I remember I got these on a bootleg tape around 1990, so they were out in tape trading circles prior to Use Your Illusion. I was disappointed that more of the tracks weren't on the final album.

Very interesting finds. I wish I had the kind of cash to blow on this stuff, and then just share them with the real fans. Fuck the hoarders.

The track list on the betamax looks like it's just AFD. Even the times listed are only a few seconds different that the album, and looking at the date on the tape, it's a few months before Appetite was released. Since it's from Sterling Sound Digital (who does mastering) and says "EQ'd for Analog Disk" I wonder if it's audio-only? I did a little Googling, and it does indeed seem that there were some mid-80s professional digital systems that used Betamax tapes. So even if you have an old betamax player that still functions, I doubt it the tape would be playable. And even if you had a digital betamax system, it's probably just AFD anyway. Still, would be cool from from a collector's point of view, if you had the cash to spare.

Seeing as how the leaked CDRs were labeled "J587 85 (Robin/Tommy Demos)" and so forth through "J587 278 (The Rebel)" I would have to assume that there are quite literally hundreds of discs from these sessions. Granted, most are probably just dozens of slightly different alternate mixes of songs we've already heard, but I'd wager there are tons of jams and instrumentals in various stages of completion.

Also fascinating is that the Rough Mixes CD #1 - #4 reference DAT #2, DAT #5, B. Head CD #2, etc. It's like these were the greatest hits from dozens of different sources. Like what else would have been on those Buckethead CDs that he submitted? I wonder if it was anything else that he's already released, or they were specifically created for submission to Axl?

I had to vote against Oklahoma because we've waited so long to hear the full Hardschool after years of being cock-teased by the Checkmate snippet, and the song we got was definitely worth the wait. But Oklahoma is still pretty damn good, and maybe I'd feel differently if I could hear the final version with vocals.