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Post by sayne on Oct 16, 2016 12:08:24 GMT -5
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Post by debjorgo on Oct 16, 2016 13:56:51 GMT -5
I don't know. Prown's article starts out promising but turns rather disappointing after discussing Living in the Material World. He really strays off the path.
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Post by sayne on Oct 16, 2016 19:16:04 GMT -5
I don't know. Prown's article starts out promising but turns rather disappointing after discussing Living in the Material World. He really strays off the path. How so? Examples.
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Post by debjorgo on Oct 16, 2016 20:13:16 GMT -5
I don't know. Prown's article starts out promising but turns rather disappointing after discussing Living in the Material World. He really strays off the path. How so? Examples. It was just a joke, mirroring his assessment of George's career. I agree with him to a certain extent. The big exception being Troppo. I like it a lot.
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Post by sayne on Oct 16, 2016 22:09:51 GMT -5
It was just a joke, mirroring his assessment of George's career. I agree with him to a certain extent. The big exception being Troppo. I like it a lot. Oh, I get it.
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Post by Panther on Oct 17, 2016 8:47:26 GMT -5
Not true at all. Writer: "But there’s a 14-year gap that fans don’t like to discuss or even recall."
Simon Leng's masterful book on George's music deals with this period in great detail, going into session details of every track from this period, and adding biographical info to put it into context.
Also, weren't George's albums from this period just remastered and re-issued?
I would tend to agree that 'Dark Horse' (okay music, but thin), 'Extra Texture' (poor), and 'Somewhere in England' (the low-point) are relatively disappointing.
But '33 and 1/3', 'George Harrison', and 'Gone Troppo' are all fine LPs that compare well with nearly any solo-Beatle albums. ('George Harrison', in particular, is one of George's best.)
At least the writer correctly acknowledges "Your Love is Forever" as one of George's greatest achievements. That song gets better with age, and is cresting high on the uber-wave of greatest of all Harrisongs.
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Post by John S. Damm on Oct 17, 2016 9:52:02 GMT -5
I enjoyed this article greatly even if I do not agree with the main point in it. It is just great to read a serious discussion of George's music. There were other Beatles out there although based on amazon.com's advertising for the upcoming Eight Days A Week Blu-Ray/DVD release("Starring Paul McCartney"), that is lost on many.
I must concur with Panther's endorsement of Simon Leng's book on George's solo career and while no writer can make bad music good, Leng gives us the proper perspective and context in which George's solo music was made to maximize our enjoyment of it and the reader, including myself, discovers some pleasant surprises. Some solo George that I once dismissed suddenly came alive after knowing why and how it was made.
But thanks for the link, sayne. It was nice to see an article on our Quiet Beatle even if not entirely flattering. It is refreshing to not always read hyperbole about an ex-Fab because we get that in droves for one such member.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2016 3:29:16 GMT -5
That article could well have been ghost written by Geoff Emerick, with input from one of our fellow board members.
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Post by Joe Karlosi on Oct 18, 2016 5:52:26 GMT -5
Not everyone (except The Beatles as a group I'd say) can have consistently good or great albums. George as a solo artist is of course no exception, though I think ALL THINGS MUST PASS, LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD, THIRTY-THREE & 1/3, GEORGE HARRISON (self titled), CLOUD NINE and BRAINWASHED are his finest albums.
DARK HORSE, EXTRA TEXTURE, SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND and GONE TROPPO are his weakest I think, but even they have their shining moments.
Interestingly for me, I recently made a list of what I consider to be the greatest solo albums by all four ex-Beatles on the whole, and I placed George's classic ALL THINGS MUST PASS at #1.. and that is above both John and Paul.
As for the article itself, the same thing could have been done for both Paul and John. They've got their share of lower-tier albums as well. So what's the big deal?
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Post by Joe Karlosi on Oct 18, 2016 5:55:17 GMT -5
That article could well have been ghost written by Geoff Emerick, with input from one of our fellow board members. Fascinating. Who would that one board member be, I wonder?
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Post by John S. Damm on Oct 18, 2016 8:57:34 GMT -5
Not everyone (except The Beatles as a group I'd say) can have consistently good or great albums. George as a solo artist is of course no exception, though I think ALL THINGS MUST PASS, LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD, THIRTY-THREE & 1/3, GEORGE HARRISON (self titled), CLOUD NINE and BRAINWASHED are his finest albums. DARK HORSE, EXTRA TEXTURE, SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND and GONE TROPPO are his weakest I think, but even they have their shining moments. Interestingly for me, I recently made a list of what I consider to be the greatest solo albums by all four ex-Beatles on the whole, and I placed George's classic ALL THINGS MUST PASS at #1.. and that is above both John and Paul. As for the article itself, the same thing could have been done for both Paul and John. They've got their share of lower-tier albums as well. So what's the big deal? I thought this a very fair and balanced post, Joe! Yes, even George's less stellar albums have shining moments and it took me a long time to realize that. I have written here years ago that as an 18 year old I hated LITMW but I turned 40 about a year after George passed and suddenly that album resonated with me! It is now a very special time when I can sit down and play it from start to finish. I am an ardent advocate for the Solo careers of John, Paul and George which I believe have been wrongfully maligned as a whole and I advocate that Ringo's first four Solo albums and then several much later on are very solid! The improved sonics and fidelity on John's Solo albums, as they have all now been remastered (and the re-mixed but out of print Mind Games and Rock-N-Roll which I adore), reveal a rich but oh too brief catalog including John's classic early singles. There are even some shining spots on STINYC which admittedly is the low point of John's Solo career. But the remastered (and especially the re-mixed) Mind Games takes away the previous din on that album and we now hear a rich tapestry of sounds including John singing like he did in the 1960's. The remastered (and especially re-mixed) R-N-R really rocks with the horns and guitars more distinguishable and that great voice of JOL more prominent! With Paul, The JSD Postulate argues for greatness being attributed to Paul's first four Solo albums, a period even the Macca Mad Hatters and Paul himself are sharply divided on! Great music from John, Paul, George and Ringo did not stop with the 1970 release of LIB but rather John and George gave us great music the majority of their entire lives and Paul and Ringo are still apt to give us great music for those of us who choose to listen and not clamor for just the "glory days."
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Post by John S. Damm on Oct 18, 2016 9:03:51 GMT -5
That article could well have been ghost written by Geoff Emerick, with input from one of our fellow board members. LOL but Fabfour, Geoff Emerick would have knocked all of George's Solo albums, not just the ones singled out in the article! Now if George had continued to use Emerick in his Solo recordings as Paul often did/does, then George would have been okay. Same with John and Ringo!
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Post by Panther on Oct 25, 2016 18:10:04 GMT -5
A strong case can be made, I think, that George -- ON RECORD -- had the best "solo" career of any ex-Beatle.
He certainly had the fewest embarrassing moments (on record, that is).
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