zaterdag 5 december 2020

All Things Must Pass at 50, a conversation

Recently it was 50 years ago that George Harrison released his first solo album after The Beatles disbanded as a band, not as a musical empire as we now know. 'All Things Must Pass' was released as a triple album at the time, showing many facets of the work Harrison had compiled and sheds a light on his way of working in the studio as well. Enfin, the celebration caused the three gentlemen, Gary, Mark and Wout to start a correspondence on 'All Things Must Pass' and of course digress here and there into closely related topics or continue by associative powers music lovers are prone to have. It all started with a pointer to a BBC radio programme.


Gary, 21-11:

BBC Radio 4 tonight 20:00 (GMT). George Harrison All Things Must Pass at 50: Interviewees include Olivia Harrison, Michael Palin, Jools Holland, biographers Graeme Thomson and Joshua M. Greene, keyboard player Bobby Whitlock, drummer Alan White, and guitarist Dave Mason.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000pljn

Gary, 21-11:

(2 page copy to a radio/TV guide we cannot show due to copyright infringements)

Mark: 22-11:

Thanks Gary. I've just listened to the programme which I thought was very good in explaining how significant All Things Must Pass was for George at a crossroads in his life in a troubled year with both his parents very ill and the break up of The Beatles so deep long-lasting friendships being fractured.  Meanwhile he had embarked on his spiritual path which meant reconciling his spiritual yearnings with the great material wealth he had acquired as a member of the world's greatest pop group. All these themes come through in the songs and the maturity of their lyrics and how they endeavour to intellectualise these themes is all the more amazing when you are reminded that when he released this album he was only 27 years old. Moreover a record with songs that dealt with such weighty spiritual issues was ahead of its time. As somebody said on the programme it was certainly a daring move by a hugely popular mainstream artist - but a hugely successful one: 8 weeks at number one in the UK charts.

I think the programme was right to claim that the record hasn't dated much in terms of sound etc mainly because the songs are so melodically strong and varied. I hadn't realised as the programme explained that Phil Spector left halfway through the 5 months of recording after falling ill and returning to the US. This explains how - thankfully - some of the songs on the album were spared his trademark wall-of-sound production with dense layers of reverb that swamp George's vocals and individual musicianship. Actually I quite like this mix and am happy to turn the volume up when Wah-Wah starts.

I couldn't afford the record when it was released but I finally got the record on 25 November 1971 - the 49th anniversary of that coming up! -  after I had been saving hard all year as a 15 year old teenager on a slow drip feed of pocket money.  I remember being really scared if my Dad found out that I had spent £5.30 on a box set of pop music: he would really have hit the roof!  I would get home from school about an hour and a half before he returned from work which was when I took over his Dual stereo gramophone player. I had only about 15 l.p.s at that time in 1971 mainly all the Beatles albums plus John and Paul's first solo albums (I wouldn't graduate to progressive music until the following year with Trilogy and Close to the Edge). With such a limited choice, I would play all those records repeatedly until their every morsel of sound and lyrical quirk was indelibly lodged in my brain along with the track sequencing and recording details.
 
Nowadays of course I can indulge my passion for records relatively free of such tight budgetary constraints. However, while I can enjoy the diverse rewards of 50 years of record-collecting, sadly it also means I don't get to enjoy that level of intimacy with the individual records that I buy these days which is a pity.

If you are intrigued by the Indian cultural links of George's musical journey through life, I strongly recommend the album  Chants of India which he produced (and played on) for Ravi Shankar. It's truly marvellous and hugely enjoyable - not heavy-going like classical Indian ragas can be.

Wout, 22-11:
As Dutchy, I did not get to hear the program. To my shame I have to admit that of all the Harrison solo album I have in my possession, All Things Must Pass is not among them. I truly don't know why. Probably because it was never released as a mid price album in the early 80s and after that ??? I promise that I will be on the look out for it from now on, because it is a must have album of course.

The songs that I do know, I all like. The great singles and Wah Wah, the b-side to one of them.

