George Harrison - George Harrison (1969)

George Harrison left the Beatles on January 10, 1969. Many factors weighed heavily on his decision, such as the creative clashes he was having with both John and Paul over the arrangements of songs on the Get Back project, the increase in his songwriting quality from 1968 onwards not being followed by an increase of his quota of songs on the albums, and others. The fact that he spent Thanksgiving 1968 in Woodstock with Bob Dylan & the Band and came out impressed with their communal attitude towards making music and general camaraderie, only to be greeted by the tensions of Apple and the supremacy of Lennon/McCartney certainly didn't help, with his long-held feelings of being a second-class Beatle coming to a boil. He was convinced to return a week later under certain stipulations, such as moving the sessions from Twickenham film studios to their own Apple Studios and nixing any plans of performing live. The sessions then see renewed enthusiasm and newly cordial relations from there onward, with the Get Back project coming to a satisfying closure on the 31st. Shortly afterward, Harrison considers the idea of releasing a solo album, following the advice given to him by John Lennon. That way, he'd return reinvigorated to the newest Beatles project and have a creative outlet where he could use all of his surplus material. He took a tentative first step toward that on his birthday, February 25, 1969, where he recorded demos for three songs that weren't used in the previous month's sessions alone on his guitar.

Unfortunately, plans didn't get much further than that. His dedication was instead given to producing many Apple-related projects and artists such as Billy Preston and Doris Troy, and recording the Abbey Road album with the Beatles. During those sessions, he is given a considerably larger role creatively, since John is sidelined due to a car crash. He collaborates much closer with Paul and contributes the two songs which are arguably the highlights of the album, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun". The former even warranted George's first A-side of a Beatles single, showing how far he'd come since he wrote 1963's "Don't Bother Me". Because of this newly found prestige, it seems that after the tentative February session, George decided against releasing a solo album while the Beatles still existed, shifting his attention elsewhere. After the Abbey Road album is finished Harrison again dedicates himself to producing Apple signees and tours as a sideman with Delaney and Bonnie, still seemingly not worried about starting a solo career. He talked about it but didn't seem to commit to it completely, maybe due to a bit of lingering self-doubt because of the years of being taken for granted. He only started work on the All Things Must Pass album the month after the McCartney press release, when there was absolutely no doubt that the Beatles had split and he basically had no option but to become a solo artist. But what if he had recorded his first solo album while the Beatles still existed?

This reconstruction is an update to my George Harrison solo debut essay from April 2019. But this time around, George doesn't quit the Beatles, and follows John's advice of simply recording a solo album concurrently with the band to "let all of the songs out". Because of that, songs released by the Beatles will not be considered for this album, as we aim to create a simple, standalone solo album that could fit alongside the Beatles' recorded output in late 1969. Another change is that the deadline for the songs to be written is shortened to May 1969 from the original August 1969, meaning this album would have been recorded during a break in the recording of Abbey Road, from May to June 1969. Songs that were released later on when George actually started his solo career are obviously given the preference, as he thought of them highly enough to record less than a year later. We'll be aiming at about ten tracks for the record, as was the norm by then, and we've got some pretty long songs on our shortlist. As Harrison hadn't met or worked with Phil Spector yet, we will try to avoid using his Wall of Sound as much as we possibly can, which means we will be using the alternate takes of the songs as released on the deluxe edition of All Things Must Pass. It was a last resort, as the 2020 remixes are, well, horrible, and those alternate takes provide us with the only quality reverb-free alternatives to the original album versions, something that's a prerequisite for our goals. With that out of the way, here's what the album looks like:

What is Life? (Take 1)

Let it Down (Take 1)

The Art of Dying (Take 1)

All Things Must Pass (Day 1 Demo)

Isn't it a Pity? (Take 27)
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I'd Have You Anytime (Take 5)

Wah-Wah (Take 1)

Window, Window (Day 2 Demo)

Run of the Mill (Take 36)

Hear Me Lord (Take 5)

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George Harrison - George Harrison (1969)

George as photographed in his Esher home, April 1969.

