Long before Madonna was a Material Girl living in the Material World, George Harrison defined the term.
The former Beatle created the album, “Living in the Material World” in 1973 as a follow up to his “All Things Must Pass” masterpiece and “The Concert for Bangla Desh.”
Beatles fans were pretty excited to hear “Living in the Material World” because George had finally emerged as a solo artist as big as John Lennon or Paul McCartney. We were not disappointed. The only single, “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” shot to number 1 before the album came, out that set the stage.
Now the 50th anniversary edition is coming in November thanks to George’s amazing wife, Olivia Harrison, and their devoted son, Dhani Marrison. They have done the best job of any family of a passed rock star in keeping a legacy alive. They’ve handled it all with enormous class.
The 50th anniversary edition includes remixes of the album, naturally. There are also a dozen different takes of the songs — never heard before — including Take 18 of “Give Me Love,” which is out today as a featured track.
There’s also a 7″ single included of Harrison’s “Sunshine Life for Me (Sail Away Raymond)” with an all star cast including The Band, and Ringo Starr. Ringo recorded the song for his famous “Ringo!” album, produced by Richard Perry, also in 1973.
The Super Deluxe Edition will have only 5,000 copies, folks. There will be less expensive iterations. But the Super Deluxe sounds hot. According to a press release: “Housed in a rigid slipcase, the box set contains a beautiful 60-page hardcover book curated by Olivia Harrison and Rachel Cooper, with unseen imagery and memorabilia from the era, handwritten lyrics, studio notes, and tape box images. Also included is a 12-page Recording Notes booklet, drawing from original Living in the Material World production notes, photographs, and reel-to-reel session tapes housed in the George Harrison Archive. For the first time, the Harrison archive team offers an in-depth, chronological account of the album’s creation, revealing insights that have never been shared with the public before.”
All the tracks on “Living in the Material World” were FM hits although there was only one single. I always thought “Don’t Make Me Wait Too Long” would have gone to number 1. “Try Some Buy Some” was covered eventually by the legendary Ronnie Spector. The title track could also have been a hit on its own.
The 50th anniversary edition arrives on November 15th. I’d put my order in now. By the way, George donated all the publishing proceeds from the album to the Material World Foundation forever, which he formed to collect and distribute money for the Bangla Desh concert. The Material World Foundation continues to transform lives across the world today.