What I'm also remembered of, is that, another set of records I do not have, a lot of songs are already on the The Beatles' Anthology set. They had been tried out but dismissed as a lot of George's songs. After that he never submitted them for 'Let It Be', is my guess and kept hem for himself. What 'Abbey Road' had already announced, and 'Old Brown Shoe', was the proficiency of George's songwriting. Since 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' he could compete with the other two quite easily. That all came out on that album I do not have. He never came close again, I think. With 'My Sweet Lord' Harrison was the first ex-Beatle to score a #1 hit in the Netherlands. Lennon's 'Give Peace A Chance' was #1 but that was while The Beatles were still active as a band. To think that the only other ex-Beatle #1 was 'Mull Of Kintyre'. A pretty meagre score after 'Let It Be', the 16th Beatles #1 since the start of the charts in January 1965. Was that different, as in more #1 hits, in the UK?

Two worthwhile discoveries of the past weeks. New Zealand songstress Reb Fountain and the solo album of The National singer Matt Berninger, made with Booker T. Jones. Two beautifully laidback but musically extremely strong albums.

Mark, 22-11:
George was trying out the song All Things Must Pass during the Let It Be sessions but the others didn't rate it which is hard to believe given it is such a powerful song with an impressive melody and great opportunity for group harmonies. It will be interesting to see if George's demo and try out of the song features in the Peter Jackson film of Get Back/Let It be when it is released next year. 

I don't recall a budget release version of All Things Must Pass. It would have been ripe for one because I can't imagine anybody complaining if the third record of long and at time tedious instrumental jams was cut. And if you also spare the listener the heavier Spector production numbers like Let It Down and Hear Me Lord, the relatively light-weight I Dig Love and the second slower version of Isn't It a Pity, you end up with a tremendous single record album to rival Imagine and Band on the Run. As it is, the best of these Harrison songs are buried somewhat in the extravagant triple album format. 

The 2001 CD restoration job is the one to get. Wout. It includes some additional tracks (including a re-make of My Sweet Lord) and an excellent booklet. I don't approve of the colourised photo on the box, however.  

EMI generally didn't (or weren't contractually allowed to) impose the indignity of cut-price versions of Beatles and solo albums. As I recall it, only John's low-selling Mind Games came out as a budget price release in the UK with a less arty sleeve - after John's contract with EMI had lapsed when he took the years out to bring up his baby boy. Later pressings of Walls & Bridges didn't feature the complicated multi-flap sleeve and the lavish booklet of schoolboy drawings and lyrics. Ringo's biggest hit album Ringo also suffered a similar fate when the stapled-in booklet of Klaus Voorman drawings was cut from later pressings - again in order to enable the miserly bastards at EMI to cut the production cost.  

Solo No. 1 UK singles: not so many really. Give Peace A Chance only made it to no.2 in the UK and surprisingly Happy Xmas (War Is Over) also never topped the charts on its first release nor any of the subsequent festive season re-releases. Imagine got to No.1 when it was eventually released as a single in 1975 (why it wasn't released when the album came out is a total mystery....). So did Woman and (Just Like) Starting Over and inevitably John's murder boosted sales of these singles. McCartney topped the charts with Mull of Kintyre, Ebony and Ivory (helped out by Stevie Wonder) and Pipes of Peace. Another Day got to No.2. Surprisingly none of the string of Wings singles in the mid-1970s made it to No.1 - not even concert favourites Jet and Live and Let Die. George almost got to the top again with Got My Mind Set On You (which he didn't write. John's cover of Stand By Me was a lowly chart performer despite being a great rendition I  think.

Apologies for this encyclopaedic response!

Mark, 22-11 (taking a small sidestep):

McCartney III got a four star-rated review in Mojo magazine but this report is not welcome news for Beatles completists! I'll be in Japan when it's released next month so I hope to make do with a Japanese version which with a little luck may have a bonus track or two as is often the case with releases there.

Gary, 23-11:

Here is the BBC Sounds ink to listen to the programme online: Listen now 

You should be able to stream it okay?
 
Wout, 23-11:
Thanks, Gary, I will certainly take a listen.

