Read All About It...The EXTRA TEXTURE song-by-song discussion!

Making good on a long time promise/threat here

Wiki sez:
Extra Texture (Read All About It) is the sixth studio album by English musician George Harrison, released in September 1975. It was Harrison's final album under his contract with Apple Records and EMI, and the last studio album issued by Apple. The release came nine months after his troubled 1974 North American tour with Ravi Shankar and the poorly received Dark Horse album. The melancholic mood of the recording reflects Harrison's depressed state at the criticism generated by these projects.

Among Harrison's post-Beatles solo releases, Extra Texture is the only album on which his lyrics are devoid of any obvious spiritual message. Uniquely also, it was recorded mostly in America rather than England, while Harrison was working in Los Angeles in his role as head of Dark Horse Records. Gary Wright, David Foster, Jim Keltner, Jesse Ed Davis, Leon Russell, Tom Scott, Billy Preston and Jim Horn were among the many contributing musicians. The keyboard-heavy arrangements incorporate elements of soul music and the influence of Smokey Robinson, signalling a further departure from the rock and folk-rock sound of Harrison's popular early-1970s work. Contrasting with the musical content, the album's art design conveys an upbeat mood and includes an unusual die-cut cover with a textured surface.

Despite receiving an unfavourable response from the majority of music critics, Extra Texture was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America within two months of release. It produced a hit single in the Motown-inspired "You", originally recorded in London in 1971 with co-producer Phil Spector. The album also includes "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)", which was both a sequel to Harrison's 1968 composition "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and a rebuttal to his detractors. The album was remastered and reissued in September 2014, as part of the Apple Years 1968–75 Harrison box set.

Background
When I got off the plane and back home, I went into the garden and I was so relieved. That was the nearest I got to a nervous breakdown. I couldn't even go into the house.
– George Harrison, discussing his return to Friar Park after the 1974 North American tour
In its 13 February 1975 issue, Rolling Stone magazine derided George Harrison's North American tour with Ravi Shankar over November–December 1974, and the accompanying Dark Horse album, as "disastrous". Previously viewed as "the surprise winner of the ex-Beatle sweepstakes", in the words of author Nicholas Schaffner – the dark horse – Harrison had disappointed many fans of his former group by failing to acknowledge the Beatles' legacy, both in the content of his 1974 shows and in his dealings with the media.[8] In addition, his commitment to launching his Dark Horse record label had left Harrison rushing to finish the album while rehearsing for the concerts;as a result, he contracted laryngitis and sang hoarse on much of the recordings and throughout the tour. While Dark Horse sold well initially in America, it failed to place at all on Britain's top 50 albums chart.


Harrison, US president Gerald Ford and Ravi Shankar at the White House in December 1974, towards the end of the tour
Despite Harrison's claims during the tour that the negative press only made him more determined, the criticism hit him hard,following the end of his marriage to Pattie Boyd. In a radio interview with Dave Herman of WNEW-FM in April 1975, recorded in Los Angeles,Harrison said that he accepted the validity of professional criticism, but objected when it came continually from "one basic source"; then, he added, it became "a personal thing".Author Simon Leng writes that the "bitterness and dismay" Harrison felt manifested itself on his follow-up to Dark Horse, titled Extra Texture (Read All About It), which would be the final studio album issued on the Beatles' Apple record label.

The album came about while Harrison was in Los Angeles overseeing projects by some of his Dark Horse signings, one of which, Splinter, became unavailable to attend sessions pre-booked for them at A&M Studios.Although Harrison was unimpressed with the recording facility, he chose to use the vacated studio time himself.Authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter suggest that this decision was influenced by his business relationship with A&M Records, who were Dark Horse's worldwide distributor and the company with which Harrison was widely expected to sign as a solo artist, following the expiration of his EMI/Capitol-affiliated Apple contract in January 1976.Having barely written a song in the six months since completing Dark Horse, in late October 1974, he swiftly completed some half-finished compositions and wrote "a couple of new ones".Leng cites these circumstances, together with Harrison's eagerness "to cut a new album as soon as possible, to extricate himself from the Capitol/EMI contract", as part of an expedient quality that defines Extra Texture.

Songs
Writing for Rolling Stone in 2002, Mikal Gilmore commented that "the crises [Harrison] faced in the mid-1970s changed him", and that depression was a key factor.Depression permeated many of the songs that Harrison wrote during this period,an issue that was not helped by his continued heavy drinking and cocaine use.While viewing this mindset as an extension of the artist's "unholy coping mechanisms" over 1973–74, author Robert Rodriguez writes: "What's interesting is how he chose to address what he'd been grappling with, musically. In the end, Extra Texture is unique within the Harrison catalog as essentially an LP-length excursion into soul [music]."

With this new album of mine, all I want is to be able to sing the tunes I have and to do them as warm and as simple as possible ... You know, I don't see my music anymore as being top 20 somehow ... It matters more to me that I can simply sing it better, play it better, and with less orchestration get over more feeling.
– Harrison to WNEW-FM, April 1975
Lyrically, "The Answer's at the End", "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)", "World of Stone" and "Grey Cloudy Lies" all steer clear of his usual subject matter – Hindu spirituality – and instead appear to ask the listener for compassion.According to author and theologian Dale Allison, Extra Texture is "the sole Harrison album that fails to make any positive theological statements".Allison adds that its "confused melancholy" provides a sharp contrast with the "confident religious advocacy" of the artist's previous successes All Things Must Pass (1970) and Living in the Material World (1973).Harrison's wavering from his Krishna-conscious path was most evident in "World of Stone", writes author Gary Tillery: "'Such a long way from home,' he says, but in his autobiography he renders it, 'Such a long way from OM' – confessing inner turmoil at having strayed from his faith."The same despair was evident in "Grey Cloudy Lies", a track that Harrison described to Paul Gambaccini in September 1975[48] as "one of those depressing, 4 o'clock in the morning sort of songs".

