George Harrison -- "Cosmic Empire"

 

I recently came upon walrusz’s YouTube channel where he’s added some new studio backing to a few demos George Harrison recorded. That led me to read up more on the 50^th anniversary of Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album where I discovered there were a number of outtakes he never officially released in his lifetime.

I’ve often thought that Harrison waited too long to record a follow-up to All Things Must Pass. Yes, it was a triple album (or a double album with an extra disc of jamming) and it was a massive success when it was released in 1970. However, his former bandmates released more albums than he did from 1970 through 1973. Paul McCartney issued five studio albums during that span and John Lennon released four. Even Ringo Starr recorded three studio albums. Meanwhile, George issued two: All Things Must Pass (1970) and Living in the Material World (1973).

Considering George supposedly had tons of songs he’d written that had been rejected by the other Beatles (namely John and Paul), one might think that he’d be keen to now get it all out there and have a follow-up album in 1971 or 1972. But in fact, he had other priorities, including legal issues, a failing marriage, the organization of the Concert for Bangla Desh and the care for his mother who was dying. 

So here's my attempt at an album that could have been.

SIDE A

1.      Cosmic Empire 

2.      Mother Divine 

3.      Window, Window 

4.      Dehra Dun 

5.      Going Down to Golders Green 

6.      Nowhere to Go 

SIDE B

1.      I Live for You

2.      Deep Blue 

3.      Tell Me What Has Happened to You 

4.      Om Hare Om (Gopala Krishna) 

5.      I Don’t Want to Do It 

There were several songs George demoed in 1970 that he later recorded for albums, and I decided not to use those.

Looking and searching, I found 11 songs that could have been used for a late 1971 or early 1972 album. I used five tracks that walrusz posted on his YouTube channel: “Cosmic Empire,” “Nowhere to Go,” “Dehra Dun,” “Mother Divine” and “Window Window.” For the latter song, I snipped off the studio chatter at the very beginning as I found it distracting. 

I also included the 2000 overdubbed version of “I Live for You” that George released with the 40^th anniversary of All Thing Must Pass, as well as the demos for “Going Down to Golders Green,” "Om Hare Om (Gopala Krishna)," “Tell Me What Has Happened to You” and “I Don’t Want to Do It” from the 50^th anniversary of the album. 

And finally, I included “Deep Blue,” the B-side of George’s 1971 “Bangla Desh” single. I thought about including “Bangla Desh” as well, but it’s very apparent that it was always meant to be a standalone single.

I especially like using the Bob Dylan-penned “I Don’t Want to Do It” to end the album with just George on vocals and guitar. The song's final line “I don't want to say goodbye” and abrupt stop seemed like a great ending, I think. George actually re-recorded the song in 1985 for the Porky’s Revenge soundtrack, and that seems like a sad result for a Dylan song that he himself never recorded. Using it here gives the song a bit more respect.

The result is what I think is a very enjoyable 11-track album. For the album cover, I found this photo of George online and added the words. I titled it Cosmic Empire after the lead-off track.

Here is a YouTube playlist of the album. Enjoy!