israel4ever Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 I know a lot of you are Gerorge Harrison fans; I thought you'd find this interesting...tell me what you think, (it's from the April 2004 issue of Blender) Ranking of Harrison albums: 5-Star "All Things Must Pass" 4-Star "The Concert for Bangla Desh" "Living in the Material World" "Best of Dark Horse 1976-1989" 3-Star "The Best of..." "33 1/3" "Cloud Nine" "Brainwashed" 2-Star "Wonderwall Music" "Dark Horse" "Extra Texture" "George Harrison" For Fans Only "Electronic Sound" "Somewhere in England" "Gone Troppo" "Chant and Be Happy" "Live in Japan" Do you think these rankings are accurate? I'd appreciate your feedback since I'm a relatively new Beatles fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaSoxxJim Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 CW I'm sure will chime in, and probably others too. I try to be very objective in considering all of the Beatle solo efforts - they are all uneven and there are some clunkers in each of the post-Beatle catalogs. All Things Must Pass should be right where it is, and is not only the best GH, it's probably the best solo Beatle album. It will likely only get better when the re-released and Phil Spector-free version finally comes out. On the 5 star system offered here, ATMP should rate about 20 stars! I think Dark Horse (much more deserving of 2 stars) and 33-1/3 should both be up there in the second tier with Bangladesh. Brainwashed should also be right there, it was a really strong showing for his last album. I think both of the 'best of albums' should be either moved down or excluded from the list - not that I don't appreciate the function of 'best of' albums, they just shouldn't be considered as adding anything to the artist's catalog. Cloud 9 is an oddity because it has some really dated-sounding production (Jeff Lynne) on some very strong compositions. It probably deserves to be where it is, but based on heavy-handed overproduction and not musical content. I'd love to hear the stripped down demos of these songs some day. The other slots are probably pretty fair. Wonderwall and Electronic Sounds are what they are, and weren't designed to yield any top 40 radio hits but I especially like Wonderwall quite a bit. Some of the low-rated albums had hit tunes on them ('Blow Away' on George Harrison and 'All Those Years Ago' on Somewhere in England) and some other decent offerings but were not stellar overall. Gone Troppo is just plain bad - I've listened to it maybe 3 times since I bought it the week it came out in 1982. Maybe this is the album that made Cloud 9 seem so good in comparison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 hmmm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 i have a problem with blender magazine having any standing at this board...its a truly awful music magazine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 I am freaking out over those ratings (and thank you I4E for posting those! ) Wonderwall to me (key phrase "to me") is 5 Star all the way but then you have to like sitar music and George's playing with it. I love it immensely, always have. And then there was the day I played it on our college radio station (I was a dj, and program and music director) someone thought we had blown the system when they heard the album over the air. Live in Japan a 1 star is bulls***. As far as live music goes, it is better in my opinion that Concert for Bangladesh and my comparison is based on having listened to both full length two days ago on a long car trip. CFB is great (love the sitar...) and I personally think Wah Wah is one of the greatest live songs ever. But LIJ has such a majesty - George had some new orchestrations for songs we know very well and it is wonderful, great new musical insights, and I think his best vocal performance ever was on My Sweet Lord on LIJ. The way he puts out the words, just makes it so real, as it is intended, a prayer, you hear the questions and longing in his voice, 'but it take's so long, My Lord.' Got to move Dark Horse up just for that song alone. I will never defend Gone Troppo. Brainwashed is not 3 star. It is 4 star, not 5 either. Even if he had lived to finish it himself it would not have made 5 star in my opinion but Dhani and Jeff Lynne did a hell of a job finishing it. It is certainly the most personal album he did. George's anger at the bulls*** in the world could be a tad more lyrically better in the title song but the music makes the point and it has one of the best quotes from Hindu wriitngs ever in it. The rest of the album, ity is so personal, he knew he was dying when he made it and you hear the love for Olivia for example, some of his other thoughts, little musical touches like the uke that we didn't hear much of elsewhere - and the opening number, Any Road, I haven't gotten that one out of my head, it so really George, any road will take you there if you don't care where you're going. Have to admit Brainwashed took me 2 or 3 times through before I started loving it. If you want to see the power of George's music, you ahve to see the Concert for George video. When you see what it meant to other musicians it really makes a point (and if you saw the recent R&R HOF performance does the same thing, what Prince does on While My Guitar Gently Weeps is astounding) but in some of the last numbers - when you stop being emotional about it like I am, you see like 3 drummers, 2 of being Ringo Starr and Jim Kettner, and all these quitar players, including Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Dhani Harrison, all the other people playing, Paul McCartney, the Heartbreakers, Billy Preston on the piano (or sometimes Paul too) and you count the musicians playing at once and you would think, this would way overpower any music. And it doesn't. That to me is a real test of music that the world's largest rock band ever can all be playing at the same time and the music is clear as if it were a single instrument (as the way they play "Something') it really speaks to the astounding quality of George's musicanship. For the rest, what Florida Jim said... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
israel4ever Posted April 3, 2004 Author Share Posted April 3, 2004 i have a problem with blender magazine having any standing at this board...its a truly awful music magazine... True...but it does serve a purpose of helping to find new bands/CDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 I'm done with the pop music scene. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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