Harrison had begun writing "World of Stone", "Grey Cloudy Lies" and the soul-pop love song "Can't Stop Thinking About You" in 1973.He started "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)" in Hawaii over Christmas 1974, while holidaying with his new girlfriend (later his wife), Olivia Arias, a secretary at Dark Horse's LA office. The song is a sequel to Harrison's popular Beatles track "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and the lyrics serve as a rebuttal to his critics, particularly Rolling Stone, whose savaging of the tour he would never forgive.

Harrison wrote "Tired of Midnight Blue" in Los Angeles, where he continued to be based for much of 1975 on business relating to Dark Horse Records. In his 1980 autobiography, I, Me, Mine, he says that the song's lyrics focused on his "depressed" state following a night in an LA club with "a lot of grey-haired naughty people". In Tillery's estimation, with its chorus line "Made me chill right to the bone", "Tired of Midnight Blue" was Harrison reaching "rock bottom". As the most obvious example of his embracing of soul music on the album, he wrote "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)" as the first of two tributes to Smokey Robinson, a singer whose work with the Miracles he had admired since the early 1960s.

In addition to these compositions, Harrison revisited two unused recordings: the Motown-styled "You", and "His Name Is Legs (Ladies and Gentlemen)", which open and close the album, respectively. Co-produced with Phil Spector in London, "You" was among the basic tracks taped in February 1971 for a planned Apple solo album by Spector's wife, Ronnie, formerly Veronica Bennett of the Ronettes. A reprise of the completed song, in the form of a brief instrumental titled "A Bit More of You", also appears on Extra Texture, opening side two in the LP format."His Name Is Legs" was recorded at Harrison's Friar Park studio, FPSHOT, shortly before the 1974 tour,with Billy Preston, Tom Scott, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark. In a private joke that few listeners were able to appreciate,the song features a hard-to-decipher monologue performed by "Legs" Larry Smith, formerly a member of Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.The inclusion of these two older tracks provided some upbeat material on an album predominantly filled with ballads.

Production
Recording

A&M Records' headquarters (including the company's recording studios), pictured in 1922 in their former guise as Charlie Chaplin Studios
Alone among the studio albums that Harrison released between the break-up of the Beatles and his death in 2001, most of the recording for Extra Texture was carried out in the United States.The sessions took place on part of A&M's block along La Brea Avenue in Hollywood, where both the studio and the record company were based. Throughout the spring and summer of 1975, Harrison regularly attended Dark Horse's office, located in a bungalow shared with A&M-distributed Ode Records, and otherwise became fully involved in the Los Angeles music scene. Shortly before starting work on the album, he was among the guests at Wings' party on the Queen Mary ocean liner, at Long Beach, where a "drawn"-looking Harrisonwas seen socialising with Paul McCartney for the first time since the Beatles' break-up five years before. Often accompanied by Arias, Harrison caught shows by Bob Marley & the Wailers, Smokey Robinson and Santana, socialised with Ringo Starr, and met up with Preston and Ronnie Wood backstage after one of the Rolling Stones' concerts at the LA Forum. New friends such as Eric Idle entered Harrison's social circle that summer, although the Python's influence only extended to Extra Texture's quirky artwork and packaging rather than its musical content.

With Norman Kinney as engineer, Harrison recorded the basic tracks for the new songs between 21 April and 7 May 1975, beginning with "Tired of Midnight Blue" and "The Answer's at the End".Among the musicians on the album were many of Harrison's previous collaborators and associates, including Jim Keltner (drums), Gary Wright (keyboards), Jesse Ed Davis (guitar), Klaus Voormann (bass), and Tom Scott, Jim Horn and Chuck Findley(all horns).Along with Keltner, the most regular participant was a young David Foster, then the piano player in Keltner's band, Attitudes, while the group's bassist and singer, Paul Stallworth, also contributed. On what would turn out to be a noticeably keyboard-dominated sound, Leon Russell and Nicky Hopkins made guest appearances as well.

Voormann, a close friend of Harrison's since 1960, found the atmosphere at the sessions unpleasant; he later cited the heavy drug use typical of the LA music scene, in particular,but also the ex-Beatle's "frame of mind when he was doing this album". Keltner, who described his own friendship with Harrison as "like brothers", has similarly spoken of Los Angeles as an unsuitable environment for Harrison during this period, while commenting that Arias "came into the picture at just the right time, a crazy, dark time". With Voormann choosing to absent himself, Harrison played some of the album's bass parts himself, using either ARP or Moog synthesizer.

Where on previous records George was living at home in Friar Park, in LA he was staying in a hotel and he was a big deal. Too many people wanted to get to him, too many bad things were available. He should never have made a record outside Friar Park.
– Jim Keltner, commenting on the Los Angeles recording sessions
Overdubbing and mixing
After a few weeks' break, the overdubbing phase began at A&M on 31 May. That day, instruments were added to the 1971 basic track for "You", including a saxophone solo (played by Horn), extra keyboards and a second drum part. Over 2–3 June, Scott and Findley overdubbed horns on "Ooh Baby" and "His Name Is Legs". The Foster-arranged strings for "This Guitar", "The Answer's at the End" and "Can't Stop Thinking About You" were recorded between 6 and 9 June. Final mixing of the album's ten songs lasted through July and possibly into August.

