My brother Ronnie bought me some used records for my eleventh birthday. These were all from the Stereo Swap Shop on Osbourne street. That store destroyed my little brain, a place where if you didn’t have cash, you could trade records and receive credit. I don’t recall all the records he gave me that day but one particularly served me all my life. It was All Things Must Pass by George Harrison. I couldn’t believe it, a box with three albums inside one of which was a noodly jam session which didn’t hold my attention but the concept was cool.
I acquired the 50th anniversary release yesterday, I didn’t know it existed. I’m not sure George would like it but it’s too late to ask. Different takes of the same songs, different instrumentation, different times of George recording, since his voice sounds sore throaty. I love how obsessed he was with Krishna consciousness and singing about it or trying to sing about higher states regardless of what method brought you there, alternating between Hare Krishna and Hallelujah in My Sweet Lord. Always loved that moment in the mid seventies when AM radio played a hit song featuring an anti-reincarnation chorus, “give me light, keep me free from birth”. He wrote a zillion songs about this, he seemed to partly be singing about his own relationship and partly trying to turn people on whereas when Dylan went Christian, his material was about a celebration of Christ consciousness, unconcerned about whether others wanted to join the line. My favourite parts so far are hearing George play the title song on acoustic guitar and a joke version of Isn’t It A Pity, Isn’t It A Shame, where he changes the lyrics to Isn’t It So Shitty and improvises about how many takes they are doing.