REMASTERING HARRISON

Here's an interesting blog entry from Yer Blogger about George Harrison's past and hopefully future remaster projects.  A career-spanning box set of Harrison's work is way overdue and will hopefully, if and when it arrives, fill in the many gaps left in his reissue series so far.

The Dark Horse remasters yielded decent remastered sound, but yielded little in bonus material.  Most CDs added just one bonus track.  Cloud Nine was the exception with two.  To add to the insult, the digital versions (released in 2007) made an additional bonus track available, but only if you bought the whole album again.  Lame decision.  You'll likely make more money offering those tracks individually.

The Dark Horse Years left off some key tracks including the studio version of the Jeff Lynne co-produced Cheer Down, but I'm guessing they'll be part of the longer-term plan if there's a box set.

Yer Blogger says of Cloud Nine:

1987's hit album "Cloud Nine" featured two bonus tracks, but excluded the silly (but still desirable) "extended" version of "When We Was Fab".

...which I think isn't desirable at all.  It was the last part of the track in reverse.  What would be better for a potential box set is a clean copy of Fab with a section that was ultimately cut out for the original LP.  At least that's something new to hear.  A bootleg with the unedited Fab also carries That's What It Takes with a different mix in the very beginning.  You can bet there are other unreleased "ideas" that are worth hearing.  If you're that invested into an artist that you'll buy an expensive box set, an extra (or different) verse isn't going to make or break a track... or the artist.

More from Yer Blogger, this time about the Wilburys re-issues:

The four bonus tracks included were all from the “Volume 3” era, but were split evenly between the two CD's. There were also some alternate mixes and edits, as well as one unreleased alternate take, that were saved for the vinyl release. These could have easily fit as bonus tracks on the collection.

I understand they want to keep the continuity of the original CDs, but I agree.  What little bonus material we got out of this was oddly placed and ultimately fan-deflating.  Even the jarring edit (1:55) in the otherwise excellent Maxine was getting to me after a while.

YB continues:

Curiously, there was also a different edit for the video of “Inside Out”, which was included on the DVD.

They were all re-edited except for Handle With Care, plus they were all cropped for widescreen.  Inside Out was such a disappointment because it had a lot of funny moments between the guys... most all were edited out.  They either had no choice but to re-edit them or they simply lost their minds.  The documentary is the only reason to own the DVD.  

So, here's to looking forward to a possible Harrison box and here's hoping better decisions are made.  Yer Blogger will have some ideas in an upcoming post.