Between June and October 1975, Preston's It's My Pleasure album, Peter Skellern's Hard Times and Splinter's Harder to Live were released,and sessions took place in August for Scott's New York Connection. All of these albums include guitar cameos from Harrison (often credited to his pseudonym "Hari Georgeson"), yet his playing on Extra Texture was surprisingly minimal. Harrison's signature instrument since 1970, the slide guitar, appeared significantly on "Tired of Midnight Blue" only, and in his extended solo on "This Guitar", on which he shared the lead guitarist's role with Jesse Ed Davis.

Harrison's voice had fully recovered from the effects of laryngitis,allowing him to reach falsetto and indulge in gospel-style scat singing. In author Alan Clayson's estimation, with Harrison adopting a new, "close-miked" soft vocal style, much of Extra Texture reflected "the more feathery emanations from Philadelphia by the likes of The Stylistics and Jerry Butler".Leng considers that Harrison "was clearly targeting the mainstream U.S. audience" and adds: "There were few spiritual lyrics and absolutely no references to Krishna, while his much-criticized vocals were stronger, but recorded at a low level, as if the goal was to create a Harrison soul album for lovers."

Album artwork and title

Inner-sleeve picture of Harrison, taken by 1974 tour photographer Henry Grossman; copyright Apple Records
The album's art design was credited to Capitol's in-house designer, Roy Kohara. Harrison supplied sketches for each item of the artwork,which adopted a humorous, "wacky" theme throughout the packaging.[29] The vivid-orange front cover featured a die-cut design around the words "EXTRA TEXTURE", through which an inner-sleeve, blue-tinted picture of Harrison was visible. Some vinyl editions presented the words as simple blue text on an orange background, however, doing away with the expensive cut-out detail.In keeping with the album title, the thin cardboard used for the LP cover was similar in texture to the "animal skin used on a football", according to Beatles author Bruce Spizer. The front cover included an Om symbol, positioned below the angled title text and also coloured blue. On the back of the inner sleeve, there was a second Henry Grossman tour photo of Harrison, clearly enjoying himself on stage.

Seen as a joke referencing the demise of the Beatles' record label, the Apple logo was presented on Extra Texture as an eaten-away apple core. In addition, the blue inner-sleeve photo of Harrison – "grinning like a Monty Pythonchoirboy", in the words of Robert Christgau – was captioned "OHNOTHIMAGEN" ("Oh not him again"), Harrison's self-deprecating take on his dwindling popularity in 1974–75.The album's full title was a pun on the slogan that street-corner paperboys would yell out to sell late-breaking news editions of their newspapers: "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" Harrison had intended to call the album Ohnothimagen,until a studio discussion with Paul Stallworth suggested an alternative. According to Harrison, just as he himself was talking about an overdub needing something "extra", Stallworth happened to say the word "texture".

As on Dark Horse, Harrison listed contributing musicians for each song, on the LP's back cover, but this time with an additional list for those not appearing. The first of these is guitarist Danny Kortchmar, the fourth member of Attitudes; others include Derek Taylor, Eric Idle, Peter Sellers and Dark Horse executive Dino Airali.

Release
Appearing nine months after Dark Horse, Extra Texture (Read All About It) was completed more quickly than any of Harrison's previous post-Beatles solo albums. The haste with which it was made was out of character for Harrison,and apparently symbolic of a wish to redeem himself with his audience before he left EMI for A&M Records.Preceded by its advance single, "You" backed with "World of Stone", the album was released on 22 September 1975 in America (as Apple SW 3420) and on 3 October in Britain (Apple PAS 10009).

In another departure from past form, Harrison undertook promotion for his new album, in Britain.One of these activities, broadcast on 6 September, was his track-by-track discussion with Paul Gambaccini on the BBC Radio 1 show Rockweek. The same day, Melody Maker published an interview with Harrison, the magazine's cover declaring: "George Bounces Back!" Although he later admitted to being "in a real down place" while making the album, the Melody Maker interview found Harrison in good humour, pointing the way to a return in form the following year; "I'd rather be an ex-Beatle than an ex-Nazi!" he joked, referring to his recent uneasy experience with the musical John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert. Harrison's other activities in late 1975 likewise centred on comedy, beginning with his production of Monty Python's single "The Lumberjack Song", released in November, and including a humorous star turn, again with Eric Idle, on Rutland Weekend Television's Christmas special.

Extra Texture peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart on 25 October, holding the position for three weeks,and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on 11 November. The album marked a welcome, though brief, return for Harrison to the official UK Albums Chart (now a top 60), reaching number 16 there in late October. "You" peaked at number 20 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles listings, while in the UK, despite the song receiving substantial airplay on Radio 1, its highest position was number 38,equalling that of his Dark Horse single "Ding Dong, Ding Dong".As the follow-up to "You", Apple issued "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)" backed by the 1974 album track "Māya Love", in December,with a UK release following in February 1976. Apple's final single in its original incarnation, "This Guitar" failed to chart in either America or Britain, a fate that Rodriguez partly attributes to a lack of promotion from a label that was "[r]unning on fumes".

Reissue
Extra Texture (Read All About It) was remastered for CD release in January 1992. The album was remastered again and reissued in September 2014, as both a separate release and as part of the Harrison box set The Apple Years 1968–75. The 2014 reissue includes a liner note essay by radio producer and author Kevin Howlett, and adds a new version of "This Guitar", based on a demo that Harrison recorded in 1992 for Dave Stewart. Previously issued only as a digital download for the latter's Platinum Weird project, in 2006, the track features overdubs from Stewart, Harrison's son Dhani, Ringo Starr and singer Kara DioGuardi. Previewing the release on georgeharrison.com, Olivia Harrison spoke of the "strong melodies and thought-provoking lyrics" of many of the songs on Extra Texture, adding: "They are moody and personal and some of my favourites."

