By the spring of 1973, the Quiet Beatle must have seemed like the Monastic Beatle. Since the release of the Concert for Bangla Desh album and film in the winter of 71-72, George had made no TV or radio appearances, given few interviews, and released no new product.
He was still in demand as a session player and always willing to help his friends in the music business, producing Ravi Shankar's In Concert 1972 LP. Apart from his work on Ringo's singles and LP in progress, in 1972 and 73 George participated on records by Nicky Hopkins:
Cheech and Chong:
Dave Mason:
and Alvin Lee:
Still, it came as a relief to Harrifans when a bona-fide NEW George single appeared in May of 1973. The A-side, "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)" saw no decline in quality from his heralded All Things Must Pass material, and it shot to #1 on the Billboard chart. The exclusive B-side, "Miss O'Dell" was a light and fun ditty which echoed "Apple Scruffs".
Given all the anticipation and the excellence of the single, the full LP, Living In The Material World, was inevitably a disappointment upon release a few weeks later. While it contained some excellent material, the preachiness of the lyrics wore thin on many listeners with repeated playing.
Despite George making no media appearances or promo clips to promote the album, it sold like hotcakes, racking up five weeks atop the Billboard LP chart, and going top 5 in the UK. In fact, among 1967-1970, Red Rose Speedway and George's album, the #1 slot was Fab-filled from May 26th through July 21st.
Speaking of Nicky (who deserves his own floor in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame), somebody has posted a bunch of videos featuring music from his alleged private stash. I haven't had a chance to dig through yet, but there may well be some gems in there: http://www.youtube.com/user/hawaiicommunitymedia/featured
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link Wardo. I just checked it out a bit, it claims that it's from his private stash, but all the Beatles stuff was released versions (and also, wrong. For "Revolution", it plays "Revolution 1" as opposed to his classic work on the single version, and it also includes "Helter Skelter", "Octopuses Garden", "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", and "Back In The USSR", all songs that I'm pretty sure Nicky DIDN'T play on!! ( I don't even think there is piano on "Happiness is a warm gun", and I doubt he played the simple organ part).
DeleteStill, maybe poking around a little further will yield some good results!!