Great news for George Harrison fans. His masterpiece, All Things Must Pass has been remixed for a 50th Anniversary edition!
(Note: There is now a review of the new remix on this site. Below in this article are the song lists and CD & Vinyl versions that are available.)
Review: https://ontherecords.net/2021/08/george-harrison-all-things-must-pass50th-anniversary-remix-review/
The reason it’s a big deal is that the remix has been done by the same mixer/engineer who recently did an amazing job with the John Lennon collection, Gimme Some Truth. Paul Hicks has been working with George’s son, Dhani to improve All Things Must Pass.
Dhani says his dad thought the original album “had too much reverb.” The album was recorded by the legendary producer Phil Spector, who was known for his “wall of sound”. (Unfortunately, he was also known for being convicted of murder.) Spector’s producing style had a tendency to bury vocals a bit, and could sound dated next to the clarity of today’s recordings. Dhani Harrison says he wants the audio quality of his dad’s recordings to hold up in the future. The results were released on August 6th, 2021, and the album sounds great!
Here”s a quote from George Harrison I found in my 2001 remastered set of All Things Must Pass, where he said he was tempted to remix the songs. “I would like to liberate some of these songs from the big production that seemed appropriate at the time, but now seems a bit over the top with the reverb in the wall of sound.”
There’s a whole array of different versions of the set. Below are the lists of songs for the five CD’s that are available. After that you’ll see the various sets and their prices. I found a bunch of articles about the release, but none of them had all of the sets and prices. They were hard to find on Amazon too, because they’re not shown together.
(Each song list can be enlarged with a click or zoom.)
The 2-CD version is the remix of the original album, plus all sets have a poster. The price is $20.
The vinyl version of the remixed album is on three records like the original release. The price is $65. (I remember paying $6.50 when the album came out in 1970.) There’s also an e-commerce version of this set with green & black splattered colored vinyl for $76.
This is my choice. It’s 3 CD’s, with that third CD being the outtakes as shown on CD 5 of the above lists. There’s also a 20 page booklet. The price is $30. (The demos can be checked out on streaming.)
Here’s the 5 vinyl album version of the 3 CD set. The price is $90.
The 5 CD version includes two discs of demos that are not in the 3 CD version. Plus, there’s a Blu-ray with 5.1 sound of the original album’s songs. There’s also an added 56 page “scrapbook”. The price is $150.
This 8 vinyl record version is the equivalent of the 5 CD set, plus there’s a 60 page “scrapbook”. The scrapbook “pays homage to George’s love of gardening & nature.” The price is $200.
This “Uber” collection will set you back $1,000. If you want to see what you get for that, zoom or click this text:
(Close-up of the 1/6th scale figures in the box.)
Even though I’d purchased All Things Must Pass three times…records, CD’s, and remastered CD’s…I welcomed this remix to improve the sound. Like the excellent Lennon collection, this is the best George Harrison’s recordings have ever sounded.
Extra…Here’s the link to an article about George’s solo career:
https://ontherecords.net/2017/09/george-harrison-solo-traveling-wilburys/