to just steal these off of Beatles records.There are several versions of this bootleg.
Apple Records apparently chose to come out with the red and blue albums shortly after the bootlegs to counter with an ‘authorized’ compilation. In fact a paper sheet included in my blue album says, “These are the only authorized collections of The Beatles. On Apple Records.”
At www.discogs.com where they sell and buy records, I found these notes on one of their web pages.
In January 1973, two pirated Beatles box sets appeared in the United States, Alpha Omega Volumes I & II: The Story Of The Beatles (Audio Tape Inc. ATRBH 3583). These four-LP collections were advertised on TV and radio stations in the Midwest and were sold by mail order. Instead of taking legal action, Capitol Records countered by putting out two official Beatles anthologies, The Beatles 1962-1966 (US: Apple SKBO 3403) and The Beatles 1967-1970 (US: Apple SKBO 3404). However, in March, a $15 million lawsuit was filed by manager Allen Klein on behalf of George Harrison, along with Capitol and Apple Records, against the manufacturers and distributors of the bootleg package, and against American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., who had been advertising it.
http://www.rarebeatles.com/boxsets/boxset.htm
Counting down my vinyl records before I die of brain disease.