WHO CAN SEE IT

Listen to WHO CAN SEE IT by George Harrison.

As promised, here's one more from "Living in the Material World." I'm not sure what I think about this one, except that it's another nearly great. But not. Worth a listen though. I think maybe what the Beatles brought to George, or maybe what George stayed sharp about around them, was the arrangements. George's best Beatles songs sound like they were recorded just the way they should be performed. By himself, maybe George's talents as an arranger slacked off. This one just seems not quite right, like he didn't quite capture its best side.

Enjoy your Friday & weekend too!

TRY SOME BUY SOME

Listen to TRY SOME BUY SOME by George Harrison.

How many of you have George's second (proper) solo album, "Living in the Material World"? I never had it, even though I'm a big Beatlemaniac, love George, and the first song on the album, Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth), is one of my favorite George songs. Despite all that, I was somehow just convinced that the rest of the album wasn't worth having. Maybe due to the seriously crap cover.

A couple of weeks ago, I finally picked up the album, and...well, it's a mixed bag. I don't think there are any lost classics on there, but a few of the songs are perfectly decent. Actually, that's not right, they're nearly really good, but don't quite make it, which makes them more interesting, but more frustrating, than the average decent tune.

Try Some Buy Some is a good example. It was actually recorded during the "All Things Must Pass" sessions, and originally given to Ronnie Spector. George sped up the backing track slightly and sang his own version for "Living In the Material World." I like it, I like it a lot in fact, but there's something about it that doesn't quite come together. I think that it is written to pick up a huge momentum so that by the end you should have this big huge sound, but it never comes.

Incidentally, David Bowie recorded a pretty good version of this a couple of years ago. I might even like his version best.