George Harrison: Search & Destroy

fourth, what is the "7th song" situation with All Things Must Pass? Clearly, Behind That Locked Door. but it's a 3xLP set. so is the 7th song of the second LP ("Art of Dying") also a "7th song"? (There is no 7th song on the third LP, which has 5 songs)

The seventh song on Cloud Nine is "Devil's Radio," which also rules:

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

Interesting that, in the LP era, he would have mostly been stranding his favourite songs somewhere in the middle of Side 2, not the best place to attract attention.

La Times has an interview with wife and son ( but it’s paywalled)

I won't let him down
Got to do what I can
I can't let him drown
He's a far east man

I remember reading that about "Stuck Inside a Cloud" when Brainwashed came out. I think it's a pretty great album overall - maybe excepting the title track - but that song is something special.

xp I wonder if not attracting attention is part of what he was going for. Putting his favorite songs in a spot where people can discover them slowly.

Besides the first two vinyl slabs of All Things Must Pass, compilations (or rather a homemade compilation) is the way to go with Harrison's solo career IMHO, but Brainwashed is definitely one of his best and most consistent albums. The instrumental and the first two tracks have always been my favorites - wonderful examples of his distinctive guitar playing.

FWIW, the lead-off track (they made a nice video for it) - it's also one of the last songs he played in public thanks to that VH1 appearance in 1997 with Ravi Shankar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8fFdc-karA

Also track #2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7awp7tIxAU

And this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5HEeNRJFMg

"Dhani Harrison: 'Marwa is, uh, uh... It's just a name of a raga in an Indian raga. Say you if you have... you could have... you could have a raga in the key of Dhani if you wanted to. Y'know, you could have a raga in a key of sa, um, or rag something or rag charakeshi. Um, it's just rag marwa was a, a raga that, uh, is an ancient Indian raga and, um... On some level that I'm not sure if I even understand this Marwa Blues contains the same notes in the chord that can pose, uh raga marwa.' Jeff Lynne: 'It was a big challenge because, uh, George had played probably four or five lead guitars, lead slides and things on it and, uh, they're all great. And, it was our... our job to find which was the real tune.' Dhani Harrison: 'Yeah, that was a bit confusing, 'cause he'd always do a live mix on the fly, you see, and he knew where all his favorite bits were, um, out of all these four or five guitar tracks. So whenever we heard it, we only heard a small bit of what was actually there then when we came to do the mixing of it, we had everything and the tune kind of disappeared into five guitars all going on top of each other and we had to like...' Jeff Lynne: 'So it was like a treasure hunt.' Dhani Harrison: 'Yeah, Jeff managed to find the tune and then it was alright from there.'"
Jeff Lynne and Dhani Harrison (November 19, 2002 - All Things Considered NPR radio show)

"There were 4 (guitar) takes and of that 2 weren't usable. So it was a sort of, the real essence of the song lay in one track and there were accompany harmonies from two other tracks. It wasn't a composite, it was a take."
Dhani Harrison (November 19, 2002 - MSN Webchat)

It enrages me when he's still called an average or okay guitarist. Besides an identifiable sonic stamp, I can't think of a guitarist whose slide was so cosmopolitan in the ease with which it integrated Hawaiian, raga, and blues styles.

His guitar solos are usually the worst moments on 1963 Beatles records, though.

well, yeah

I would never trash Harrison's solos on the 1963 records - they could be pretty awesome too (see "I Saw Her Standing There"). At their best, they were a pretty distinctive fusion of his influences while taking the a step further, stuff that would make Carl Perkins proud.

When Harrison died, Sound Opinions (back when it was a two hour show on WXRT) did a whole show on him and brought in two guitarists who kind of showed why Harrison was so underrated as a guitarist, using examples throughout the Beatles career to make their point. He was incredibly innovative and evolving just as fast as the rest of the band. Wish I still had my cassette of that show, but it was lost ages ago.

I think Harrison gets knocked because he's not like most guitar virtuosos - he's really a composer's guitarist. His brilliance doesn't come in a live setting, it's purely in the studio. Almost all of his work is tied to careful planning and an enormous amount of discipline in getting it right. I think Tim Riley argued that he could seem inert in that way because he'll often play the same exact solo in concert rather than come up with something new.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxwAB3SECtc

I will not hear of anyone disparaging his solo in "Don't Bother Me."

From LA Times article on latest release of the box

The extra year proved beneficial for Dhani Harrison, George’s son, who guided the project — along with his frequent collaborator Paul Hicks — of remixing and unearthing unheard materials for the “mega” anniversary set. Manufacturing and shipping delays affected the vinyl edition, which includes eight LPs. The younger Harrison, 43, also oversaw the artwork and liner notes, featuring a trove of quotes, photos and scrapbook materials, and even the design of replica figurines of his father and the reclining gnomes from the original album cover.

