John and Paul's response to "All Things Must Pass?"*

There used to be a few versions on Youtube, where some enterprising person synched up the two guitar solos. I recall one version was off a bit in the timing, but another version was interesting.

HOWEVER, both of those old Youtube clips have been removed from the site now.

 

Wasn't "ra-ta-ta-ta" rockin' enough?

 

I've not heard another agree but I've always found that Ram responds to All Things Must Pass in production, ambition and 'feel'. Of course everyone misses this while searching for Lennon-McCartney snipes at the time! But think about a certain pastoral feel which begins on The White Album and is part of Let It Be, McCartney, All Things Must Pass and Ram and you can see that Paul and George were plying the same or adjacent furrows (as were lots of others whose response to the collapse of 'sixties hype' was to get rural and spiritual).
I also find that Ram tributes Phil Spector in the same way as Brian Wilson's work did without imitating Spector and that the starting point for that tribute is likely ATMP. There's bound to be a certain grudginess in McCartney's rendering but George and Ringo later said that while they were admiring of Spector's wall of sound, it did assume a kind of 'spray on effect' all over ATMP rather than cater to the nuances of tracks. This is probably why I've never listened all the way through to ATMP. It's got a monosyllabic production style that does the delicacies of George's writing few favours and also exhausts my ear.

 

A deluxe ATMP re-issue is definitely in order for the 50th Anniversary, with the original mix remastered + a new remix that dials the "Wall of Sound" and reverb way down.

Harrison himself said he really considered doing a full remix for the 30th Anniversary in 2000, but in the end he probably couldn't be bothered to handle that much work himself, what with cancer and the stabbing he was dealing with.

But now is the time for Dhani to initiate this, and free up a lot of these songs from the echo chamber so we can better hear George's beautiful chords and words.

 

This is an interesting post, but I'm not in full agreement with you.

I don't see the RAM/ATMP connection. I've always sensed that both represented next steps in the arcs of both Paul and George. If you think of the White Album, you could easily imagine Uncle Albert, Dear Boy, and even Ram On fitting very nicely as "Paul" songs, and Beware of Darkness, Apple Scruffs, Isnt It A Pity, etc as being very much "George" songs. Very different from each other, but also very much tied to where they were already going as artists.

The Spector production thing is an endless debate, made worse because George himself later regretted it. But as for it being "monosyballic", I just don't agree. I find that true of the digital remasters, but the original vinyl sounds SO dense and sweet, I can't imagine it being different. It's one of my favorite albums to play on vinyl.

And RAM is like this magic blend of indie production and classic George Martin orchestration. I love it, but it lacks the sheer gravitas of ATMP.

 

Unfortunately I can't see this happening. They could have released this in 2010, but it didn't happen. The Early Takes series seems dead with it still awaiting a second volume after five years.

Things have happened at a snail's pace for a long time in the world of George Harrison, and his estate committing to a 2020 release date for an ATMP deluxe would be vastly out of character.

 

I could easily see Olivia / Dhani tossing the project to Giles Martin.

 

A "muscular" ATMP?

 

Maybe it could include an official release of Dera Duhn? And a few other scraps that weren't on the 30th. A Beatles/Get Back sessions run-through of All Things Must Pass, even if in mono, would be an awesome bonus track. Given that an exhaustive Let it Be Box Set with renditions of songs that did NOT make the final album is unlikely (given such rules Apple put in place with Giles for the Pepper re-release), I don't see why Paul, Ringo or Yoko would have a problem with a Beatles rehearsal of ATMP making its way onto an anniversary edition of ATMP. If you're approaching ATMP in terms of a narrative story, the Get Back sessions were certainly a big influencer on George's debut album.

TBH, I'd simply like a deluxe box set of ATMP that doesn't have the cheeky but kind of crummy colorized cover that the 30th had. Sorry, George.

As for John's response to ATMP, it's pretty clear. He asked George to play guitar on a lot of Imagine, and then on "I'm the Greatest" too. If John had continued releasing albums in the mid-late 70s, I have no doubt that George would have played on one of them when in NYC.

While everything on ATMP was probably not to John's specific musical taste, I think he must have recognized George's achievement with the album, and it probably went a long way to John treating George more like an equal rather than a kid brother.

 

After the two great songs on Abbey Road and a very good triple-LP, the question is: why did George's creativity slip up so much for rest of the decade (and a bit beyond)? He made a lot of sucky music in the 70's after ATMP, a few good songs excepted. Maybe his interest in making movies diluted his music making.

