George Harrison - All Things Must POLL

yeah, the only thing like that i've ever really listened to like an album in regular rotation (apart from when I JUST discovered a Smile bootleg) is actually the Beatles Anthology, and mostly just a couple key discs of that.

I finally got around to listening to the super deluxe set. I'm not a fan of the new mixes, especially when I was able to patch my computer into my stereo and hear it properly on good speakers. Even if you don't mind the historical revisionism (and I'm not always a stickler about "sticking with the original") the instrumental balance feels off - it just doesn't sound very good to me.

The fifth and last disc of session recordings is disposable. The opening "Isn't It Shitty" (to the tune of "Isn't It A Pity") is funny, but otherwise there's really nothing here I'd come back to.

That just leaves discs three and four covering the two days of demo sessions, and those are definitely a keeper. Not surprising - most of them have been bootlegged before and even with inferior sound, it was easily my favorite bootleg of George Harrison recordings. The two discs are more complete and presumably straight from the first-generation tapes (a major upgrade), but I kind of wish they left in all the in-between chatter. It's a matter of personal taste, but for something like this, I like hearing it all left in, and it sounds like most of the chatter has been edited out.

The previous deluxe edition (originally released in 2001) only had a handful of bonuses, and they're generally not included here for some reason. No big loss except for this bonus track which I really do miss:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFDyXBU2fq8

It does appear in demo form, but the 2001 version is a real gem thanks to Pete Drake's pedal steel parts. I can't call it an outtake because it features only Harrison's lead vocal and Pete Drake's pedal steel from the original 1970 recording - all other instruments were actually overdubbed by Harrison and Dhani in 2000.

It's too bad the two discs of demos won't get its own standalone release. If you had those two discs and the 2014 remaster of All Things Must Pass (which includes the 2001 edition's new bonuses), you would have everything essential related to this album. That would've been a perfect four-disc set had they chosen to include the demos with the 2001 reissue.

out of the blue was robbed! so cool. listening now...nice clean copy. so dope.

LET IT ROLL