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George Harrison (Chris Cuffaro - JGB Photo)
The text of the press release issued today:
HOLLYWOOD, Calif., April 14 CA-Capitol-EMI-George
CD and Digital Collection Features Harrison's Solo Hits, Remastered, Plus Live Recordings from 1971 Concert For Bangladesh
George Harrison Honored Today with Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Presentation
HOLLYWOOD, Calif., April 14 -- As music legend George Harrison is celebrated today with a new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, Capitol/EMI announces Harrison's first ever career-spanning solo hits collection, "Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison." To be released June 16, the new title will feature digitally remastered tracks in deluxe packaging, including an extensive booklet featuring previously unseen and rare photos. The collection will also be available for download from all major digital service providers.
"Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison" is the first release that will span his entire solo recording career, including the #1 Billboard Pop singles "My Sweet Lord," "Isn't It A Pity," "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)," and "Got My Mind Set On You." The new title will also feature live recordings of three Harrison-penned Beatles songs, "Something," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and "Here Comes The Sun" from his 1971 all-star Concert For Bangladesh benefit at Madison Square Garden. The complete track list will soon be announced.
George Harrison is a twice-inducted member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a solo artist and as a member of The Beatles, and an 11-time Grammy Award winner for his recordings with The Beatles, Traveling Wilburys and as a solo artist.
www.georgeharrison.com
Source: Capitol/EMI.
Our coverage of the George Harrison Walk of Fame dedication:
- More celebrity pictures from George Harrison Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony
- New George Harrison CD compilation announced by Capitol/EMI
- First photos from the George Harrison star ceremony - Olivia, Dhani, Paul, Tom Petty, more
- BREAKING NEWS: George Harrison honored with Hollywood star; McCartney attends! First details!
Comments
Hope they put "Taxman" from the Live in Japan album on there...they really could make it a double cd and put his work with the Wilburys on there too. There's just too many great George songs for a single 80 minute cd. I'm looking forward to it!!!!
Oh it has to be at least a double CD. Way too many hits for just one CD.
Where the heck is the darned tracklist!
I absolutely agree about including tracks from "Live in Japan".... (I've always wished for a DVD), but I cant' wait to see the finished list for this exciting project. It's been a GREAT DAY, all around. Even here in Canada, HERE COMES THE SUN!
While a career-spanning hits package is nice I can't help but wonder why Dark Horse and Extra Texture still have not seen remaster releases the way that ATMP and LITMW have. I would think that they would get these two final albums out before going the greatest hits route.
I hope it's a double cd,especially since they are adding Beatle songs to the disc.
George has enough great solo songs,wonder why Capitol feels that this release needs Beatle's songs just like his first hits album back in 1976.
Am really hoping for Brainwashed tracks and Cheer down.
This is the 4th collection, just what we need another collection of the same stuff we already have. Haven't the record companies ever heard of iTunes playlists? I can make my own version of this collection FOR FREE!
Eh, sorry I mean it is the 3rd collection.
I hope that "Poor little girl" will be included
What are the songs to be included
This really is Redundant if you own all the albums you can just make this yourself and if it does include a rarity i can guarantee
that you won't be able to download it on it's own from iTunes,i would rather have Extra Texture and Dark Horse out, of course this collection will feature songs from those 2 Lps remastered which we currently don't have so you may as well wait until they release those 2 and get whatever rare tracks from the internet and make your own compilation.
Steven Bates, maybe it's "redundant" to you, but aren't all hits compilations?
Isn't it redundant to have 20 different Lennon compilations? What about All the Best and Wingspan?
The fact of the matter is George Harrison deserves this kind of retrospective, not only for true longtime fans to enjoy but for (hopefully) newer folks who might begin to get into his music because of the publicity generated from this event and the upcoming release.
As for Dark Horse and Extra Texture, those will come out eventually. But I have been clamoring for this kind of retrospective for many years and it undoubtedly is being released to be available whenever the Martin Scorsese documentary is released.