Critical reception
Contemporary reviews
Discussing the album's reception in his 1977 book The Beatles Forever, Nicholas Schaffner wrote: "Harrison's worldly critics, who had long found his sermons insufferable, responded like bulls to a red flag to Extra Texture, which contains a number of treatises on how reviewers always 'miss the point.'" Even Harrison's loyal "disciples", Schaffner continued, tended to view the album as "plodding and aimless".Rolling Stone's reviewer, Dave Marsh, highlighted "You" as a return to All Things Must Pass-style grandeur, and "Can't Stop Thinking About You" and "Tired of Midnight Blue" as "the most effective nine minutes of music" the artist had made since 1970. Generally, on an album that was "sketchy at best", however, Marsh bemoaned the over-reliance on "merely competent" keyboards and Harrison's "affectingly feeble voice", before concluding: "Harrison is no longer a Beatle, as he has reminded us more than we have asked. But if he learned nothing else from his experience in that organization, it ought to have been that a good guitar player isn't worth much without a band."

In the NME, Neil Spencer wrote that "Though Extra Texture isn't the Harrison revival that many might have hopes for, it's still several leagues superior to Hari's more recent efforts; and just as All Things Must Pass would have made a great single album, so Extra Texturewould make a more than commendable single side." Spencer described the album's content as "the customary mournful and doom-laden Harrison we've come to know and fear, only this time the rigours of love take precedence over matters spiritual", and he advised his readers: "I've played it, I don't mind it ... Hari fans can anticipate purchase with glee. Others approach with cautious optimism." Reviewing for Melody Maker, Ray Coleman described it as "splendid" and approved of Harrison's return to his 1960s musical influences. Coleman especially admired the first three songs and said that the album was a "re-statement of the fundamentals we should all cherish".

In the 1977 edition of their book The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Roy Carr and Tony Tyler described Extra Texture as "another lugubrious offering" and concluded: "the needle of the listener's personal Ecstatograph points sullenly towards zero throughout."Harrison's pleas for tolerance and understanding, like his self-deprecation on the album sleeve, seemed to backfire. Writing in 1981, Bob Woffinden found that the album showed signs that Harrison was "no longer so scornful of his audience" compared with Dark Horse. Woffinden wrote of the songs that "plead plaintively with critics not to judge too severely": "In this different context, such pleas are more sympathetic. Very well, then, we will not. Extra Texture wasn't really very good musically ... but it did have some appealing qualities, and barely any disagreeable ones."

Retrospective reviews and legacy
In his book subtitled The Beatles' Solo Years, 1970–1980, Robert Rodriguez features Extra Texture in a chapter dedicated to the worst solo albums released by the four ex-Beatles between 1970 and 1980 – the only one of Harrison's albums to be included there. Rodriguez writes: "To be sure, Extra Texture boasted several fine cuts ... but the remainder of the collection was almost entirely weary in tone, amounting to a prolonged buzz kill."Nick DeRiso, co-founder of the music website Something Else!, includes it on his list of the five worst solo albums by either John Lennon, McCartney or Harrison, and describes it as a "grinding, relentlessly downbeat album, where even the name Extra Texture has come to feel like a cruel joke".

Several Harrison biographers likewise hold Extra Texture in low esteem, with Alan Clayson describing it as his "artistic nadir" and "a bedsit record rather than a dancing one". Simon Leng writes that Harrison's post-Dark Horse "rehabilitation disc" came way too soon, resulting in an uncharacteristically passionless work, with its singer sounding "punch drunk".Aside from the uplifting "You", both authors identify "Tired of Midnight Blue" as the only saving grace. Gary Tillery notes the "darkly sarcastic" album title for a collection full of such "downbeat" tracks, the darkest of which is "Grey Cloudy Lies".Harrison himself rated Extra Texture as his worst solo release of the 1970s. Speaking to Musician magazine in 1987, he dismissed it as "a grubby album" and added: "The production left a lot to be desired, as did my performance ... Some songs I like, but in retrospect I wasn't very happy about it."

The album has its admirers, however. Writing in a Rolling Stone Press tribute book, Greg Kot labels Extra Texture as "something of a return to form for Harrison". AllMusic's Richard Ginell views "You", "The Answer's at the End" and "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)" as some of Harrison's best post-Beatles compositions and identifies other "musical blossoms" on a collection that stands up relatively well to the passing of time.[101] Writing in the 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide, Mac Randall considered it to be an album that "starts off well, then runs out of steam midway through", while John Harris, in his 2011 review for Mojo, described it as "a classic case of contractual obligation" but still a "decided improvement" on Dark Horse. More impressed, Harrison biographer Elliot Huntley admires the album as "a welcome return to form" that offers "some gorgeous love songs, a truly commercial lead single, and flashes of the humour that define George Harrison as a songwriter".

Reviewing the Apple Years box set for Blogcritics, Seattle-based critic Chaz Lipp opines of Extra Texture: "Though not without a few notable tracks, it's the least satisfying album of Harrison's entire career ... The essential cut is the grooving 'Tired of Midnight Blue.'" In his review for Classic Rock, Paul Trynka writes that the album "boasts neither the highs nor lows of its predecessors" and is "the work of a man wounded by criticism". In Trynka's assessment, whereas "You" "sounds dull today", "confessional songs" such as "World of Stone", "Tired of Midnight Blue" and "Grey Cloudy Lies" "have worn well". Writing for the website Vintage Rock, Shawn Perry similarly considers "You" to be "out of sync", and he highlights "This Guitar" and "Grey Cloudy Lies" on "a creative and introspective album that's aged well".