Of the ten songs I selected for this reconstruction, nine were eventually released on All Things Must Pass and the other was offered/played to the Beatles during the Get Back sessions four times, which I considered indication enough that it was a contender and worthy of inclusion. "Isn't it a Pity?" and "The Art of Dying" possibly date all the way back to late 1966, while "Let it Down", "All Things Must Pass" and "I'd Have You Anytime" are the fruit of his visit to Dylan & the Band in upstate New York on Thanksgiving 1968. "Wah Wah", "Window Window", and "Hear Me Lord" are all from the January 1969 Get Back sessions, "Run of the Mill" dates to February 1969, and finally the late inclusion "What is Life" comes from the May 1969 sessions for Billy Preston's first Apple album. I didn't consider others known to date from this period such as "Dehra Dun" or "Nowhere to Go" as they were seemingly forgotten by Harrison himself, who never seemed to consider them good enough to record or suggest to the Beatles. These alternative versions range from radically different interpretations ("Let it Down", "Art of Dying", "Run of the Mill"), to virtually unchanged with just about everything in between, with varying degrees of success. The more subdued "Let it Down" is beautiful, while the faster "I'd Have You Anytime" sounds somewhat clunky. But something that every single song here does benefit from is the lack of the obnoxious amounts of reverb added by Spector to the finished product.

The two songs that are straight-up demos, "All Things Must Pass" and "Window Window" do stick out some from the rest due to their especially unfinished sound, but not in a particularly intrusive way. The fact that the latter is such a simple song certainly helps, as there's not else much you could do with it. And as we're dealing with outtakes, some amount of editing was needed, which mainly consisted of cutting out studio chatter and fading out the tracks before they ended abruptly. Once that was done, this sounded pretty much like a finished album! The rougher, less polished sound seems much more like a conscious choice, inspired by his obsession with Music from Big Pink, than anything else. When it comes to sequencing, I chose to have "What is Life" as the album opener, as it's as close to an energetic album opener as we have, with the rest taking their cues from ATMP. It's a no-brainer to finish side one with "Isn't it a Pity?" and side two with the nearly nine-minute epic "Hear Me Lord", and "I'd Have You Anytime" works pretty well on side two. As to the sessions themselves, this album would've been recorded with a smaller group of friends, such as keyboardists Nicky Hopkins and Billy Preston, bassist Klaus Voormann, and drummers Ringo Starr and Tony Newman, with Delaney and Bonnie and their friends nowhere to be seen. His buddy Eric Clapton was on tour with Blind Faith at this moment, meaning George would tackle all of the guitar parts himself.

A self-titled album to signify the beginning of a solo career, this alternate debut is 44 minutes long with two 22-minute sides, a little bit on the long side for the era but nothing too worrisome. The album cover, as edited by myself, is a photo of George's dating from April 1969, with the Apple Records logo added on top. "What is Life" b/w "Isn't it a Pity?" would make for the ideal lead single in my view, with both a rocker and a ballad that have the potential to become hits, propelled by his name. As for technical details, this album would have probably been self-produced by Harrison and recorded from February to August 1969, which means its sound would have been much closer to, say, Living in the Material World than to the overblown, epic sound of the All Things Must Pass album, something I find we've managed to mimic here. The material as presented in this reconstruction also seems much more like a logical next step from the White Album and Abbey Road than the starkly different sound of the All Things Must Pass, and the more laid-back, stripped-down sound benefits these songs significantly. In terms of quality, it is as consistent and can withstand repeated listening with the same ease as something like the Abbey Road album, which is quite an achievement in itself. It's both a shame and a pity that George couldn't find a way to reconcile his growing prowess as a songwriter with his duties as a Beatle, an alternate path that could've preserved the band and many friendships within it.

