Because the Beatles didn't allow many George Harrison songs on their records, he'd created a stockpile of unreleased songs by 1970. Even after releasing the triple album "All Things Must Pass" that year, he still had a bunch of quality songs left over. And yet, he didn't release another studio album until 1973, which was an eternity in those days.
This is the album that Harrison could have released in 1971. It has two new songs, "Bangladesh" and its B-side "Deep Blue." But other than that, these are all outtakes from "All Things Must Pass." Personally, I think this album is solid all the way through, possibly his best solo album behind only "All Things Must Pass" and "Cloud Nine."
However, this may be a controversial album for some people, because I've used five songs that one might consider "outfakes." They're songs Harrison sang and played on acoustic guitar, and were later released on the "Beware of ABKCO" bootleg, which I've posted here already. The controversial part is that, in recent years, someone named "walrusz" overdubbed other instruments and backing vocals to turn the simple acoustic versions into full band versions.
Normally, I stay far, far away from that sort of thing. In fact, I think these are the only "outfakes" I've allowed in my entire music collection. But I'm making an exception here because the overdubs are just so very well done! If I didn't tell you, I doubt you'd ever even suspect that the overdubs came years later, because they're so tastefully done. For instance, there's slide guitar that sounds exactly like Harrison's style, played by someone who clearly is a talented musician. Please give these a try, because with Harrison having passed away, the odds are he never did anything with these songs beyond the "Beware of ABKCO" demo versions, so this is the only way to hear them as they should have been. Even the demo versions may never be officially released.
Besides, if you have an issue with those, there's still over 30 minutes of other songs on this album that are all original recordings. With the exception of the "Bangladesh" A- and B-sides, none of them have been officially released. None of those songs are on "Beware of ABKCO" either (aside from the Walrusz overdubbed ones).
Note that I wasn't sure if I should include "I'll Still Love You (Whenever)." It's a good song, but it clearly is a very rough version, with Harrison mumbling his way through most of the lyrics. I ultimately decided to include it, but I edited out a couple of minutes of the worst mumbling. The take was too long and repetitive anyway, so I think it works much better as a three minute song than a five minute one.
Oh, also, I made two small edits to "You." Harrison was singing a guide vocal on that, and at various points in the song he loudly says "Bridge" and "Second bridge" to make sure his band members know when to change chords. I removed those by patching in a few seconds from elsewhere in the song each time.
So yeah, there's some editing and manipulation of these songs. But the bottom line is you'll have a really nice George Harrison album that you didn't have before.
01 It Don't Come Easy (George Harrison)
02 I Live for You (George Harrison)
03 Cosmic Empire (George Harrison with Overdubs by Walrusz)
04 Dehra Dun (George Harrison)
05 Window, Window (George Harrison with Overdubs by Walrusz)
06 Everybody, Nobody (George Harrison with Overdubs by Walrusz)
07 Bangladesh (George Harrison)
08 Deep Blue (George Harrison)
09 You (George Harrison)
10 Mother Divine (George Harrison with Overdubs by Walrusz)
11 Nowhere to Go (George Harrison with Overdubs by Walrusz)
12 Gopala Krishna (George Harrison)
13 Going Down to Golders Green (George Harrison)
14 I'll Still Love You [Whenever] [Edit] (George Harrison)
https://www.upload.ee/files/15119244/GeorgeH_1971_CosmicEmpire_atse.zip.html
The cover is based on a 1971 photo. I had a lot of options of what to call the album, but for some reason "Cosmic Empire" just sounded right to me.
Thanks! you are Santa Claus in June! Your work is awesome!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind comments about my work, much appreciated...Walrusz
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. As I said above, yours are the only "outfakes" that I deem worthy of keeping in my music collection. Very tastefully done.
DeleteBy the way, if you're reading this, is there any chance you could do some more?! There are a few more acoustic songs from Beware of ABKCO that would sound better with your treatment, like "Beautiful Girl," or "Tell Me What Has Happened to You," or "I Don't Wanna Do It."
Plus, other stuff, such as the super obscure song "Fear of Flying," found here:
http://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/09/george-harrison-fear-of-flying-various.html
It would be great to have that too short song fleshed out with a slide guitar solo.
Working on Fear of Flying, thanks for the suggestion! It may be trickier because I can't isolate his lead vocal for proper mixing, like I was able to do on the previous ones, I'll send it to you when finished...Mike
DeleteAwesome! Great to hear. Are you working on the short version, or the one I extended to be two minutes long? Even that is short. You should add a guitar solo, like I suggested above!
DeleteYou extended the version? Yes, that's the one I'm using! Also didn't know it was someone elses tune til now I'm almost done!
DeletePaul could you send an email to mikestrattonjingles.com so I can send you the mp3 for feedback before I post it on youtube? Mike
Yeah, I explained what I did in the text to the album I posted with the song in it. Here's what I said:
DeleteI did a very similar thing with the song "Fear of Flying." In 2014, Harrison's wife Olivia played a one minute long snippet of a demo of the song, which was originally done by Charlie Dore in 1979, and then done by Harrison not long after that. The snippet contained all of two verses and a chorus, plus a one line of another verse, which starts out the same as the first verse. So I replaced that one lats line with a repeat of the entire thing, and then repeated just the first verse once more. Finally, using a few seconds of strumming from the middle of the song, I constructed an instrumental fade out. Now, instead of one minute, the song lasts two minutes and 17 seconds. It sounds like a real song to me, not just a snippet.
---
And sure, I'll send you an email. I'm keen to hear it.
This is a very nice collection, and will have to say, very tastefully done. The only exception would be Cosmic Empire itself; something a bit funky about it. Maybe because it's not that great a tune to begin with. The rest of your album plays very nicely, and has found it's way into my GH rotation. Thank you !
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm surprised you feel that way about the Cosmic Empire song though. I love that one. It would have been great on All Things Must Pass.
DeleteHello great, your work never ceases to amaze me, by the way the link is broken, can you upload it again?
ReplyDeleteThanks. Are you sure the link is broken? I just checked and it looks like it's still there to me.
DeleteYes, I have been able to download it, thank you
Delete