I've chosen these two versions because they not only sound great, being FM versions, but also because each one will be a new listening experience for you no matter how many times you've listened to the album. And I mean a new experience.

The first comes from Gerde's Folk City in NYC (in fact, this might be a soundboard recording rather than an FM recording, I don't know) sometime in 1966. That puts it a year before the album was released, and it is very obvious that the song was still in the development stage. In fact, the elements that we would consider the main parts of the story are missing entirely. What the song consists of, mainly, is a far greater elaboration on another element that you will know from the album, and I think you'll be very surprised to hear what element it was that dominated the early version of the song. At a mere 13:33, it's about 5 minutes shorter than the studio version also. You can get it right here.

The second is from The Bob Fass radio show in May of 1967, just three months after Arlo played a more faithful rendering of the song on the same show. This is entirely different from the first or the official version. First, this version has piano accompaniment, which changes the entire texture of the song. With just a guitar, it is a very folksy song, but the jangly piano in the background brings an aura of New Orleans honky-tonk that changes the face of the familiar tune completely. Not only that, but the story is entirely different.This is, in fact, sort of a sequel to the original story. It's called Alice's Restaurant Multi-Colored Rainbow Roach Affair, and is a bizarre story involving the restaurant, brightly colored insects, and cold war espionage. It's only three seconds longer than the 1966 version. It has to be heard to be believed. Hear it here.

Of course, we know what Arlo was smoking when he came up with it, right?

The other two versions I downloaded were much more faithful to the album, although one has plenty of improv in it and comes in a almost 25 minutes. Maybe I'll post that one next year. For now, what do those of you who know the song think of these two alternate takes? You have the floor.

The tapes were recorded after the Beatles famous trip to India, where they went to explore Transcendental Meditation and probably score some hash. The main three writers of the band had been busy in India writing new tunes. When they returned, they all got together at George's house in Esher to lay down the demos. There seems to be a lot of conjecture about why George's house was chosen, since they usually worked on their music at John or Paul's. There are theories regarding John and the boys being unwelcome at John's since Cythia had just caught him with Yoko, theories involving Paul's recent meeting with Linda, and theories about George having the best equipment.

Why does anyone care why? They went to George's. He had a four-track.

The three of them then spent a week or so seperately recording the tracks that they had written in India. They were able to overdub themselves, so each demo has background vocals and accompaniment, as rough as it may be. While several of these songs were unused,  the lion's share of them ended up on the White Album. These recordings are the first ever made of these songs. They were made not only for EMI, but also for the other members of the band to hear. Thus, the first time any Beatle heard a song that another Beatle wrote for the White Album, it was via these very recordings.

This song, called Child of Nature, is one that didn't make the cut, possibly because of a thematic similarity with Paul's Mother Nature's Son. Lennon sure must have liked it, though, because there was a fuller version done during the Let It Be sessions (oh, yeah, I downloaded what's left of that, too). It didn't make the cut then, either. John must have had an earworm for it, though, because it did get used, eventually, with completely different lyrics and a different title. A Beatle or Lennon fan should recognize the melody - do you? If so, you may be surprised at how long that melody had been around.

I saved the best one for last.

The true gem in this musical jewelry box has to be George's While My Guitar Gently Weeps. It is a beautiful, soft, but truly haunting rendition, very folksy and thoughtful where the finished version is heavy and woeful. The lyrics are different. This version is considerably shorter as well, mostly because they didn't have Eric Clapton on hand to do that blistering, wailing guitar solo quite yet. This is the one cut that I had to listen to again as soon as it was finished. I'd like to know what you think of it.

It just goes to show - in a library, there's always just a little more shelf room.

He soundly thrashed the competition for this distinction by picking on our own Eden. It came out that it was His Daintyness himself that  found her video - 29 seconds of her young son bopping around the kitchen while a Prince song played on the radio in the background - and had it removed for "copyright violations." He obviously feels that if people hear 29 seconds of one of his songs on the internet, they won't buy the CD.

Guess what, fool. I never needed the 29 seconds to arrive at that particular purchasing decision.

When  his last CD was sold in the Sunday issue of a newspaper,he offended retailers. Now, he's trolling for fans to abuse. Evidently, he figures that anyone who would actually pay for his music must be the enemy. That's a pretty assholey position for an artist to take. What happens if you protect your copyright so much that no one wants to buy the product anymore?