'Unknown Delight - The Alan's Album Archives Guide To The Music Of George Harrison' is available to buy now by clicking here!
"Electronic
Sounds"
(Zapple, May 1969)
Under The Mersey Wall/No Time Or Space
"Bleep!
Squee! Bleep! Whistle! Bleep! *Random Sound Effect impossible To Put Into
Words*"
The
Beatles had lots of weird ideas for Apple, the business they put together in
1968: as well as records and films there was a boutique and even plans for a
nursery and schools (to be run by Lennon's school-friend and qualified teacher
Pete Shotton) that sadly came to naught: just imagine all those fab Yellow
Submarine lunchboxes everyone would have had in a Beatles-themes canteen! You'd
have thought that the fab four could have stayed out of trouble in the music
division of their label but even here they had a few wild and woolly ideas that
EMI would never have let even a band as big as The Beatles get away with. The
band agreed early on to create 'Zapple', an Apple subsidiary dedicated to
releasing avant garde music which was set up with great glee at the end of 1968
- only for new manager Allen Klein to sweep it under the carpet with the big
broom he used to turn the Beatles' money-losing folly into a bona fide
business, ending many a long-term Beatles business relationship in the process.
Actually losing Zapple was just about the only good move Klein made as it was
probably a self-indulgence too far and released a grand total of two records
before it was unceremoniously closed in mid-1969. Inevitably Lennon was the
first Beatle to use the label with the release of the second and best of his
'unfinished music' series with Yoko Ono 'Lie With The Lyons' (a harrowing
combination of a squeal-filled Yoko jazz gig, John randomly turning a radio on
and off for five whole minutes and a loop of his mis-carried baby son's
heartbeat).
Less
inevitably Harrison was second, seemingly the last Beatle who would have had
anything to do with such a self-indulgence. Retaining the cynicism that Lennon
had always had about such things before meeting Yoko, for better or for worse
it had been George who'd raised the biggest eyebrows and muttered the most
sarcastic comments about John's antics at the end of the Beatle days. And yet here
he was, just a few months after Lennon, playing around with similarly un-commercial
and frankly even less listenable musical pursuits on the aptly named
'Electronic Sounds'. However the album makes more sense when you realise what
George was trying to do. While George always laughed at reports that called him
the most 'musically aware' of The Beatles, it was nevertheless true that he was
the most interested in instruments for their own sake. Beatles albums would
have been far less rich in the spectrum of sounds had it not been for George's
interest in most famously the sitar and tablas but also the moog synthesiser
released at the end of the 1960s and heard - for the third time ever - on
'Strawberry Fields Forever' (The Monkees and Moody Blues, however, weren't far
behind). Proud of his new toy, George was keen to see just how much it could do
and taped himself 'playing around' with it for two sessions a few minutes
either side of twenty minutes. The result of what it could do - not much by
today's standards - has caused more than one fan to scratch their heads over
this LP, which has none of the like-it-or-else progressive aggressiveness of
the similar avant garde JohnandYoko LPs or Paul's desire to add conventional
styles on top of the music (see 'McCartney II', a far more interesting and
revealing album than it's ever given credit for).
However
George is too much of a professional to simply 'throw away' this album the way
that John and Yoko had done. For his album cover he chooses to keep things
properly home-made and makes his own painting - the only one he'll ever do for
one of his albums - featuring a cute little blob-headed man with a big grin on
his face, dwarfed by the huge synthesiser complete with endless buttons to
press. 'How I could I resist?' the cover seems to be saying, whilst having the
typical Harrison knee-jerk humour about both getting carried away with what he
may now be thinking as a self-indulgence not fit for other people's ears and
the typical Harrison motif of man being rather small and humble in the great
scheme of things (although rather than God or nature, this is the only time it
happens because of a man-made object). It's interesting too that, unlike Lennon
who gave the most basic even curt names to his avant garde 'songs', George goes
the extra mile by being creative even here: the second piece is given a pleasing
poetic name fully in keeping with the space-age sounds and the first piece is a
jokey nod to the past and the 'Over The Mersey Wall' about local characters in
the news which appeared most weeks in
the Liverpool Echo, funnily enough written by a reporter also named George
Harrison and who often got sent on Beatle-reports round the world with them,
mainly because of his shared name (the use of the word 'wall' may have been on
his mind after making 'Wonderwall').
Note too that the front cover doesn't claim that this album is 'played'
by George Harrison, merely 'produced by', as if George is aware that the real
creative artists here is the creator of the synth. There's also a fun defensive
joke o the back sleeve with a quote attributed to the made-up Arthur Wax and
possibly a dig at the similarly structured McCartney quote on Lennon's 'Two
Virgins' album about him 'being : 'There are a lot of people around making a
lot of noise; here's some more!' Sadly though Apple paid less attention, at
least in America, where the two recordings were unaccountably switched round by
mistake even though the track names on the cover were kept the same (so for
nearly half a century many Americans have come to know these tracks by the
wrong names!)
Unfortunately bad blood seems to have coloured
this album for George: in a sign of things to come in the troubled years to
come he was sued over 'No Time Or Space' by synthesiser expert Bernie Klause,
who claimed the bleepings on side two were really his and taped inadvertently
whilst demonstrating the wonders of the machine to George. The suit came to
nothing - how can you prove who plays one lot of unmusical bleeps against
another, especially as this was a recording made at home at Friar Park without
'session logs' rolling? - but its interesting that Bernie should have tried to
take credit for the less musical side two compared to the more melodious side
one. Oh and if it was a demonstration then how come it took twenty-five minutes
of other-worldly blobs to sell the product to a millionaire Beatle who was
clearly sold the minute the machine was delivered to his house? Interestingly a
co-credit 'assistance by Bernie Krause' can be seen faintly to the right of
George's name but seems to have been painted over at some stage in the album's production
- did the pair have a falling out?
So
is the most obscure of all of George's album and his second and last while
still a Beatle of interest to fans? No, not really - unless you're a
practitioner of late 1960s moog technology, need some Beatles-related music for
a self made horror film (though good luck getting Apple to clear the rights!)
or want to own the funky album cover. Perhaps a self-indulgence too far and
certainly far less worthy of George's name and time than his superb first album
'Wonderwall'.
"The
Concert For Bangladesh"
(Apple, Recorded August 1971, Released December
1971)
Introduction/Bangla Dhun (Ravi
Shankar)//Wah-Wah/My Sweet Lord/Awaiting On You All/That's The Way God Planned
It (Billy Preston)//It Don't Come Easy (Ringo Starr)/Beware Of Darkness/Band
Introduction/While My Guitar Gently Weeps//Jumpin' Jack Flash-Youngblood (Leon
Russell)/Here Comes The Sun//A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall (Bob Dylan)/It Takes A
Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry (Bob Dylan)/Blowin' In The Wind (Bob
Dylan)/Mr Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan)/Just Like A Woman (Bob
Dylan)//Something/Bangla Desh
"Won't
you lend your hand and understand? Relieve the people of Bangla Desh?"