Sources:

- I Me Mine: George Harrison
- All Things Must Pass [50th Anniversary Edition]

Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys (1970)

After his now legendary Woodstock performance, Jimi Hendrix was left to figure out what to do next. Performing with the short-lived Gypsy, Sun and Rainbows, a much larger ensemble than he had ever performed with, Hendrix's iconic set included new songs such as "Message to Love" and "Izabella", the first hint audiences got of new material since the  Electric Ladyland LP was released in October 1968. However, this new band was nothing more than a temporary experiment for Jimi, who for a long time wished to go beyond the power trio format. This specific was one of the reasons Experience bassist Noel Redding, who already had a fractured relationship with the guitarist, left the band, to be replaced by Billy Cox. His management, keen on using the well-established Jimi Hendrix Experience name, would carry on pressuring Hendrix to reform the band until his death, with him never conceding to it. Pressure also came from his label, Reprise Records, concerned with the fact that a year had gone by since his last album and he didn't seem to be anywhere near delivering a new one. He didn't seem preoccupied, recording at a leisurely pace, jamming with his friend Buddy Miles, drummer of The Electric Flag, and recording embryonary versions of new songs and assorted jams. However, this would change significantly once an event from the past and its consequences came to light.

In October 1965, while he was still a backing musician to Curtis Knight, Jimi signed to a three-year deal to PPX Enterprises and its owner, Ed Chalpin. That means that Hendrix was in breach of it by recording with Reprise Records, which led to Chalpin suing Jimi, with the case being settled out of court after two years with the agreement that the guitarist would deliver an album of original material to Capitol Records in order to fulfill his PPX contract. With the deal in mind, Hendrix then formed the Band of Gypsys with Cox and Miles, his first all-black band, and started writing and recording new material with the new trio, starting on November 1969. Having decided a live album was the easiest way of fulfilling his commitment, they were then booked for four engagements at New York's Fillmore East, with all four being recorded and becoming the legendary Band of Gypsys album, capturing their funky sound in all of its glory. This November 1969/February 1970 period was also Jimi's first of focused studio recording since Electric Ladyland came out, with nearly an album's worth of releasable recordings being made by the Hendrix/Miles/Cox trio, many of which became serious contenders for his unfinished First Rays of the New Rising Sun album. But what if he wasn't tied up to Capitol and could focus on releasing the best album possible with the material and band he had at hand?

This reconstruction provides us with an updated version of my previous Band of Gypsys studio album, three years on from my first attempt at this. Taking a cue from Jimi's rivals and contemporaries Cream, this will be a half-live, half-studio double album, an approach I find manages to group together the best recordings the Hendrix/Miles/Cox trio ever did better than fully fledged live or studio albums. So apt is the comparison with Cream's Wheels of Fire that the live material in both was even recorded at the same venue, meaning we won't even change the names given to both discs: In the Studio and Live at the Fillmore. As far as the studio part goes, even though Jimi had already recorded with Buddy and Billy in June 1969, the Band of Gypsys didn't become a real entity until October 1969 at the earliest. Because of that, we will be focusing on material recorded between November 1969 and February 1970, selecting the most finished-sounding songs available from the time period when the BOG was active. Songs overdubbed at later dates are still fair game, as long as the basic track was recorded then and the finished product still features Buddy Miles on drums. As for the live disc, we will try to keep the original Band of Gypsys album as intact as we possibly can, only replacing songs when a superior studio take exists for use in the studio disc. Here's what the album looks like:

Disc 1: In the Studio

Power of Soul (Both Sides of the Sky)

Lover Man (Both Sides of the Sky)

Room Full of Mirrors (Rainbow Bridge)

Stepping Stone (Voodoo Child)

Izabella (Voodoo Child)

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Ezy Ryder (The Cry of Love)

Message to Love (West Coast Seattle Boy)

Earth Blues (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

Burning Desire (Loose Ends)

Disc 2: Live at the Fillmore

Who Knows (Band of Gypsys)

Machine Gun (Band of Gypsys)

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Them Changes (Band of Gypsys)

Hear My Train a-Comin' (Band of Gypsys)

We Gotta Live Together (Band of Gypsys)

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Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys (1970)

Hendrix, Miles, and Cox performing live at the Fillmore East, December 31st, 1969.

