JUDY
Country: UK; USA
Release date: February, 1971
Label: Kustom Rekords ASC 003
Matrix: 2002-A / 2002-B
SIDE A
1. HEY JUDE
2. LADY MADONNA
3. THE BALLAD OF JOHN AND YOKO
4. RAIN
5. OLD BROWN SHOE
6. THIS BOY
SIDE B
7. ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE (duophonic, with almost only the right channel)
8. THE INNER LIGHT (Mono)
9. BABY YOU'RE A RICH MAN (duophonic, with almost only the right channel)
10. I'M DOWN (Mono)
11. PENNY LANE (duophonic, with almost only the right channel)
12. STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER
SOUND QUALITY: VG/EX stereo, except otherwise indicated
SOURCES: All songs are the officially released versions
COMMENTS
This is one of the earliest pirate records to appear, issued for the UK market to make up for the absence of a domestic release of the HEY JUDE album. Even if not technically a bootleg, it is included in this discography because it was released by Kustom Records, a label that produced some interesting bootlegs.
According to a U.K. BBC TV program dating back to 1971, a U.K. record distributor, Jeffrey Collins, claimed to have produced this LP starting from a copy of the original E.M.I. master of the HEY JUDE LP. However, this is surely fake. First of all, the track listing is different. Moreover, the sound quality, particularly on Side B, is distinctly lower than on the original record, dry, with scarce dynamics and an excess of midrange frequencies, and with a fake stereo for three tracks. The records were actually pressed in the U.S.A. and then the unsleeved copies were sent to England, where they were distributed with the customized sleeve. We cannot exclude the possibility that the master tape was indeed prepared in the U.K. by Collins, sent to the U.S.A. for pressing, and then the copies were sent back to the U.K., but, anyway, this cannot be an E.M.I. master.
RELEASES
The original version (photo below the title) came in a sleeve in relatively thin paper, printed in the UK, with the back cover plain white. The discs had yellow Kustom Rekords labels and the catalogue number ASC-003 and were probably pressed at the Rainbo plants, in Los Angeles, California; the pressing mark is a ring at 33 mm from the spindle hole.
THE COUNTERFEIT
The counterfeit was very probably produced by the same bootlegger who released KUM BACK as World’s Greatest Records. This bootlegger did not have the facilities for a stereo pressing, and so this record is mono (like his version of KUM BACK). The jacket of this version, distributed in the USA, was made of normally strong paper, with the front cover printed in yellow; on the back, the track listing, with fake titles, was printed. The discs had counterfeited yellow labels, and the pressing mark is a ring at 12 mm from the spindle hole. As typical of these copycats, the counterfeit came with the same matrix numbers as the original record, 2002 A / 2002-B, with a slightly different writing (see below, on the left the original record, on the right the counterfeit).
INTEREST. This is a rare early record, and both versions are interesting to collectors. ****/***