George Harrison "Early Takes Volume 1" *

Well you know, The Harrison's themselves. Are the one's who periodically dangle, the tantalizing bait. Then after a polite or reasonable interval. They look bewildered & say something like what songs ? There are no songs. Or worse, sometimes Dhani becomes hostile & or condescending. I owe the fans nothing, nothing you hear me ! It's mine, mine, mine ( Insert cackle )

I mean it just happened again yesterday. Olivia Harrison told Billboard she might have Dhani finish some George tunes. But she can't be definitive, because she hasn't had time to look into it.

Do they drink ?

 

But you're okay with the shirt?

Mark

 

Giles remixed some of the music for the newly revamped Vegas Love presentation, not for a new updated commercial CD project. Twist & Shout is the lone "new" song, though others have supposedly been remixed to take advantage of the upgraded speaker system at the Mirage. Ron

 

He sure was so hostile and bewildered two years ago when he was involved in the Apple Box...

maybe people should stop asking the same questions and expect a different answer

do you? bottom's up!

 

cdice's account of meeting Dhani at Coachella does not include anything about Dhani directing the F word at anyone.

She said she found "one tape from 1966 with music she'd never heard before." She didn't say they were Beatles demos.

Here's Dhani's actual quote about sometimes not wanting to share his father with the world:

That is an interesting thing, actually. There's times when you feel like this person's getting taken away from you. Maybe you see them on an Apple billboard or something and you think, "Oh. He belongs to everyone." You know, you've just got to be quiet and go in the garden and meditate, and then you remember lots of other stuff that's personal and deeper.

But, yeah, when we released the Martin Scorsese documentary, there was a lot of press around that, and a lot of clips that people had edited together in their own way to make a little George Harrison compilation. That kind of weighs on your heart a little bit, and makes you feel disconnected. You just feel like everyone else. And it's a hard thing to understand unless you've had a parent who's passed away and who's been in the public eye. Sometimes you don't want to share them.​

It had nothing to do with listening to his father's unreleased music alone.

He mentions only one box set in the Billboard interview.

We don't know any of that.

 

Hey guys, just be glad ol' johnny moondog/jcjc hasn't brought up "Now And Then" yet...

 

Compared to the pants, the shirt was "okay".

 

And aren't we supposed to get reissued VINYL LPs of some (all?) of George's albums in the near future (maybe by say George's birthday in 2017). I think that is next on the Harrison agenda.

SEE:

 

Not that anyone should care what I think on this matter, but I have a generally positive view of Dhani. He seems to have a healthier relation to his father's legacy and a more satisfying relation to his own modest career than, well, some others. I like that Dhani just sort of does his thing making the music he wants. Is he hustling like a hungry musician with something to prove? No. But it's hardly his fault for being born into comfortable circumstances and I think Dhani wears it far better than most. Does he take advantage of his name? Sure. And why not? But I think he does so modestly and so more tastefully than most other celebrity brats. The real question is what he does with those favorable circumstances. Does he make great music? Well... he makes good music! And that's good enough for me. And that's not something I've yet thought about James, it's not something I've said about Julian since 1984, and it's not something that was really true for Sean until, all unexpectedly for me, he finally found his groove with GOASTT. Well, I take that back: I also liked Sean's debut. But anyway.

As for the wranglings over Early Takes Vol. 2, if indeed there are any, can we agree that the issue is money? That the label would put out any album Dhani and Olivia would wish -- but on the condition that it not lose money for them? That they have every incentive to be as expert as anyone can be about what various corners of the market will support? Can we also stipulate that there is nearly infinite good will toward the Beatles in the industry... but, again, that no division-head is going to green-light a project that will lose money for his bosses or shareholders?

So, what's the hold up? I say: it's either Olivia and Dhani not making a pitch to the label (because they haven't come to a decision themselves or because Dhani has his own little career he'd like to work on), or else Olivia and Dhani are holding out for financial terms the label doesn't feel the market will support. I'll speculate further: I think the market, such as it is, would support more George releases -- I mean, how many posthumous releases does Zappa have?! And the Zappa releases keep coming! The labels themselves are surely aware of such examples. But I'm guessing Dhani and Olivia are holding out for more favorable terms than the Zappa estate has settled for. I'm further guessing that the Zappa camp has a more realistic sense for their contemporary market than the Harrison camp has of theirs. Finally, I'm guessing that the Harrison estate is accustomed to Beatle-level label support: lots of promotion assured in advance, a fancy EPK, super sweet packaging, teams of engineers paying lots of attention to sonic detail. Something the Zappa family doesn't expect. And in this narrow sense, from a label perspective, George is no Beatle. You can say neither is Paul -- and fair enough, from a label persecutive, who is?! But Paul is also a far richer man with a more active interest in tending to his legacy and he's more willing to shell out to preserve and extend it. I would bet that Dhani and Olivia have a keener sense for every $10k they would have to spend to pay some engineers or fly in some friends to discuss overdubs or whatever. And so they dither. And so we wait. And so it is.

