Living In The Material World - George Harrison

In 1973, all four former Beatles were competing with each other to prove they could deliver the goods – and consistently – without each other, if only to silence punters who still wanted them to get back together again and were almost sure they would. George Harrison had been the only one to top the UK singles charts (with ‘My Sweet Lord’), and had followed it up with the musically sublime Bangla Desh benefit concert, the Live Aid of 1971.
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...Material World’ entered the UK charts on release at No. 2, and topped the US album chart. But overall expectations had been too high, and it was a major disappointment to some – not least the critics. Three decades later, it’s re-evaluation time.

Fact. Only one track is co-produced by Phil Spector, who had been responsible for the massive wall of sound on George’s 1970 triple album (and many years later double CD), ‘All Things Must ... more

In 1973, all four former Beatles were competing with each other to prove they could deliver the goods – and consistently – without each other, if only to silence punters who still wanted them to get back together again and were almost sure they would. George Harrison had been the only one to top the UK singles charts (with ‘My Sweet Lord’), and had followed it up with the musically sublime Bangla Desh benefit concert, the Live Aid of 1971.

Less than two years later, ‘Living In The Material World’ entered the UK charts on release at No. 2, and topped the US album chart. But overall expectations had been too high, and it was a major disappointment to some – not least the critics. Three decades later, it’s re-evaluation time.

Fact. Only one track is co-produced by Phil Spector, who had been responsible for the massive wall of sound on George’s 1970 triple album (and many years later double CD), ‘All Things Must Pass’. The rest, George’s own production, features him with a much smaller, tighter band, and the stripped down sound has its pros and cons.

On the plus side, it allows the songs and in particular his guitar work to shine properly. On the minus side, his gentle voice sometimes needs that hefty sonic bedding that it doesn’t get here, particularly as some of the songs don’t quite make it, and he does verge towards preachiness at times. As he ruefully admitted, he only had to mention the words God or Lord in a lyric and a sharp intake of breath could be heard somewhere. (Of course, he might have got away with it if only he’d changed his name to Aretha Franklin).

Things start well with the gorgeously simple single ‘Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)’, with that crisp acoustic guitar intro and typical, gorgeously Harrisonesque lead guitar break. As the man said himself, it’s a kind of prayer. We may not find a better world, but we can all try a little harder. He may be less benign on the cynical track two, ‘Sue Me Sue You Blues’ – “bring your lawyer, I’ll bring mine, get together and we could have a bad time”. He’s tired of filling the lawyers’ pockets with the Beatle partnership fallout, he says, but it’s still a good song, not least with the sturdy organ and semi-jazzy electric piano proving the perfect backdrop to his slide guitar.

‘The Light That Has Lighted The World’ is mainly acoustic, a gentle, confessional song about change – “I’ve heard how some people have said that I’ve changed, that I’m not what I was”. Pleasant, but a little insubstantial. It’s followed by ‘Don’t Let Me Wait Too Long’, more or less the only secular love song on the record, a sprightly up-tempo folksy-country rocker, with crisp acoustic and lead guitars intro reminiscent of early Eagles (‘Take It Easy’ or ‘Lyin’ Eyes’). Next comes ‘Who Can See It’, back to prayer mode, lyrically a kind of exorcising the ghosts of those days when he “played toeing the line”. Another song that might have sounded a little dirgey without that strings arrangement that brings it all to a crescendo.

Despite the rather ominous title, the title track itself is another of the album’s high spots. No strings, but a tight funky band adding more jazzy piano and saxes to George’s slide guitar, tell of the problems of being in the material world and facing the spiritual sky – with a reference in the lyrics to meeting John, Paul and ‘Richie’. (Ringo Starr shares drum duties with Jim Keltner throughout – neither John nor Paul put in an appearance). The bluesy change in tempo at the very end brings it to a neat full stop.

‘The Lord Loves The One’ is another song that sounds far better than that hymn-like title might lead you to expect. Mid-tempo, and it’s probably one of the best performances he ever put in on guitar on any of his solo work. It’s followed by ‘Be Here Now’, instrumentally the most simple, with acoustic guitar and a drone played on the tanpura, a kind of meditation prayer. The title and some of the lyrics are adapted from the book ‘Be Here Now’ by Baba Ram Dass, and also inspired a certain Manchester group for an album title years later…

‘Try Some Buy Some’, the only Phil Spector co-production, is a return to the big wall of sound. Waltz-tempo, and inscrutable lyrics that could be about drugs, religion or love, or maybe all three. Two final tracks follow, ‘The Day the World Gets 'Round’, and ‘That Is All’. They’re pleasant enough, if a shade too dirge-like and earnest.

On the whole, this album still stands up well. Three tracks don’t really cut it for me – and I speak as someone who plays George Harrison on record for pleasure almost as much as any post-Beatles work by the other three former members put together. But the rest of it is pretty well up to standard. After the massive sound of ‘All Things Must Pass’ it may sound astonishingly simple, but musically and songwise it’s just as good, or at any rate not far behind – without the padding that made ‘ATMP’ so overwhelming at first.

Note – the current CD release corresponds exactly to the original 1973 album. Shortly before his death in 2001, George was planning to issue a remastered version with additional bonus tracks of this and his other two mid-70s albums, a project which may be currently ongoing but with no definite schedule or date as yet.

Available from Amazon and WH Smith online at £12.99, which seems to be similar (or maybe £1 less) than high street prices.
 

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