My Encounter w/Dhani Harrison About George

i'm sure being questioned about that was just what he really wanted:thumbsdn:

they are people at the end of the day, no wonder they try and keep away from the general public.

 

What guilt? What loyalty? You're the Beatle-fan who declared rather pompously 48 hours after the remasters were announced that you wouldn't be getting these and rained on everyone's parade forebye.

Yet you bought Dhani Harrison's album?

 

Is this what we doctors called "prolonged sarcasm"?

 

This is all getting a little silly. First, I'm sure that, at an event in which he was attempting to promote his own CD, the last thing Dhani wanted to do was talk about his famous Dad's catalog. Second, face it: George Harrison created a lot of timeless music in his life, but, like his fellow Beatles, also put out a lot of crap during his solo years, particularly during the 70s. As to EMI refusing to put out a box set, I'd double-check the actual sales figures of the remasters before indicting the record company. I think you'll find that, in part due to the few bonus tracks included, they didn't set the charts on fire. It seems to me that, ironically, that was because the Harrison camp held the good vault stuff for the big box payoff that never quite materialized.
I think they call that Karma.

 

Half truths

No I listened to Dhani Harrison on you tube and things like that.
I dont especially care for any of the beatle kids music.Nothing
against them I just don't think they are as good as their fathers.

As far as remasters, thats cool great they will sound somewhat better
and in ten or twenty years their will be another so called revolution
in sound technology and it will all happen again.

I'm not anti remaster, I'm just pro unreleased bonus tracks. I personally
find that more rewarding and interesting. I resent the literally forty five
year wait in some cases for the release of Now and then by the Threetles
The Mccartney demo of Woman from 66, the release of Carnival of light
from 67 alternate takes like Granny Smith AKA Love you too, Georges
power Ballad Valentine, etc etc

I would like to hear all that stuff and I think the remasters pale in
comparison for being interesting. But I have nothing against remasters
except this

People said----Oh cheer up word is that in about three years after this
remaster jazz cools down.Then at that point they are going to feature
new deluxe releases with the extra songs. And after all that then maybe
the solo box sets.

I object to the passage of so much time to get it done. MAkes me wanna
hurl.

Then when Dhani Harrison says over the weekend, oh yeah we have had my dads rare tracks ready for five years EMI wouldn't put it out, we wanted
to but EMI refused.

That just makes me sick to my stomach. I'm a middle aged man I'll be dead
before these bozos make it available. Thats what I'm on about chum.

THere are believe it or not people who really want to hear Carnival of LIght
and Now And THen and VAlentine while they are still young enough to
enjoy it.

There is some speculation the HArrison best of package will contain one
rare track. Supposedly that comes from Capitol

 

Based on the descriptons of Carnival I've read, I think it would quickly join Revolution #9 as a track 99.99% of fans listen to once and then hit skip every other time they put on the CD.

I would have liked to have had everything in the catalogue and vaults remastered and released ten years ago but I think the logic is pretty simple here - put out what everybody (that is in the real world, not SHland) wants first and then keep your revenue stream going by continuing to release stuff for years to come.

 

Maybe so

There are many ways the Beatles as an ongoing brand, George Harrisons
Estate, Ringo, PAul and the Lennons can make money.

Its high time the remaining tracks in Georges archive, THe Beatles Archive
and the others archives be made available to the public

THey should have been part of the remaster [program, in fact they may be.
We shall see.

THis is nonsense, refusing to put out George's archive. These unreleased
tracks go back to i believe 1958, fifty one stinkin years in some cases.
To say the time is not yet right boggles the mind. Screw the bean counters
this is about music and fans who appreciate it. People have literally died
waiting to hear this stuff. THese people are all billionaires they can afford
to make the music available. There is no valid excuse or reason on this
planet why George Harrisons stuff isin't availble and that goes for the
Beatles as well.

 

I suspect this is just a slip on your part Ron, but isn't that true of the USA only? McCartney was with EMI in the UK up until, and including, Chaos...

 

I said some less than flattering remarks about Dhani -- I'm sorry, I was wrong. I like this kid. He's got moxie.

 

Mccartney went to Columbia

1-Back To The Egg 79
2-Mcartney 2 80
3-Tug OfWar 82
4-Pipes Of Peace 83
5-Give My Regards to Broadstreet 84


Note Macca cleverly finished the five album deal with Broadstreet offering
just three new tunes!

I don't remember who the European arm of Columbia was in 1979 84
but I know it wasn't EMI

 

All the above were released on EMI in the UK - would be the same for Europe too I suspect.

 

Of course, the provincial snob I am (and I was born in the UK ). Thanks for the reminder Mike! Ron

PS I just checked the Bible, Chip's Eight Arms To Hold Hold You. Paul's US Columbia LPs/CDs were indeed released by Parlophone in the UK.

 

Do you ever read the business pages?

 

I'm not saying there isn't a lot of unreleased music in George's archives, or that Dhani has no idea what's in there. But you're talking as if he has a completely prepared box set all ready to go and I doubt that's the case. Elsewhere he's said he doesn't have time to go through it all, which suggests to me he hasn't comprehensively done so yet. And as regards the quality of the material.... how do you know how much of his unreleased stuff is great, or even worth hearing?