Forget
Live Aid, Forget Live Earth, don't even mention Farm Aid - it's the Concert For
BanglaDesh that's the world's most important charity gig for a whole number of
reasons. For a start it was the first time ever that big musician names had got
together to raise money for a worthy cause rather than take a salary. Secondly
it was the first time that Bob Dylan had been seen in public since a 'motorbike
accident' in 1969 that was really just a good excuse to keep out of the
limelight (Dylan never did turn up to rehearsals and was unsure about going on
up to the last minute - a handwritten setlists that's survived from the first
gig simply reads 'Dylan ?' at the second half of the show). Thirdly, and most
crucial at the time, it was the first time ever that more than one Beatle had
been seen in public, with Ringo eagerly accepting George's call as the Beatle
flicked through his address book of contacts to make the gig happen (he even
swallowed his pride enough to ask John and Paul - the former reportedly
declined when it was made clear that Yoko would not be allowed to appear and
the latter said no guiltily after much thought due to the fact that Paul and
George were currently in court over the Allen Klein business affair and Paul
didn't want to be 'steamrollered' by the other Beatles into giving way). Still,
we got a serious-looking full-bearded George breaking some 18 months of public
silence and belatedly promoting his best LP, with Ringo and some of the early
1970s' biggest names gathered together on stage together - what's not to love?
The
concert had been the brainchild not of George but of Ravi Shankar, who'd been
devastated to read about the 'Bangladesh Liberation War' that had left millions
of refugees homeless and facing starvation. As an Indian born and bred, Ravi
was appalled not just at the Western world's reluctance to help but the fact
that most people round the world had never even heard of the troubled or the
lengthy wars that had been running there for decades. Knowing that few people
would turn up to a Ravi Shankar charity gig on his own he turned to George for
help. Harrison was still reluctant to appear on stage - it had been five years
since The Beatles appeared at Candlestick park and he'd been the least
supportive of The Beatles' attempts to make a live comeback with 'Get Back/Let
It Be'. But Ravi came armed with as much information as he could gather and it
didn't take long before George was sagely nodding and agreeing that something
had to be done. Ravi had merely been after a George solo concert, but wary of
getting back on stage alone and figuring that calling in some friends would
make an even bigger splash with the papers, George called as many people as he
could - which is why you only see George's friends on stage. It's a measure of
how much love and respect they had for George that so many said yes: Ringo,
Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Klaus Voormann, Badfinger (who
George had just abandoned to make 'All Things Must Pass' remember) and even
future fellow Traveling Wilbury Bob Dylan all dropped everything to come and be
a part of the event - much to George's surprise it seems (as a side note did he
ever ask Doris Troy or Jackie Lomax, two Apple artists George had just produced
for Apple who are conspicuous by their absence - oh and why don't Badfinger, a
bigger name than say Leon Russell in 1971, get a song of their own to sing?)
Their biggest McCartney-written song 'Come and Get It' would have been sadly prescient).
The song 'Bangla Desh' was also composed more or less on the spot to help the gig along and become its 'focal
point' (and sounds like it too - odd
that someone who should go to such lengths should include the line 'though I
couldn't feel his pain' for Ravi, whilst having gone to such a superhuman
effort to bring this gig together).
Hearing
the gig on record - released as a full
triple-vinyl set in a handsome and understandably pricey box - is by turns as
woeful as such a hastily thrown together gig would naturally sound (Ringo
forgets the words to his own 'It Don't Come Easy', George forgets his to
'Awaiting On You All', whilst Dylan is just...Dylan, as impenetrable as always
and the rhythms tend to speed up and slow down throughout the gig) and full of
spots of the magic that everyone luckily enough to get tickets to the two shows
in Madison Square Gardens insists was there. George struggles to overcome his
natural shyness at first, but overcomes it far more successfully than he ever
will during his only other tours in 1974 and 1989, hiding behind his friends,
the occasion and his beard. The show has many mistakes but also many highlights
like a passionate 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps (with Eric playing lead just as
he did on 'The White Album' original) and a sensitive 'Beware Of Darkness' drip
with added poignancy and longing. With only one 'proper' solo album under his
belt George spends far more time on his Beatles songbook than many fans
expected (including the first time ever that a crowd would have heard 'Guitar'
'Here Comes The Sun' and 'Something' played live and years before a still
Beatle-weary McCartney got the chance to sing 'Yesterday' in front of people -
a big deal at the time) although he also has extra space to give some unexpected
songs from 'All Things' a workout: 'Wah-Wah' 'Beware of Darkness' and 'Awaiting
On You All' as well as the inevitable 'My Sweet Lord' (sadly there's no 'Isn't
It A Pity?', which would have been perfect for the occasion), all highly
welcome and sounding all the better for being performed live, rough edges and
all, in comparison to the sheer epic-ness of Phil Spector's album production.
However George's spotlight is stolen wholesale by many of his friends - Dylan
is on astonishing form, with several songs his fans would never have heard him
play live before, with George and Ringo and co all desperately trying to keep
up as he throws out one song in one key after another (they just about get to
the end of the set ok, but its a close run thing!) However both giants are
overshadowed by a sterling performance of Billy Preston, whose cheery 'That's
The Way God Planned It' overcomes the cynicism in the lyrics to become a
crowd-cheering song about humanity's ability to change their fate, moving Billy
to the point he quits singing and gets up from his piano stool to start
dancing, a delightful moment that's proof of just how much emotion there really
was on that stage.
Alas
things didn't quite work out the way George and Billy and everyone else on
stage had planned it. While the concerts were well received and greeted with
rapturous applause most of the press was confused more than supportive, with
several columns on the lines of 'why don't these millionaires just out their
hands in their pockets instead of asking us to pay?' and 'why is it any
business of ours what happens on the other side of the world anyway?' Worse was
to come when George pushed to get the well-recorded gig (perhaps Phil Spector's
finest hour, 'All Things' not withstanding) out into the shops. Though The
Beatles owned Apple, EMI still had a say and amazingly to modern ears it was
this album they truly baulked at - not 'Life With The Lyons' or John and Yoko's
'Wedding Album' or even 'Electronic Sounds' but this record. A triple record
cost too much and no one would buy it, they argued. The glossy booklet was a
waste - who wants to see pictures of dying children, it'll kill off sales they
added. George also found himself locked into a battle over what money would go
to his chosen charity of UNICEF: first Allen Klein fought him on song royalties
and the money coming into Apple, then the Inland Revenue fought him over
whether this really was a 'charitable product' and demanded their usual high
rate of tax. What had once been born of love and made out of speed to get help
out to Bangla Desh as soon as possible was quickly becoming an obstacle that
just wouldn't move - a weary George made a rare appearance on Dick Cavett's
talk show in America, booked in order to promote the album, admitting that the
album wasn't out as quickly as he hoped and might never be, ending with a dark
look at the camera and a message to the boss of EMI 'sue me, Bhaskar!' (because
everyone else has!) Thankfully sense prevailed - $250,000 was raised for Bangla
Desh refugees directly from the concerts and an extra $12 million was
eventually raised through sales of the album and the concert film. However the
event always held a question mark over it for George, not least when rumours
began to fly that political shenanigans meant that UNICEF were unable to pass
all the money over or send it where it was needed most. Other reports still
claim that a sizeable proportion of the funds (wer don't know how much) went
straight to Allen Klein's pockets - which might be why the film footage of this
show was so hard to get hold of right up until his death (when it magically
appeared, almost overnight, on DVD). A sad end to a worthy try - and yet the
legacy of the Bangla Desh concerts didn't stop when the music did. Charity
gigs, something so new in 1971, became the norm after this and if it wasn't for
the pitfalls George fell into and happily warned others like Bob Geldof against
then we might not have had Live Aid, Band Aid or all the many thousands of
charity releases we have in our times. 'George
may not have got everything right, but even if his wallet was in the
wrong place his heart was in the right one and Bangla Desh still did a lot of
good for the refugees, not just by money but by allowing others to hear of
their plight and shaming others into joining in the fight against poverty (with
many politicians speaking up about the incident after George and Ravi first
made it headline news). Similarly the concert may not always be as great as
it's cracked up to be and in truth George himself probably gave better concerts
during his much-maligned solo tour of 1974, but it's more than good enough, a
brave idea taken off with a lot of love by a lot of very talented people which
more than makes up for the mistakes both on-stage and off. Oh and a nice bit of
trivia for you: this was the only time one of The Beatles was on-stage when
someone covered a Rolling Stones track, although sadly its Leon Russell who
does 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' not George (and no, Lennon at the Rolling Stones
Circus doesn't count as that was a Beatles one!)
