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George Harrison: Live in Japan

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Dark Horse Records
Released: 1992.06.13
Time:
 42:45 / 44:34
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Spike and Nelson Wilbury (aka. George Harrison)
Rating:
Media type: CD double
Web address: www.georgeharrison.com
Appears with: The Beatles, Traveling Wilburys, John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 2,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


Disc One

[1] I Want to Tell You (G.Harrison) - 4:33
[2] Old Brown Shoe (G.Harrison) - 3:51
[3] Taxman (G.Harrison) - 4:16
[4] Give Me Love [Give Me Peace on Earth] (G.Harrison) - 3:37
[5] If I Needed Someone (G.Harrison) - 3:50
[6] Something (G.Harrison) - 5:21
[7] What Is Life (G.Harrison) - 4:47
[8] Dark Horse (G.Harrison) - 4:20
[9] Piggies (G.Harrison) - 2:56
[10] Got My Mind Set on You (R.Clark) - 4:56


Disc Two

[1] Cloud 9 (G.Harrison) - 4:23
[2] Here Comes the Sun (G.Harrison) - 3:31
[3] My Sweet Lord (G.Harrison) - 5:42
[4] All Those Years Ago (G.Harrison) - 4:26
[5] Cheer Down (G.Harrison/T.Petty) - 3:53
[6] Devil's Radio (G.Harrison) - 4:25
[7] Isn't It a Pity (G.Harrison) - 6:33
[8] While My Guitar Gently Weeps (G.Harrison) - 7:09
[9] Roll Over Beethoven (Ch.Berry) - 4:45

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


George Harrison - Rhythm, Lead And Slide Guitars, Acoustic Guitar, Lead Vocals, Producer

Eric Clapton - Lead Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals
Andy Fairweather-Low - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Nathan East - Bass, Backing Vocals
Greg Phillinganes - Keyboards, Hammond Organ, Backing Vocals
Chuck Leavell - Piano, Keyboards
Steve Ferrone - Drums
Ray Cooper - Percussion
Katie Kissoon - Background Vocals
Tessa Niles - Background Vocals

John Harris - Engineer
John Etchells - Mixing
Damon Iddins - Mixing
Simon Wall - Assistant Engineer
Doug Sax - Compilation Mastering
Gus Skinas - Compilation Editing
John Collins - Drum Technician
Lee Dickson - Guitar Technician
Tim Myer - Keyboard Technician
Tom Pearce - Keyboard Technician
Alan Rogan - Guitar Technician
Brian Grimwood - Illustrations
Richard Ward - Design
Drew Lorimer - Redesign
Carl Studna - Photography
Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor - Coordination

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded live by George Harrison with Eric Clapton and Band 1-17 December 1991.



George Harrison returned to the stage for the first time in years in 1991; that Japanese tour is documented on the fine double-disc set Live in Japan. Backed by a stellar supporting band led by Eric Clapton, Harrison turns in surprisingly strong versions of his best solo material; it easily surpasses Paul McCartney's double-disc Tripping the Live Fantastic or Paul Is Live. Not bad for a guy who doesn't like to give concerts.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide



On paper, this must have looked good: Backed by Eric Clapton and his band, and performing material ranging from Beatles songs ("Taxman", "Something") to 1987's "Got My Mind Set on You", George Harrison returns to touring for the first time in 18 years, with results captured on a double live album. As fellow geezer Neil Young once observed, though, rust never sleeps — and you'd need a case of Coke to crack the crust on Harrison, who sounds so woefully out of shape (he's continually either short of breath or struggling instrumentally to keep the tempo) that it's a wonder no medical advisers are listed in the credits. Not that old has to be in the way: The lone shining moment belongs to Clapton, whose solo on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is perhaps even more spectacular than the one he played on the original — all those years ago.

Billy Altman
Entertainment Weekly, 28 August 1992



It was during the heady days of punk and New Wave, as 1979 was dissolving into 1980, that Joe Strummer of the Clash spat out the line "Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust" in "London Calling," his band's anthem to the new insurgence. That sentiment proved to be as comically unprophetic as Jimi Hendrix's grand psychedelic pronouncement "You'll never hear surf music again." Fast-forward to 1992: Capitol releases a fifteen-CD box of the Beatles' British EPs. Ringo Starr awakens from his not-so-golden slumbers and puts out a charming, unpretentious pop album, doing what he did best as a Beatle. And George Harrison issues a live double CD culled from his concert tour of the Far East; nearly half the songs date from Beatles days.

Not that all of these events provide cause for celebration. The Beatles' Compact Disc EP Collection is just the sort of superfluous, pricey recycling project that makes Strummer's exasperation understandable. This little black box contains a batch of EPs — shorthand for "extended play," a format that, in the old days, usually meant four-song, seven-inch, 33-rpm vinyl discs — presented on individual CDs as they were originally configured for the British market in the Sixties, right down to the artwork and liner notes. Filling in a niche between albums and singles, EPs were popular overseas but never caught on with American consumers. Except for serving as yet another way to repackage the Beatles' catalog, these EPs are today no more appropriate on these shores than they were twenty-odd years ago.

Bearing a retail price of around $100, the set is no bargain. Collectively, the music on these fifteen CDs — all but two of which run for eleven minutes or less — would fit onto two full-length discs (especially considering that six songs from Magical Mystery Tour are included in both mono and stereo). There are no revelations in the sleeve notes. And for the record, these EPs have never gone out of print in England; collectors would probably wish to own them in their original vinyl form anyway. The real question is when Capitol will turn loose all the true Beatles rarities: the Sessions LP, the live BBC tapes, the multitude of versions and outtakes that have been circulating in the Ultra Rare Trax and Unsurpassed Masters bootleg series.

