outfake

[Benjamin Zimmer]

outfake = spurious outtake (term used primarily by Beatles collectors)

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.beatles/msg/b20e4bf69aa8920e
rec.music.beatles, May 7 1994, "Beatles - The Capitol Versions"
Glass Onion on Rarities 2 is an outfake.

Boston Herald, March 17, 1996, p. 41 (Nexis)
But let's say you do come, as you should, to "Anthology 2" expecting a
warts-and-all slab of music history. Get ready for a shock. Quite a few of
the performances are modern studio fabrications that never existed before
producer George Martin, now 70, and engineer Geoff Emerick pieced them
together last year. ... The composite method may make for a more
listenable album, but it makes for bad history. ICE, a monthly CD
newsletter, suggests these patchwork creations be termed "outfakes," not
outtakes.

Washington Post, Oct 27, 1996, p. G8 (Nexis)
While there are familiar musical references, the new songs are neither
musically strong nor particularly funny. "Major Happy's Up and Coming Once
Upon a Good Time Band" and "The Knicker Elastic King" come closest to
sounding like "Sgt. Pepper" outfakes, but the best songs belong to Wom, as
Ringo.

New York Times, June 20, 1999, p. II26/1 (Nexis)
Lately, bootleggers have been muddying the historical waters by using such
components to make new alternative versions. In this they are taking a cue
from the "Anthology" sets, in which several outtakes were combined to
create a new version in a triumph of cosmetics over historicity. These
concoctions, which collectors call "outfakes," support the notion that the
"Sgt. Pepper" we know is only one possible "Sgt. Pepper."

http://www.icemagazine.com/daily/222/sep01.asp
ICE Magazine, Sep. 2005
Kerekes also gets provides an extensive analysis of Beatles "outfakes" —
unreleased songs assumed to be rare/unusual Beatles tracks but which, in
actuality, are not.
[Referring to "Rarer than Rare: Beatles Beatlegs & Outfakes" by David
Kerekes in _Lovers Buggers & Thieves: Garage Rock, Monster Rock,
Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock_, Martin Jones ed., 2005]


--Ben Zimmer