"The
Best Of George Harrison"
(Parlophone/Capitol, November 1976)
Something/If I Needed Someone/Here
Comes The Sun/Taxman/Think For Yourself/For You, Blue/While My Guitar Gently
Weeps//My Sweet Lord/Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)/You/Bangla Desh/Dark
Horse/What Is Life?
"I've
got a word or two to say about the things that you do...I left you far behind,
the ruins of the life that you have in mind...And you've had time to rectify
all the things that you should!"
Of
all the tricks that EMI played on The Beatles, this was about the worst. Having
access to both George's Beatles songs and his pre-1976 material cut for Apple,
they cobbled together not a true best-of featuring loved album tracks and
hard-to-find songs but a mishmash of George's Beatles work and solo singles,
oblivious of how well received or how well they'd sold. To put that in context
George had been one of the best sellers of the 1970s, thanks to 1970 alone, and
would easily have sold a full 'greatest hits' set based on extracts from his
first four solo albums plus standalone singles, especially had they had the
nerve to add the better tracks from the increasingly rare 'Wonderwall Music'
and extracts from 'Electronic Sounds' into the pot as well. George wasn't
consulted about the song choice, the packaging was bland and out of date (with
a 1968-era picture of George on the front cover) and the whole thing smacked of
even more desperation than EMI's series of Beatles compilations themed after
'ballads' 'love songs' 'rock songs' and those taken from 'film soundtracks'.
After all, while George's stock was falling compared to John and Paul's, they
hadn't even done this to Ringo, whose EMI-made compilation 'Blast From Your
Past' from the same era is surprisingly good (and along with the
solo-Beatles-made 'Ringo' on which George worked hardest and the under-rated
'Stop and Smell The Roses' provides the only song of Ringo's any Beatles fan
would ever really need).
W
don't even get the 'right' songs here. No Beatles fan in their right mind would
possibly claim that 'For You Blue' and 'Think For Yourself' were better songs
than the majestic 'Long Long Long' or the powerful 'Love You To' or even the
sweet and innocent pair of songs from 'Help!', although given the seemingly
random way this set was put together I'm simply pleased that the gormless
'Piggies' isn't here. As for the solo songs, fan favourites 'All Things Must
Pass' 'Isn't It A Pity?' 'Wah-Wah' and 'Beware Of Darkness' were all passed
over in favour of 'You', the unloved we-need-a-single-in-a-hurry-George flop
from 'Extra Texture'. Even as a 'singles' collection this set fails, missing
out on the new year's single 'Ding Dong Ding Dong' from 1974 and the bland
'This Guitar Can't Keep From Crying' from 1975 (the former of which actually
outperformed both 'Dark Horse' and 'You' on first release). And why not appeal
to collectors by featuring the hard-to-find B-sides (while perhaps only 'Deep
Blue' is worth the re-issue I'd rather hear flipping 'Miss O'Dell' and 'I Don't
Care Anymore' than the irritating 'You' again!) A talent of George's stature
deserved better, however low his stock had fallen by 1976 - even though there
were just four studio albums to choose from at this time and many of Harrison's
biggest hits still to come in the 1980s, one of them was a triple record for
heaven's sake - there's easily a better 40 minute compilation amongst them than
this! Sadly George seems rather cursed by compilations though - to date he's
only ever had three and all of them are flawed, though at least the other two
were made with more love and care than this. The best of George Harrison? More
like the worst! Shameful!
The
Traveling Wilburys "Volume One"
(Wilbury Records/Warner Brothers,
Oct0ber 1988)
Handle With Care/Dirty
World/Rattled/Last Night/Not Alone Anymore//Congratulations/ Heading For The
Light/Margarita/Tweeter And The Monkey Man/End Of The Line
"Reputation's
changeable, situation's tolerable - but baby you're adorable!"
Of
all the four Beatles George seemed the most relieved to be out on his own and
away from the stigma of being in a 'band'. While Paul had Wings, John had the
variable Plastic Ono Band and Ringo had his All-Starrs, George seemed content
to stand on his own two feet, surrounded by a vast of friends who usually ended
up playing on all his albums anyway. However, he still missed the camaraderie
of a lifetime's musical experiences shared (though rightfully painted as the
less rose-tinted member of The Beatles during the 'Anthology' interviews, a lot
of affection for people in general if not Beatle-people in particular still
shins through George's words, most notably in the early years) and his regular
crowd of musicians were slowly dying or drifting off. The Traveling Wilburys
was the perfect solution - a group of friends who had careers of their own
already and weren't going to 'leech' off George's talents who had also been
round the block enough to know that there was more to life than making music
(fun for one thing!) and George delighted in the anonymity the band gave him,
eagerly creating new monikers for the band (he's credited as Nelson Wilbury for
this album). George tried hard to make the band a democracy and to some extent
it worked - all five members (Dylan, Lynne, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and himself)
all got to try out lead vocals on each song oblivious of who wrote it (and no
individual credits were given on the sleeve either to keep the guessing game
going!) and the band all voted on who thought were best. However, with Dylan in
another creative slump and George currently 'favoured Beatle of the decade' the
main calls inevitably fell to him and it speaks volumes that it was George who
brought the band together.
The
story goes that Warner Brothers felt that the first two singles from 'Cloud
Nine' had sold well enough to warrant an unexpected third and asked George for
a new B-side. With nothing left in the vaults (or so he thought - see all sorts
of compilations in this book to come...George and producer Jeff Lynne decided
to write a song on the spot and named it 'Handle Me With Care' after the label
seen on a box in George's garage (Groeg, who had only recently appeared on The
Simpsons, may have been thinking about the Beatles-inspired episode he cameod
in 'Homer's Barbershop Quartet' where the 'Be-Sharps' have to write a song in a
hurry and see the sign on a car 'Baby's On Board', which becomes the name of
their first 'hit'! David Crosby's in the episode too by the way, making it a
must-see for all AAA readers!) Wanting
to hear a particular sound, George remembered that he'd leant a guitar to his
pal Bob Dylan and went over to get it, intending to ask him to the sessions.
Dylan happened to have a house guest that day, Tom Petty, and he got roped into
the session too. Recording the song in a hurry George submitted it to Warner
Brothers and expected to hear nothing more about it. Instead they flipped,
telling George that he had something too good to be thrown away on a B-side and
noting the cast of characters sent in as 'session musicians' asked George to
consider making more songs with them (In the end album track 'Breath Away From Heaven' was used instead and the single flopped anyway!)
