George Harrison - All Things Must Pass reissue

[Custard]

It's turning 50, so here comes the reissue, in several different forms, all for ridiculous prices!

65 squids for the vinyl? Really? Why? Even the standard CD is way too pricey. £22! Though George's website list it for £17, so maybe Amazon are trying it on there

If you have a spare grand, help yourself to the Uber Deluxe Boxset, which comes with a load of tat you'll probably never look at again. That's if him or her indoors doesn't kill you first

I know this is becoming the norm now, massively overpriced reissues, but something about this one has really annoyed me. I'd pay up to 30, and you'll be happy with that Dhani you little scrote

How do you justify to yourself that's it's ok to lob £65 at a bare bones vinyl copy? I can't, cos the price is ridiculous. First World problems, I know, but that's madness

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B096TTSPG4/

[Pauline Walnuts]

Talking about overpriced over sized re-issues, It was that Stationtostation box set that did it for me. Ending up selling it, and keeping the early 80s German re-issue copy I got for a couple of quid back in the day.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Station-5CD-1DVD-3LP/dp/B003UTUQ3O/ref=sr_1_1

It's got the album, twice for some reason. I think the new mix sounded like the bass had been turned up a bit, a meh live album, and endless, endless tat. The first I looked through it, thinking how I'd never look at it again, I was right.

[purlieu]

It's utterly ridiculous, the 5CD + BluRay version basically being six discs in a CD-sized box going for over £100. I don't mind paying a bit more for a nice hefty 12" box with a big photo book and extensive liner notes, but a 5" scrapbook and some card sleeves is barely any more packaging than those "Original Album Classics" sets you often find in supermarkets for a tenner.
The Uber box costing the best part of a grand is possibly the most repugnant deluxe box set I've ever seen. The worst thing is enough fuckers with more money than sense will buy it and justify its existence to the label.

I know Beatles product is always going demand higher prices because Beatles, but compare this to last year's career-spanning boxes by bands like Mansun and The Divine Comedy: 25 disc sets in luxury boxes for the same price as the 6 disc in a CD-sized box here. Big sigh.

[Custard]

Well said, purlieu

When I saw the price for the vinyl I thought maybe I'd selected the posh version or something. Absolutely ludicrous prices

[purlieu]

It's got the album, twice for some reason.

Oh yeah, a straight analogue master copy and the CD version. Really pushing it, that.
It's amazing how many of these huge legacy artists end up with fucking shit boxsets. That Bowie set; this Harrison one; the Pink Floyd Immersion boxes with very scant unreleased material but tons of tat like scarves, marbles, random collectors cards, etc.; the Their Satanic Majesties Request set which generously offered both mono and stereo mixes in an overpriced box!
Then you get slightly smaller artists who realise that they actually have to put in the effort to sell these things and you end up with Underworld's fantastic Dubnobasswithmyheadman 5CD set, Tangerine Dream's comprehensive In Search of Hades 18 disc box and the overwhelmingly comprehensive Tears for Fears boxes.

Another comparison point with this Harrison box, Archive - not a very well known band outside of France, admittedly - did a super-deluxe version of last year's Best Of, which was 4CDs, including an entire new album's worth of material spread out over its contents, and a 160 page band biography. It cost £20.

[Pauline Walnuts]

the Pink Floyd Immersion boxes with very scant unreleased material but tons of tat like scarves, marbles, random collectors cards,

I got 6 CD The Wall one, it had the album, well, fair nuff, but I kinda had that one, a live album, that they'd already released, and 2 CD of demos. The original Roger Waters ones were edited down to 30 seconds each.

Slim pickin' for £80 or whatever it was. Seems a bargain now. Apparently it was one of the better one. I'd have loved to have heard their Household objects demos, but only one song on the Wish You Were Here box set? GeddOuttaEre!

[Pauline Walnuts]

It's turning 50, so here comes the reissue, in several different forms, all for ridiculous prices!

Isn't the 50 years important? As unreleased songs become public domain or something? Hence all these reissues of demo songs not seen fit to be released for decades become available?

[purlieu]

Yeah, Household Objects was reduced to one track on Dark Side and one on WYWH. At least the Dark Side box has the earlier 1972 mix of the album, which has enough differences to be a genuinely interesting and enjoyable listen, albeit not something you're likely to put on very often. Otherwise, you get a couple of demos, a live version of the album and three more live tracks (including, er, Any Colour You Like, which is already on the live disc), and one studio outtake. Plus the doubling up of material on DVD and BluRay and then using that to boost the disc numbers on the hype sticker is pretty awful[nb]The utter nadir was the Later Years box set, a collection with a grand total of seven new studio tracks, plus a bunch of new mixes of live material, spread out over 16 discs. Audio-wise, the entire box is covered on the first four BluRays, making the rest of it completely redundant (nobody who spends £350 on a boxset is lacking a BluRay player)[/nb].

The WYWH box is possibly the worst value for money I've seen, music-wise. I eventually picked one up for about £35, and even that was a waste of money. Three live tracks, one Household Object piece and two alternate versions. And not even a book about the making of the album, the kind of which you normally get in standard 1CD remastered releases for most bands. Pink Floyd really enjoying ripping off their fans, don't they?

[Pauline Walnuts]

I'm surprised they still haven't reissued the Nü/de-80s mix of A Momentary Lapse of Reason on Record Store Day vinyl or something.

Bet it would be a double album.

[SteveDave]

I bought an Australian copy of this from eBay for about £35 earlier this year (it's not in a box but rather it folds out three times and all the records go in the top of each "leaf") as the remix of "All Things Must Pass" that they released sounds weedy af.

