Dark Horse Tour documentary?
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Olivia Harrison and her son Dhani both talked about George Harrison’s 1974 tour, and spoke about plans for possible new Dark Horse Records releases.
Dhani says he is asked on a regular basis about his father’s controversial 1974 tour more than any of Harrison’s other undertakings. Dhani says he’s listened back to tapes of all the shows and agrees that his father wasn’t in the best of voice, but still feels the shows revealed another aspect of George’s music. “His voice is pretty tired, but in my opinion, it sounds great,” he says. “It’s raspy, and it has grit to it. You can hear the fragility in all the songs. It’s a different take on a lot of his music.” Olivia says several of the shows were also filmed, onstage and offstage, and the material has the makings of a documentary. “I think it would make a great tour movie,” she says. “The backstage footage is amazing and hysterical. Things went on backstage that don’t happen now. Now everything is so cut and dried, the opposite of spontaneous.”
The mother and son team also hinted at forthcoming 50th anniversary editions of George’s “All Things Must Pass” and “Living In The Material World” albums: The company’s archival research has also turned up a trove of unissued George Harrison material. “We have people digging through mountains of tapes, and they keep coming,” says Dhani. “Boxes and boxes of them.” This year marks the 50th anniversary of All Things Must Pass, and Dhani and his archivists have unearthed hours of unreleased material and unheard songs from those sessions. “A lot of it has been bootlegged, but we have better versions,” says Olivia. “We have all the 24-tracks of All Things Must Pass, and we found lots of different takes and talking in the studio.”
Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the Concert for Bangladesh, followed in 2023 by the five-decade mark of Living in the Material World. Each of those projects could be accorded expanded editions, although the specifics aren’t worked out.
Source: Rolling Stone
This is great news! Heard that GH's voice was better at some points in the tour than others so perhaps there will be some better sounding vocals. Other than Bangladesh, its rare to see extensive GH concert footage so this will be a welcome addition that many of us have been waiting/hoping for. Hope they include the more in depth White House visit footage.
I saw the philadelphia show. his voice was indeed raspy but the thrill of seeing an ex-Beatles made it very worthwhile. much of the audience tuned out during Ravi's indian music section but Billy's "Will he go round in circles" was very appreciated. the crowd responded most enthusiastically to George's beatle songs with the highlight perhaps being his version of John's "In My Life'.
Saw George in Seattle, The second show of the tour( I believe) He was pretty hoarse but We didn't care,It was a Great show regardless, Wouldn't have missed it.
Saw the Ft Worth show. Am 99% sure that the recording of that show that's floating around came from a friend's tape recorder. Would love to hear better recordings. Yes, George's voice was pretty rough. But was still an excellent show.
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If a documentary of the 1974 tour were to be released this year, it would be 46 years old. That's like a documentary about a performer from 1928 being released in 1974. This raises all sorts of questions. I don't know what they are, but think about it.
I saw 2 of the shows in the L.A. area. George's voice was shot but I loved the band. Ravi Shankar's section was phenomenal. They had just finished the Shankar Family and Friends album before the tour and the music is a wonderful mixture of West and East.
That would be fantastic!!! We saw George at the Boston Garden on December 10, 1974. His voice was rough…the band was great….and so was the crowd! It was the first time George had played the Garden since The Beatles played there on September 12, 1964. $9.50 to see one of The Beatles!!! Great night…