The
band had never been intended as
long-term thing, which is why in the end they only made two albums, but
the quartet took things seriously enough to realise that with four voices in
varying stages of fading they needed a full-time singer and quickly settled on
Roy Orbison, a mutual friend of most of them who was eager to join in. I've
always been intrigued by tales of who else might have been in the band - other
names banded about include Byrd Roger McGuinn (apparently genuinely considered
as Roy's replacement for the next record), Billy Preston and even Ringo, though
the band wanted to stick to guitarists. The sessions for the album were a lot
of fun and after years of struggling to write solo albums that had been pulling
teeth for George came together amazingly quickly and easily. The DVD that came
with the re-issue of both albums in 2010 features a great deal of home video
material (some of it shot by George and Olivia) of the first writing sessions
and demos and the band are as at ease with each other as you'd imagine, with
even Tom Petty (the member who had less friends in the band than the others)
free of nerves and even Bob Dylan eagerly throwing ideas into the mix. If one
of the band was stuck for a rhyme they'd merely ask the others at a big writing
session, going through several ideas (and getting too many good ideas to waste
sometimes, which is what happened with the lengthy fadeout to 'Dirty World').
Officially
there were no individually written songs and to this day there are no official
writing credits. However it seems fair to say that each of the band got two
songs each and while the band started off auditioning vocalists generally
speaking each member sang the songs they'd started before the writing sessions.
George gets to sing lead on 'Handle Me With care' naturally enough, a sweet and
catchy song that's either simple or profound depending on how deeply you want
to read it and the much more fascinating 'Heading For The Light'. Though mired
by a horrid Lyne production of squealing saxophones, heavy-handed drumming and
1980s synths, it's arguably the best and deepest song on the album, a better
take on writing about religion in modern metaphors than anything on 'Cloud
Nine' and returning to the 'am I worthy?' dilemma of 'Gone Troppo'. George
admits to being 'close to the edge hanging by my fingernails' and finding
himself sitting amongst the 'roses and thorns', wondering which he really is
(another song about duality that'll really come into its own on 'Brainwashed').
However, in keeping with the happy mood of the occasion, the song is treated as
a spiritual song of acceptance, the narrator not so much wondering if he'll
ever make the light as heading for it all the same despite his doubts.
Elsewhere Roy gets to croon along to the typical big ballad 'You're Not Alone
Anymore', Dylan addresses his demons in 'Tweeter and the Monkeyman' whilst
airing his sarcastic side on 'Congratulations' (with the world's worst singing
backed by the world's best choir!), Jeff Lynne returns to his rock and roll
roots with 'Last Night', Tom Petty throws in a curveball with 'Marguerita' and
the band write 'Dirty World' and 'End Of The Line' pretty much by committee.
How
much you like this record will depend on how much you want to take from it.
Given the names being banded about before the sessions many fans admitted to
being disappointed at first, with the songs predominantly light and frivolous
and returning to a retro 1950s sound rather than their current styles or
anything new. Only 'Heading For The Light' and at a push 'You're Not Alone
Anymore' and 'Monkeyman' even try to pretend to be anything other than silly
songs, with the record in danger of turning into a collection of B-sides. Many
called this first volume the album that got away - the equivalent of getting
Michaelangelo, Rapheal, Da Vinci and Turner (the only one who wasn't a mutant
ninja teenage turtle) to come together to paint...someone's kitchen ceiling!
However there's another vocal group of fans, who've grown in number down the
years, who consider this the best album George made after 'All Things Must pass',
oblivious of how little he appears to be on it. George sounds at his happiest
and most contented at last and it's fun to hear him letting off steam
surrounded by friends rather than having the weight of his world on his
shoulders. While I'd have much preferred another 'All Things Must pass' and
would have settled for a 'George Harrison' or 'Somewhere In England' this album
is the next best thing and has certainly aged better than the surprisingly
popular monstrosity of 'Cloud Nine'.
'The best you can do is forgive' runs almost the last lyric on the album
- good advice, as this album may not be as great a must-have as some of its
fans will have it but it solved several problems at once (following up a major
album quickly when George was all ready to hibernate again) and extended
George's creative live by another few years, giving him and his friends fun at
the same time. A 'filler' record, then, but a worthy one. After all, what other
album gives you the chance to hear Roy, one of the greatest vocals of the past
fifty years, trying not to giggle on the line 'love your trembling Wilrbury'?!
"The
Best Of The Dark Horse Years 1976-1989"
(Dark Horse/Warner Brothers, October
1989)
Poor Little Girl/Blow Away/That's The
Way It Goes/Cockamamie Business/Wake Up My Love/Life Itself/Got My Mind Set On
You//Crackerbox Palace/Cloud Nine/Here Comes The Moon/Gone Troppo/When We Was
Fab/Love Comes To Everyone/All Those Years Ago/Cheer Down
"The
microscopes magnified the tears, studied warts and all, still the life flowed
on and on, long time ago when we was fab"
Believe
it or not the best of the three George Harrison best-ofs on the market is the
one that was forced to cover just his lesser-known era between 1976 and 1987.
'The Best Of The Dark Horse Years' is, like 'The Best Of George Harrison', seemingly
picked at random with several major songs missing (''My Dark Sweet Lady' 'You
Are The One' 'Dream Away' and 'Just For Today' to name just a few) and doesn't
even include a full quota of singles (with 'Faster' and 'Teardrops' both
missing). However being released in the CD era means that there are more tracks
to play around with, George's input means that he's added a few of his better
songs that the whizzkids at the record company would no doubt have missed
(including the two triumphs of 'Gone Troppo' - 'Wake Up My Love' and 'That's
The Way It Goes') and with this compilation spanning five comparatively lesser
known albums (apart from 'Cloud Nine') there's more reason for fans to want to
own this than its predecessor. Fans were particularly drawn to this set by the
presence of three rarities, though none come close to the best things on the
set: 'Cheer Down', a Jeff Lynne Wilburys-style co-write bizarrely given away to
the soundtrack of the shoot-em-up film 'Lethal Weapon Two' where it sounded hideously
out of place, the Tom Petty co-written B-side 'Poor Little Girl', which is
annoyingly bright and cheerful and typically empty B-side material and the solo
'Cockamamie Business', a 'Cloud Nine' outtake that features George's cynical
side to the fore, sounding like 'Blood From A Clone' without the wit. However
more could have been added: the four songs left over from the first 'Somewhere
In England' for instance would have fitted here nicely, never mind all the
extra-curricular material included on the movie soundtracks of various Handmade
films like 'Shanghai Surprise' and 'Water'. Still, nestled away amongst such
gems as 'Here Comes The Moon' 'Blow Away' 'Life Itself' and 'Crackerbox
Palace' (all first-class choices to go
alongside the hits) even these sound more palatable than when you hear them
alone. sadly this album is long out of print and one of George's rarest albums
at the time of writing, the compilers of 'The Dark Horse Years' missing a trick
by not including these songs somewhere on that lavish set. The packaging could
be better (George looks more like Prince thanks to the blue-tonged album
sleeve, but there's more to cheer up for than cheer down.
(Wilbury Records/Warner Brothers,
October 1990)
She's My Baby/Inside Out/If You
Belonged To Me/The Devil's Been Busy/Seven Deadly Sins// Poor House/Where Were
You Last Night?/Cool Dry Place/New Blue Moon/You Took My Breath Away/Wilbury
Twist
"Better
not forget it on your shopping list - everybody's doing it, it's the wilbury
twist!"
