Dark Horse Records Partners with BMG, Will Release New Recordings

Good news, bad news. The Amazon France listing which I referred to earlier is for April 18th. That's Record Store Day. The listing, I now think, is for a vinyl release of Chants of India, not a CD. That's good news for those who want vinyl. It also explains why it's listed as 2 discs. The bad news is that this means most likely it's not an expanded edition.

 

I’d buy it on vinyl. For Indian music it’s very enjoyable.

 

I m regularly in contact with Bob Purvis and Bill Elliott from Splinter and they say that no one at Dark Horse contacted them about a Splinter release.

 

There well could have been Dark Horse projects, Harrison productions of other artists that A&M did not feel worthy of release.

 

My take on the situation with the George material and why we have seen so little of it is that he was hugely wary and disdainful of the obsessiveness of fans and would never have sanctioned the release of anything that capitulated to or encouraged that obsessiveness. His estate I suspect is honouring his worldview by not being pushed into putting stuff out to satisfy what they may regard as salivating and unhinged hordes.

 

Dear God..

 

I don't believe that's true (George being hesitant to put things out). Here's what he said in a Timothy White interview from 2001 [emphasis mine] (https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/80788/george-harrison-all-things-in-good-time):

What comes next?

I'll remaster all my past catalog, following up with "[The Concert For] Bangla Desh" and "Living In The Material World" and so on, each with other takes and bonus stuff, and then on to my whole catalog with Warner Bros. -- and the [Traveling] Wilburys, too, absolutely.

People like CDs with bonus stuff -- I just got all the Band's CDs with bonus stuff, and I just got ELO's stuff.

I'm not very good at going into studios and staying there forever. And I hate to predict things, but the next new album will possibly be by November of next year. It won't be called "Portrait of A Leg End" [referring to a humorous working title for the set he revealed to White in the June 1999 interview] anymore [laughs], but it's definitely going to be "Volume One." It's not going to be the end -- it's going to be one of lots of records. Then I'll go on holiday again.

 

I would love love love to see Splinter's stuff get an honest decent domestic release, especially the debut.

 

So maybe you could ask them ... what's their take on the Grey Scale and Big Pink reissues of their albums? Do they regard these as official or unofficial?

 

Snagging the rights to a new Dark Horse volume of George's Early Takes would be an exceptional opportunity for a big label like BMG. I bet that Dhani & Olivia offered them an option to bid on releasing that later, in exchange for the opportunity to first wide-release their label's back catalogue. Hope we get to hear more of George's exquisite home demos compiled and released in the future!

 

I think we all do.

 

I too would love to hear further volumes of Early Takes.

But at this stage in the game, this would NOT be an exceptional opportunity for any label. That ship has passed.

The first volume of Early Takes was released in 2012. It contained 10 early takes/demos and was barely 30 minutes long. Now, it would have been ideal (starting in 2012) if this became an annual series, and then a measly 10 demos released per year could add up (over time) to something more cohesive. Thus, if they released a new volume in the series annually (say, a new Early Takes volume on George's birthday each year), we'd be up to Early Takes Volume 9 and would have gotten over 80 songs so far. But this was not to be. Instead, nothing forthcoming has been released.

So unless Olivia/Dhani suddenly shift gears and decide to put out a massive multi-CD box set of early takes and demos, I don't think that there is great public interest (outside of the Hari-fans here) for more "Early Takes".

It remains to be seen if they honor the 50th anniversary of All Things Must Pass with a massive box that contains the Beware Of ABKCO demos. If they do not, then it is pretty obvious that George's vaults are locked down.

 

From behind that locked door

 

Let out those tapes, please! Please!

 

Let it roll!

 

Let's focus on what we DO know:

'Upcoming releases in 2020 include compilations, live albums, and box sets featuring rare and unreleased recordings from the Dark Horse label – many of which will be made available digitally for the first time ever.'

