An unreleased rare Beatles demo of ‘What Goes On‘ is now up for auction on eBay via Parlogram.
The 1963 demo predates the version sung by Ringo Starr which appeared on the band’s Rubber Soul album back in 1965. The earlier version was sung by John Lennon, who originally wrote the song, and includes Lennon singing different lyrics. According to a spokesman from the auction house, the newly unearthed demo also features Lennon on acoustic guitar and Paul McCartney on the chorus. Listen to an excerpt from the recording below.
According to Kenneth Womack‘s book The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four, Lennon stated that the song was written in their earliest days. “That was an early Lennon, written before the Beatles when we were the Quarrymen or something like that, and resurrected with a middle eight thrown in, probably with Paul’s help, to give Ringo a song. And also to use the bits because I never liked to waste anything.”
The demo disc was originally sold for $8,461 by the George Harrison family through Boham’s auction house in 2012. Now, under U.K. law, the track is in the public domain since it hasn’t been released within 50 years of recording. The auction is set to run until 1st October with the bids already over £2,000. Place your bids here.
Recently Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, has forced a soft drink’s company called “John Lemon” to change its name. Read more about that here.
