George Harrison - "The Dark Horse Years" sampler

Anyone lucky enough to have a copy of this in their possession? I'd like to hear some sound quality reviews.

For those of you who don't know, the tracklisting is as follows:


1. Crackerbox Palace
2. Dear One
3. Blow Away
4. Here Comes The Moon
5. All Those Years Ago
6. Teardrops
7. That's The Way It Goes
8. Unknown Delight
9. Got My Mind Set On You
10. This Is Love
11. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) [from Live In Japan]
12. Cheer Down [from Live In Japan]

 

I'm really nervous about asking this, but.....anyone know if this newly remastered catalog is no-noised?

 

Yeah, that's what I'm trying to figure out. I have a suspicion either John Astley (of All Things Must Pass fame) or Peter Mew are the engineers here.

 

I asked that a few days ago, and nobody had heard the promos. SOMEONE here has to have connections!

 

I checked abbeyroad.co.uk and there's no mention of the Harrison catalog under recent projects. Also checked under Mew and nothing under his name either.

Tried to dig up some dirt on Astley to see if he was involved but led to nowhere as well.

Had my friends not left EMI, I'd be all over this. Oh well...

 

The original discs sounded pretty good, and the bonus tracks on these things are *really* underwhelming (to the point of utter "why did they even bother?" apathy), so I really wouldn't worry one way or the other; decent-sounding George is in the pipeline in either case.

 

I definitely agree with you on the bonus tracks, David. Poor track choices.

My biggest beef is that "Lay His Head," "I Don't Want To Do It," "Poor Little Girl," "Cockamamie Business," and "Cheer Down" are going to be in limbo for the time being. They would have made great bonus tracks - the first two would fit on Gone Troppo and the latter three on Cloud Nine.

 

Yes, I am surprised they are not reissuing Best Of Dark Horse 1976-1989.

BTW, since EMI is now distributing Dark Horse Records, a great opportunity exists to create a one-disc, career-spanning Best of George Harrison. And those new tracks on BODH could be placed here, thus having them available again. The set would begin with "My Sweet Lord" and end with "Stuck Inside A Cloud". Anyone wanna take the time to create a track listing for such a disc?

Evan

 

Both of them together??

That has got to be an audiophile's worst nightmare!

 

At any rate I'm jealously hanging on to my original WB/DH CD of 33 1/3.

 

A hard task, Evan, but I'll give it a try. Since the name of the game is to try and squeeze George's solo career into a set 80 minutes or less, I'll have to gloss over some essential tracks.

1. My Sweet Lord
2. Bangla Desh
3. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
4. Dark Horse
5. You
6. This Song
7. Crackerbox Palace
8. Blow Away
9. Here Comes The Moon
10. Not Guilty
11. All Those Years Ago
12. That's The Way It Goes
13. Got My Mind Set On You
14. When We Was Fab
15. This Is Love
16. Cockamamie Business
17. Poor Little Girl
18. Cheer Down
19. Stuck Inside A Cloud
20. Any Road
21. Horse To The Water

I really think a two-disc set would be more sufficient.

 

I would have to have 'Answers At The End' on there somewhere.

 

Yes, so does this mean that the studio version of "Cheer Down" will be officially unreleased forever now that it won't be a bonus track on "Cloud 9?"

 

Probably not. I'm assuming there's room for the afforementioned tracks on a rarities box set or best-of.

 

At this point, I'd be unsurprised to see a rarities boxed-set either fall through (a. la the Brother Years...I mean, how many copies of these do they expect to shift?) or be superceded by a "regular" hits/rarities mishmash set. I really, really expected better.

 

Brother Years... now there's one that's steamed me since the wonderful twofers came out in 2000 - what a wasted opportunity to NOT come out with at least ONE disc of "We Got Love" and the countless studio rejects, gems and alternates... but we were talking about Harrison here, right? Sorry...

 

I think they were going to, but they scrapped it and came out with Hawthorne, CA instead.

 

Here's a BIG PIC of the Collection:

 

The studio version of "Cheer Down" was released on the Best Of Dark Horse collection in 1989. It should be fairly easy to grab a copy on eBay.

 

No, I'm quite aware of this, OF COURSE, I have the original disc - I meant for future generations as these new discs are the only things in-print for newbies. Also, come to think of it, wasn't there a remix on the "Best of Dark Horse" from '89 too which will be oop forever too now that I think of it? Was it "That's the Way it Goes" maybe?

I HATE when official releases from such heavies such as Harrision go out of print... doesn't make sense.

Poor Ms. O'Dell...

 

Neat lookin' set. Just hope it sounds good.

Looks like Somewhere In England has the artwork that was originally intended.

 

... if not the tracklist. As big a disappointment as the bonus track selection for the series is, even more disappointing is the reissue of the released version of SIE instead of George's original submission, which was a stronger album with a better flow (IMO).

And, yes, the package does look good, doesn't it? Even with the paucity of bonus tracks - especially unfortunate on LIVE IN JAPAN - I'll be waiting for its release and hoping for a nice price from CC or BB.

The DARK HORSE YEARS sampler - very anxiously awaited by many, it seems - will make a great alternative BEST OF. (And notice how, big suprise, THAT'S THE WAY IT GOES pops up ther. Has to be one of George's personal favorites. I like it too.)

 

Does anyone know if the two new George Harrison promo CDs are European or American?

I know that Capitol in the US did not send out any promo CDs for Let It Be...Naked

 

How does one acquire the sampler?

 

I've been "scouring" eBay since I saw the post re DH promos at Abbeyrd.com Saturday (?), and have yet to see one pop up.

So far, the only info has come from the Hong Kong Beatles site, which seems to get its share of scoops from Apple / EMI.

http://www.thebeatles.com.hk/news/index.asp