George Harrison - Living in the Material World
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Music CD Cover
Artist: George HarrisonBrand: HARRISON,GEORGE
Edition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2006-09-26
Music Label: Capitol
Soundtracks:
- Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
- Sue Me, Sue You Blues
- The Light That Has Lighted The World
- Don't Let Me Wait Too Long
- Who Can See it
- Living In The Material World
- The Lord Loves The One (That Loves The Lord)
- Be Here Now
- Try Some Buy Some
- The Day The Word Gets 'round
- That Is All
- Deep Blue (bonus track)
- Miss O'Dell (bonus track)
Free Music Notes for Living in the Material World
Free Music Review: How ALL THINGS MUST PASS would sound without Spectorization
Hit: 5 Stars
Naturally, after years of being only allowed 1 or 2 songs on Beatles albums, George Harrison had a huge backlog that essentially made his first solo album ALL THINGS MUST PASS (1970) completed except for the recording. With Phil Spector having been entrusted with the presentation of the Beatles' final album LET IT BE, it was perhaps only natural he would have a hand in the solo work of the Beatles who actually appreciated his involvement (i.e. not Paul). Save for the APPLE JAM album that was intended as a bonus, but instead shot the price of ALL THINGS MUST PASS up to triple-album level, George's first solo effort showed that he was going to do just fine on his own.
However, because ALL THINGS MUST PASS was a rousing success both commercially & artistically, it was likely George would have trouble coming up with material on his next album, and the prevailing opinion from most fans was that all his subsequent solo albums had that trouble. No doubt, George knew he had a tough act to follow with 1973's LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD, but writing songs was the least of his worries.
Initially, George was going to work with Phil Spector again, but he had trouble making the recording sessions & thus, has only a co-production credit on one song. Now, George is the one in the driver's seat guiding an album that is the stripped-down affair he wanted from the beginning. But George chose to record the album at Apple Studios instead of Abbey Road, and the differences in recording techniques were staggering (Apple's had nothing on Abbey Road's). After abandoning LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD to work on the Concert For Bangladesh, George returned to it & at last managed to get things to fall into place.
George's second #1 hit came with the gentle lullaby "Give Me Love [Give Me Peace On Earth], which continues the help-your-brother & make-the-world-better vibe that the Bangladesh concert was all about. After the Wall of Sound delights on George's first #1 "My Sweet Lord", the more organic mode on "Give Me Love" is quite refreshing & a lot less stifling.
Even with that ray of sunshine, George is still aware that the world is not quite as rosy as all that. Songs like "The Light That Has Lighted The World", "Who Can See It", "Be Here Now" & "The Day The World Gets 'Round" have George facing that cruel world around him, and he basically says that even with all our imperfections, we can still find hope & inspiration. It is just that all of us need to look for them as individuals; we will not learn much by having someone tell us the answers.
The legal fallout of the Beatles' disbanding was still fresh at the time of LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD, and George bravely exposes all the wounds at the heart of those battles. "Sue Me, Sue You Blues" wonderfully demonstrates the endlessly tangled web that the Beatles had become simply by breaking up, where it got to the point that hardly anybody knew who they were suing & why. "You serve me/And I'll serve you/Swing your partners, all get screwed" is simply brilliant & wickedly hilarious at condensing all that legal red tape. The title track is an even more pointed dig at the Beatles' legal situation, even daring to mention George's former bandmates by name. It is a wonder yet another lawsuit (this one of defamation) did not come resulting from this song.
True, being a Beatle may have helped George Harrison be financially set for life (though the royalty situation would take even longer to sort out), but he did not let that blind him to his spirtuality. "The Lord Loves The One [That Loves The Lord]" reaffirms the Biblical concept that "the Lord helps those who help themselves", and while it is a true statement, the overall song seems to be one instance where George tried to hit people over the head with his religion. He sounds much better when he keeps those views in check. That being said, it is still a listenable song on an album with 11 of such in all.
