Splinter: The Place I Love

While Apple Records was originally Paul McCartney’s idea, George Harrison embraced its ethos of promoting worthy artists, signing the likes of Billy Preston, Doris Troy, Ronnie Spector, Ravi Shankar, and yes, the Radha Krishna Temple, and encouraging Badfinger long after Paul left. In the label’s last days he (and Ringo) considered taking it over once Allen Klein was out of the picture, but decided instead to start from scratch with a new label he dubbed Dark Horse.

His first signing—save Ravi—was a duo called Splinter, brought to his attention by Beatles aide-de-camp Mal Evans (who’d also discovered Badfinger, by the way). Most of the songs were written by Bobby Purvis, who harmonized nicely with Bill Elliot, who’d oddly enough sung on the “God Save Us” single with the Elastic Oz Band. George spent the better part of a year working with Splinter at his new home studio, helping them hone their arrangements and bringing in pals like Preston, Klaus Voormann, Gary Wright, Jim Keltner, and others to fill in the instrumentation he didn’t provide himself under such pseudonyms as Hari Georgeson, Jai Raj Harisein, and P. Roducer. His own album, which followed by a few months, would pale in comparison to the quality of The Place I Love.

The opening riff and general arrangement of “Gravy Train” scream ‘70s adult contemporary, but it’s undeniably toe-tapping. For an immediate change of pace, “Drink All Day (Got To Find Your Own Way Home)” has a northern charm, buoyed along by George’s multiple guitars. But for a few mixed references (“sayonara” and “geisha”) we can hear how “China Light” would have appealed to the producer. “Somebody’s City” gets something of a Spector treatment in its big drum sound, a Mel Collins horn arrangement, and unleashed energy on the chorus.

“Costafine Town” is a sweet reverie of home sweet home, with striking clapping effects, just enough accordion, and a terrific key change. It’s an odd lyrical juxtaposition with the title track, which offers the opposite sentiment. George can certainly be heard singing the response vocals on the chorus of “Situation Vacant”, one of the most majestic songs ever written about being unemployed. “Elly-May” is the first love song on the album, dominated by George’s Moog, and “Haven’t Got Time” makes for a gritty closer.

Sadly, the best Splinter song of all wasn’t on the album, which is amazing considering that it had a lot to do with how George heard them in the first place. “Lonely Man” included a verse written by Mal Evans, and made its first appearance over the closing credits of the film Little Malcolm (also George’s first real foray into the movie business). Instead, it was held over for their second album, which was handed to Tom Scott to produce. His horns dominate the slicker sound throughout, and the album is a step down except for “Lonely Man”, which features George, Preston, and Keltner, and remains as poignant and haunting as ever.

None of the Splinter albums were commercial successes, and neither were any other Dark Horse artists except George. But The Place I Love was always better than merely being Beatle-adjacent. The revived Dark Horse label reissued it on vinyl in 2023, and all three albums made it to streaming services soon after.

Splinter The Place I Love (1974)—3