In another 2014 review, for the Lexington Herald-Leader, Walter Tunis writes: "[Extra Texture (Read All About It)] is a delight from the start of the brightly orchestrated pop of 'You' to a series of light soul-savvy reveries that culminate in the playful 'His Name is Legs'. The record places the secular and spiritual concerns of Harrison's music in animated balance to close out The Apple Years in a state of hapless harmony."Writing in Mojo, Tom Doyle concedes that, being the final album in the box set, "It's possibly a downbeat note to end on", but welcomes the reissue for "allow[ing] us time to dig for the diamonds in the dirt".

Track listing
All songs written by George Harrison.

Side one

1. "You" – 3:41
2. "The Answer's at the End" – 5:32
3. "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)" – 4:11
4. "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)" – 3:59
5. "World of Stone" – 4:40

Side two

1. "A Bit More of You" – 0:45
2. "Can't Stop Thinking About You" – 4:30
3. "Tired of Midnight Blue" – 4:51
4. "Grey Cloudy Lies" – 3:41
5. "His Name Is Legs (Ladies and Gentlemen)" – 5:46

2014 remaster bonus track

1. "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)" (Platinum Weird version) – 3:55

Personnel[edit]

• George Harrison – vocals (1–5, 7–10), electric and acoustic guitars (1–10), ARP synthesizer (3, 9), Moog synthesizer (9), piano (10), backing vocals (1, 2, 7–10)
• David Foster – piano (2, 3, 5, 9), organ (1, 6), ARP synthesizer (1, 5, 6), electric piano (7), tack piano (10), string arrangement (2, 3, 7)
• Gary Wright – organ (2, 5), electric piano (1, 4, 6), ARP synthesizer (3, 7)
• Jim Keltner – drums (1–9), percussion (8)
• Jesse Ed Davis – electric guitar (3–5, 7, 9)
• Klaus Voormann – bass (4–5, 7)
• Paul Stallworth – bass (2, 8), background vocals (7)
• Leon Russell – piano (1, 6, 8)
• Tom Scott – saxophones (4, 10)
• Chuck Findley – trumpet (4, 10), trombone (10)
• Nicky Hopkins – piano (7)
• Jim Horn – saxophone (1, 6)
• Jim Gordon – drums (1, 6), percussion (1, 6)
• Carl Radle – bass (1, 6)
• Billy Preston – electric piano (10)
• Willie Weeks – bass (10)
• Andy Newmark – drums (10)
• Legs Larry Smith – vocal (10)
• Ronnie Spector – vocal (1)
• Norm Kinney – percussion (2)

 

"You" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released as the opening track of his 1975 album Extra Texture (Read All About It). It was also the album's lead single, becoming a top 20 hit in America and reaching number 9 in Canada. A 45-second instrumental portion of the song, titled "A Bit More of You", appears on Extra Texture also, opening side two of the original LP format. Harrison wrote "You" in 1970 as a song for Ronnie Spector, formerly of the Ronettes, and wife of Harrison's All Things Must Pass co-producer Phil Spector. The composition reflects Harrison's admiration for 1960s American soul/R&B, particularly Motown.

In February 1971, Ronnie Spector recorded "You" in London for a proposed solo album on the Beatles' Apple record label, but the recording remained unissued. Four years later, Harrison returned to this backing track while making his final album for Apple Records, in Los Angeles. The released recording features the 1971 contributions from Leon Russell, Jim Gordon and others, with further instrumentation and vocals overdubbed in 1975, notably a series of saxophone solos by Jim Horn. On release, the song was well received by the majority of music critics, who viewed it as a return to form for Harrison after his disappointing 1974 North American tour and the accompanying Dark Horse album. Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone hailed it as Harrison's best work since his 1970–71 hit song "My Sweet Lord"; author Ian Inglis describes "You" as "a near-perfect pop song".

Capitol Records included "You" as one of just six Harrison solo hits, alongside compositions of his performed with the Beatles, on the 1976 compilation The Best of George Harrison. For the first time since the debut CD release of Extra Texture in the early 1990s, "You" was remastered, along with its parent album, as part of Harrison's 2014 Apple Years reissues.

Background and composition
George Harrison's admiration for American soul/R&B acts dated back to the early 1960s, to singles by Doris Troy, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells and others. A similar influence on him and his fellow Beatles was that era's girl group sound, as reflected in the band's choice of cover versions during 1962–63. In 1969, while producing Billy Preston's debut album on Apple Records, Harrison worked with Doris Troy in London and signed her to the label as a recording artist, songwriter and producer. Another of his favourite female vocalists was Ronnie Spector – formerly known as Veronica Bennett, lead singer of girl group the Ronettes until 1967, and latterly married to American producer Phil Spector. After co-producing Harrison's All Things Must Pass triple album in 1970, following the break-up of the Beatles, Spector was granted an unofficial role as head of A&R for Apple Records, and had previously insisted that his wife record for the label. That year, Harrison wrote the soul-inspired "You" as what he later termed "a Ronettes sort of song", specifically for Ronnie Spector.

The main lyrics – "I ... love ... you" and "You ... love ... me", in verses one and two, respectively – make it one of Harrison's simplest compositions. Author Ian Inglis comments that Harrison's lyrics here recall the Beatles' use of personal pronouns in songs such as "Love Me Do", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You" to effectively "include the listener in the song's narrative".

A deviation from these lines occurs only with the repeated bridges:

And when I'm holding you, what a feeling
Seems so good to be true
That I'm telling you all that I must be dreaming.

