Inside Of All Things Must Pass (Strange Apple SAR 005)
Abbey Road Studios, 3 Abbey Road NW8 St John’s Wood, London, England – May 27th, 1970 (60:44): Run Of The Mill, Art Of Dying, Everybody Nobody, Wah-Wah, Window Window, Beautiful Girl, Beware Of Darkness, Let It Down, Tell Me What Has Happened To You, Hear Me Lord, Nowhere To Go, Cosmic Empire, Mother Divine, Don’t Want To Do It, If Not For You
Released remixes: Beware Of Darkness, Let It Down (with overdub c.2000)
Bonus tracks, Woodstock, NY – November 1968 (with Bob Dylan): Nowhere To Go, I’d Have You Anytime
The bulk of Inside Of All Things Must Passis the famous Beware Of ABKCO! bootleg whose material has been released many times before. This is the demo recording George Harrison recorded at Abbey Road Studio with producer Phil Spector before working on his seminal solo album. Most of these are tracks are played on acoustic guitar but “Here Me Lord,” “Nowhere To Go,” and “Cosmic Empire” (referred to by Harrison as “just full of chorus voices and stuff”) are played on the electric. “Wah-Wah” is played on electric guitar with an unnamed bass player accompanying Harrison and the last song “If Not For You” is played on acoustic guitar with someone playing piano lightly in the background.
This is an interesting glimpse into the process of writing this material. Eight of the songs would be either reworked or not appear on All Things Must Pass. Among the outtakes, three have been officially released in one form or another: “Everybody, Nobody” was an early version of “The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp”, “Beautiful Girl” would be finished for Thirty Three & 1/3, and “I Don’t Want to Do It” would be released fifteen years later on the Porky’s Revenge soundtrack. Five other songs, “Cosmic Empire”, “Mother Divine”, “Nowhere to Go,” “Tell Me What Has Happened With You,” and “Window, Window”, have not seen official release.
Two demos of songs that did make the album, “Beware of Darkness” and “Let It Down” (with overdubs from 2000), would eventually be released on the remastered All Things Must Pass and Strange Apple have included the tracks as they appear on the remastered album too. The final two bonus tracks come from Harrison’s visit to Bob Dylan’s house in Woodstock, New York. Most sources date this from November 1968 but other authorities claim it dates from May, 1970. The four minute mono amateur recording reveals them singing two songs, “I’d Have You Anytime” (which Harrison would recorded for the album) and “Nowhere To Go” (aka “Everybody Somebody Comes To Town.”) The sound quality is a bit rough, but is another interesting glimpse into an historic meeting. All of this material has been released before so nothing is gained with this release but it is a nice collection in decent packaging.