"Try Some, Buy Some" was the only song which Phil Spector had a direct hand in, and while he is a CO-producer, his influence is still more than palpable. The lyrics are a little difficult to decipher, making it hard to say if this is a love or anti-love song. It is still a wonderful production all the same, showing that even on a back-to-basics album like MATERIAL WORLD, a little panorama never hurt anyone.
Finally, there are simple songs of devotion that show George mastering the art of melody that Paul McCartney already had locked down years before. "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" is a bouncy delight that would have made it an excellent follow-up single to "Give Me Love". It all closes out with the masterfully rendered "That Is All", a song that manages to be as expansive as a Phil Spector production even with the rootsier approach George favored. His vocal is stunningly beautiful, reaching falsetto range in parts that almost pierce the soul.
I would imagine since this was recorded while George was still with Apple Records, it only now has gotten the remastering treatment, long since overdue. While the sound is certainly better & clearer, the bonus tracks, while still only a few at 2, manage to get it somewhat right this time, as opposed to the obviously-flawed Dark Horse reissues. "Deep Blue" was originally the B-side to "Bangla-Desh", which became a top 30 hit in 1971. It was smart to include "Deep Blue" because it was one of George's finer songs, but like some people have said, forgetting about including "Bangla-Desh" was a bit of a blunder. In my opinion, it would have been better to have that song on here as a bonus track than "Miss O'Dell", as upbeat & lighthearted as it is.
Still it is great that LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD finally got the deluxe treatment it deserved. Now all that remains are similar refurbishings of DARK HORSE (1974) & EXTRA TEXTURE (1975). As fatally flawed as they may be, they still appear to have their fans & I think people would pay to purchase them again. It would also be interesting to see what songs were scrapped in favor of obviously inferior ones that made the cut.
Even with recalcitrant producers, shoddy recording conditions, and behind-the-scenes legal wranglings, George Harrison managed to perservere & indeed create a worthy follow-up to the magnum opus that was ALL THINGS MUST PASS. Some people call that the best Beatles solo album, and they may be right, but they should not forget that George did create some fantastic material afterwards. It was simply those high standards set by ALL THINGS MUST PASS that rendered anything in its wake less than stellar. LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD, for the most part, shows what a little production restraint can do for George Harrison's music. Since he would take the reins on the production end for most of the rest of his career, LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD simply points the way towards that future.
Living in the Material World Poster
#1 album originally released in 1973 that contains the #1 Pop single "Give Me Love". Now remastered and repackaged with two bonus tracks.To say that George Harrison's post-Beatles career peaked early is an understatement. Long frustrated by the dominance of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting juggernaut, Harrison's pent-up creative juices (and a wealth of unrecorded songs penned during the Fabs' final years) infused his 1970 epic multidisc All Things Must Pass with a grandeur that rivaled his former band's best. Three years passed before this distinctly more humble studio follow-up was released (with 1971's live Concert for Bangladesh sandwiched in between) to tepid reviews and some fan grumbling. But as Harrison hinted in his 2000 notes to the reissued All Things (which curiously complained about Phil Spector's typically bigger-than-life production), Material World may well represent Harrison's artistic vision in its purest form: an often perplexingly ironic stew of spiritualism ("Living in the Material World," the more accessible single "Give Me Love," and others) and misanthropy (especially regarding his ex-band and their lawyers on the "Sue Me, Sue You Blues"). Despite the presence of many of All Things' core session men (Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner, Nicky Hopkins, Kalus Voorman), Harrison's self-production is low-key funky and more organic than its predecessor, even as he tellingly tends to shortchange his own voice in the bargain. Rife with subtle country and folk touches, there are some warm surprises here (the quietly introspective "Be Here Now," the pop smarts of "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" and "The Lord Loves the One," with "Try Some, Buy Some" briefly revisiting Phil Spector and his wall of sound), even if it's an album that largely suffers from the curse of expectations. --Jerry McCulley
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