Harrison musical biographer Simon Leng notes the importance of soul music in Harrison's solo career during the 1970s and views "You" as a song that most obviously demonstrates the influence of Motown on its composer. Inglis suggests that Harrison's former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney adopted part of the melody of "You" for his 1976 hit single with Wings, "Silly Love Songs".

Recording
1971 basic track
According to Leng, Harrison taped demos of "You" during the lengthy recording sessions for All Things Must Pass. The sessions for a proposed Ronnie Spector solo album[20] began at London's Abbey Road Studios on 2 February 1971,[21] with Harrison and Phil Spector again co-producing and Phil McDonald as recording engineer.


Ronnie Spector, pictured in 1971
Since the Ronettes' break-up in early 1967, Ronnie Spector had worked only sporadically, and she later claimed to have been a virtual prisoner in her husband's 23-room Los Angeles mansion during this period. She flew in from California for the sessions, which featured three musicians who had been part of the so-called "blue-eyed soul school" of the late 1960s, via their association with Delaney & Bonnie: multi-instrumentalist Leon Russell on piano, Jim Gordon on drums, and Carl Radle on bass. In addition to Harrison, who supplied guitar, another participant was Gary Wright, on keyboards, reprising his role on All Things Must Pass. For two days, this group of musicians taped the basic tracks for "You" and five other songs written or co-written by Harrison, with Ronnie Spector recording guide vocals only. The sessions then "broke down", according to authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter, due to "Phil's health issues", which had similarly interrupted the recording of All Things Must Pass in 1970.

Despite the fact that "You" was tailor-made for his wife, Phil Spector opted not to issue the song as her comeback single; he had likewise held back recordings by the Ronettes and the Crystals, another act signed to his label, Philles Records, in the 1960s. With the solo-album plan abruptly abandoned, another Harrison original from the sessions, "Try Some, Buy Some", was completed and selected for release as a Ronnie Spector single on Apple.A minor hit in America only, that song's disappointing commercial reception led to the cancellation of a second single, which was to be "You".


1975 overdubs
Four years after the Abbey Road sessions, Harrison revisited "You" while completing his final album for Apple Records, the soul-influenced Extra Texture (Read All About It), at A&M Studios in Los Angeles. His standing with music critics had recently plummeted following a North American tour with Ravi Shankar in November–December 1974 and his accompanying album, Dark Horse.These two projects had been marred by Harrison's laryngitis-ravaged singing voice; in addition, a number of concert reviewers had condemned Harrison for refusing to indulge the public's nostalgia for the Beatles, and for his on-stage spiritual pronouncements. Looking to rehabilitate himself with critics and his audience in early 1975,[55] Harrison had what author Robert Rodriguez describes as "at least one ace in the commercial hole ... the Motown-esque 'You'".

Harrison recorded his own lead vocal onto the 1971 basic track, as he had done earlier with "Try Some, Buy Some", for Living in the Material World (1973). On 31 May 1975, further overdubs were carried out on "You", comprising a second drum part, by Jim Keltner; tenor sax solos from Jim Horn; and ambient keyboards, played by David Foster. Harrison said that Horn's saxophone playing on the track was "one of the nicest rock-n-roll sounds I've heard in years". The overdubs added to the song's radio-friendly qualities, particularly through the use of ARP String Synthesizer, but Madinger and Easter note that Keltner's drum part, which is higher in the mix than Gordon's and was played in half-time, produces an effect whereby the song's tempo appears to be slower than on the 1971 recording. With a significant amount of post-production work having been carried out in Los Angeles, Spector did not receive a co-producer's credit for "You" as he had for Harrison's version of "Try Some, Buy Some".

In September 1975 Harrison told BBC Radio 1's Paul Gambaccini that it was "such a good backing track" originally, yet he had forgotten about its existence until coming across the tape years later. In a 1987 interview, Harrison acknowledged the difficulty he had in singing the song in so high a key; "it was recorded in Ronnie's register," he explains in his 1980 autobiography, "a bit high for me." Although Ronnie Spector's name did not appear in the album credits, snippets of her 1971 guide vocal remain on Harrison's released recording. Spector's voice can be heard intermittently from the two-minute mark onwards, with her signature "woh oh-oh oh-oh"s audible during the song's playout.

Release
An upbeat pop song in a similar vein to Harrison's 1971 hit "What Is Life", "You" was the most obvious choice for a single off Extra Texture. It was released in advance of the album, backed by "World of Stone", on 12 September 1975 in Britain (as Apple R 6007) and three days later in the United States (as Apple 1884). The picture sleeve in Britain featured a photo of a smiling Harrison taken on stage by 1974 tour photographer Henry Grossman; the US picture sleeve incorporated Roy Kohara's humorous design for the album, showing blue lettering on a vivid orange background. In another example of the upbeat mood that was otherwise lacking in the musical content of Extra Texture,the single's face labels showed the familiar Apple Records logo as an apple core, a pun on the demise of the company.

In the UK, where Harrison had undertaken promotional activities for the first time for Extra Texture, "You" was Radio 1's Record of the Week,[77] guaranteeing it substantial airplay. The song peaked no higher than Harrison's previous hit there, "Ding Dong, Ding Dong", at number 38, however. As with his Dark Horse singles, "You" performed better in America,where it held the number 20 position for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. On the US charts compiled by Cash Box and Record World, the single peaked at number 19 and number 39, respectively.