According to this, we have a lot to look forward to this year. Box sets? Note the plural. This surely means physical product. Whose box sets? One possibility would be a multi artist box containing selected albums of all the Dark Horse artists. Something like the Apple artists box that was produced many years ago. Unlike the Apple artists box, this would now likely be both cd and vinyl (and digital of course). Live albums? Again note the plural. I'm guessing this will be two or more of Ravi Shankar's Dark Horse era concerts - maybe his 'Music Festival From India' albums on vinyl? (they were already issued on cd in 2010). Compilations? We already have a compilation album of Attitudes' best songs (sadly, digital only); so next, I would guess, will be a compilation of Splinter's best songs (probably again digital only). Unreleased recordings? That's the interesting one. What could these be? Someone has suggested Splinter demos. But maybe they're Joe Strummer demos or out-takes? I wouldn't be too keen on Ravi Shankar out-takes ("and that was just the tune-up"!).
However you look at it there's plenty here to keep any Dark Horse fan happy for the next 12 months. Remember most of this stuff has been out of print for decades. The only people who may not be happy are the ones hoping for unreleased George Harrison material. I don't see that as part of this deal (much as I'd like it to be), although George's close involvement with many of the Dark Horse artists' records may compensate to some extent. Also - and we shouldn't forget this - a large part of this deal is aimed at releasing new music on the born again Dark Horse Records label. This will presumably be music by artists who are either friends of Dhani Harrison or in some way connected to the Harrison estate, or just musicians he admires who happen to be looking for a label.

 

Count me in the minority, but I'm looking forward to Ravi Shankar & Ali Akbar Khan In Concert 1972 (as mentioned in the press release).

 

I’m one of the few with ya! Awesome recording.

Mark

 

It’s hard to determine sometimes what exactly a given author means when they use certain words, but in recent years...presumably due to the vinyl revival...I’ve seen some people use the word “digital” to mean any format that isn’t analog. In that usage “first time available digitally” might include CD.

Mark

 

I understand Dhani wanting to honor his father by doing this but I hope Dhani is not needing the money because what amount of people are going to buy any of this stuff on Dark Horse? George's own albums on Dark Horse were always mainstays in the cut-out bin except for Cloud Nine and everybody else that was on the label wouldn't even sell as well as a new Uriah Heep album.
They would depend on a 'catalog' because any new stuff Dark Horse signs won't even do as well as the 'catalog' considering the shape of the record business for new artists.
I hope Dhani has invested his inheritance in other areas.

 

The Grey Scale & Big Pink Cd's of the Splinter albums are just fancy looking neededrops. They do hold the place for now along side my own needledrops mainly for some of those bonus tracks included on them, but I sure hope we get re-issues of all their albums along with those rare bonus tracks.

 

I seriously doubt Dhani is short of cash. But I disagree with what you say about new signs to the Dark Horse label. The first thing put out on the 'new' label was the Tom Petty cover 'For Real' preformed by Dhani, Jakob Dylan, Willie Nelson et al. While I don't suppose this earned anyone much money, or was intended to, it did gain Dhani some good attention which, together with his recent concert tour with Jeff Lynne and his last well-received single, has done much to raise his profile as a musician. Surely that's return enough for his efforts.

 

I can't really comment on this without making a 'beatles kid' type fuss so I'll just wish Dhani the best and hope for the best (without modern overdubs)

This needs quoted because Splinter is being mentioned quite a bit in this thread (for good reason).

 

Time to break out my most dog-eared book, Deeper Undercover, to see what's available from Splinter, particularly with a George connection.

George is of course all over their album The Place I Love. Before that, he worked with them and Pete Ham on an early version of Lonely Man, which appeared on acetate and in the film Little Malcolm. (You can hear some in the trailer but a minute and a half of this version appears in the film). There is a demo of the album tracks with George "jamming away in the background." Not mentioned in the book is that George featured 5 of the songs from The Place I Love on a tape that he sent to David Geffen that was bootlegged on the Harri-Spector Show. These 5 songs are rough mixes missing various overdubs, but also edited down as George is just giving Geffen a sample of how they sound.

While working on The Place I Love, they also did the final version of Lonely Man with George, which was held over for the next LP, Harder To Live. The backing track for After Five Years on that album also comes from the sessions for The Place I Love, although it's not certain if George actually played on it. Lonely Man was put out Japanese single using the same recording with new vocals.

Their next (and last) Dark Horse album, Two Man Band, had George as an execute producer. He played on Round & Round and possibly New York City. There is also a demo tape made with George on guitar from 1976 of Dreaming, Domingo Bay, and Rush Of Daily Life. None of those songs appear to have been released in any form.

Then I'll prepare to be disappointed when none of the interesting items I mentioned above get released.

 

I certainly hope Bob and Bill will kindly be approached by Dark Horse, and or Dhani in 2020 and beyond regarding the Splinter plans on the label. George was deeply invested in working with these two gentlemen upon starting the label, and recording extensively at Friar Park in his studio.

Anyway hope in time it will all be sorted out and unreleased material will become available along with the reissues.