George Harrison All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary Edition - contents, outtakes & sound quality

These outtakes are still allowing me to enjoy this boxset. It could have been like that for the Let It Be box.

I love hearing the outtakes in the original album running order.

 

Yeah. Gravy in the sense of - interesting to listen to once. At the end of the day there isn’t a single remix that I would choose yo listen to over the original. The Lennon POB and ATMP remixes did one good thing for me - they made me go back to my original vinyl copies and listen, and appreciate how wonderful those albums still sound. Based on prices of original vinyl (or in the Beatles’ case, the blue box) in the secondary market, it doesn’t seem like anyone is trading in their old copies for yhr new mixes.

The outtakes are definitely the main attraction.

 

Thanks a lot! This is extremely informative. I'm in the process now of trying to convert that info into exactly that, a simple sessionography. I'll cut and paste it on here once it's done for hopefully any corrections/critiques/thoughts.

 

I think the remixes are important to have as an alternate way of appreciating these great albums we grew with; that said, they will serve as secondary companions to the originals as they keep them company but ***never*** to replace.

 

The Uber box has the decently annotated “Archival Notes” book which can’t be found anywhere else. It’s a shame because I’m sure many people who couldn’t afford the big box (including myself) would’ve loved to have it.

Luckily certain YouTube “unboxing” videos have pretty good looks at the insides of the books including Archival notes. I made IPhone screen shots of the inside info and read through whatever was legible

 

Or how about softcover version, please Dhani and Olivia!

 

I was most interested in getting specific info and recording dates for the August-October 1970 overdubbing sessions at Trident Studios.

Although the basic tracks were recorded at Abbey Road, the Trident Sessions yielded a lot of overdubs such as vocals, guitars, and orchestrated arrangements. A letter dated 8/19/70 by Phil Spector mapped out what each track still needed. Unfortunately the Archival Notes book doesn’t offer any details.

 

We bought the Uber Box; and because of everything we’ve purchased since, I just now finished listening to all the CD’s. I listened to all the vinyl the day we received it, and I’m still amazed this box wasn’t more expensive than it was. The photos just don't do it justice.

The outtakes and demos are all just awesome. I really like the mastering much more than the original, as it sounds warmer. We did a side by side, and the original just sounded flat and lifeless by comparison. I personally think the remaster has a more organic sound, but I'm sure there are those who would disagree. Which is fine; as everyone has their own take on things. My wife and I are both glad we pulled the trigger on the Uber set, as it truly is a beautiful object, and much more exotic than either of us had thought it would be.

For 2021 these are my favorites sets in no particular order :

George Harrison : All Things Must Pass 50th Set
Frank Zappa : 200 Motels 50th Set
John Lennon : Plastic Ono Band 50th Set
Neil Young & Crazy Horse : Way Down in the Rust Bucket Deluxe Set
Bob Dylan : Springtime in New York Deluxe Set
Grateful Dead : Listen to the River 71/72/73 Box Set
The Beatles : Let It Be 50th Set
Frank Zappa : Zappa 88 The Last U.S. Show

What a year.......

 

I'm a bit late to the party here, but here are my thoughts on the ATMP 50th Anniversary Set. Like many here, I feel it is a mixed bag. In many ways, it is an improvement and there is more clarity and definition over the original. But here's where my fondness stops. I still have my original 1970 New Zealand box set with the orange apple and it to me, is still by far the best-sounding edition. All the subsequent CD remasters never got anywhere near the splendour of the original vinyl. The 2000 remaster in particular (with the coloured-in front cover) sounded frightfully tinny and harsh, and I felt that it was a mistake for George to re-record 'My Sweet Lord' - the new version on that cd was awful.

Fast-forward to now, and we have this new remix. It shares the same characteristics of all the Giles Martin Beatles remixes (Sam Okell being the common thread here), where the compression and bass is turned up, and the results can vary from song-to-song ranging from quite good to so-so to rather subpar and nowhere near as good as the original mix. On ATMP 50, I feel that the best-sounding songs are the more simpler arrangements, like If Not For You, Apple Scruffs, I'd Have You Anytime etc. A sparse range of instruments to deal with and they come out sounding really good.