Dhani and Hicks spent two years plumbing and remixing all 18 reels from the summer 1970 sessions at Abbey Road. Thanks to modern technology, the new mixes of classics like “My Sweet Lord” and “Isn’t It a Pity” spotlight formerly buried instruments and elevate Harrison’s voice above the famous “wall of sound” created by the late producer Phil Spector.

Olivia, who represents Harrison in Beatles business at Apple Corps Limited, was wary about that at first, “but actually they were right,” she said, citing her husband’s stated belief — from his introduction to the 30th-anniversary remastering — that these songs “can continue to outlive the style in which they were recorded.”

“There were things that were smothered in there,” she admitted. “He said, ‘I’d like to liberate some of the songs from the big production. That seemed appropriate at the time.’ So I think Paul and Dhani have been very balanced in how they’ve liberated some of them. You still have the power behind it, but I think George is more present — and very intimate. Much more intimate than it was before. You feel a connection with him.”

Dhani’s ears perked up at discoveries such as the synthesizers in “Isn’t It a Pity,” which were previously inaudible “just due to the clarity and the reverb and the digital compression on the remaster from 2001,” he said. “I thought there were tracks that we just had muted, but they were in there. The sonic soup in the middle was fogging it up. And then, suddenly, once you hear it you can’t unhear it. It was like rediscovering it again. It was kind of the same feeling I had when they did the remaster of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s.’”

More LA times — Some of the alternate songs and outtakes from the sessions have been leaked over the years, but are now available in radically higher quality. There’s a slower version of “Isn’t It a Pity” that Dhani called a “heartbreaker,” and what sounds to him like “an Allman Brothers version of ‘Run of the Mill.’” Early iterations of “Cosmic Empire” and “Down to the River (Rocking Chair Jam),” which wouldn’t appear on official records until many years later, were first captured in 1970. A “party disc” includes Harrison jamming with his musicians and doing punny versions of his serious lyrics.

“A lot of the laughing and the outtakes and the little bits of noise between the tapes, I’d never heard before,” said Dhani. “And that’s just priceless. It gives you shivers when you hear someone talking and it just sounds like they’re in the other room.

George Harrison, shyly strumming and harmonizing behind the competitive wattage of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, had been tending to a whole garden of his songs from 1966 through ’69. Many were auditioned and workshopped as Beatles songs but didn’t make the cut, and Harrison gave away the rejected “My Sweet Lord” and “All Things Must Pass” to his friend Billy Preston. “Isn’t It a Pity” was written in 1966 and almost made it onto the “Revolver” and “Let It Be” albums, but instead sat in darkness.

When the Beatles split up, the 27-year-old Harrison went to Woodstock, N.Y., and jammed with The Band and Bob Dylan in May 1970. Then he took that energy and his merry band of friends — including Preston, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and the group that would become Derek and the Dominos — into Studio Three at Abbey Road and poured his heart out.

“All Things Must Pass” went to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart after it came out in November 1970, and was nominated for album of the year at the Grammys. It outsold all of his fellow Beatles’ solo albums.

Didn't know it was nominated for an AOY Grammy - looked it up and he was apparently the first Beatle to get that (followed by Paul's Band on the Run, then the only winner, John's Double Fantasy, then several others...also Star Wars was nominated for AOY? Yeesh.)

solo Beatle that is

^^^ in the voice of Foghorn Leghorn

lmao

on one hand, "isn't it a pity" as i know it would not have fit in well with the sound of Revolver, imo. otoh, i'm sure with that 1966 beatles magic it would have been transformed into something absolutely perfect for the album

Embarrassingly* it’s only in the last 3 or 4 months that I’ve given any serious time to ATMP. It’s wonderful - I think it’s my favorite solo beatle record now (though Ram runs it really really close).

Convenient for me that the new box is now dropping with all the accompanying press and discussion.

*especially embarrassing because even as a child George was my “favorite beatle”. I guess I kind of blame My Sweet Lord which I’ve never liked (though I see now that it does have its place in the village of this album).

“The Uber Edition comes in a wooden crate, going all the way for George devotees: it’s got a wooden bookmark made from a fallen oak tree in his garden. It also has replicas of the gnomes from the album cover.”

alright, George Devotees: reveal yourselves!

I like seeing Brainwashed get some attention on this thread. I listened to it a ton when it first came out, when I must have been eighteen or nineteen, and I've never seen it mentioned that much, so I always sort of wondered if it was actually as good as I thought or if it's just one of those sentimental favorites. I really think it holds up and I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in that.

“The Uber Edition comes in a wooden crate, going all the way for George devotees: it’s got a wooden bookmark made from a fallen oak tree in his garden. It also has replicas of the gnomes from the album cover.”