Like
many good jokes, The Traveling Wilburys experiment sounds less funny the second
time around (and yes this is the second time around despite being titled
'Volume Three' - you haven't fallen asleep and missed a record - it's just that
a bootleg recording full of demos from the first album leaked on bootleg named
'Volume Two' and George was tickled enough to insist on this record being named
'Volume Three' in 'homage'!) There are several reasons for this: the loss of Roy
Orbison who died suddenly of a heart attack in December 1988 at the age of just
52 hit the band hard, robbing them of one fifth of their band and taking a lot
of the free-wheeling laughter along with him. The band talked about replacing
him (with Dylan and Harrison pal Roger McGuinn of The Byrds coming closest, as
we've seen) but the band decided to stay as a quartet instead (Roy's given a
sad signing off with the promo for 'End Of The Line' filmed the month after he
died and featuring an empty rocking chair where Roy's verse should be - it's a
typically subtle and moving reference for a band that just weren't built to
handle tough times like this). The second reason is that George, especially,
sounds distracted - while he sings a few odd verses here and the lines between
who wrote and sang what get even more blurred, without any distinctive Harrison
songs - just Harrison moments attached to what's mainly an album by Dylan and
Petty. As a result the last studio album released in George's own lifetime
barely features him at all and sounds awfully lopsided. Worse yet, the band
ruin the 'theme' of the last album by appearing on the cover - and not in
silhouette either but with a 'proper' group shot, albeit tinted sepia and
placed off centre (though thankfully the band still keep their witty nom de
plumes for this record: this time around George is 'Spike Wilbury'). 'Volume
Three' was considered dead in the water before it even arrived in shops and
sold a mere fraction of what the first album had done. Although the band talked
often about getting back together again, one or other of the band always seemed
to have some project on the boil and George's death in 2001 effectively put an
end to the group for good (the closest reunion being 'The Concert For George'
where Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty reunite in their old friend's honour, Dylan
being conspicuous by his absence).
The
official verdict then is that this for a long time rarest of modern Harrison
releases wasn't worth forking out the hundreds of pounds it cost at one stage.
It's certainly less funny and enjoyable than the first album, with a solemn
mood that even the daft dance song at the end of the album can't shake off,
without any of those serious moments being quite as excellent as 'Heading For
The Light' or even 'Tweeter and the Monkey Man'. However this record is far
from an unmitigated disaster with little nuggets of gold sprinkled across most
of the songs, even if none of the songs themselves are up to the first album. Noisy
opener 'She's My Baby' straight away blows apart the one negative point raised
about the first album - that it didn't rock - with a stormingly angry guitar
part from Petty and neat 50s retro backing vocals that are great fun. 'Inside
Out' is about the best song on the album, with Dylan almost singing in tune on
a song about how different the world feels when something major happens (like
Roy's death) with a sweet lyrical nod of the head to 'Twist and Shout' and
lashings of Harrison slide guitar. 'The Devil's Been Busy' is the track that sounds
'most' like a Harrison song, complete with 'sitar-style guitar and lyrics that
recall 'The Devil's Radio' although not quite as good, with Petty, Lynne and
Harrison all sharing out the vocals. 'Poor House' is a fun return to skiffle
between Petty and Lynne with George finger-picking in style. George and Jeff
sound good together on the rather basic 'Where Were You Last Night?' Petty's
solo 'Cool Dry Place', sounding as if it was very much modelled on the similar
instructions on 'Handle Me With Care', is a fair sequel and about the funniest
song on the album. Lynne's 'You Took My Breath Away' sounds like ELO with
George Harrison on guitar - and a better fit than that sentence makes it sound.
Finally, the quick-stepping 'Wilbury Twist's Monty Python style lyrics ('Put your teeth in the glass!') suggests
George had a hand in there somewhere and really rocks, thanks mainly to **Jim
Gordon's fierce drumming. Only the unlistenable 'Seven Deadly Sins' (I take it
back what I said about 'Congratulations' - this is Dylan's worst vocal!) and
the oddly unexciting trot through 50s pastiches on 'Blue Moon' (George's worst
vocal? Ironically Dylan sounds pretty good on this one and steals the song with
his 'wa-ha woo-hoo-you's) are really as bad as this record's reputation
suggests. After all, the Wilburys had to try for a second album or they'd have
been nagged into doing another one for the rest of their careers, even though
doing the record a second time meant that it fell into more of a formulaic
pattern - the lack of which was precisely what made the first volume such a
strong record in the first place.
"Live
In Japan"
(Dark Horse/Warner Brothers, Recorded
December 1991, Released July 1992)
I Want To Tell You/Old Brown
Shoe/Taxman/Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)/If I Needed
Someone/Something/What Is Life?/Dark Horse/Piggies/Got My Mind Set On
You//Cloud Nine/Here Comes The Sun/My Sweet Lord/All Those Years Ago/Cheer
Down/Devil's Radio/Isn't It A Pity?/While My Guitar Gently Weeps/Roll Over
Beethoven
"I
don't know how someone controlled you,
they bought and sold you"
Oh
dear. There are only two live albums of George's out there and they couldn't be
more different: whereas 'Bangle Desh' is often a little too raw and rough for
its own good (with the band more concerned with good causes than what they
sounded like, with only two performances to choose from) 'Live In Japan'
suffers from the other extreme - performances that are horrendously slick and lifeless
and though taken from a whole tour might as well have been taped on the first
day and the engineer sent home because the performances didn't change one iota
from one day to the next. With memories of the bitter 1974 'Dark Hoarse' tour
still ringing in his ears, George wisely stayed away from the European/American
spotlight and decided to tour in the sixties-friendly and most importantly less
critical country of Japan, 'borrowing' Eric Clapton and his current band in
order to avoid many pain-staking rehearsals. If that sounds a bit harsh on
Clapton then the tour was actually his idea and he was willing to do anything
to get George out in front of the public again, hoping that seeing an audience
loving his songs would do wonders for him the way that Wings' mega-mid 1970s
tours had done wonders for Paul. Unfortunately it was a bit of mis-calculation:
while Paul thrived on the adulation, George merely sulked and wondered what all
the fuss was about, turning out note perfect renditions of a sadly predictable
set list (most interesting for the sheer number of Beatle tracks that had never
been played live before, like 'If I Needed Someone' 'Taxman' and even
'Piggies', though none sound particularly good and 'Piggies' actually sounds
worse!) that was as lifeless as a tribute act. There are no risks taken with
this concert, no soaring guitar solos (except for 'Weeps', played by Clapton),
no talking to the crowd (even the bootlegs don't feature any - its not as if it
was cut from the record), no enthusiasm of any kind. George really sounds as if
he doesn't want to be there and wants to go home as quickly as possible and its
notable that he never tried the experiment again, despite plans to take the
tour on to at least Britain.
There
are, though, at least one or two surprises that almost make this album
worthwhile, all of them songs we never expected George ever to play on stage
again: Beatles B-side 'Old Brown Shoe' (it's on the back of 'The Ballad Of John
and Yoko') is born for the concert stage and while it sounds 'wrong' being
played in tune with most of the rough edges smoothed out there at least a
tension in the song that brings out some belated emotion in Harrison's voice.
