Wild Wonders (partially found full versions of unidentified songs from bootleg tape; 1970s-1986)
Status: Partially Found
"The Wings - Wild Wonders Tape" is the name given to 10 songs of varying quality, all misattributed to both The Wings & Paul McCartney. The tape was recorded in the '70s, and there has been a dedicated online search to track down the songs' high-quality versions, their names, and authors.
History
Around the mid-80s, the tape was going around Beatles tape collectors. Scott Belmer, who wrote several books on The Beatles, looked at the tape in the newsletter, "Belmo's Beatleg News".[1]
In 1989, L.R.E King mentioned the tape in his book "Fixin' a Hole".[2]
“Some parts sound a little like Paul and co., but the sound quality is abominable and seems to be deliberately distorted, which is certainly a reason to be suspicious. Extremely dubious.”
In 2001, a user called Randwolf2 made "The Beatles Tapes", a site dedicated to documenting and debunking supposed unreleased Beatles material.[3] He organized the songs as Outfakes, songs which are misattributed to a band or artist, either intentionally or unintentionally. He later released "LIES - Volumes 1 - 6", which uses "Please Come Home", a song from the tape.[4]
In 2023, Reddit user GameMonkeyDev mentioned the tape on the Long Island Subreddit.[5] On February 24th, YouTuber Beyond Obscure posted a restoration of the tape, and on October 16th, LMW user Spade uploaded a restoration of "Please Come Home" to YouTube, followed by the entire tape on November 24th, drawing attention to the mystery.[6][7]
Tracklisting
| Placeholder Track Title | Status | ID | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Signs of Love" | Lost | 1978 | |
| "Please Come Home" | Lost | 1977 | |
| "The Best is Yet to Come" | Lost | 1975 | |
| "Go for the Beer" | Lost | 1978 | |
| "Looking into Love" | Found | Late 70s | |
| "Shake Up your Engines" | Found | Late 70s | |
| "Need A Guarantee of Love" | Lost | 1974 | |
| "Runaway Teenager" | Lost | 1979 | |
| "Jimmy Takes A Ride" | Lost | 1978 | |
| "Relax in Bed" | Found | 1984 |
Identified Tracks
Tracks 5 & 6 were confirmed to have been written by Neal Ferraro, a notable producer from Long Island. For a long time, no HD audio of the two songs were available online. However, in March of 2024, Neal himself uploaded high-quality versions of the songs online.
Track 10, which was correctly identified as "X-Offender - Relax in Red", was confirmed to have been written in 1984, despite the tape saying it's from 1978. The version on the tape is a demo version of the song on the EP.
Theories
One possible theory is that these songs were performed on The Homegrown Hour, a radio show which features underground and local bands.[8] These songs were then recorded by bootleggers, and then intentionally distorted to hide the fact that it is not Paul Mccartney or Wings. This theory is further supported by the fact that some tracks (most notably Runaway Teenager & The Best is Yet to Come") have an abrupt and unnatural start, almost as if it wasn't recorded properly.
Availability
Only tracks 5,6 and 10, have ever been fully identified. all of the songs on the tape are in horrible quality, As of February 2024, the rest of the tracks are either partially found or lost.
Audio
References
- ↑ https://amazon.com/Belmos-Beatleg-News-Complete-Anthology/dp/169851011X
- ↑ https://amazon.com/Fixing-Hole-Beatles-Unauthorized-Recordings/dp/0944692028
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20011119054312/http://www.angelfire.com/music3/BeatlesTapes/main.html
- ↑ http://beatlestapes.atwebpages.com/LIESCDs.html
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/longisland/comments/10re9ey/a_mystery_possibly_tied_to_1023_wbab_i_need/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gcfDN2NGyg
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDHdsMUmuUw
- ↑ https://youtu.be/kHn0Yh3CAr8