Guy Pratt[nb]Pratt by name, Pratt by nature[/nb] on the most recent EggPod said something like "George had so many songs he released a TRIPLE ALBUM!" which I counter with- "One of those LPs was full of "jams"- which is what people do when they've not got any songs written" Like the second side of "Low", the third record of "All Things Must Pass" will never be listened to in my home.

Like most more-than-one-albums, "All Things Must Pass" would be a great single album.

This things I believe.

[purlieu]

Boo-urns. The second side of Low is my favourite Bowie stuff.

[daf]

Always thought it was ridiculous that this gets called the best solo Beatles album - it's not even Harrison's best album! *


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* Somewhere in England

[SpiderChrist]

Will stick to my non-remastered vinyl and obtain the demos and alternate takes via a different route.

And yeah, it is all about keeping the tunes in copyright, isn't it?

[SpiderChrist]

Always thought it was ridiculous that this gets called the best solo Beatles album - it's not even Harrison's best album! *


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* Somewhere in England

always preferred "living In The Material World" meself

[daf]

Another good one - and also better than 'All things Must Pass'! *

My tastes are 100% due to the particular albums that I had on tape when I was growing up - I never heard ATMP at the time (too expensive!). Some of his best songs are on the album - but I just don't have that ingrained 'mental bond' with the running order.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* (I'd also put 'Dark Horse', 'Extra Texture' and 'Thirty Three & 1/ॐ' ahead of ATMP)

[purlieu]

And yeah, it is all about keeping the tunes in copyright, isn't it?

Also trying to rinse money from rapidly depleting back catalogue. All you have to do is look at the discussion below the posts on superdeluxeedition.com to see the hoards of middle aged blokes with disposable income with lists of deluxe boxes they're hoping for. "I've already got five copies of this album, still, can't wait to buy another" type comments abound as well. I'm not sure when the first expanded / deluxe versions (beyond the more familiar remastered CD with bonus tracks format) really came about, but I remember noticing them being a more common thing in the early '00s, right at the time physical sales began to plummet. At some point, they became a bit of a lifeline for the physical market, especially when labels realised they could basically start taking the piss with them.

[Custard]

I do like how big and sprawling ATMP is, but I agree it'd have made for a fantastic single album

I do keep an eye on second hand copies on Discogs, but when I last checked a fairly decent copy goes for at least £45, and by that point you may as well plump up the remainder and get this new version!

They've tried to justify the pointless new mix by saying George never really liked it, but he liked it well enough to release it to begin with, and made a fortune off it

It's like those new "Ultimate Mixes" of Lennon's stuff that recently came out. To my ears I can barely tell a difference, but no, these are the ULTIMAAAAATE versions. I'd say the ultimate versions are probably the ones Lennon himself signed off on

[Head Gardener]

Uber edition including gnomes, yours for $999.98

[non capisco]

Like the second side of "Low", the third record of "All Things Must Pass" will never be listened to in my home.

Just non stop wazzock opinions on this sub forum this evening.

[SpiderChrist]

Uber edition including gnomes, yours for $999.98

Cunts are just taking the piss now. Fuck 'em. Like Dhani & Olivia are short of cash.

"Is it coke or Krishna this week?"

[Pauline Walnuts]

[shagatha crustie]

Fucking lol. State of that uber boxset. A thousand pounds indeed. Beware of darkness.

I didn't love the more 'Beatley' remix of the title track with George's voice up front - highlighted the slightly strained performance. Quite like him hovering and part-obscured in the washy original mix. Will be interested to see what they do with 'Wah-Wah' and the other tracks that sound like your speakers are going to explode.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Jesus christ that box. Wonder what it said in Harrison's will about this sort of thing? If underneath  "Apple to treat Mark Lewisohn like Gary Glitter" it says "bleed fans with reissues that cost 800 quid and while you're at it, feel free to take down one of my trees to build the box" then fine but bloody hell. What kind of completist would you have to be to decide thats the version to get? Those figurines, for god's sake.

[Head Gardener]

Uber edition reminded me of this

[Custard]

I had a look at the Steve Hoffman forum to see what that lot think, and the overwhelming majority seem to think it's a massive rip-off and a real disappointment, which is slightly surprising as some of them seem to pop open their wallets for any old tat, and appear to be the audience this kind of thing is aimed at

Though someone said his mate has ordered the Uber box and she's gonna place glass on the top and use it as a coffee table. Which is probably one of the stupidest things I've ever read

Beware of coffee stains

[shagatha crustie]

I had a look at the Steve Hoffman forum to see what that lot think, and the overwhelming majority seem to think it's a massive rip-off and a real disappointment, which is slightly surprising as some of them seem to pop open their wallets for any old tat, and appear to be the audience this kind of thing is aimed at

If Steve Hoffman users aren't buying it, I don't know who will be.

[DrGreggles]

I won't be, but it's still my favourite Beatle solo album.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

The Steve Hoffman forum members just love being miserable whiners. They'll definitely buy it (if they don't buy a second copy that they'll keep under wraps), report on the best price, post messages just saying "Mine shipped!!!!", post other messages complaining about waiting all day long when it was supposed to be delivered, or about their Deluxe copy having a bent corner. Then, they'll complain about the new mix and the lack of dynamic range on dozens of pages, the sycophants will say that Steve should have remastered it, and they'll move on like locusts to the next major boxset for a landmark album loved by boomers.

[Twonty Gostelow]

"All-new sleevenotes by Eric Idle and Jeff Lynne."

[Pauline Walnuts]

Mine hasn't turned up, has anyone's turned up? I'm not going to tell you who I ordered it off, or which country I live in, what would be the fun in that?

What does it sound like compared to the 1988 RCA reissue?

Oh, it's turned up. Oh no it's not, it's the HMIHB BS I've been waiting for! I got a good deal for that, but I'm not going to say where, unless I'm asked, and only people who somehow work out what my random abbreviations actually mean will be interested to ask.