What to Listen for on George Harrison’s ‘Living in the Material World’ Anniversary Edition

They may not have had quite as bountiful of a vault as for the All Things Must Pass anniversary edition, but the George Harrison estate and Dark Horse Records had no shortage of, well, material in putting together the new 50th anniversary edition of George Harrison’s fourth solo (and second post-Beatles) album, Living in a Material World.

The expanded two-disc set, which was curated by Harrison’s widow Olivia and son Dhani, is part of an expanded deal with BMG that Dark Horse signed last year. Out Friday (Nov. 15) with a new mix by Grammy Award-winning engineer Paul Hicks; in addition to the 11 original tracks that came out on May 30, 1973, a second disc (on LP and CD) includes an outtake of each song as well as two rarities, “Miss O’Dell” and, on CD only, the unreleased “Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)” (which Harrison contributed to Ringo Starr’s 1973 album, Ringo, and recorded with Starr and members of The Band). The package also includes a 60-page hardcover book featuring previously unseen images and memorabilia from the period.

“We’re going in chronological order,” Dhani Harrison, Dark Horse’s CEO, tells Billboard about the estate and label’s approach to reissuing his father’s catalog. “There was obviously (The Concert For) Bangladesh in-between but that’s a full concert movie, so that doesn’t affect the order as we release his solo studio albums.”

Harrison adds that his father “really loved this album because of what it stood for. It was designed to help people living in the material world — it had a purpose. It always meant a lot to him. He named his charity after it, so it was also the beginning of the foundation, which still goes on today.” Royalties from the 50th anniversary edition will go to the Material World Foundation.

Living in the Material World was Harrison’s second consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified gold, spawning the Billboard Hot 100-topping single “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth).” It was also the first album Harrison recorded at the studio in his Friar Park estate in Henley-on-Thames, England, which he’d purchased in January 1970. Unlike All Things Must Pass’ legion of contributors, Living in a Material World was made with a small core band that included keyboardists Nicky Hopkins and Gary Wright, bassist Klaus Voormann, Starr and Jim Keltner on drums and Jim Horn on woodwinds.

“It was very cozy,” recalls Voormann, who was living in a cottage at Friar Park at the time. “It was a very personal atmosphere, very comfortable. It was a beautiful house, and the (studio) room itself was one end and very secluded and not really big, so it was very intimate. And George was in a very calm state. He was very happy with his meditation and his friends from India, so he was in a certain mood which made it into this wonderful atmosphere.”

Dhani Harrison, meanwhile, views the album as the start of a new era for his father, the first of “a long line of Friar Park albums that stretch all the way to the end of his career,” including albums by Ravi Shankar and the all-star Traveling Wilburys, whose debut album was mixed there. Having worked through a backlog of Beatles-era songs for All Things Must Pass, Living in the Material World offered a spate of brand-new songs, many reflecting Harrison’s spiritual focus at the time.

“He also produced this album all by himself,” Dhani notes. “It’s the first time we see him in his element in his home studio, producing and writing…. If you listen to the album that’s a real band on there, which is what makes it different from All Things Must Pass. They were really ripping as a band on those sessions. It was also coming off the back of Bangladesh, so there was a lot of synergy with the musicians from that on this album.”

Hicks, who’s also worked on reissue projects by the Beatles and John Lennon, says the streamlined process benefited the remixing as well. “I think in general my mission is to just start fresh and have a new sort of sonic take on the album,” he explains. “Timeless is the term I always use; we’re not trying to make things sound modern…although I think people maybe listen differently now — on their phones and headphones — so to me there’s a different sort of detail in what you’ve got to do.

“It’s obviously a lot simpler production than All Things Must Pass. Apart from a few songs, like the title track, it’s almost sort of like an acoustic album, but with some extra instruments. It doesn’t strike me as a rock album. So I kind of went into it emotionally mixing it and really trying to bring out the lyrics, because (Harrison) is saying some really fascinating things. I thought we should have a bit more focus on George on this one, and the Harrisons agreed.”

The vaults held plenty of options. The additional material ranges from a third take of “The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)” to some takes in the 20s and even the 93rd take of “Who Can See It.” “We did that — but, you see, I don’t remember it,” Voormann says, with a laugh, about the process. “We were just playing the songs and going through them. We weren’t keeping count…George was very precise. John was more direct; if there were mistakes on the take it didn’t matter, the feeling had to be right and that was good enough for him. But with George…all the details had to be right.”

Dhani adds that, “the fact there was a take 93 shows how deep we went. Ultimately, we only put stuff in that makes the album stronger…what we’re looking for is the really worthy stuff, and if you have to go through 90 takes to find that one take, that’s what we do. It wasn’t just a ‘remaster’; we’ve gone back to every single master track. It’s really an ‘ultra remaster,’ as we went back to the original masters and remixed them without stepping on the original, which is what we did with All Things Must Pass. We did a deep, deep dive, and that’s what the fans deserve.”

Despite the substantial number of takes, however, Hicks notes that “they’re all basically the same. George taught (the band) the songs, and then they did it. All Things Must Pass was kind of a treasure trove — that one’s loads slower, that one’s faster…. On this (album) they definitely seemed to have a plan. Maybe the title track outtake (take 31), that’s possibly one of the most different because it’s a much more square bit, not as swung as the (album version), so that’s quite interesting. But they didn’t really experiment with styles… they were just playing the songs until (Harrison) felt they’d done it enough.”

The Harrisons are already working on what’s next. The estate began working concurrently on The Concert for Bangladesh, with Peter Jackson helping to restore footage of the film “so it’s of the same quality as Get Back,” according to Dhani. “It’s just incredible when you see the show. It took it into another level, which is why you haven’t seen it yet as we’ve been taking our time with it. But when you de-grain it and up-res it, it becomes a whole new thing. With the level of musicians who are in that show, it deserves that attention.” Dark Horse is looking at doing something similar with Harrison’s 1974 tour as well.

“If there’s any way of doing Dark Horse (the album) and the Dark Horse ’74 tour in the same way as well, that’s my ultimate goal,” Dhani says. “The band is incredible, and the shows set the template for bringing classical Indian music and rock n’ roll together.

“All these releases require so much work. It took us five years to do the All Things Must Pass 50th anniversary. We started doing all this in 2001 — we’ve been at it for nearly 25 years and we’re only up to the second album.”