In between all DC-ISSS work I looked up the Amazon NL prices for the album on duty. The LP was either €90 or €215, the cd €66,=. It remains a bit dear to be honest. Perhaps second hand will be a bit cheaper, so I will look out for it. In the meantime Spotify it has to be. It is on there, so I will give it a review for the 50th birthday, after our conversation is put online.

On the encyclopedic knowledge, Mark; I did ask for it, didn't I? So, thank you.

Funny, that 'Imagine' wasn't released as a single in 1971. It was here, and got a modest top 10 score, just like 'Happy XMas'. The same happened after he was killed. The interest in the new songs, wasn't big. '(Just Like) Starting Over' had nearly flopped, that is for an ex-Beatle single only scoring a low top 30 and went up somewhat straight after. It was 'Imagine' and 'Happy XMas' that went top 10 again, but not at #1. Far from it. 'Imagine' was Johns biggest solo hit, twice. Neither 'Instant Karma',  nor 'Mother' became true hits, as low top 10. Everything after 'Imagine' got in the top 20, if he was lucky.

Paul faired a little better, but had trouble getting into the top 10 with most singles. For George it was all downhill after 'What Is Life' and 'Give Me Love', until 1987 got him his last top 10 hit. Although 'Ding Dong' was a short-lived Xmas hit in 1975.

Of the sleeves I have got the 'Walls and Bridges' sleeve and something of Ringo with a booklet inside if I remember correctly. I have to look it up. 'Mind Games' a cheap Canadian copy and only played once, I think.

Ringo got three top 10 singles, 'Photograph' was the biggest.
 
Mark, 23-11:

Not mentioned at all during the programme but the album's wonderfully sweet, slow-paced opener I'd Have You Anytime was a unique pre-Wilburys co-write with Bob Dylan when George stayed with him at his home near Woodstock in November 1968 shortly after the White Album was released. Like While My Guitar Gently Weeps, the recording features a wonderfully eloquent lead guitar played by Eric Clapton - one of his finest solos. Wikipedia carries the full story behind the song's composition and meaning here The song was as much about George and Bob embracing each other as close friends and artists, as being a plaintive song of soon to be love no longer unrequited. As such it is a quite unexpected start to the album which gets into gear straight afterwards with the rousing My Sweet Lord. There is an alternative early take of the song on the 2012 Harrison compilation Early Takes Volume 1 (fans still eagerly await Volume 2). 

George's exquisite rendition of Dylan's If Not For You on All Things Must Pass is also an album highlight. It's a sign of how highly he regarded Dylan that he saved some album space for one of his songs despite having a huge stockpile of his own songs left over from the Beatle days. George had joined Dylan during the sessions for New Morning in May 1970 and the early take of "If Not for You" which George played on eventually surfaced on the first Bob Dylan Bootleg Series box set in 1997.  

Mark, 23-11:
There are quite a few vinyl listings on ebay UK but yes original boxes that haven't fallen apart and with the poster as well are quite pricey. The remastered colourised CD is going for under £20 I see -
 
Mark, 28-11:
Here comes the.....new mix!  See below. George's vocals on the title song in particular is clearer as a result of some separation in the remix. Overall it gives the sound a slightly crisper edge. I might have reduced the slide guitar whoosh effect which is still rather intrusive I think. 

Hopefully, the remixing of the album will help make the heaviest over-the-top Spector production of songs like Hear Me Lord sound more attractive. So I think, Wout, it is worth waiting for the entire remixed album whenever it appears next year. 

In the meantime I'm waiting for my new retro limited edition of My Sweet Lord (on the Portuguese Parlophone label!) which I bought online for 14 pounds and ninety-five pence yesterday from a record shop in Soho.  This will be slotted in alongside my well-worn original that cost me seven shillings and sixpence half a century of a lifetime ago........it's not always going to be this grey......

