George Harrison - Living In The Material World, 50th Anniversary Edition: Album Review – At The Barrier (2024)

Deluxe Harrison. The Quiet One gathers a few friends and opens his heart. George’s 1973 magnum opus gets the deluxe reissue treatment.

Release Date: 15^th November 2024

Label: Dark Horse Records/BMG

Formats: Various formats – see below

It must be 20 – maybe closer to 30 – years since I last sat down for a concentrated listen to Living In The Material World, George Harison’s 1973 studio follow-up to the boundary-shredding All Things Must Pass (1970) and the groundbreaking Concert for Bangladesh. This 50^th Anniversary package, lovingly overseen by George’s widow, Olivia, and his son, Dhani and masterfully remixed by Paul Hicks might be slightly late to the party – it’s now getting on for 52 years since the original album first appeared – but it’s a timely reminder that this is an album that’s overdue a bit of attention.

a lush offering

Be in no doubt, this reissue is a lush offering, but there are options available to suit any potential buyer, from the obsessive completist, right over to the dabbler who might just want to replace a worn-out vinyl copy; those options are:

• A limited edition super-deluxe package containing the album on 2LP 180g vinyl, a double CD and a Blu-Ray disc, each featuring the new remix of the original album plus a bonus disc of previously unreleased early cuts of every song, an exclusive 7” single of a never-before-heard recording of Sunshine Life for Me (Sail Away Raymond), featuring Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Rick Danko and Ringo Starr, a 60-page hardback book, curated by Olivia Harrison and Rachel Cooper and a 12-page recording notes booklet. The super-deluxe edition is housed in rigid slipcase;
• A deluxe 2LP vinyl set, housed in a gatefold sleeve, complete with a 12-page booklet;
• A deluxe 2CD pack, each disc housed in a printed wallet and including a 20-page booklet and poster, all presented in a clamshell box;
• Single CD and vinyl LP remastered reissues of the original album.

Something for everybody… Don’t you agree?

Speaking of the reissue, Olivia Harrison says: “I hope you revisit Living In The Material World or discover it for the first time and, as you listen, share George’s wish for himself and for mankind : ‘ Give Me Love, Give Me Peace On Earth.” And son Dhani added: “Finally, we are overjoyed to present to you the 50^th anniversary package of George Harrison’s Living in the Material World. For those of you who are just discovering this album: this record was released in service and with deep love for all our brothers and sisters around the world who populate this dualistic system we live in called Earth. Peace be upon all sentient beings.”

The background

Recording commenced at Apple’s London studio in late 1972. George plays just about every bit of guitar that you’ll hear on the album and – strings and later additions aside – he’s supported by a relatively compact, but massively impressive, band of musicians: Jim Keltner and Ringo on drums, Nicky Hopkins and Gary Wright on keyboards, Klaus Voorman on bass and Jim Horn on sax and flute.

The lyrical content of the album’s songs is significantly informed by the tribulations suffered by Harrison in the months and years leading up to the album’s gestation; particularly by his exhausting efforts to pull the Concert For Bangladesh together, but also by the ongoing fallout from the break-up of the Beatles and the more recent death of George’s devoted and beloved mother, Louise.

As George himself has said: “It was a very emotional period for me because a lot of people had helped with [the concert’s] success, which made me very optimistic about certain things. At the same time, I felt slightly enraged because, let’s face it, the whole problem of how to solve [the Bangla Desh crisis] lies within the power of governments and world leaders, yet they choose to squander it on weapons and other objects that destroy mankind.”

taxman cometh

It’s an understatement of monster proportions to add that George’s demeanor of the time was not improved when it was discovered that much of the revenue earned by the Concert For Bangladesh found its way into the pockets of the taxman and other undeserving bystanders, rather than being used to alleviate the suffering of those caught up in the Bangladesh crisis.

resonating today

The events that inspired the songs for Living In The Material World may have all happened a long time ago but, listening again after my long layoff, I’m struck by how many of them resonate in the fragmented, polarized world of 2024 and that resonance is, perhaps, amplified by the clarity of these remastered tracks. That clarity is evident from the opening bars of Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth), the album’s opening track and its lead single (it topped the Billboard singles chart in the USA and reached #8 on the UK chart). The acoustic guitars are crisp and George’s signature slide guitar is crystal clear; there’s good separation between the instruments and George’s plaintive, pleading vocals. OK, the lyrics may be loaded with self-pity – an observation that many of missed at the time – but it’s a great song and it’s wonderful to have it back.

Surrounded, as he was, by litigation – arising from the fragmentation of The Beatles and from the allegations of plagiarism that were starting to emerge over the structure of My Sweet Lord – it can’t have been easy for Harrison to rise above it all to make the sardonic observations that pervade the hilarious Sue Me, Sue You Blues, but he makes them all the same. Lines like: “When you serve me, I’ll serve you – swing your partners, all get screwed” are worthy of 10cc, and it’s a good, bluesy tune, too.

more highlights

Other highlights of the original album include the optimistic, passionate, Who Can See It (perhaps the song that links Isn’t It a Pity to Handle With Care), the galloping title track with some great Nicky Hopkins piano, a sublime sax solo from Jim Horn, a mid-song shout-out to ‘Richie’ Starr and some top-notch guitar from the man himself and the uplifting – if slightly schmaltzy – The Day the Earth Gets ‘Round.

Elsewhere, Harrison delivers a forceful reproach to those (and there were many of them at the time) who misunderstood his beliefs and motivations and “…won’t accept change” in The Light That Has Lightened the World. The Lord Loves The One (That Loves the Lord) is funky and rocky, even if George’s messages are too crude and threat-laden to be taken too seriously, whilst the strings-heavy production – perhaps harking back to Phil Spector’s input to All Things Must Pass and Let it Be – possibly detract from the points that George is trying to make on Try Some Buy Some. Be Here Now, inspired by the writings of spiritual leader, Ram Dass is gentle and contemplative and George epitomizes the impression that, by 1972, many people had formed of him, with the bright, poppy yet impassioned Don’t Let Me Wait Too Long.

anthemic

Perhaps my favourite track from the original Living in the Material World is the album-closer, the sincere, anthemic That Is All. It’s one of those songs – like Something – with which Harrison demonstrates that, when he put his mind to it, he was the compositional equal of both Lennon and McCartney. He may sound vulnerable, but he also sounds utterly, utterly determined.

Moving on to the bonus disc, we move onto the territory that will probably be most appealing to the Harrison completists. Having said that, there are some gems to savour. It’s nice to see Miss O’Dell, the ‘B’ side to the Give Me Love… single included and George’s emotions sound even more raw on ballads like Who Can See It, The Day the Earth Gets ‘Round and Try Some Buy Some without the sweetening of the subsequently overlayed strings. Beatle-o-philes will be familiar with Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond) as it featured – with Ringo taking the lead vocal – on the drummer’s 1973 Ringo album but, without doubt, the 7” single of the song that completes the Super Deluxe edition of this set will be a much sought-after artifact.

Altogether, this 50^th anniversary of Living In The Material World represents the welcome return of an album that has been too readily overlooked.

Watch the official ‘visualizer’ video to Take 18 of Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) here:

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