The song served as both the opener for Extra Texture as well as, in the form of a 45-second instrumental portion titled "A Bit More of You", the first track on side two of the original LP. Harrison biographer Dale Allison dismisses this reprise with the words "It's filler", while Leng suggests its purpose was to "fashion a soul mood" for the song that follows, the pop-soul ballad "Can't Stop Thinking About You". The full version of "You" appears on the 1976 compilation The Best of George Harrison as one of only six selections from Harrison's solo career up to the end of 1975.Having last been remastered for the 1991–92 CD release of Extra Texture, the song was remastered for inclusion on Harrison's Apple Years 1968–75 reissues, released in September 2014.

Critical reception
Contemporary reviews
After the so-called "Dark Hoarse" debacle in 1974, and with his singing voice now healed, music critics viewed "You" as a return to form for Harrison. The tone of the song suggested that, in the words of Robert Rodriguez, "the irritable, gravel-voiced mystic on tour the previous year had been but an illusion" – an impression that was supported by the lightheartedness evident in the parent album's artwork and Harrison's self-deprecating "Ohnothimagen" producer's moniker.[96][nb 7]

Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone wrote of the song: "'You,' the single which preceded Extra Texture ... is not only the best thing he has done since 1971's 'My Sweet Lord,' but also promised some of the prestige and credibility he lost with last year's sourvoiced album (Dark Horse) and fizzled tour." In the NME, Neil Spencer opined: "'You' seems at least to proclaim a return to energy. It has the kind of semi-Spector production that was spread all over All Things Must Pass. It bounds along OK, Harrison's double-tracked vocals gasp convincingly, and it deserves to be the hit that it will be." Reviewing for Melody Maker, Ray Coleman highlighted Harrison's vocal and the musical contributions from Horn and Russell, and said: "It's a dead cert disco smash, his finest single since 'My Sweet Lord'." Coleman added that the lyrics were "deceptively simple" since, as with Harrison's 1969 composition "Something", "they say a lot by saying a little." Writing later in the 1970s, however, in their book The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Roy Carr and Tony Tyler dismissed the song with the words: "Doleful, lacklustre, [with] would-be singalongs which quite fail to arouse."

Retrospective assessment and legacy[edit]
In his review of Harrison's 1987 album Cloud Nine, for Creem magazine, Bill Holdship included the track among the "scattered brilliant moments" of Harrison's career post-All Things Must Pass, saying: "'You' from the Extra Texture LP sounds like punk (depends on your definition) pop as Phil Spector might've done it, and remains a killer to this day. And when I saw Harrison perform in 1974, he put on a far better show than the one I would later see Wings do." Writing in the posthumous Rolling Stone Press tribute, Harrison, in 2002, Mikal Gilmore similarly identified "You" as a highlight of the artist's work in the mid to late 1970s. In the same publication, Greg Kot deemed it to be "a terrific single", adding: "Its roaring Wall of Sound arrangement suits Harrison well, right down to its closing quote of the Ronettes' 'Be My Baby'." In a January 2002 review of Harrison's solo releases, for Goldmine magazine, Dave Thompson described the song as "magnificent".

AllMusic's Lindsay Planer admires it as a "propulsive and rocking love song ... backed by one of Harrison's most liberated and driving melodies"; Planer also notes the "nonstop powerhouse instrumental track", driven by Gordon and Keltner's "double-barreled percussive assault". Richard Ginell, also writing for AllMusic, calls the song an "instantly winning" single and album-opener, and rates it among the best tracks of Harrison's solo career.

Among reviewers of Harrison's 2014 Apple Years reissues, New Zealand Herald critic Graham Reid describes "You" as a "remarkably upbeat rocker", while Walter Tunis of the Lexington Herald-Leader considers Extra Texture to be "a delight", from the opening, "brightly orchestrated pop of You" through to the closing track, "His Name Is Legs". Conversely, Paul Trynka of Classic Rock says that the song "sounds dull today, with its dated sessioneer funk", whereas "it's the confessional songs [on Extra Texture] that have worn well."

Simon Leng views it as "a great pop record", adding: "'You' has the same surging spirit as [Motown classics] "Dancing in the Street" and "Heat Wave" and, as the lyrics are full of boy-meets-girl triteness, the groove is what carries it." Ian Inglis identifies the song's strengths as its lyrical simplicity, a "soaring, galloping melody ... [that] encapsulates the joy of reciprocated love and the liberation of rock 'n' roll at its most exuberant", and the quality of the musicianship on the recording, particularly Jim Horn's contribution. Inglis concludes: "Even the slight unease [Harrison] has in striving to maintain some of the higher notes cannot detract from what is, quite simply, a near-perfect pop song."

Two years after Harrison's death from cancer in November 2001, American singer-songwriter Lisa Mychols covered "You" for the multi-artist compilation He Was Fab: A Loving Tribute to George Harrison – a reading that Lindsay Planer describes as "affective" and a highlight of the album. At the New York Celebrates George Harrison Concert on 26 February 2011, in honour of what would have been Harrison's 68th birthday, New York band the 253 Boys performed "You" in a medley with his Cloud Nine track "This Is Love".

Personnel

• George Harrison – vocals*, electric guitar, acoustic guitar*, backing vocals*
• Ronnie Spector – vocals
• Jim Horn – saxophone*
• Leon Russell – piano
• Gary Wright – electric piano
• David Foster – organ*, string synthesizer*
• Carl Radle – bass
• Jim Gordon – drums, tambourine
• Jim Keltner – drums*

* denotes May–June 1975 overdubs

 

I know we just had a thread on "You" a couple of weeks ago...feel free to repeat yerselves if necessary

Interesting that Jim Horn's sax was also overdubbed in '75- I would have thought it was part of the original track. Also note that even Wiki states Ronnie Spector can be audibly heard during the fade, but we already knew that!