Mark, 28-11:
Here is a wonderful clip I've just found of George performing on a US TV show in 1997, on the spot and unrehearsed but he was up for it, including All Things Must Pass:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkhWj5OFeC4   

Mark, 28-11:
Another interview with George led me to a clip I'd never seen before of him playing slide in Gary Wright's backing band live on the Dick Cavett chat show in late 1971:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Exnia3KBSI  

Gary Wright played on several All things Must Pass songs so this was a one-off return favour by George who was also on the show mainly to talk about the Bangladesh concert and the challenges he faced with that as a ground-breaking benefit concert for refugees. He seemed to take a while to relax and get into his stride during quite a long interview but throughout he was typically unassuming, honest, thoughtful (e.g. on drug culture and Indian music - Ravi Shankar was also on the show) - and funny. It's also a reminder of how different American chat shows were in the 1970s compared to the brash vehicles for self-promotion today.

Gary, 29-11:
Of course Gary Wright was an accomplished keyboard player and composer in his own right (no pun intended!)… being a member of Spooky Tooth (reaching back to an earlier string of conversation we all had!) and writer of one of my favourite 70s ‘pop’ tunes 'Dream Weaver'….
 
Mark, 29-11:
I didn't know that he did a new version of Dreamweaver for Wayne's World which is a film I have not seen in its entirety!

Today actually is the anniversary of George's death and I remember you telling us the shocking news that day in 2001 at Buckingham Palace Road. I rushed out of the office at lunchtime to get the Standard. 19 years already, crikey..... 

I hadn't realised until I read the latest issue of Mojo magazine that Spencer Davis died in October age 81. Gimme Some Lovin' is a tremendous record which you need to play LOUD for maximum effect. Hard to believe it was released way back in 1966. I've got a great "Best of" that Island released many years ago - Keep On Running, Somebody Help Me and I'm a Man are great songs that also haven't dated at all. He disappeared from view in the 1970s while Steve Winwood went on to great success with Traffic, Blind Faith and solo in the 1980s (e.g. Arc of a Diver l.p. and Higher Love which knocked Madonna off the No.1 slot)). I went to a hugely enjoyable career-spanning concert at the Albert Hall about 30 years ago. His tribute to the pioneering musical spirit of Spencer Davis is on the his website .
 
Gary, 29-11:
Yes, I remember that day well… very sad!

The reworked version of Dreamweaver isn’t that much different to the original to be honest (probably "not worthy”!šŸ¤£)…. But I suppose Gary got a nice fee for that, so good luck to him?
 
Mark, 29-11:
Steve Winwood is still singing that song and still in great voice.  No need for a lead guitar on this one.
 
Wout, 30-11:
Spencer Davis would have been a name all but forgotten, had the band not been named after him. The burgeoning talent of a teenager made him a staple name of 60s pop and rock. The Spencer Davis Group was all about the great voice of Steve Winwood and his songs. Winwood went off to a great career, although I have to say that his 80s output has not withstood the test of time entirely. The songs sound dated, as does a part of the psychedelic output of Traffic. The Gimme Some Lovin' sound hasn't in my opinion. I've played that with much fun in my previous band. My current band decided not to continue with it, as two members found it two boring. The same went for 'Keep On Running', that I also like a lot. Tastes in music are allowed to be different and I'm totally not complaining about what we do play.

The Clapton - Winwood show of some years back, I saw the DVD once, was very good actually. They celebrated their Blind Faith time, fairly soon after the Cream reunion show. They each selected songs of each other and so created a bit different setlist then might have been expected.

Since circa 1990 I haven't heard what Winwood has been up to musically. I lost interest after the album 'Roll With It'. 'Higher love' was high in the charts this year in a cover with Whitney Houston. Nothing is impossible these days it seems. I really liked Steve's version in the 80s.

I know Gary Wright had a solo career in the 70s but it totally passed me by. There's not a song I could mention here. Didn't he play on stage with David Gilmour or something later as keyboardist?
 