 

You've brought up something here that I've not been able to put into words myself, as well as perhaps answered it. And that is, look at all the niche archival releases that come out every year. Look at all the time, care, and presumably money going into the upcoming Gene Clark release, for example. Certainly there HAS to be a market for previously unreleased Harrison material! But it hadn't occurred to me that Olivia and Dhani won't go forward without "Beatle treatment". Maybe they couldn't go outside the lines even if they wanted to do their own thing for contractual reasons? It's a shame it has to be complicated, if indeed it is.

 

Hopefully they will be made from them.

 

The pants and shirt are AWESOME! Just not together. Even in the anything goes psychedelic Summer of Love, one simply must coordinate better.

 

I think that Rob and you have hit the nail on the head. The first volume had a well marketed Scorsese directed film connected to it, whereas a potential volume 2 would not.

Something along the lines of the 'Gene Clark' release would be wonderful for the fans, but maybe that sort of release is too low-key for Olivia and Dhani, who are of course more accustomed to getting a certain amount of publicity.

I suppose that one way of assuring publicity would be to have McCartney, Petty, Lynne, etc, finishing some of the demos, and this is an idea that Olivia has actually spoken about. I would love for that to happen, but only if the unfinished demos were also released, maybe as part of a 'deluxe' set.

In a dream world, the 'Early Volumes' series would simply be scrapped and replaced with a large boxset to compliment the 'Apple Years' and 'Dark Horse' boxsets, maybe with an extra CD made up of potential songs finished by his friends.

 

I agree with you. And if there's simply not mass demand for it, then I think something like the Harrison/Shankar "Collaborations" box would be perfect. Just get it all in there (including a '74 tour cd and dvd, please and thank you) at once and be done with it. Frankly, I don't understand why they're doing a vinyl release of everything they just put out on cd before the unreleased stuff.

 

Yes, it seems to me a higher-priced box set with lots of stuff would be better for selling to the collector's market. As it is, "early takes" single volumes directed at a general buying audience, with an expectation of higher sales and Beatle-level interest, simply seems like a conceptual category mismatch to me. I don't know what's in the minds of Olivia and Dhani, but I suspect that because of their close personal and emotional connection to George, they may not be capable of a realistic outlook and assessment.

 

Patti's looking at him like "You're not gonna wear that into town are you?"

 

That's Cilla surely?

 

Yes, this was another reason why Patti left George to hook up with Eric. She wanted someone who had a sense of fashion:

 

No, it's Patti.

 

More than that for me, I can't afford it! One of the Rock and Roll memoirs I've really wanted, too.

 

I'd be happy with a Spice Girls medley.

 

I propose they release a triple album set to bring things full circle, sort of, considering his first post-Beatles LP was a triple. Call it Early Takes Vol. 2, 3, and 5 or something like that (to be cheeky). In other words, give it the grandeur (and pricing) of a multi-disc set, so that it gets attention/publicity, and make each disc at least 45 minutes, so it that it doesn't feel like a rip-off, but is short enough so a vinyl edition can be prepared without the cost of extra discs relative to the CD. Give us all the good stuff in one blast to get it over with. If Dhani wants to "complete" some of the songs too barrel-scraping to be released as-is, fine. But maybe put the originals for free on the website, or as hidden tracks. My hope would be that no more that 1/3 of the project be devoted to recordings considerably added-to by others. (Although creative mixing subtractions, reverb, EQ choices are encouraged somewhat).

 

If Olivia and Dhani truly "don't have time" to do the job, perhaps they should turn the whole train wreck over to the Bear Family. We'd get some kickass box sets that way.

 

I thought Giles Martin was the one who was sorting out his archive, but he's been pretty busy the last couple of years what with the Beatles "1+" collection and the Hollywood Bowl reissue.

Maybe when "Hollywood Bowl" is out Giles will have the time to work on George's stuff.

 

Look it's been 16 years The Harrison's are worth a publicly estimated 500-700 million dollars. With millions of dollars in income still dribbling in from Love Las Vegas, Beatles sales, Harrison sales & whatever else they have going.

George Harrison was a part of the biggest act in the history of show business. Revered by millions to this day..

I'm pretty sure the I haven't had time or I'm too busy remarks, are basically smoke screens for disinterest. 16 years is plenty of time to settle any wrangling with record labels or personal schedules. They of all people, have the ability to compile & or finish, & garner a 1st class release for Harrison's archival work, anytime they want to.

The idea they haven't had time or the ability, is insulting to fans, & specious in general terms. If they absolutely had to dig into their own pockets, for a couple hundred grand, what possible difference. Would it make to their financial security or lifestyle. Generally the super wealthy , are worth a lot more than the public figures, to reduce taxes.