Taking a cue from the first Band of Gypsys show at the Fillmore East, we open the studio album with "Power of Soul". Mixed on August 22nd, 1970 on one of Jimi's final mixing sessions, this is the definitive version of one of the highlights of the shortlived trio's stage act, as recorded at the Record Plant in January 1970. As on New Year's Eve, "Lover Man" follows, a song that was in Jimi's live rotation since 1967 but was never released in an album. While the definitive version of the song was recorded with Mitch Mitchell in 1970, this take from December 15, 1969 is no slouch, fitting in well with the more finished material. Up next is "Room Full of Mirrors", a song that dates back to the Electric Ladyland era, but was only recorded successfully in November 1969, in the version we find here. As with "Power of Soul", an authentic August 1970 Hendrix mix of the song exists, and it's that version that makes it to the album. Closing out the first side is both halves of a shelved single, which was supposed to be issued on April 1970: "Stepping Stone" and "Izabella". Recorded in December and January, they would have been the first studio releases to feature the Band of Gypsys and credit them as such, and the fact that Jimi himself mixed the two songs and greenlit them for release gives us a nice glimpse of what this album would sound like, had he mixed the rest of the material then.

Opening side two we have a trio of songs that were mixed during Jimi's final mixing sessions of August 1970: "Ezy Ryder", "Message of Love" and "Earth Blues", all three recorded between December and January at the Record Plant. We again take a cue from the famous first Fillmore performance when it comes to sequencing, grouping "Ezy Ryder" and "Earth Blues" close together near the end of the album and adding "Message to Love" in place of a cover version. Closing out the studio disc is "Burning Desire", recorded in a single take in December 18, 1969. As the only real studio version of this song doesn't feature lead vocals, and this nine-minute rehearsal is an amazing take, we will be adding it to the album. Here, it serves the same purpose as "Voodoo Chile" served in Electric Ladyland: the epic of the album, performed live in the studio without overdubs. And as for the live half of this reconstruction, we will be replacing "Power of Soul" and "Message to Love", both of which were added to the studio half, with one of Jimi's best-ever live performances: "Hear My Train a-Comin'", from the first Fillmore show. Another song that was unreleased at the time, it fits like a glove among the rest of the album. Given how iconic the Band of Gypsys album has become over the years, it feels wrong to mess with it any further, with the inclusion of "Hear My Train a-Comin'" being the only change we'll make to it.

Our expanded Band of Gypsys manages to capture both the fantastic, funky live side of the band and the intricate studio work JH was creating with their help, creating what would end up being a very commercially successful album, and given the sheer strength of the material seen within these four sides, critical success is almost a given as well. With the exception of two live-in-the-studio songs, the entirety of disc one consists of authentic Hendrix mixes, which is quite an impressive feat when it comes to Jimi's fourth album. For a couple of songs, earlier Hendrix mixes from February exist, but the fact that they don't sound that great and that Jimi kept on tinkering with them made me use the final mixes he made. Both discs are around 40 minutes long and the original, iconic Band of Gypsys artwork is kept. "Stepping Stone"/"Izabella" is still the album's lead single, respecting Hendrix's original vision. 1969 was a transitional year for Jimi, where he found himself for the first time without a band and searching for a new musical direction. And as far as transitional albums go, it can't get much better than putting together a supergroup with a few friends and dishing out some of the best songs the nascent genre of Funk Rock had ever seen. It's just a shame that only half of Jimi's vision was released before his death, and the general public couldn't witness the power of soul through the lens of Hendrix's guitar.

Sources:
- Ultimate Hendrix: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Live Concerts and Sessions

- Jimi Hendrix's unfinished fourth studio album [Thread]