Wout, 30-11:
Does coincidence exist? My son alerted me to a rehearsal clip of Harrison and Dylan for the Bangladesh concert last week. 'If Not For You' shows two men that are almost at ease but not fully as they have to do something special together, even if it's "just" a rehearsal. And it shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tctzUNMp5po
 
Mark, 1-12:
I've not seen that rehearsal recording before - great to see: hartelijk bedankt De Natris en Zoon! Nice moment at 1:38 when they had a little laugh amidst the pressure of getting the performance together with hardly any rehearsal time. George said he had had no confirmation from Bob that he would take part until he actually turned up just as the first performance (there were two) was about to start. 

George's version of If Not For You is for me one of the highlights of All Things Must Pass with a swirling full band arrangement that is not overwhelmed by a full-on Phil Spector production. A highlight of the Bangladesh concert album is George, Dylan and Leon Russell harmonising on Just Like A Woman, with Dylan's voice echoing around the Madison Square Gardens auditorium with those incredible lyrics And your long-time curse hurts. But what's worse, Is this pain in here.  When I bought that triple album in 1972 I knew hardly anything about Dylan and when I saw George had set aside a whole side for Dylan's performance, I thought crikey, he must be really important! Thanks to George this was the start of a long odyssey for me with Dylan through the thick and occasionally thin of various phases of Dylan's life - and five live performances in the UK and remarkably in a regular theatre, Japan.

While Leon Russell didn't play on All Things Must Pass, he did record an interesting version of Beware of Darkness (along with a couple of Dylan songs) on his own album Leon Russell and the Shelter People which I think is his best album following his first eponymous album that includes his best known song Delta Lady. The session musicians on that included George, Ringo, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Eric Clapton and.......Steve Winwood!  

Have I completed this thread?!
 
Wout, 1-12:
You're welcome, Mark. To be honest, it's even a bit stranger or perhaps a good sign of how much we all are being watched online. My son told me about the clip in a Skype conversation, and also pointed to a 1990 Roy Orbison tribute night where three original The Byrds played 'Turn Turn Turn' to be joined by Dylan for 'Mr. Tambourine Man'. The harmonies of these three, Crosby, Hillman, McGuinn, were fabulous btw.


After viewing the tribute clip, You Tube pushed the Dylan - Harrison clip as the next inline. Of the million things they could have suggested???!!! We email about the topic, yes. I've listened to it after I discussed it Skype. I've been compiling our conversation in Blogger, but that's it. How far does the online, commercial surveillance go?

But to return to your question, that neatly ties things down alright. Well done, Mark.

Any famous last words? I'll be publishing our conversation this Saturday.
 
Well, a minor detour did come up.
 
Gary, 4-12:
In case you have never seen this?

 
Mark, 4-12:
Thanks Gary - yes it's a lovely one-off performance on the Saturday Night Live Show in November 1976. Paul Simon was the celebrity guest host for that particular show. Legend has it that Paul was visiting John at his apartment at the Dakota building that night watching the show and they were almost tempted to rush over to the NBC studio to join in. Who knows.....

The recording of Homeward Bound with George in great voice and Paul Simon harmonising perfectly, did have a legitimate release on record many years later, albeit now a rather obscure one. It was included on a compilation charity album  that George put together in 1990 in support of the Romanian orphans who had been abandoned under the Ceausescu regime. The lead off track was a cover of a 1950s song Nobody's Child performed by the re-convened Traveling Wilburys (with Dylan and Tom Petty but without Roy Orbison who had died two years previously). This had been released as a charity single and I remember George making a rare appearance on breakfast TV to promote it with his wife Olivia who had set up the charity. This was another instance of George' responding to humanitarian crises after the Bangladesh refugees and he went on to do a huge amount of charity work through his Material World Foundation which is still active and an important part of his legacy.  

Nobody's Child was also one of the songs that the pre-Fab Beatles recorded in Hamburg backing Tony Sheridan. George never mentioned that in interviews about the charity single: possibly he had totally forgotten about it.
 
Wout, 4-12:
Thank you, Gary. No, I had never seen this and it is certainly a nice thing to see these two masters of iconic 60s songs perform together.