As for digital downloading, which you seem to prefer, older fans will be happy to have the artwork, booklet and physical CDs, thank you very much!
It crossed my mind that perhaps the reason the full track listing wasn't announced for "Let It Roll: Songs By George Harrison" is it hasn't been decided yet.
What do you think?
They threw out some teasers of tracks to be included; maybe Capitol-EMI and the Harrisons are still hammering out the other songs -- perhaps even looking at boards such as this for guidance.
Probably a shot in the dark, but who knows, maybe there's some validity to it?
If this is a 2-disc set, would the press release have mentioned that? Is that still a possibility?
Please remember that Taxman, Here Comes the Sun, Something, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and so on, are NOT George songs. They are Beatle songs that he happened to write and perform while in the group. Do any Paul McCartney compilations-other that "live" albums, have Beatle hits listed among Paul's greatest hits? I like George-he's still around somewhere-better than J and P now-he seemed more down to Earth, but when you can have a single cd with 27 Beatle hits-while the real old ones(why was love me do on there and not please please me?) were sometimes only 2 minutes long, a 14 track George cd would do it. Also, I don't know if it's because people were so happy to see them, but when the videos of the few songs from his Clapton tour in Japan were on the dvd in his box set, his performance seemed somewhat lame(maybe stage fright)...and the best part about Taxman, other than the cynical lyrics-was PAUL's lead guitar work.
Hey Phil, whatever dude. Apparently you're not that big of a Harrison fan. Whatever.
Taxman's driving guitar throughout the song is George; Paul's solo is in the middle. I think the whole song is memorable.
George made great music for 30 years after the Beatles and that's the George I am a fan of.
But I see the commercial aspect of putting the live Bangla Desh Beatles Harrisongs on this CD. Great performances, too. The fact is, Bangla Desh is part of George's solo catalog so I don't see including these songs as anything but a positive -- especially if it helps better showcase his entire solo career to the people who have pigeon-holed his contributions to the music world.
As I wrote, I now like George better than John or Paul. Maybe that was missed. You didn't address the fact that greatest hits compilations by Paul and John(cept for whole live albums) do not rely on Beatle hits. They are composed of solo hits. As for George's body of work-with the exception of a few tracks here and there in the mid-late 70's-and hardly anything till Cloud 9, All things must Pass, Brainwashed, and Living in the Material World-sort of-except for the excesses of the philosophical/religious stuff was for the most part-filler. He was a good live performer on Ed Sullivan. If it's George Harrison's Greatest Hits-it's 14 songs. If it's the Best of George Harrison-then, okay, a double cd. I'm still recovering from Dark Horse. Some of his best stuff was left other places-like Dream Away-which did end up on an album-and 2 of the 3 previsouly unreleased tracks-at that time-Cockamamie Business and not "Poor Little Girl", but "Cheer Down" were great; however they weren't hits. This is being sarcastic-but soon we'll have The Best of Debbie Boone. It's the record/cd whatever company milking every last cent out of consumers. And if you're a completist as am I, you have to buy it. I have everything. ask.
OK Phil, we are both fans. But I disagree that Harrison isn't worthy of more than 14 solo hits on a best-of.
I STRONGLY disagree that his Dark Horse Records years were basically filler material, as you have indicated.
Both the 33 1/3 and George Harrison albums were outstanding from start-to-finish. To dismiss a work based on whether there were any "hits" on it is laughable, especially when it is of Harrison's quality.
George wasn't trying to be a Paul McCartney hit machine and stayed true to himself. Besides, many of his potential singles were never released as singles. Only 2 singles from All Things Must Pass? Only 1 from Material World? Both were No. 1 albums for a month or more.
Anyway, the following songs from his post-Apple area are strong enough and were popular enough (including Billboard's Top Rock Tracks)to warrant being on this set without being referred to as FILLER. They most definitely aren't, IMO:
This Song, Crackerbox Palace, Blow Away, Beautiful Girl, Love Comes To Everyone, Faster, All Those Years Ago, Teardrops, Wake Up My Love, That's The Way It Goes, When We Was Fab, Devil's Radio, Got My Mind Set On You, This Is Love, Cloud 9 (title track).