'I Want To Tell You', while largely plodding, features some fascinating lyrical
changes first added to the 'I Me Mine' book of lyrics published in 1980 where
an older George corrects his younger 23-year-old's ideas about ego and the
connection between brain and soul and action he's better learnt from his
religious friends and books ('And if I seem to act unkind, it isn't me, it's
just my mind that is confusing things'). 'Dark Horse' is a fun song to hear
again and sounds better than most thanks to a less cluttered backing. The
'Cloud Nine' tracks too are slightly more palatable without so much 1980s
production, although they still don't sound particularly good (and 'Got My Mind
Set On You' sounds a lot worse!) The rest, though, sound tired and strained and
far far too slick and polished, not the way we want to remember 'our' George at
all. Perhaps sensibly, Harrison decided to release this record as quietly as
possible and very few Beatles fans even knew it was out (except in Japan of
course, where it sold well) and the re-issue after George's death was the first
chance that many fans had to hear it. Most wishes they hadn't bothered,
although there's a certain retrospective poignancy to some of the songs like
'All Those Years Ago' and 'Isn't It A Pity?' sung on what was to become the
last official Harrison album of new material before his death.
(Warner Brothers, Recorded November
2002, Released November 2003)
Sarve Shaam (Tape)/Your Eyes (Anoushka
and Ravi Shankar)/The Inner Light (Jeff Lynne Anouska Shankar and Dhani
Harrison)/Arpan (Anoushka Shankar)//I Want To Tell You (Jeff Lynne)/If I Needed
Someone (Eric Clapton)/Old Brown Shoe (Gary Brooker)/Give Me Love (Give Me Peace
On Earth) (Jeff Lynne)/Beware Of Darkness (Eric Clapton)/Here Comes The Sun
(Joe Brown)/That's The Way It Goes (Joe Brown)/Taxman (Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers)/I Need You (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)/Handle Me With Care
(Tom Petty Jeff Lynne and Dhani Harrison)/Isn't It A Pity? (Billy
Preston)/Photograph (Ringo)/Honey Don't (Ringo)/For You, Blue (Paul
McCartney)/Something (Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton)/All Things Must Pass
(Paul McCartney)/While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Paul McCartney and Eric
Clapton)/My Sweet Lord (Billy Preston)/Wah-Wah (Eric Clapton)/I'll See You In
My Dreams (Joe Brown)
"In
a screaming ring of faces...the big wheel keeps on turning"
The
first time two Beatles had shared the same stage since, fittingly enough, 'The
Concert For Bangla Desh', 'A Concert For George' is a moving experience all
round. Planned by son Dhani and widow Olivia for the yearly anniversary of
George's passing (an important date in the spiritual world), this concert from
2002 invited as many friends of George's as possible to come and pay homage to
his memory. It's a testament to how much affection there was for George that so
many big named stars (and smaller stars) said yes immediately, dropping
everything to come and pay homage. This concert could have been awful: slickly
sentimental, full of gushing tributes and focussing on just George's rock
contributions instead of reflecting his many varied interests and hobbies.
Instead its marvellous, with the closest to a gushing tribute coming from Monty
Python Michael Palin, who interrupts his tongue-tying eulogy to pay homage to
George the only way he knows how: by acting silly and becoming a lumberjack.
You
can almost hear the guffaws from the next realm, as well as the tears when
friend after friend after friend make their way to the stage to say goodbye:
Ravi Shankar (who composes a new song especially for his friend), son Dhani
(who along with Ravi's daughter Anoushka performs a sublime version of 'The
Inner Light') Eric Clapton (who is on stunning form throughout the gig,
performing a gorgeous 'Beware Of darkness' that brings the house down), Billy
Preston (who reclaims 'My Sweet Lord' as his own and whose performance is
especially poignant given his own sad untimely death not long after this show),
Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty (who 'borrow' Dhani to re-create as much as they can
of The Traveling Wilburys), Ringo (who announces 'Photograph' with a grin on
his face before the moment hits him and he almost whispers the meaning's
changed now of course!') and finally Paul, whose invited on stage not as 'a
fellow Beatle' or a 'fellow musician' but as 'a best friend of George's'. And
so he is, with all those bitter last years with The Beatles now fully
dissolved, as Paul struggles to keep the tears back through a gorgeous ukelele
re-arrangement of 'Something' (one he kept in his regular setlists the year
after this), a fun 'For You Blue' and a stunning 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'
which cross-fades back to Eric Clapton in time for the mother of all solos,
before George's boyhood hero, skiffle star Joe Brown, closes the show with one
of George's favourite songs. There's barely a dry eye in the house from the
beginning - but this isn't a show about sadness but celebration, with George given
as fitting a send-off as he could ever have wished for. Only the absence of Bob
Dylan (the only major Harrison colleague not here) or anyone from the F1 world
or gardening worlds (George's other major hobbies) is a shame, but far more
people appeared than anyone was expecting when this gig was first announced,
showcasing all the many sides of George's split Piscean personality. He'd have
been well chuffed had he been around to see it, with moving performances all
round. This should be the template for all memorials: lots of warm hugs all
round, lots of jovial banter, lots of heartfelt tears, heaps of precious
memories and an awful lot of love in the room. Goodbye George, you're still
sorely missed.
(Dark Horse/Warner Brothers, **2004)
CD One: '33 and 1/3rd' with bonus track
Tears Of The World
CD Two: 'George Harrison' with bonus
track 'Here Comes The Moon' (Demo)
CD Three: 'Somewhere In England' with
bonus track ('Save The World' (Demo)
CD Four: 'Gone Troppo' with bonus track
Mystical One (Demo)
CD Five: 'Cloud Nine' with bonus tracks
Shanghai Surprise/ZigZag
CDs Six and Seven: 'Live In Japan'
DVD Eight: Music Videos, documentary
and extracts from 'Live In Japan'
"All
its got to take is someone to make it blow away blow away blow away!"
When
John Lennon died and left Yoko nominally in charge of his back catalogue fans
were fearful - were they going to be inundated with dozens of releases each
year with teasing snippets of unreleased John or was his catalogue going to be
ignored, with each release harder and harder to get? In the end we needn't have
worried - Yoko has been an expert caretaker of her late husband's work and
pretty much got everything right, with updates every few years and box sets and
single CDs of rarities - not to mention the radio series 'Lost Lennon Tapes'
jampacked with unreleased oddities. Most of the releases have been made with
care and always with a lot of love. A similar frisson went through fans when
George's albums - famously even more protective of his past releases - passed
over to Olivia, but again worries have been unfounded. To date Olivia has made
all of George's releases easier to find without shoving them down our throats
or releasing them endlessly, with re-issues for all of George's albums now back
in the shops, although none of them were rushed - indeed it took a full
thirteen years after his untimely death for fans to be able to get hold of
everything (at the time he died most of George's CDs were still from the late
1980s, with only his overseen 'All Things Must Pass' back out just before his
death in the year 2000, with 'Living In The Material World' worked on but held
back until 2003).