 

If you re-read the conversation CDice posted you'll see that Dhani claims EMI rejected a boxset some 5 years ago. We don't know if it was already compiled and ready-to-go, or what, but at the very least the concept was quashed from the record company. I think he said recently that he doesn't have time to troll through the archives NOW, but this doesn't mean he hasn't done the grunt work already. It may be that someone IS entrusted with George's archives and all that needs to be done is proper mixing/remixing and settling on material. Jeff (jcjc) is really just a huge fan and wants to hear some of the nuggets hinted at by Dhani. His enthusiasm for all things Harrison is quite infectuous. Ron

 

It wouldn't kill them to put up a couple of these tracks on George's website. Artists like Adrian Belew have been doing this for quite some time. On Belew's site, some of the tracks may be downloaded for free, some for a fee.

Of course, they would rather that you purchase an entire album on iTunes (even if you've already purchased the cd), for the "privilege" to purchase a single bonus track.

 

You're lucky he's not Billy Bob Thorton. Since he was there to promote his own band he could have just said, "I don't know what you're talking about".

It sounds like we have some good stuff to look forward to. I just hope it doesn't take another ten years to see the light of day. I suspect the window of opportunity is beginning to close on the '60s. As we boomers begin to retire we're gonna have less disposable income. They need to release this stuff while I'm still getting a regular pay check. I don't want to have to decide between food and music. I'll likely starve.

 

I'm a big fan of Britpop and Beatlesque Powerpop and Synthpop, so it fits right in with the general style. But I'm not looking for super originality, just a constant flow of new material in the style that sounds good on shuffle play, not keeping my attention for an entire album. So I'm probably only giving thenewno2 a backhanded compliment, or faint praise by including them in this.

 

I don't see anything damning in that first link. The guy is saying that they have to provide ways to make money for their established artists to give them a reason to stay with a big label. He is saying that the label has to find ways to make money besides cds. I think he's spot on.

 

"Would you ask Tom Petty that? Would you ask Tom Petty when his dad's back catalog is coming out?"

 

With all due respect, you are making it seem as if they owe it to the fans to put this stuff out...

And let's not lose perspective: When this kind of stuff gets released and re-released it's ALL about those beans they count, not the music or the fans...

I'm with you in your interest for hearing the unreleased gems, but if we have to wait a few years to get some cool "lost" Harrisongs, it really is no big deal... It's not like we never got what we paid for...

We sound like spoiled brats when we fret and kick up such a fuss about wanting this stuff, it's all ME ME ME ME ME and NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW...

People have literally died waiting to hear this stuff... so what? People have also died waiting for the cure to their cancer...

 

I couldn't agree more. Dhani seems a bit savvy about the web so I am surprised we haven't seen some rarities upped there to date. I honestly don't know the details of Harrison's EMI distribution deal, so it may be that the website CAN'T make unreleased recordings available; either for listening-only purposes or for purchase. My guess is they can, but probably want to release rarities, not merely making them available to scholars and fans. Ron

 

I would imagine Dhani has relatively easy access to all of the tapes. If he wanted to, he (or someone he hired) could transfer everything to the computer and he could have his own personal collection of his dad's recordings. For ease he could transfer rough mixes, then burn them to cd or make mp3s out of them just for himself. The only reason I'm thinking about this is that in the age of digital audio, this stuff is relatively easy. I transferred all of my recordings to digital several years ago. It took about 8 months of my spare time and the result was about 30 cds of stuff I recorded since I was 16. Except for the investment of time, it was easy to do. If some record company asked me to do a box set (which is ridiculous of course), I could make one in a day or two. Dhani could have submitted a George "box" using his personal collection as a basic outline or proposal. However...

What I'm thinking is that Dhani either finds it painful to deal with his late father's legacy, doesn't particularly care to see that stuff released, there isn't an outlet for it, or he is busy with other things (such as thenewno2). He has every right to do his own stuff. We don't know what it's like to be Dhani. He may not want his life's work to be the keeper of the legend, so he's trying to make his way in the world. Any George project would consume a great deal of his time. He would most likely be on the front line of every phase of the project. That could swallow up a couple years. I think it was telling that one of his first responses to cdice was "When are YOU going to put out YOUR father's back catalog?" He said more about his outlook with that rhetorical question than he could if he tried to describe all of his feelings about it in detail.

 

When you're trying to make a name for yourself doing one thing, it's pretty hard to have all the hands-on attention available for another thing...especially if it's a jillion-dollar legacy project that you know will be your inheritance.

I know I'm in charge of my family's century-plus photograph library. That doesn't mean I'm the most qualified to document, archive or restore any of the pieces. It just means, if I were to give the work to anybody else it would kill me, because I know that nobody would be closer to the project than I would be. So instead, there they sit, awaiting my abilities to catch up with my intents.

At least Dhani is working in the same field as his father, so he's learning how to become the best steward of the legacy.

 

In the meantime, we're still waiting for the long-promised Paul McCartney rarities box. Does his departure from EMI further complicate that situation?