A much better
Somewhere In England is George's
original construction. I understand that he wasn't told which particular songs to remove (he was told the album needed "livening up", or words to that effect). For me, he removed four of the strongest songs on the album! Nice one, George. On top of that, he delivers a bit of rude gesture in Blood From A Clone. Another nice one, George.
If you have not heard the original album, you can download it from here:
www.megaupload.com/?d=OV8AYTDBWhy do I think the original album is better? The four songs deleted (Flying Hour, Lay His Head, Sat Singing, Tears Of The World) are very mature, well-constructed songs. Some of the replacement efforts are not so good for me - for example, Teardrops.) Though the deleted four's subject matter may be a little god-oriented (Lay His Head, Sat Singing) or a tad (a tad!) moralistic (the other two), they are well-played and interesting. Hey, I am an atheist - but I love Harrisongs about his own beliefs. There is a
considered intelligence that George brings to bear on so much of his work that I totally admire.
I also like his interpretation of Hoagy Carmichael's HK Blues and Baltimore Oriole. Hoagy C wrote many many fine songs, but I don't think he was a
particularly good interpreter of a lot of them. Here, I think George's interpretation of HK Blues, and Oriole is very fine - especially the latter.
For the record, here is the original line-up, as on the LP, with a few of my thoughts on individual songs.
Side 11 Hong Kong Blues (works surprisingly well as an opener)
2 Writing's On The Wall (a fair song, but misplaced as the second track: it is better deep on side 2 on the revised album)
3 Flying Hour (nicely up-tempo for a song with such a difficult theme" - the past is gone, the future is unknown. The song works well.)
4 Lay His Head (a quite lovely song to god)
5 Unconsciousness Rules (it doesn't quite work, but I never skip it - an odd little song)
Side 21 Sat Singing (great track to open side 2; a superb description of a magic meditation session: superb both lyrically and in the melody, and well played. The album's highlight. No wonder it was one of the pulled songs - you're not having
this if you don't like the album, says George.)
2 Life Itself (wonderful, a great song to follow Sat Singing.)
3 Tears Of The World (lyrics a bit unsubtle but they need saying from time to time)
4 Baltimore Oriole (on-the-money interpretation of this classic song)
5 Save The World (Excellent sentiments, but the song - for me - doesn't quite convince.)
McCabe