Rare acoustic takes on George Harrison songs from All Things Must Pass, Living in the Material World and Third Three and 1/3 will be featured in a forthcoming release called Early Takes Vol. 1.
The most familiar of these stripped-down tracks is Harrison’s 1970 charttopper “My Sweet Lord.” Two Bob Dylan-related cuts are also featured, including an acoustic take on their collaboration “I’d Have You Anytime,” from Harrison’s initial post-Beatles offering All Things Must Pass and a solo version of “Mama You Been on My Mind,” a song George had played in rehearsals dating back to the 1969 sessions for the Beatles’ Let It Be.
Meanwhile, “Awaiting On You All” was one of the first songs Harrison wrote for what would become his sprawling three-disc solo debut. “Woman Don’t You Cry For Me,” composed while still with the Beatles in 1969, was later reworked to become the opener for 1976’s Thirty Three and 1/3. Harrison originally wrote “The Light That Has Lighted The World” for Cilla Black; later, a version featuring Gary Wright, Nicky Hopkins and others appeared as the third track on 1973’s Living in the Material World.
Some of these demos have earlier appeared on the well-known Harrison bootleg Beware of ABCKO, on the Beatles mid-1990s Anthology 3 project and, more recently, on Martin Scorsese’s 2011 documentary on the Quiet Beatle, also called Living the Material World. Early Takes Vol. 1 will be released on both CD and vinyl configurations on May 1, the same day that DVD and Blu-ray versions of the Scorsese film are due.
Here’s a look back at recent thoughts on George Harrison. Click through the titles for complete reviews …
SOMETHING ELSE! FEATURED ARTIST: GEORGE HARRISON: George Harrison remains the Beatles’ great unresolved mystery — the guy who might have actually done more had he been in any another band after 1965. Or not. His solo records are a frustrating mix of the sublime, the blatant and the unremarkable. Sometimes within a three-song sweep. Sometimes within the same song. Thus, the unresolved part. George seemed as at odds as any world-famous person ever was with that very fame. He often only made records — in particular, in the days after his association with the outsized, and more than occasionally overbearing, talents of John and Paul — when he was made to, and it showed. No surprise, then, that it’s difficult to achieve a vista after 1970. All Things Must Pass could be a bloated, if admirable, mess. The mid-1970s were, at best, hit and miss. The 1980s were worse. That’s where we come in. Something Else! Reviews goes through the stacks to provide a definitive list of must-have tunes.
GEORGE HARRISON – LET IT ROLL (2009): There’s something in the way that Let It Roll, compiled with a loving and almost magical rhythm by Harrison’s family, moves through his catalog. Rather than yielding to familiar chronology, “Let It Roll” mixes and matches from across Harrison’s history. All of a sudden, essential complexities can be explored again, old scores can be settled, the familiar is seen differently. Let It Roll goes from “All Things Must Pass,” which works nearly 40 years later as a delicately spiritual memorial to the fallen Harrison, directly into the jaunty put-down song “Any Road” from his posthumous 2002 release Brainwashed — only to reverse course back to the Utopian “This Is Love” from his ’87 comeback album Cloud Nine. We begin to hear all of this with new ears.
DEEP CUTS: GEORGE HARRISON, “RISING SUN” (2002): This started as a fine little acoustic number. But like all of Harrison’s signature stuff, which is always somehow both downbeat and uplifting, it required a larger sound. That’s why Harrison was attracted, in his first solo incarnation, to Phil Spector — who couldn’t fathom a record without a few thousand violins playing along. And it’s why Jeff Lynne, playing posthumous svengali, wasn’t going to let this one be. Using Harrison’s initial and insistent guitar-strum beat as a platform, Lynne’s production explores both the ghost of regret and the atmospheric vistas that mark the best of Harrison’s — and, yeah, Lynne’s — work.
GIMME FIVE: SONGS WHERE THE BEATLES, WELL, SUCKED: There is much about the Beatles that’s easy to love. The ornate pop, the long-haired peaceability, the arguments over which one’s your favorite. Still, lend them your ear and you’ll discover a few duds. Even a group as talented, and successful, as the Fab Four couldn’t help but round out a handful of albums with what could only charitably be called filler. Heck, they even had a few charttoppers that qualify. (Yes, we’re looking at you “Hello, Goodbye.”) We dug into the stuff that didn’t quite make their hall-of-fame resume — the ones where they took a bad song … and made it worse.
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Here’s the complete track listing for George Harrison’s ‘Early Takes, Vol. 1’:
1. My Sweet Lord (demo)
2. Run Of The Mill (demo)
3. I’d Have You Any Time (early take)
4. Mama You’ve Been On My Mind (demo)
5. Let It Be Me (demo)
6. Woman Don’t You Cry For Me (early take)
7. Awaiting On You All (early take)
8. Behind That Locked Door (demo)
9. All Things Must Pass (demo)
10. The Light That Has Lighted The World (demo)
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