Coming back to Mark's comment on John and Paul. Yesterday a two page feature was published in my newspaper, NRC, on John Lennon's last day(s). No less than 15 books have been published on it, it seems, including two by two mediums with messages from the afterlife, a novel by James Patterson and several of the more normal biography kind. A Dutch collective called Fab4Cast have released no less than six podcasts on that last day recently.

To come back to the article. It mentions that Lennon's hiatus of five years had more to do with a writer's block than anything else. Paul visited him regularly and always brought his guitar with him to the Dakota building, moments dreaded by Lennon. One of the biographers claims that Lennon found inspiration again after a sailing trip and having to hold the wheel for six hours through rough weather. This experience changed him, after which Yoko sent him on a working holiday. The rest is history.

Where 'Nobody's Child' is concerned, I actually have the cd single and I think two or three vinyl ones as well of other singles. A great surprise that band was and I still like especially the first album. It shows the joy of making music together among friends and all on a sort of equal footing. Extremely successful friends of course. I am also of mind that the experience of The Travelling Wilburys changed Bob Dylan's career. Just listen to how much he enjoys singing 'Tweeter And The Monkey Man'! He simply made better music again from hereon, after the fairly dismal 80s., by Dylan's standards, with 'Oh, Mercy'. Dylan attributes it to Bono actually, having spent time with him in 1988, according to his book, 'Chronicles Volume 1, of which we still await a part 2.
 
Mark, 4-12:
Writer's block is possible I suppose but it's a curious phenomenon; you'd expect an artist of Lennon's calibre to be committed everyday to his chosen artform - like McCartney who also from time to time diverted into collaborations (e.g. with Elvis Costello), electronic experimentation (as The Fireman) and extended classical compositions (with mixed results...). Lennon though seems to have stored away his guitar and resisted the pressure to renew his EMI/Capitol contract in 1976 (or go with another label - presumably there were tempting offers despite his having had no great chart success or critical acclaim with his albums or singles in the mid-seventies). 

Dylan seems to have dealt with writer's block differently: while still keeping on the never-ending road of touring, in the studio he resorted to recording genre albums of folk songs in the early 1990s and pop standards in 2014-16. Of the other great song-writing auteurs, Joni Mitchell's response as her career declined after 2000 was to re-record her famous songs on albums with orchestral arrangements - and now her archive recordings are being opened up.  Randy Newman has done the same though without an orchestra but he has also continued to be enormously successful in the last 20 years especially with movie soundtracks such as Toy Story which will have ensured the cashflow was maintained!  Bruce Springsteen has never lapsed through writer's block though arguably a few dips here and there on quality. Neil Young is still touring fairly regularly and hardly a month goes by without a new record release - and another multi-cd archive box has just come out. There have also been the occasional dalliances with Crosby, Stills and Nash though he has always seemed to be the most reluctant of the four to reconnect.     

Are you going to keep the newspaper article about Lennon? If not, could you save it for me? Reading something that I'm actually interested in would compel me to practise my still rudimentary Dutch - with the help of the Nederlands-Engels woordenboek that I bought back in 1977!
 
Gary, 4-12:
It seems to me that very successful artists that go through these ‘writers blocks’ tend to start these periods when (for whatever reason) they stop their creative stage…they then find it very difficult to restart. Maybe it's a confidence thing or that they are worried they can’t renew their personal standards of success?
 
Wout, 4-12:
That is a good question, Gary and one we have no way of answering. It could have many and very different reasons. What you suggest, may come close to the truth considering that many artists that are incredibly famous are also incredibly unsure of themselves and their music. Something I have a hard time understanding. When someone is so obviously good and confirmed each and every time when releasing new work or performing, why be so uncertain?

An artist with a long career will have ups and down in creativity and success. Knowing what we know we can point to periods in the careers of our 60s icons. Sooner or later most of them return with another masterpiece. See Bob Dylan this year. Like painters with long careers reinvent themselves, musicians have to do so as well to remain truly interesting. Several have and others have become greatest hits performers, which is great as well as soon those coming after us will be going to concert halls like classical music fans have done for centuries already. With one big difference, we are only a click away from seeing or hearing the original these days.
 
 
Gary
Mark
Wout
 
 
Listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g
 

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