Early Takes Volume 1

Georgeマニアならこの作品も揃えたい。アウトテイクとデモ音源を集めたコンピレーションアルバムのCDが再発!

オリジナル・リリース:2012年5月1日
George Harrison のアウトテイクとデモ音源を集めたコンピレーションアルバム。Martin Scorsese監督の2011年のドキュメンタリー映画でレコーディング中の映像が登場し、元々DVDのデラックス版に収録、リリースされた作品。プロデューサーのGiles Martin(The Beatlesのプロデューサー、George Martinの次男)が、エンジニアのPaul Hicks(Abbey Road Studiosでキャリアをスタートし、Coldplay、Elliott Smith、Paul McCartney、Ringo Starr等との仕事でも知られている)と共同でこのアルバムを編集。収録曲の大半は、1970年11月にリリースされた3枚組『All Things Must Pass』のセッションからのもの。

Originally released as part of the deluxe Blu-ray edition of Martin Scorsese's 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World, the 2012 disc Early Takes, Vol. 1 rounds up ten of George Harrison's demos dating from the '70s. The exact dates are fuzzy, as the liner notes are little more than hagiography, but a quick scan of the titles pegs the great bulk of them -- six, to be precise -- from All Things Must Pass, with two others dating from 1976's Thirty Three & 1/3 ("Let It Be Me," "Woman Don't You Cry for Me), another from Living in the Material World, the 1973 album ("The Light That Has Lighted the World), and, finally, a perfectly fine cover of Dylan's "Mama, You've Been on My Mind." Several of these are solo acoustic demos, some are rough band run-throughs, and nothing is all that far removed from the finished product, so the collection winds up just a tad anticlimactic for containing nothing but unreleased music: it all feels cozy. And while it's hard not to wish there were a surprise or two along the way, the familiar warmth certainly has its charms, too. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine