George Harrison 16: Early Takes

George Harrison’s estate has been relatively protective of his musical legacy, slowly and carefully going through the catalog and keeping bonuses to a minimum. Even his first-ever solo career-spanning compilation, Let It Roll: Songs By George Harrison, wasn’t exactly exhaustive, leaving out key singles in favor of songs from Brainwashed and live versions of Beatle tunes from the Concert For Bangla Desh. (Hence the subtitle “Songs By” as opposed to “Best Of”. It did, however, rescue “I Don’t Want To Do It” and “Cheer Down” from obscurity. And iTunes purchasers were able to download the “earliest demo version” of “Isn’t It A Pity”, dating from early 1969.)

Martin Scorsese’s documentary about George was released on DVD in the UK first, with a bonus CD of unreleased recordings that promptly surfaced on all the file-sharing sites for rabid American fans. When the DVD finally came in the US, the companion CD was made available separately, with the hopeful title of Early Takes Volume 1. At thirty minutes, in a cardboard sleeve with no recording info, it’s a bit chintzy, but at least the ten-dollar price point reflected that.

Seven tracks are embryonic versions of songs from the All Things Must Pass period, only one of which had been bootlegged. Most tantalizing is an acoustic take of “Woman Don’t You Cry For Me”, complete with jawbone, six years before its appearance on Thirty-Three & 1/3. (It’s also odd how some tracks are subtitled “demo” as opposed to “early take”, since many of the “demos” have a band backing. “Behind That Locked Door” is described as a demo, but with the pedal-steel in place, it could be they just stripped down the completed take to acoustic and vocal.) Two covers, Dylan’s “Mama You Been On My Mind” and the Everly Brothers’ “Let It Be Me”, would appear to be of a mid-‘80s vintage, and the final track is a solo demo of “The Light That Has Lighted The World” played lightly on a 12-string.

While we’re not about to attempt to tell Olivia and Dhani Harrison what to do—except strongly recommend they keep Jeff Lynne far away from the tape vault—we’d really hope that if there are further installments following this one, ideally they would be more comprehensive, and annotated. (Heck, we’d handle that last part ourselves for next to nothing.) As it is, Early Takes Volume 1 provides a mere toe in the water, when we know there’s lots more where this came from. George fans are happy to have anything, so keep it coming, please.

George Harrison Let It Roll: Songs By George Harrison (2009)—4
George Harrison Early Takes Volume 1 (2012)—3