'The
Dark Horse Years' is the first of these post-George releases and is an epic box
set containing everything George recorded and released on Dark Horse between
1976 and 1992 (with only the posthumous 'Brainwashed' missing), all of which
had become increasingly rare with the exception of the ever-selling 'Cloud
Nine'. The choice might perhaps be a telling one: while George's Apple albums
sold better, his move to Warner Brothers and his own record label more or less
coincided with him meeting Olivia, with this set including all the songs he
wrote for her, although you could argue too that they also happened to be the
rarer albums fans wanted to hear again. All the albums were re-mastered with
generally superior sound (if never quite as full as on the 2000 re-issue of
'All Things Must Pass') and with some sumptuous packaging. There were even a
few bonus tracks for collectors, sweet sparse demos for 'Here Comes The Moon'
(lovely!) 'Save The World' (odd!) and 'Mystical One' (nice!), plus one rogue
track booted off the original 'Somewhere In England' ('Tears Of The World',
oddly added to the anachronistic '33 and 1/3rd) and two forgettable tracks
written for the soundtrack of Handmade Film 'Shanghai Surprise'. All are nice
to have and are certainly far more interesting than simply re-issuing the
albums straight, although it has to be said that there's a lot more of interest
in the vaults than this (the three other songs intended for 'Somewhere In
England' alone would have turned a so-so album into a really strong disc, while
there are a handful of other Handmade Film scores that deserve to be here more
than 'Shanghai', never mind additional demos and outtakes - though not quite as
prolific as Lennon or McCartney when it came to this sort of thing there's
quite a bit that could be added to all the studio discs). The same story goes
for the DVD: the documentary is excellent, especially the shots of George at
home in Friar Park, but it's terribly short and while the music videos are nice
to have they're far from complete ('Blow Away' shot in Friar Park's massive
garden and Lennon tribute 'All Those Years Ago' are all missing, though the
videos used here are great: the madcap 'Crackerbox Palace' also shot in Friar
Park, the hilarious courtroom banter of 'This Song' written in response to the
'My Sweet Lord' 'plagiarism' case, 'Faster' with George using F1 champion
Jackie Stewart as his chauffeur for the day and the mind-numbing computer
graphics of fellow AAA star 10cc's Kevin Godley's video for 'When We Was Fab'!)
Overall then: very very good, with some old friends much easier to find and a
few new additions to fall in love with all over again - but it could have been
better still.
(**, 2007)
CD One: Volume One plus Maxine/Like A
Ship
CD Two: A DVD featuring music videos
and documentary featuring home footage
CD Three: Volume Three plus Nobody's
Child/Runaway
You always said that you'd be back again"
Record
company hang-ups meant that the collaborations between The Traveling Wilburys
could never be re-issued and despite released o George's own Dark Horse label
his hands were largely tied in his own lifetime - how sad that a project born
of true democracy and partnership should stumble over the old problems of money
and percentages. However in the years since George's death positions have
altered to the extent where everyone's favourite archive re-issue experts Rhino
could finally secure the rights and finally, some seventeen years after the
release of 'Volume Three' fans could hear both records again. Overseen by
Olivia, with input from most of the surviving members of the band (though Dylan
once again kept his distance), the records were nicely packaged and came with a
couple of bonus tracks apiece. Sadly all of them had been previously released
on B-sides or in the case of 'Nobody's Child' on a Various Artists set made to
raise money for the homeless, but all of them were hard to find by 2007 and
more than welcome inclusions here (the most interesting for Harrison fans is
'Maxine', a sweet sea shanty-come-folk song with a great vocal from George and
less overdubs than most of the Wilbury's work'; each of these four songs are
reviewed more fully elsewhere in this book). Olivia also built up a DVD
featuring modern reminisces by Lynne and Petty alongside fascinating home movie
footage she and George shot of the quintet at work writing and recording, none
of which had ever been seen before or leaked on bootleg and was worth the price
of admission alone (this disc also became the missing 'Volume Two', as if
George had always planned it that way!) Like the other Harrison box sets it's a
shame that more couldn't be found in the vaults (there are some fascinating
Wilburys works-in-progress that exist on bootleg and George was taping
everything by the 1980s so Olivia had access to a whole lot more), but what is
here is very good indeed and finally filled a space on our Beatles shelves we
feared might never be complete.
"Let
It Roll - The Songs Of George Harrison"
(Apple/Dark Horse/Parlophone/Warner
Brothers, June 2009)
Got My Mind Set On You/Give Me Love
(Give Me Peace On Earth)/The Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)/My Sweet
Lord/While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Live Bangladesh Version)/All Things Must
Pass/Any Road/This Is Love/All Those Years Ago/Marwa Blues/What Is Life?/Rising
Sun/When We Was Fab/Something (Live Bangla Desh Version)/Blow Away/Cheer
Down/Here Comes The Sun (Live Bangla Desh Version)/I Don't Want To Do It/Isn't
It A Pity?
"Oh
Lord we pay the price, with a spin of the wheel, with a roll of the dice and
yeah you pay you fare - though if you don't know where you're going any road will
take you there!"
George
was desperately in need of a full career overhaul, after two restrictive sets
based around the Apple and Dark Horse years and Olivia was once again in charge
of this compilation. However what should have been a welcome chance to re-issue
the true best of George's work that fans wouldn't automatically know alongside
the hits ('Beware Of Darkness' 'Dark Horse' 'Here Comes The Moon' 'Your Love Is
Forever' 'Wake Up My Love' 'That's The Way It Goes' and 'Just For Today') fell
down thanks to a highly uninteresting track selection. True, 'All Things Must
Pass' is fleshed out by more than just the hit singles which is highly welcome
('Let It Roll' 'All Things Must Pass' and 'Isn't It A Pity?') with bonus points
for choosing two of the four best songs from the posthumous 'Brainwashed' ('Any
Road' and 'Marwa Blues', although its a shame there wasn't space for 'Stuck
Inside A Cloud' and 'Brainwashed' itself). However the rest of the CD is
something of a waste: 'Blow Away' and 'All Those Years Ago' are the only songs
here from the unfairly 'forgotten' years of 1976-1983 which is a tragedy and
equally there's nothing here from Apple past 'Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On
Earth). Hit singles like 'Bangla Desh' (still fairly rare on CD), 'You' 'This Guitar
Can't Keep From Crying' 'This Song' and 'Faster' are all missing too.
That
wouldn't matter if the CD was full to bursting with other decent songs - but it
isn't, even taking the unnecessary approach of 'The Best Of George Harrison' by
including recordings of three Beatles songs (albeit in live performances from
'Bangla Desh'. There's even the mean-to-collectors approach of including just
one unreleased rarity - a deeply uninteresting cover of a Dylan song named 'I
Don't Want To Do It', which might be the single most interesting
previously-unreleased Harrison outtake then doing the rounds on bootleg. Even
the packaging isn't as good as it ought to be - while the booklet is nice and
big and glossy there aren't too many of the 'unseen photographs' promised on
the front cover and the wordy essay (yes I know, talk about pot calling kettle
black!) By Warren Zines doesn't tell you much except how great George was
(which we fans kind of knew already - and any fans coming to this set will have
learnt as soon as they played the disc!) I hope that in years to come perhaps
when George's albums (all re-issued now over the past fifteen years or so)
become a bit rarer, there'll be a fourth go at a George Harrison best-of which
will finally gets things right, perhaps a two-disc set split between the Apple
and Dark Horse years (perhaps with a bit of Traveling Wilburys thrown in). All
that said, though, this disc does at least give some insight into the wonderful
world of George Harrison and is already a popular set with many a fan converted
to The Beatles by the release of the contemporary 'Rock Band' game and who
don't perhaps understand that this isn't quite the cream of his solo
collection, more like the yoghurt. Which just goes to show that if you have a
talent as strong as George's and want to discover him, then any road and any
compilation will take you there.
