Set for release on August 6th will be George Harrison's All Things Must Pass '50th Anniversary Edition' in a variety of formats. The famed 1970 triple album will be issued as a five-LP or triple-disc “Deluxe Edition” that pairs the main album with the sessions outtakes and jams. The main album will be available on its own as double-disc, triple-LP, or on limited edition three-LP color vinyl. In addition to the original album, the new collection features 42 previously unreleased demos and outtakes.
Also available is a very limited “Uber Deluxe Edition” box set, teeming with non-musical extras which includes the album on eight LP's on 180-gram vinyl and five-CD + 1 Blu-ray audio discs housed in an artisan designed wooden crate, that sells for just under $1,000.00
All Things Must Pass, George Harrison's first post-Beatles album, was released on November 27th, 1970 and held down the Number One spot in the U.S. for a whopping seven weeks. Among the guest performers on the set were Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Dave Mason, Gary Wright, Peter Frampton, Phil Collins, and Procol Harum's Gary Brooker, among many others.
In addition to the four-week Number One hit, “My Sweet Lord,” All Things Must Pass featured the Top 10 single, “What Is Life,” along with such Harrison standards as the title track, “Isn't It A Pity,” “Beware Of Darkness,” “If Not For You,” “Awaiting On You All,” and “The Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll),” among others.
George's son, Dhani Harrison, announced the set on his social media platforms stating:
Since the 50th anniversary stereo mix release of the title track to my father’s legendary All Things Must Pass album in 2020, my dear pal Paul Hicks and I have continued to dig through mountains of tapes to restore and present the rest of this newly remixed and expanded edition of the album you now see and hear before you. Bringing greater sonic clarity to this record was always one of my father’s wishes and it was something we were working on together right up until he passed in 2001.
Now, 20 years later, with the help of new technology and the extensive work of Paul Hicks and many others, we have realized this wish and present to you this very special 50th Anniversary release of perhaps his greatest work of art. Every wish will be fulfilled. Love, Dhani
Both Dhani and Paul Hicks spoke to Rolling Stone about revamping All Things Must Pass 50 years after its release and updating the album — which was originally produced by George Harrison and Phil Spector. Hicks, a veteran of several Beatles, John Lennon, and Harrison reissues, explained that although the layers of echo have been peeled back in the new mix, it's nothing personal: “You want to be respectful of the original. Dhani and I hate the expression 'de-Spectorizing' That’s not the point of this project.”
Dhani explained the process the pair undertook: “It’s a technique called ultra-remastering, which is trying to give it the maximum separation. So there’s more low-end, more clarity. (My dad) hated the reverb (on the album). He said this to me a million times: 'God, that reverb!'”
He went on to say, “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. But these mixes have to be able to stand up alongside contemporary music and with headphones. The original mixes sound flimsy on a playlist. These mixes will give this album so much more longevity with a younger generation. Now it will be easier to sit down and listen to it. This album now sounds like it was just recorded yesterday. I didn’t want to do what they do on a lot of box sets, where you have eight takes of one song and eight takes of another. We kept the flow of the original album.”
Dhani went on to say that getting the music right meant a lot to him and his mom, Olivia Harrison: “I just cried. My mum heard it and she cried. We thought, 'OK, this is doing the job.' Someone like me, I’m impervious to hearing my dad’s music; I’ve heard it so many times. I have to hear it in business situations and I can’t be sitting there crying every time. But this time I couldn’t prevent it. It was very emotional.”
In 1995, George Harrison said that when the Beatles' finally split, it was liberating to finally get his unused songs recorded and released: “I was allowed to do my two, or one or two, songs on Beatle albums, and I had a backlog of songs. When I did All Things Must Pass, it was just good to get 'em out of the way.”