Where it tends to fall apart for me, are on the songs they tried to 'de-Spectorize'. My Sweet Lord lacks the crisp punch of the snare drum, the brisk strums of the acoustic guitars, the ethereal sound of the backing behind it. George's voice is too far up front. What Is Life, is a disaster. The drums are so muffled that you can barely hear them in the squall. It's such a shame that in an age where we have demixing technology and can put the drums right up to the forefront with a huge snare drum and clarity on kick and cymbals, and the end result makes my 1970 record sound way more powerful drumwise. There's no excuse for the mix being such a confused cacophonic muffled mess. When you listen to the Take 1 on Disc 5, all the instruments are perfectly separated and sounds perfect from a production standpoint. Just lacks the lead guitar and the final vocal, but you could potentially do a Frankenstein of the backing elements of Take 1 with guitar and vocal and horns from the final mix and you'd end up with a far more ear-pleasing result audiowise.

Same goes for Wah-Wah. They made a dismal effort in de-Spectorizing this - and the evidence is again seen in Take 1 on Disc 5. Every element on Take 1 is clear, perfectly separated, not 'noisy' but still sounds huge and full. You could do a Frankenstein of this Take 1 backing track with the final vocal and the horns and you would end up with the ultimate definitive mix of Wah Wah that would make people stand up and applaud, as they would finally get to hear the song the way they always wanted it to sound. But Sam and Dhani would've had to have taken some creative initiative to get it to that stage. Maybe they just weren't prepared to mess with it too much.

The best thing about the ATMP 50 are the outtakes and demos. They are a treasure trove. Cosmic Empire and the alt versions of Hear Me Lord and I Dig Love (wow what a funky take that was!! So good!) - many have already commented how good they are.

But regarding the remix of the album itself, overall I find it a bit too bass-heavy and that's over the entire mix not the bass guitar itself (mind you, Klaus Voormann hits a few bum notes that end up on the record so maybe that wouldn't be a great idea) and it just lacks that cinematic quality that the original record had. The drums sound too muddy and are mixed surprisingly low (for a modern re-rendering) and the vocals are too far out in front. But there are some good results in there too where they did indeed put in a superior job to the original. Just reminds me of the Giles remix of the White Album where he did a STUNNING remix of Glass Onion and Dear Prudence but a ho-hum Helter Skelter etc).

So yeah, I'm in the Bobby Whitlock camp here! I'm not against remixes though. But they have to be done properly.

 

Did NZ issue the original in a box? In Australia the original came in a tri fold non-box edition. UK 1U vinyl, sounds great. Still my go to. the original and best. I wonder why NZ went with the box and Australia didn't?

 

Yes, definitely in the box! Very worn and dirty here and also flattened out though, from many years of having other albums stacked on top of it in storage (my 'Concert For Bangladesh' box is unfortunately in the exact same condition). But the records themselves are still in good nick.

I remember I never used to play the Apple Jam record as much, but I did like 'Plug Me In'!

 

FYI, Take 1 of Wah Wah is already a Frankenstein - the lead vocal has been flown in from the master take. So you're already half way there...

 

Actually I find your review far more well rounded than Whitlock’s thoughts. Great post; agree with just about all of it.

 

I got the 5cd set from Amazon last weekend for $82 with coupons from previous shipping goofups.
Did anyone else get this with a "made in italy" white sticker on side of box underneath sealed shrink?
Got the next couple of days off and look forward to hearing this classic harrison set.

 

Sure did. Didn’t know what to make of it, tbh.

 

Correct

To recap:

The demos and outtakes have been a joy. The remix proves that De-Spectorization was a pipe dream.

 

Done.
Sorry, I just hadn’t got to it yet.

 

I have been, and it’s been a privilege to join the family.

 

New to this thread. I had the original album but never got into it. Went back after watching the get back biopic to listen and this album holds up really well. Unlike the Beatles stuff, Harrison had a knack for writing music that could still be issued today and be considered modern.

Where does this album rank in the post beatle catalogue?

how much better would the Beatle catalogue be if Harrison had added most of the best of these to those albums? Amazing that he was sitting on these and couldn’t get them on Beatles albums

 

It’s hard to say how much of an impact these songs would have within Beatle-album context. Together on one massive album, they have a collective majestic quality which would more than likely not be felt on a Beatle album. The way in which the songs were produced as an “album” also adds to their grandness. On a Beatle album, they’d be viewed simply as great songs. On the ATMP album they’re a “statement”. Far as where the album ranks in terms of post-Beatle albums, it’s largely cited as the greatest of the solo albums alongside Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band.

 

This reissue won the “Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package” Grammy today.