

A "lost" Beatles track once thought to have been only a myth is real, says Paul McCartney. "Carnival of Light," a 14-minute-long unconventional recording of the Beatles improvising on the various instruments and noisemakers in the band's Abbey Road studios, rejected by other members of the group for inclusion in the The Beatles Anthology, might soon see the light of day soon.

"When we were putting together the Beatles anthology album, we were looking at every little thing we've ever recorded," said McCartney. "In fact, George and I – George Harrison and I – were joking that if we ever did anything else, it'd have to be called Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel, because we were just looking at every piece of rubbish or good stuff. This [recording] came to light, and I said 'You know, it would be great to put this on, because it would show that we were working on some really avant-garde stuff, then. I think it would be nice – at least a portion of it, or something.' But it was vetoed. The guys didn't like the idea – 'oh, it's rubbish,' you know. It was a bit too weird."

Nonetheless, Beatles fans will soon be able to hear the recording, which McCartney describes as sounding a bit like the experimental recordings of John Cage and Carl Stockhausen. "I like it. It's very simplistic, it's quite naive, but I like it because it's the Beatles free. The Beatles going off piste."

McCartney agreed to put together the song for an International Timeselectronic music festival. He convinced the other Beatles to record thetrack in January of 1967.

"We were set up for one of the albums – it might have been The White Album

– we were set up in the studio and we'd just go in every day andrecord. And so I said to the guys, 'Look, it's a bit indulgent, butwould you mind just giving me ten minutes? I've been asked to do thisthing. All I want you to do is just wander 'round all the stuff – bangit, shout, play it – it doesn't need to make any sense. Hit a drum andthen wander on to the piano, hit a few notes, and just wander around.

So that's what we did. And then we put a bit of echo on it. It's veryfree."

McCartney made the remarks as part of a BBC interview

that will be broadcast on Thursday at 7:15 pm GMT. The recording of thesong itself has only been played once in public – at the '67

electronic music festival. According to the BBC's sources, it features"distorted guitar, organ sounds, gargling and band members shoutingphrases such as 'Barcelona!' and 'Are you all right?'"

McCartney says still wants to release the song and that he has amaster tape of the recording. In order for us to hear it barringleakage, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono-Lennon and Olivia Harrison would have tobe agree to its release.

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