UNIVERSALLY regarded, without too much contention from the Lennon and McCartney camps, as the best Beatles’ solo album, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, home to such classics as “My Sweet Lord” and “Isn’t It A Pity”, as covered so beautifully by Galaxie 500, is to receive a whole series of deluxe expansions to mark its, albeit slightly belated, half-century.
The album of which an ever-prescient George said “even before I started, I knew I was gonna make a good album because I had so many songs and I had so much energy. For me to do my own album after all that – it was joyous. Dream of dreams,” and on which works began pretty soon after the break-up of The Beatles in April 1970, was an audacious, 23-track odyssey – it was the first ever triple album – with Phil Spector at the faders.
George is on record at the time of the 30th anniversary remaster in 2001 as saying: “I still like the songs on the album and believe they can continue to outlive the style in which they were recorded; it was difficult to resist remixing every track.
“All these years later I would like to liberate some of the songs from the big production that seemed appropriate at the time.”
And his wish has now been granted, with the album once more being fully remixed from the original masters and available on August 6th in a variety of editions.
The Uber Deluxe Edition, which will be available exclusively from GeorgeHarrison.com, uDiscover, and Sound of Vinyl, presents as a box set includes the 8 LPs, all 180g, 5 CDs and a Blu-ray audio disc in an artisan-designed wooden crate. This collection includes 42 previously unreleased demos and outtakes, while the Blu-ray allows fans to experience the main album in high-res stereo, enveloping 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Atmos mixes. The crate will also contain two books: an elaborate, expanded 96-page scrapbook curated by Olivia Harrison featuring unseen imagery and memorabilia, handwritten lyrics, diary entries, studio notes, tape box images, a comprehensive track-by-track guide and more; while a second 44-page book chronicling the making of the album through extensive archival interviews and a wooden bookmark made from a felled oak from George’s Friar Park. If that’s not enough, it will also include 1/6 scale replica figurines of Harrison and the gnomes featured on the cover, an illustration by Klaus Voormann, as well as a copy of Paramahansa Yogananda’s Light From the Great Ones and Rudraksha beads, contained in individual custom-made boxes. Wowza.
The Super Deluxe Edition box set contains the same audio disc bundle, a beautiful 60-page scrapbook curated by Olivia Harrison, and a replica of the original album poster.
All Things Must Pass will be released in multiple physical and digital configurations, including as a 5xLP or 3xCD deluxe edition that pairs the main album with the outtakes and jams; the main album will be available on its own as 2xCD, 3xLP or limited edition triple coloured vinyl. All versions are available for pre-order now, here.
George’s son Dhani says: “Since the 50th anniversary stereo mix release of the title track to my father’s legendary All Things Must Pass album in 2020, my dear pal Paul Hicks and I have continued to dig through mountains of tapes to restore and present the rest of this newly remixed and expanded edition of the album you now see and hear before you.
“Bringing greater sonic clarity to this record was always one of my father’s wishes and it was something we were working on together right up until he passed in 2001.
“Now, 20 years later, with the help of new technology and the extensive work of Paul Hicks we have realized this wish and present to you this very special 50th anniversary release of perhaps his greatest work of art. Every wish will be fulfilled.”
Hear “Run Of The Mill (Take 36)” below – just one of the previously unreleased delights in store.
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