Add to that list Cheer Down and Poor Little Girl, both from the 1989 compilation. Forgot about those...
I am an avid Beatles fan from Calcutta, India. I think this should be a truely solo compilation of George excluding any Beatles or Wilbury's material. The set should be a 2-CD + 1-DVD combination, as we had for The Travelling Wilbury's Collection. The selection of tracks are made in such a way that if someone buys this set, then along with the previously released remastered CDs one will possess every solo material of George on CD. I have not included "I Don't Care Anymore" (B-side to "Ding Dong Ding Dong" single, 1975)in my proposed list, because I wish this to be included in future remastered CD version of the DARK HORSE album.
VOL. ONE (CD)
1."My Sweet Lord"(ATMP)–1970
2."Isn't It a Pity"(ATMP)-1970
3."What Is Life"(ATMP)–1970
4."Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)" (LITMW)–1973
5."Dark Horse"(DH)–1974
6."You"(ET(RAAI))–1975
7."This Song" (33 & 1/3)–1976
8."Crackerbox Palace"(33 & 1/3)–1976
9."Here Comes The Moon"(GH)–1979
10."Blow Away" – 3:59 (GH)–1979
11."All Those Years Ago"– 3:44 (SIE)–1981
12.“Teardrops" (SIE)–1981
13."Flying Hour"(Songs by GH Vol.1)–1981
14."That's The Way It Goes"(GT)–1982
VOL. TWO (CD)
15."I Don't Want To Do It"(Porky's Revenge)–1985
16."Lay His Head" (B-side to "Got My Mind Set On You" single)–1987
17."Sat Singing"(Songs by GH Vol.1)–1988
18."Hottest Gong in Town"(Shanghai Surprise)–1988
19."Got My Mind Set on You"(C9)–1988
20."This Is Love" (C9)–1988
21."When We Was Fab"(C9)–1988
22."Poor Little Girl"(Best of DH)–1989
23."Cockamamie Business"(Best of DH)–1989
24.“Ride Rajbun"(The Bunbury Tails)–1992
25."Mo"('Mo's Songs!)–1994
26."Horse to the Water"(Jools Holland his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra and friends: Small World Big Band)–2001
27."Any Road"(Brainwashed)–2003
28."Marwa Blues"(Brainwashed)–2003
VOL. THREE (LIVE)(DVD)
29."Bangla Desh"(C for Bangladesh)–1971
30."Cloud Nine"(Live in Japan)–1992
31."Cheer Down"(Live in Japan)–1992
32."Devil's Radio"(Live in Japan)–1992
33."Here Comes The Sun"(C for Bangladesh)–1971
34."Something"(C for Bangladesh)–1971
35.“Taxman”(Live in Japan)–1992
36."While My Guitar Gently Weeps"(C for Bangladesh)–1971
It's really got to be a double cd, otherwise it won't replace the two previous best ofs or have the scope to show George's work fully. But it's got to be well thought out, why three Beatle songs from Bangla Desh? All three songs mentioned are George songs we know, but wouldn't a better source be Here comes the sun live with Paul Simon from 1976, While my guitar gently weeps live from the Princes Trust concerts (or Here comes the sun from the same concert)? Yes, I don't care anymore has to go on the remastered Dark Horse, just as the Pirate song should go on Extra Texture, (please keep it consistant..not like putting Tears of the world on Thirty Three and a Third, completely wrong choice).Maybe the rarer stuff is waiting for an anthology, which would be great if we were ever to hope for it in the next twenty years, but at least lets have the three new songs from the best of Dark Horse on here too, along with Horse to the water. And while I'm still hoping for the moon, if there is a dvd to go with this then it's the chance to include such necessary gems abscent from the Dark Horse Years dvd such as True love, and Blow away...and please lets have the Ding dong video, I've seen it on youtube so I know it exists and how good it is, Well, I can only hope for all these things, but I love Georges music, and just want more of it, and what there is done right that's all. All lastly, I could go on but...lets have a release of the live tour of 1974, what little I've heard has been simply wonderful.