The late-Phil Spector set the scene prior to him signing on to produce All Things Must Pass: “(Paul) McCartney was making an album, John (Lennon) had a single ready to go and now John was talking about making an album already — the Plastic Ono Band (album) — and I said to George, 'Y'know, you ought to consider making an album.' I went to George's (estate) Friar Park, which he had just purchased, and he said, 'I have a few ditties' for you to hear.' It was endless! He literally had hundreds of songs — and each one was better than the rest. He had all this emotion built up when it released to me.”
We asked Olivia Harrison if she had been prepared to become the manager of George's musical legacy upon his passing in 2001: “Sort of. Because, y'know, he paid great attention to detail and he worked on anything, any project that he did for himself, he was working on the artwork, he would be working on all aspects of it. So, y'know, we were together a long time and it just sort of became (that) I know how he did things. So — was I prepared? No and yes (laughs).”
The tracklisting to George Harrison's All Things Must Pass “50th Anniversary Edition“:
Disc 1 (Main Album)
1. I’d Have You Anytime
2. My Sweet Lord
3. Wah-Wah
4. Isn’t It A Pity (Version One)
5. What Is Life
6. If Not For You
7. Behind That Locked Door
8. Let It Down
9. Run Of The Mill
Disc 2 (Main Album)
1. Beware Of Darkness
2. Apple Scruffs
3. Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)
4. Awaiting On You All
5. All Things Must Pass
6. I Dig Love
7. Art Of Dying
8. Isn’t It A Pity (Version Two)
9. Hear Me Lord
10. Out Of The Blue *
11. It’s Johnny’s Birthday *
12. Plug Me In *
13. I Remember Jeep *
14. Thanks For The Pepperoni *
* Newly Remastered/Original Mix
Disc 3 (Day 1 Demos – Tuesday 26 May 1970)
1. All Things Must Pass (Take 1) †
2. Behind That Locked Door (Take 2)
3. I Live For You (Take 1)
4. Apple Scruffs (Take 1)
5. What Is Life (Take 3)
6. Awaiting On You All (Take 1) †
7. Isn’t It A Pity (Take 2)
8. I’d Have You Anytime (Take 1)
9. I Dig Love (Take 1)
10. Going Down To Golders Green (Take 1)
11. Dehra Dun (Take 2)
12. Om Hare Om (Gopala Krishna) (Take 1)
13. Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll) (Take 2)
14. My Sweet Lord (Take 1) †
15. Sour Milk Sea (Take 1)
Disc 4 (Day 2 Demos – Wednesday 27 May 1970)
1. Run Of The Mill (Take 1) †
2. Art Of Dying (Take 1)
3. Everybody/Nobody (Take 1)
4. Wah-Wah (Take 1)
5. Window Window (Take 1)
6. Beautiful Girl (Take 1)
7. Beware Of Darkness (Take 1)
8. Let It Down (Take 1)
9. Tell Me What Has Happened To You (Take 1)
10. Hear Me Lord (Take 1)
11. Nowhere To Go (Take 1)
12. Cosmic Empire (Take 1)
13. Mother Divine (Take 1)
14. I Don’t Want To Do It (Take 1)
15. If Not For You (Take 1)
† Previously Released
Disc 5 (Session Outtakes and Jams)
1. Isn’t It A Pity (Take 14)
2. Wah-Wah (Take 1)
3. I’d Have You Anytime (Take 5)
4. Art Of Dying (Take 1)
5. Isn’t It A Pity (Take 27)
6. If Not For You (Take 2)
7. Wedding Bells (Are Breaking Up That Old Gang Of Mine) (Take 1)
8. What Is Life (Take 1)
9. Beware Of Darkness (Take 8)
10. Hear Me Lord (Take 5)
11. Let It Down (Take 1)
12. Run Of The Mill (Take 36)
13. Down To the River (Rocking Chair Jam) (Take 1)
14. Get Back (Take 1)
15. Almost 12 Bar Honky Tonk (Take 1)
16. It’s Johnny’s Birthday (Take 1)
17. Woman Don’t You Cry For Me (Take 5)
