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Ultra-rare unreleased and unheard Beatles demo from 1963 is up for auction, listen to it here

A super rare unreleased Beatles demo is now up for sale on eBay via Parlogram. The demo contains an early version of What Goes On from Rubber Soul (1965), recorded by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in 1963.

John Paul

An ultra-rare unreleased and unheard Beatles demo for What Goes On from 1963 is up for auction on eBay. Listen to it below.

According to the item’s 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.”

A note on the description states that the acetate was most likely given by George Harrison to his brother Harry, who sold it among other items as lot 301 at Bonhams in December 2012.

According to Kenneth Womack’s book The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four, (via Pitchfork) Lennon has said that he wrote the song in the band’s earliest days. “That was an early Lennon, written before the Beatles when we were the Quarrymen or something like that,” he said.

Listen to a snippet of the track below, plus the album version (sung, of course, by Ringo).