(**, **2012)
My Sweet Lord/Run Of The Mill/I'd Have
You Any Time/Mama You've Been On My Mind/Let It Be Me/Woman Don't You Cry For
Me/Awaiting On You All/Behind That Locked Door/All Things Must Pass/The Light
That Has Lighted The World
"I've
heard how some people have said that I've changed, that I'm not what I was, how
it really is a shame"
Originally
planned with great fanfare, as the first part of a Lennon-style re-issue series
that sadly seems to have stalled after the first release, to tie in with the
Martin Scorcese film of the same name, both products suffer from the same
problem. Both assume that George is a household name as a solo figure as well
as a member of The Beatles which isn't strictly true. They've also assumed that
fans will be keen enough on the realms and realms of unreleased footage
(musical and video) that they'll put up with the fact that both projects need a
good editor and trimming back to half their lengths - which is partly true,
given the mixed review for both. However whereas the film version of 'Living In
The Material World' is an epic, made with a lot of love and an awful lot of
detail, this 'soundtrack' set merely has the detail. There are some stunning outtakes
in the Harrison collection - like this album mainly from the 'All Things Must
Pass' sessions - but not many of them are here on this short-running
thirty-minute collection, perhaps because so many were being kept back for
'Volume Two' et sequence.
There
are highlights of course: a rough and very early 'My Sweet Lord' that sounds
more like the Billy Preston arrangement with Klaus Voormann and Ringo in tow, a
great guide vocal-with-Ringo-drums version of 'All Things Must Pass' that's
almost as sad and spooky as the finished version, another demo for Spector with
'Run Of The Mill' (which alas sounds more like the finished product than the
similar demos added to the end of the 'All Things Must Pass' CD) and a funky
acoustic guitar rendering of 'Woman Don't You Cry Fro Me' that sounds closer to
country than boogie rock thanks to some overdubbed jew's harp. All are well
worth releasing and should perhaps have come out on, respectively, 'All Things
Must Pass' and '33 and a 1/3rd' instead of, say, 'My Sweet Lord 2000' or the
out of place 'Tears Of The World'. However the rest of the set is pretty
woeful: rehearsal covers of blues wail 'Mama You've Been On My Mind' and The
Everly Brothers' 'Let It Be Me', both of which are clearly never made for
anyone else's hearing and merely show up the cracks in George's voice. 'I'd
Have You Anytime' is allegedly a different take but sounds more like a
different mix to me, with the minutest of differences to the finished product.
A clumsy 'Awaiting On You All' actually puts me off the song - there's less
point to this track without the crunch of the horns, the arrangement now
putting emphasis on George's grumpy 'Material World' style religious lyrics. A
country demo for 'Behind That Locked Door' proves that George really didn't
'get' country until Pete Drake's overdubbed pedal steel helped him out on the
record. And finally, 'The Light That Has Lighted The World' is different but
not better, turning an overblown smug song with choirs and horns into an
undercooked smug song with just a guitar. George's memory, so well catered for
thanks to the Dark Horse box set, the Traveling Wilburys set and especially 'A
Concert For George' is started to look tainted, with one archive re-issue too
far. However I still long for a second volume - partly so it can correct the
faults of the first but mainly because there's a whole heap of unreleased
Harrisongs and Harrirecordings that deserve release more than this.
(Apple, ** 2014)
CD One: 'Wonderwall Music' with bonus
tracks In The First Place (The Remo Four)/Almost Shankara/The Inner Light
(Instrumental Alternate Take)
CD Two: 'Electronic Sound'
CDs Three and Four: 'All Things Must
Pass' with bonus tracks I Live For You/Beware Of darkness (Demo)/Let It Down
(Demo)/What Is Life? (Alternate Mix)/My Sweet Lord 2000
CD Five: 'Living In The Material World'
with bonus tracks Deep Blue/Miss O'Dell/Bangla Desh
CD Six: 'Dark Horse' with bonus tracks
I Don't Care Anymore/Dark Horse (Early Take)
CD Seven: 'Extra Texture (Read All
About It)' with bonus track This Guitar Can't Keep From Crying ('Weird'
Version)
DVD Eight: Features documentary, music
videos and 'Concert For Bangla Desh'
"Let
me say it, let me play it, let me lay it on you. let me know you, let me show
you, let me grow upon you...Though I'm glad to have you in my arms, I'd have
you anytime"
Box
set number two is somehow less essential than the first, despite containing the
better selling albums. None of these records had quite fallen off the catalogue
the way that the Dark Horse records had (only 'Extra Texture', perhaps the one
Harrison album that deserved to be left in limbo) and both 'All Things Must
Pass' and 'Material World' had been re-issued with much fanfare not that long
before. The price range too is shocking for a set that contains just five
unreleased recordings (three of them featuring George and taken from the
'Wonderwall' soundtrack, with another track a remix - though the early take of
'Dark Horse' with just a better-sounding George and an acoustic guitar a real
delight and a highlight of the set as a whole, oblivious of rarity value) and
one shoddily made DVD (which features extracts from the 'Bangla Desh' benefit
show readily available on DVD complete by 2014, another short documentary and
'retrospective' promo videos' for various re-issues of 'My Sweet Lord'). There
is at least the chance to hear the increasingly rare 'Wonderwall' and
'Electronic Sound' again, now promoted to the frontline of Harrison albums once
more. However, while this set does upset the Apple (shopping) cart there is
still much to admire here, with some nice packaging on the CDs themselves and a
better booklet than the ones that appeared with 'Let It Roll' or 'The Dark
Horse Years'. and any chance to hear under-rated albums like 'Wonderwall'
'Material World' and 'Dark Horse' plus the always-a-classic 'All Things Must
Pass' is always welcome. I just wish this set had been modelled more for curious
newcomer Beatle fans, who can't afford to spend quite as much, rather than
appealing to rich completist Beatle fans yet again.
A NOW COMPLETE LIST OF GEORGE HARRISON ARTICLES TO READ AT
ALAN’S ALBUM ARCHIVES:
'Wonderwall Music' (1968) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/george-harrison-wonderwall-music-1968.html
'All Things Must Pass' (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-42-george-harrison-all-things.html
'Living In The Material World' (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/news-views-and-music-issue-58-george.html
'Dark Horse' (1974) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/news-views-and-music-issue-127-george.html
'Extra
Texture (Read All About It)' (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/george-harrison-extra-texture-read-all.html
'Thirty-Three
And A Third' (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/george-harrison-thirty-three-and-third.html
'George Harrison' (1979) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-74-george-harrison-1979.html
‘Somewhere In England’ (1981) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/george-harrison-somewhere-in-england_20.html
'George Harrison' (1979) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-74-george-harrison-1979.html
‘Somewhere In England’ (1981) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/george-harrison-somewhere-in-england_20.html
'Gone
Troppo' (1982) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/george-harrison-gone-troppo-1982.html
‘Cloud
Nine’ (1987) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/george-harrison-cloud-nine-1987.html
'Brainwashed'
(2002) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/george-harrison-brainwashed-2002.html
'Hidden
Harrison - The Best Unreleased Recordings' http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/george-harrison-hidden-harrison-best.html
Live/Compilation/Spin-Off
Albums Plus The Occasional Wilbury http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/george-harrison-live.html
Non-Album
Recordings 1968-2001 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/george-harrison-non-album-recordings.html
Surviving
TV Appearances 1971-2001 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/george-harrison-surviving-tv.html
Essay: Why The Quiet Beatle Always Had So Much To Say https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/george-harrison-essay-why-quiet-one.html
Essay: Why The Quiet Beatle Always Had So Much To Say https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/george-harrison-essay-why-quiet-one.html
Five
Landmark Concerts and Three Key Cover Songs https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/george-harrison-five-landmark-concerts.html
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