This was supposed to be a lockdown project but got rather delayed, not least because I couldn’t face actually immersing myself in this chaotic song. I wanted to unpick the history of the song and match the known variations available both officially and unofficially on circulating recordings.
Written by John Lennon in early 1968 when the band were at the Maharishi’s ashram in India What’s The New Mary Jane was recorded by the Beatles (only John and George from the band were present, along with Yoko Ono and Apple electronics specialist Alexis Mardas) for inclusion on what became the double album in late 1968 colloquially known as the White Album.
From the archives, both published and unpublished (such as the notes of EMI employee John Barratt who documented all the master tapes of the Beatles in the record company vaults in the early 1980s) we get the following (RM indicates a mono mix, RS a stereo mix):
14 August 1968
Tape: E68949 4T
Take 1 (2’35”)
Take 2 (3’45”)
Take 3 (false start)
Take 4 (6’35”)
Overdubs, including a second Lennon vocal, were done and from this point on all overdubs, edits and mixes use take 4 as the base recording.
Tape: E69229 A
RM1 faded to 3’15”
26 September 1968
Tape: E70430 A
RM1, RM2
The designation RM1 should not have been reused here as it had already been used on 14th August. On the recording sheet that accompanies this work only RM2 was completed and marked as “best”. A quirk, transcription error(?), is that it is only listed as 2'12", rather than 3'12".
14 October 1968
Tape: E70663 Z
RS1, RS2
Surprisingly only RS2 is noted on the log sheet for the day. The monthly fan club publication, The Beatles Book (number 64, November 1968), announced that the song had been considered for the White Album but was ultimately left off, along with the Harrison composition, Not Guilty.
11 September 1969
Tape: E93375 Z
RS1, RS2, RS3
RS1 and RS2 designations had already been used on 14th October and should not have been repeated. These three stereo mixes were done for John, ahead of further work to make it a Plastic Ono Band release.
26 November 1969
Stereo mixing with overdub (RS5)
Editing (RS5) as (RS6)
Tape copying with simultaneous overdub (RS4 into RS5)
Take 4 RS4 edit, running at 3’15” was chosen to be the b side of the projected Plastic Ono Band single with the Beatles recording of the song You Know My Name (Look Up My Number), catalogue number Apples 1002. This was scheduled for rush release 5th December 1969 but quickly cancelled. Acetates are known of this recording.
26 June 1971
Tape: E103378 4T
(tape copying?)
The four track tape E103778 is curious. It is long after the potential release of the song as either a Beatles or Plastic Ono Band record. John moved permanently to the US in August 1971. An acetate cut at Cutting Room Inc in New York may be from this tape. It is clear that it is not a finished, mixed tape, but rather a four (or eight) track multitrack tape (4T coded, rather than Z as a stereo master or A for a mono master). People have suggested that the Cutting Room Inc acetate is actually RS4, RS5 and RS6 from November 1969 but again I find that problematic as the third track on the disc is a severe edit and is just the last two and a half minutes, or nearly so, of the mayhem that is Mary Jane.
The next time that the song was scheduled for release was 1982/3 on an EMI projected album of Beatles outtakes and unreleased recordings called Sessions. A number of mixes were apparently done but again the project shelved, getting as far as cover design, and proposed accompanying single release.
What’s The New Mary Jane finally was released on the third installment of the Anthology cd using a Geoffrey Emerick mix from 1983 (prepared for Sessions?).
Excluding the recordings amongst collectors there are a number of versions of this song officially available, although not all on CD.
Acoustic demo – recorded at George’s House to run through all the new potential material for the White Album included in the deluxe box set for the 50th anniversary of the White Album
Take 1 – included in the deluxe box set for the 50th anniversary of the White Album
Take 2 – a partial recording of this can be heard on the Anthology dvd box set, a different mix is also included on the Anthology video box set
Take 4 – Geoffrey Emerick’s 1983 mix on Anthology 3 cd
Digging a little deeper what can you find amongst the collector recordings? This is not an exhaustive list and others may be out there. It can be quite difficult to discern true variations in the cacophony that is What’s The New Mary Jane.
Acoustic demo - the original recording of the demo tape, before it was cleaned up and corrected by EMI, has been circulating since the late 1990s or early 2000s
Take 4 RS4 edit – a recording of the Apples 1002 acetate
Take 4 RS2 – 14 Oct 1968 on the bootleg album EMI Outtakes
Take 4 RS1, RS2, RS3 – three stereo mixes on the What’s The New Mary Jane bootleg album, tracks 7, 8 and 9, may be these three mixes.
Cutting Room Inc acetate – all three recordings from this disc, label shown above, available
Sessions mixes – 1982/3 two or three stereo mixes of take 4 seem to be extant