I suppose we can kill two birds with one stone here and discuss -if you want to call it that- "A Bit More Of You" right now as well.

 

Awesome intro write ups by the OP above. You is a dynamite track though I wish the recording was a bit brighter. Perhaps the tape lost some highs in the reoverdubbing process thst occurred a few years later?

 

And this is what the album artwork looks like.
Those die-cut letters are easy to tear.

 

Always get a chuckle when I see the eaten-apple logo:

 

Tough Love:
As for the song "You", it is one of the few uptempo songs on the LP, so it was the correct choice for a single. BUT it was tailormade for Ronnie Spector, and I find George to be lost among the Wall Of Sound production. His voice is still straining, especially due to the high key (although the vocals are better than many done for the Dark Horse LP). Yes, I tap my foot and hum along. But if it was not George Harrison, the song would be pretty forgotten (in my opinion, of course).

 

By the way: Is "A Bit More of You" really an extra amount of "You" that does not appear in the main version of "You"; or does it just repeat a 45-second portion from "You"? I can't recall.

 

I think You is one of George's best singles, and a great album opener. I'm in the vast minority of fans that really likes this album.

You is simple and enjoyable. An easy song to get into, whereas parts of Material World were getting kind of dense, and Dark Horse was practically unlistenable. I think that due to his big tour with Ravi, and trying to start his own label, he got so busy with these projects and his songwriting took a back seat. The Dark Horse album has the awful vocals, of course, but it mostly suffers from lazy songwriting. You may be a song from the past, but bringing it back to life and kicking off his final Apple album with it is a great step forward.

 

All I did was copy/paste the Wikipedia writeups, to give credit where it's due

Yes- I had to sellotape between the E and X in "texture" on my copy, but the die cut textured cover is awesome just the same.

Love that Apple Core logo

I believe it is just a remixed section of the "You" track- as pointed out in the last "You" discussion (actually I think it was you who pointed it out, Arnie), Keltner's half time drums are more prominent in the reprise.

As a fan of the album since I first heard it in 1988 I was gratified to find from reading some of the discussions here that Texture is actually a less maligned album than you'd think...sure, it does have its detractors but it's got its fair share of fans as well.

 

Going to actually play this whole album today in honor of this discussion. Pouring myself a second cup of coffee first.

 

One of my favourite Harrison albums. Harrison is not happy on this album, but that does not mean that it is a bad album (as some of the reviewers thought).

If you have not listened to it in a while (or never), give it a chance!

 

I remember listening to this album a few times back in the day, and asking myself the question, how is it possible that a Beatle not named Ringo could make an album this embarrassingly bad.

 

As long as the coffee isn't decaf...you'll want to be fully awake for an Extra Texture session, might make ya wanna go back to bed otherwise

Never mind Ringo...as embarrassingly bad as, say, Some Time In New York City? I think not.

 

I used to feel 'grubby' if I declared my ongoing and unabided love for this album. But now that I've read a Rolling Stone critic say that "Can't Stop Thinking About You" and "Tired of Midnight Blue" are "the most effective nine minutes of music" the artist had made since 1970" well I don't feel so bad. Having only read Schaeffer and Carr/Tyler's viewpoints as a Beatle obsessed youngster, I had no idea the album was a bit of a commercial and moderate critical comeback for George in the UK (I don't think the Dark Horse album charted).
You is a great 45. It's a shame George didn't keep the 'A Bit More Of You' theme going and record his own version of 'I'll Still Love You' for this album.

 

The UK version.

 

uk 45.

 

That one may have been intentionally bad. I think John always liked pissing people off.

 

You is such a joyous, feel good song...similar to What is Life. I never knew You's origins then and wondered why the rest of the album was so mellow in comparison. But this was my first solo Harrison buy as a teenager and the album is still special to me.

 

Not me. It likely was slane, who is a fan of this album.

 

I own the early-90s CD remastered by George Peckham and also enjoy the 2014 version on Tidal, which is less dynamic but has "smoother" high-midrange, and therefore feels a little closer to achieving the intended blend of instrumentation

"You" could have been a good Ronnie Spector record, as George's rhythm lick sounds like something he could have done in the 60s, but the wailing alto sax and speeded-up George vocal over top don't work for me. The very brief breakdown and bridge ("and when I hold you, oh what a feelin'") are great though, and I like the descending piano lick that comes in towards the end courtesy of Leon Russell

 

I really like this record. A lot. It's real and it's human. It's got soul.

That said, "You" I do not like. At all. I don't think I've heard many singles that grate on me as much as this one does.
Happy and bouncy is overrated. I skip this song, and it's mutant twin in the middle. I won't go on, because I know a lot of people like it, and I've got nothing good to say.

 

Looks like the '81 US Capitol budget reissue. Seriously, the UK pressings didn't have the die cut cover?

They are similar...I believe that comparison has been made before.

Could be... @slane ?

Keep in mind, though that the sax part wasn't yet part of the song when it was still intended for Ronnie Spector. Hey, George liked his horns...

That's my favourite part of the song.

I mean, I've heard it so many times I'm used to it but IMO "You" is hardly representative of the album as a whole...though I can see why it was the lead off single. "World Of Stone" on the B-side...now that is more representative of Extra Texture, the album.

 

"You" certainly doesn't fit on Extra Texture, and that doesn't help, but that's not why I don't like it. I put "Blow Away" and "I Got My Mind Set on You" (cover) in the same category of grating bounciness from Mr. Himagen. Just not my thing. I realize I'm weird that way.

 

I agree with this ---- but still, I never skip "You"!!