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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.
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.
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?
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 -
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
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:
Gary, 4-12:Mark, 4-12:
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
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!
Wout, 30-11:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tctzUNMp5po
Mark, 1-12:
The
reworked version of Dreamweaver isn’t that much different to the
original to be honest (probably "not worthy”!š¤£)…. 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.
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.
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.
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.....
Wout, 4-12:
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.
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
https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g
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