Music Graham Reid
George Harrison’s majestic 1970 triple album gets a lavish reissue.
Because guitardriven rock isn’t the prevailing force it once was – coupled with an ageing, moneyed demographic for whom music was better in their youth – we’re increasingly seeing classic albums appearing as expensive expanded editions. And musicians replicating seminal records live: Abbey Road, Neil Young’s
Live Rust and the Rolling Stones’
Sticky Fingers among them.
This is decontextualised music for performers often too young to have heard it at the time or, in the case of The Beatles, nostalgia for music that never went away.
Amid the slew of reissues is the belated 50th-anniversary edition of George Harrison’s majestic 1970 triple album
All Things Must Pass, which included his massive single My Sweet Lord.
The original album was given aural gravitas by producer Phil Spector’s multilayering of instruments, but now returns in a slightly less oppressive remix, although not as de-Spectored as some might expect.
Harrison’s son Dhani and Paul Hicks re-present the album with – in one CD iteration – three extra discs of demos, previously unreleased songs (including the self-pitying Nowhere to Go: “I get tired of being Beatle Jeff, talking to the deaf ”), studio jams, a 60-page booklet and a Blu-ray audio disc of their remixed original album.
Among the extra songs are many bagatelles: a run through The Beatles’ Get Back, Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine (from the late 20s) and Harrison’s enjoyable Elvis imitation on the rockabilly original Going Down to Golders Green. But few could have argued for their place on the album.
However, the original All Things Must Pass stands up because it brought together thoughtful – or amusing – lyrics, folk (Dylan’s If Not for You), ballads ( I’d Have You Any Time), downbeat meditations ( Isn’t It a Pity), a smidgen of country ( Behind that Locked Door, with Nashville pedalsteel player Pete Drake), cinematic rock ( Wah Wah, Let It Down) and more.
And in this more spacious anniversary mix, the acoustic guitars are crisper and Harrison’s voice – often not as strained in the demos – is more to the fore.
All Things Must Pass, which had more modest 30th- and 40th-anniversary reissues, was a defining moment in Harrison’s solo career (diminishing returns thereafter), offering philosophical messages (the title track, Beware of Darkness, Art of Dying) which, while not uncommon at the time, are rarely evident on today’s charts beyond blandishments. And Harrison was less admonishing than he would become.
It’s surprisingly relevant, with its themes of love, compassion and spirituality, and the expanded edition certainly includes a few gems: his demos of Isn’t It a Pity and Run of the Mill; the nine minute-plus jam on Hear Me Lord.
There’s also the $2500 uber deluxe boxed set: a wooden crate of records, CDs, books, prayer beads, a bookmark made from a fallen oak on Harrison’s estate. For former hippies who are now retired hedge-fund managers perhaps? l
All Things Must Pass is surprisingly relevant, with its themes of love, compassion and spirituality.
The expanded 50th-anniversary edition of George Harrison’s
All Things Must Pass comes in numerous iterations, including an eight-record version. It is also on Spotify.