This would be a good line up for george.Because george was so good. Disc 1
ALL THINGS MUST PASS (BEATLES ANTH.3)ALL THINGS MUST PASS(REGULAR VERSION)MY SWEET LORD(1970)BEHIND THAT LOCKED DOOR(1970)AWAITING ON YOU ALL(1970)RUN OF THE MILL(1970) APPLE SCRUFFS(1970)I LIVE FOR YOU(1970)WHAT IS LIFE(1970)LET IT ROLL(1970)BANGLA DESH(1971 SINGLE VERSION)DEEP BLUE(SAME)BONUS DEMOS FROM ANY ABOVE. DISC 2 IF NOT FOR YOU(REHERSAL BANGLA DESH)HEAR ME LORD(1ST SHOW)BANGLA DESH MY SWEET LORD(1ST SHOW)BEWARE OF DARKNESS(1ST SHOW)GIVE ME LOVE(DEMO)GIVE ME LOVE(REGULAR VERSION)SUE ME SUE YOU BLUES(DEMO)SUE ME SUE YOU BLUES(REGULAR VERSION)DON,T LET ME WAIT TO LONG(1973)LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD(1973)TRY SOME BUY SOME(1973)MISS O,DELL(1973)DARK HOSE(DEMO)DARK HORSE(PROPER)SIMPLY SHADY(1974) SO SAD(74)BYE BYE LOVE(74)DING DONG DING DONG(74)I DON,T CARE ANY MORE(74)YOU(75)OOH BABY YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU(75)THIS GUITAR(75)CAN,T STOP THINKING ABOUT YOU(75) A BIT MORE OF YOU DISC 3 THIS SONG(76) CRACKERBOX PALACE(76)TRUE LOVE (76)DEAR ONE(76)PURE SMOKEY(76)SEE YOURSELF(76)LOVE COMES TO EVERY ONE(78) SOFT HEARTED HANNA(78)BLOW AWAWY(78)FASTER78)IF YOU BELIEVE(78)ALL THOSE YEARS AGO(81)YOU ARE THE ONE(81)SAVE THE WORLD(81)DISC 3 LAY HIS HEAD,TEARS OF THE WORLD,FLYING HOUR,SAT SINGING,MO,I DON,T WANNA DO IT, ZIG ZAG,GOT MY MIND SET ON YOU, WHEN WE WAS FAB, BREATH AWAY FROM HEAVEN,SOME PLACE ELSE.DISC 4 MY SWEET
LORD(JAPAN
EN)ALL THOSE YEARS AGO(JAPan)MY SWEET LORD, LOOKING FOR MY LIFE, MARWA BLUES, STUCK IN
SIDE A CLOUD BRAINWAS HED
IMPALY SHADY
I just saw the track list on Amazon.com and all I can say is "Isn't It A Pity".... some major tracks are being ignored.... "This Song" "You" "Dark Horse" "Bangla Desh" (studio version) plus the two bonus tracks on the Best of Dark Horse... completely missing!
This will be one purchase that I will gladly do without.
I've just seen the tracklist too, what a ridiculous waste of effort and opportunity this sorry cd would be. Just who is responsible for putting together this pointless and unrepresentative mishmash? This is as poor and insulting a compilation as the original Best of in 1976, and George was on record as being against that track selection. It will do nothing to bring new listeners into the fold, and it will not even play as an interesting sequence of tracks, a chimp could have put together a better package. Where are This Song, Beautiful Girl, Learning How To Love You, This Guitar, You, World Of Stone, Dark Horse, So Sad, Gone Troppo,I could just go on and on, it's an insult to George's talent and memory. Another wasted chance.
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