I've seen photos from people who bought this. It really is like a piece of furniture - the crate could double as a foot stool or even a coffee table for one. $1000 price tag aside, if it wasn't rare and I had one as a gift, I'd probably use it as furniture just to put the space to use.

i guess all it takes is 1000 wealthy beatles fans to make that a $1M idea

Just like how it's packed! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbhtLPot3tg

I guess it makes sense - it's expensive and hard to produce, so it would be a pain to have to manufacture another as a replacement.

*Just look at how it's packed! (I gotta proof read before I hit post)

never proof read! post in freedom!

that crate is fucking amazing though!

Jake Gyllehaal's in it, unwashed.

oh man I wish George would have finished this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty_1U08_jjg

How I ranked his Beatles song.

Ron woods version of Far East man is better than Harrison’s

You’re insane, Blue Jay Way is godhead

I have to agree with Alfred, it's dreadfully dull.

Also posted in another thread, archivist Ron Furmanek was asked to remix the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack (sound as well as music) around 1988 for home video release. George Martin was present for the final mix sessions, and when Furmanek played him the backing tracks to "Blue Jay Way," Martin laughed and said "this is rubbish! Did we release this??"

I also agree with the majority on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" - flat out great. But the rest of the Beatles don't get enough credit - never mind Clapton, just listen to everything they add to George's ghostly demo. It really gives you a sense of what they all gained from working collectively, and what was sorely missed when they split apart.

WMGGW is mediocre shit

*some mediocre shit

Bobby Whitlock doesn't like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soM5B6q39Ls

Ron woods version of Far East man is better than Harrison’s

Bobby Whitlock doesn't like it.

I haven't compared the remix to the original mix directly, but it's kind of surprising if the remix is actually more muddy. I'm generally skeptical of revisionist mixes anyway so I wasn't looking forward to the new mix - I only wanted the demos and outtakes. Remixing live albums can be successful (like the recordings used for the Band's Rock of Ages/Live at the Academy, the recordings used for the Rolling Stones' Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out), but that's rarely the case with studio albums, not unless it's a simple three-track reduction. There are exceptions like the seven original cuts Richard Hell was able to remix for last year's Destiny Street Remixed, but they're a tiny minority.

And WMGGW is still awesome. :P

I'm still listening through that video because it's a long rant, but it's pretty dickish. They're talking about the Über set (which they got as a gift), and as pointed out elsewhere, that giant set was done more as a memento or gift to friends and colleagues. It's fine if they don't like the mix, it's a frequent complaint for people to criticize new mixes, but it was also a gift sent to them by the Harrison family, and they're going out of their way to post long YouTube videos trashing it and insulting the people who gave it to them. They even allude to what's apparently irritation by the Harrisons at prior videos they posted insulting or criticizing them. That's pretty fucked up.

He (and his wife) come across like some bitter, graceless cranks.

Oh shit, I just skimmed through with the audio muted. Definitely did not want t hear anyone talk for an hour straight though

Couldn’t watch more than a minute or so. Recently read him complaining about something like too many out-of-tune guitar overdubs from Duane Allman on Derek and the Dominos. He did stick up for Rita Coolidge’s claim to a coda co-writing credit on “Layla” though.

There are exceptions like the seven original cuts Richard Hell was able to remix for last year's Destiny Street Remixed, but they're a tiny minority.

The 1995 The Who Sell Out remix was reasonably well done, but not dramatically different from the original. Other ‘90s Who remixes are either indistinguishable from the originals (most of Who’s Next), miss the mark (Quadrophenia), or take too many liberties (Who Are You).

The Replacements’ Dead Man’s Pop is astoundingly great, though the original mix of Don’t Tell A Soul wasn’t exactly a high bar to clear.

Yes to this last

The Who is a good case because they more or less remixed their entire catalog at one point or another. The Live at Leeds recordings have been mixed several times with varying results, but the last time (which is available only as a download as a hi-res file) gets it right. The crackling noises were only on the bass track, so the only way to get rid of it is to process Entwistle's bass track through a modern day digital de-clicker and make a new mix. Beyond that, I actually like the Who Sell Out remix you mention - it's not just a remix, incorporating the bonus material does everything Dave Marsh claims and brings the original concept to complete and satisfying fruition. Beyond that, I think the rest of their remixes are completely disposable - the three you mentioned, but also the new mixes of My Generation, Tommy, The Who by Numbers, Face Dances, etc...not worth it at all.

Dead Man's Pop is really good, especially with the outtakes that I wish they put on the album. But the alternate mix of Pleased to Meet Me (which to be fair wasn't a new mix, just an alternate set of vintage mixes) was for collectors only.

I have never heard of Bobby Whitlock in my life but based on this video alone, the man is a f'n moron. Not to disparage stroke survivors but he seems like he's had a stroke that has removed his facilities and rendered him partially brain dead. I wouldn't trust his review of a waffle house.

What about a Yelp review of the Waffle House