 

The backing track of The Inner Light made it onto the Wonderwall Music reissue, so it's possible.

 

Solo by Duane Allman...

 

And the idea for Wilson Pickett to sing the song in the first place came from Duane too.

 

I think it was more of a case of George having had the ATMP material stockpiled for a few years, he used most of it in one fell swoop before having to write fresh for the rest of his albums. "You have a lifetime to write yer first album, a year to write yer second", that kinda thing. Though, it must be said, I think just about every one of George's other solo albums have at least one song that he'd either written or recorded years before the rest (i.e. "Try Some Buy Some" on Material World, "You" on Texture, "Woman Don't You Cry For Me" on 33 1/3 etc). The other problem with George's solo material -and I say this as a big fan of his stuff, mind ya- is that as a whole his music got very formulaic over time: the slow tempos, reliance on massed layered slide guitar parts, horns (Tom Scott) and keyboards ("dated" 70's sounding Fender Rhodes and organ parts, no less). Motifs that got pretty cliched over time (one of the reasons the self titled 1979 album stands out is his producer tried to steer him away from all those "Haricliches" and out of his comfort zone for the most part) and can make listening to some of those albums feel like a bit of a slog. I mean, I can listen to 'em, but even as a fan I can see why a) some of George's albums weren't very successful and b) why they're not necessarily to everybody's tastes, musically or lyrically.

 

No, Paul produced Ram that way because critics couldn't get off how underproduced/raw McCartney was.

 

I never understood that. Considering McCartney was mainly a home recorded album, one mike plugged straight into the 4 track, how "produced" did the critics think it was gonna sound? Or was it a case of the actual studio recorded tracks ("Maybe I'm Amazed" etc) sticking out too much?

 

This was part of the reason Cloud Nine and his other late 80's adventures did so well -- it derived from those cliches in probably the most drastic way yet. Sure, they pop up every now and then, but Jeff Lynne deserves credit for bringing a new spin to the "George sound".

Mind you, 33 1/3 could be bunched in with his self-titled album and stepping out of his comfort zone, since the sound (while still having a George-ish hint) was fresh and upbeat compared to the dirge of the previous album. It's too bad this string of albums couldn't continue with Somewhere in England, even after Mo's suggestion to make it more "mainstream,"'who knows, maybe he wouldn't have lost interest in recording when he did.

 

Isn't that Ringo clumsily trying to rewrite "Carolina in My Mind"?

 

I love every studio cut in it's existing context. But I agree, George has 2 great single studio records there. He could have saved one for the following year and been the biggest act in rock.

 

No question, consciously or unconsciously George was trying reinvent his art/career with Cloud Nine. Jeff Lynne definitely helped there. And it paid off in spades, didn't it?

Yeah, Somewhere In England is probably the Harialbum that most suffers most from those "cliches" I mentioned. It's like Harrison doing a parody of himself in places.

 

George's choices became very predictable. Heard This Song on S/XM this morning. The tune itself is quite good. But the production and lyrics seem so lazy to me. I recall owning 331/3 and wondering when the magic was going to kick in. It's a solid record, but like many of George's 70's work, it could have been so much better. Slide guitar for example is a solo option best used for dramatic effect, not layered all over everything. Just my 2 cents....

 

Gotta admit, though, George made that layered slide style all his own- his trademark, as it were (and one that McCartney was leery about George using during the "Free As A Bird" sessions...until Paul actually heard him playing, that is). I agree, though, George fell back on certain musical details throughout his solo career as a "comfort" sorta thing. "This Song" (which I don't like) is as good example as any: you got the squawking Tom Scott horns, the Billy Preston gospel-inspired organ/piano...don't know if it was out of laziness on Harrison's part, but album after album those sorts of touches became awfully predictable.

 

Exactly! Now, what I LOVE about George's slide guitar on the new Beatles tracks is that he comes in and takes the songs to a new and different plane. Very unexpected, excellently played -- commanding the listener to pay attention. His parts on Free As A Bird and Real Love (along side the vocal harmonies) are the best aspects of those songs.

 

Wasn't part of the album's huge success due to being a double album? Would it have had the same impact as a single?

 

Fortunately "Gone Troppo" was a return to upbeat George.

Not quite sure why "Somewhere in England" was such a step backwards. "Dark Horse" and "Extra Texture" can be explained by his troubled 1973-1975 period, but there's no explanation for SIE.