GH bonus tracks – coulda, shoulda, didna

More than a month ago I wrote a post about bonus tracks on remastered CDs. Sometimes there’s lots of extra material presented. Sometimes there aren’t very many extra songs for the avid fan. Today, I thought I’d write about a bunch of remasters I really like but come up short, imho, on the bonus cuts.

George Harrison’s Dark Horse CDs were reissued, after several years of being out of print, in February 2004. The remastered sound is excellent. It’s nice to hear the songs so much more clearly than on the original CDs. And there is a good bonus DVD when you buy all the discs in a set. (The DVD has since been released as a standalone product.) As a big Hari fan, I had some definite wishes for the bonus tracks; alas many of those tracks were not included. I suppose there’s hope for a box set sometime. But it would have been nice to have them here.

Thirty Three & 1/3
I wanted:
1. Beautiful Girl (Acoustic demo from ATMP sessions in 1970.)
2. Here Comes The Sun (With Paul Simon, performance recorded Nov. 19, 1976, aired on SNL, Nov. 20, 1976.)
3. Homeward Bound (With Paul Simon, also from SNL.)

We got:
1. Tears Of The World (see below)

George Harrison
I wanted:
1. Mo (This was a tribute song to Warner Bros. president Mo Austin that George did in 1977 or so.)

We got:
1. Here Comes The Moon (demo)


Somewhere In England
This album presented a virtual gold mine for bonus material, especially because the original version of the album included four songs that Warner Bros. (the distributor of Dark Horse Records at the time) had rejected.
I wanted:
1. Tears Of The World
2. Sat Singing
3. Lay His Head
4. Flying Hour
(These were the four rejected songs. Lay His Head had been released as the b-side of Got My Mind Set on You in 1987, and the other three had been released on limited edition discs: SS and FH on Songs By George Harrison and TOTW on Songs By George Harrison 2. TOTW is also on the new Thirty-Three & 1/3, so we got one of them, at any rate.)
5. Life Itself (demo) (It had seen limited release on SBGH2.)
6. Save The World (Greenpeace version) (This version had been on a Greenpeace charity LP.)

We got:
1. Save The World (demo)

Gone Troppo
I wanted:
1. Dream Away (Time Bandits mix)
2. That’s The Way It Goes (1987 remix)
3. I Don’t Want To Do It (Written by Bob Dylan, the song was on the Porky’s Revenge OST in 1985, but it would fit nicely here.)
4. Abandoned Love (An unreleased recording by George of another Dylan track.)

We got:
1. Mystical One (demo)

Cloud Nine
There was lots of potential stuff here, including all the Shanghai’s Surprise tracks and the songs that had been issued only on Best Of Dark Horse – which was not reissued.
I wanted:
1. Shanghai Surprise
2. Zig Zag
3. Hottest Gong In Town
4. Someplace Else (original version)
5. Breath Away From Heaven (original version)
(These are the Shanghai Surprise songs.)
6. Got My Mind Set On You (extended version)
7. When We Was Fab (extended version, with reverse ending)
8. Poor Little Girl
9. Cockamamie Business
10. Cheer Down
(These last three are the new-for-BODH songs.)

We got:
1. Shanghai Surprise
2. Zig Zag

Live In Japan
I wanted:
1. Fish On The Sand
2. Love Comes To Everyone
(These were done at the first couple of shows on the tour but then dropped from the setlist.)
3. Absolutely Sweet Marie
4. If Not For You
(These were recorded live at the 30th anniversary tribute concert for Bob Dylan on Oct. 16, 1992. ASM was released on the CD of the event.)

We got:
No bonus tracks.

***

There were three great demos that I’d never heard before, so I am grateful for them. It’s just there was so much more that would have rounded out these excellent releases. The DVD did help compensate. It featured almost all of George’s videos from the era (except Blow Away), four tracks from Live In Japan (the first video release of these songs) and three of the Shanghai Surprise songs – SS, SE (original version) and HGIT.

I keep hoping for the box set!