More positively, hats off to Ringo, who has bounced back from his bout with the bottle on the modest, likable Time Takes Time. He gets by with a little help from his friends — among them musicians like Tom Petty and Brian Wilson (who provide cameos) and a phalanx of notable West Coast sessionmen. Some of the hottest producers in the business, past and present — Don Was, Jeff Lynne, Peter Asher and Phil Ramone — pitched in enthusiastically. The result is the drummer's most consistent, wide-awake album since Ringo, from 1973.

"Weight of the World" opens the album in a bright sunburst of twelve-string guitar, defining Ringo's melodic agenda and setting a thematic tone in these lines: "You either kiss the future or the past goodbye/We could fly so high." Throughout, Ringo sings in that wonderfully plain-spoken style of his, and his drumming is artful simplicity itself. He conveys avuncular concern without being preachy, and while the album is not without bland spots and pat tunes, it stands as heartening proof that Mr. Starkey still has something to offer at fifty-two.

One could infer that George Harrison, the most reluctant Beatle, really wasn't eager to undertake last year's tour, his first since 1974. "I'd like to thank the band and Eric for making me come to Japan," he says. Still, though the act of public performance might have gone down like bad medicine, it's good that Clapton had the gumption to prod Harrison onstage, because this tour souvenir allows him to make his peace with the Fabs by having a go at some of the old songs. What's more, he seems to relish the opportunity despite himself.

He still sounds angry at the government on "Taxman," and he effectively salts "Piggies." On the more meditative side, Harrison puts across "My Sweet Lord" with a believer's conviction. But by and large this is a rocking, extroverted performance, and that is where Clapton and band, providing a solid foundation, helped firm up Harrison's repertoire and resolve. From the sprung rhythms and tart slide licks of "Old Brown Shoe" to the crunching satire of "Devil's Radio," it is a pleasure to hear a pair of past masters bring out the best in each other.

Parke Puterbaugh - August 6, 1992
RollingStone.com



This is a double-CD set featuring an all-star band borrowed from Eric Clapton: Andy Fairweather-Low, Nathan East, Ray Cooper, Steve Ferrone, two female singers, and both Chuck Leavell and Greg Phillinganes, who accurately ape all of the string and horn parts on keyboards. The track listing is entirely predictable - half are George's Beatles-era spotlights ("Something"), a quarter are his early-period hits ("My Sweet Lord"; "Dark Horse"), there's an encore of "Roll Over Beethoven," and the rest are his more recent standards ("All Those Years Ago"; three Cloud 9 tunes). All of this is delivered with the same plodding, generic competence, usually four minutes per song except for workouts on "Isn't It A Pity" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." But George's voice holds up decently and Eric is in great form, and the production is shrewd: despite all of their talent the players are given no room to defile the Beatles' sacred arrangements, which pumps the nostalgia dial to the max. There are some trite backup vocals ("While My Guitar"), but normally Clapton's solos are all that deviate from the plan, and being a distinctive rock legend his improvisations seem entirely natural. Although it's not much of a consolation for fans who waiting in vain for a new studio album, once you put this on nobody is going to complain.

John Alroy - www.warr.org



Live in Japan is a live double album by English musician George Harrison, released in July 1992. Credited to "George Harrison with Eric Clapton and Band", it was Harrison's second official live album release, after 1971's Grammy-winning The Concert for Bangladesh. The album was recorded during his and Clapton's joint Japanese tour in December 1991, and it features a selection of Harrison's hits as a solo artist alongside some of his best-known Beatles songs. Live in Japan was Harrison's last solo release in his lifetime.

In 1991, a year after releasing the second Traveling Wilburys album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3, Harrison was persuaded by close friend Eric Clapton to tour Japan with him. Although mindful of his troubled 1974 North American tour for Dark Horse, Harrison performed a series of well-received shows in December 1991, which also featured a short set of Clapton's songs. The experience proved to be an enjoyable one for Harrison, whose setlist included a variety of his Beatles-era songs alongside selections from his solo career.
Release

A double album, Live in Japan was issued in July 1992, with production credited to "Spike and Nelson Wilbury", Harrison's two personæ on the Traveling Wilburys releases. The live album failed to chart in the United Kingdom and debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 126, its peak position in the United States. The album reached number 15 on Japan's Oricon chart.

In 2004, Live in Japan was remastered and reissued, both separately and as part of the deluxe box set The Dark Horse Years 1976–1992, on Dark Horse with new distribution by EMI. The release offered a bonus SACD 5.1 surround sound remix alongside the original.

Billboard magazine described Live in Japan as "a skin-tinglin' romp, delicious and indispensable" in which "several renditions surpass the originals". The reviewer praised Clapton's playing and found Harrison's singing "splendidly nuanced throughout" before concluding: "A portable, utterly fab house party; just add plenty of room to dance." Conversely, Billy Altman wrote in Entertainment Weekly: "you'd need a case of Coke to crack the crust on Harrison, who sounds so woefully out of shape (he's continually either short of breath or struggling instrumentally to keep the tempo) that it's a wonder no medical advisers are listed in the credits … The lone shining moment belongs to Clapton, whose solo on 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' is perhaps even more spectacular than the one he played on the original …"

In a review for Rolling Stone in which he considered Harrison's live album in the context of other Beatles-related releases, 22 years after the band's break-up, Parker Puterbaugh wrote: "by and large this is a rocking, extroverted performance, and that is where Clapton and band, providing a solid foundation, helped firm up Harrison's repertoire and resolve. From the sprung rhythms and tart slide licks of 'Old Brown Shoe' to the crunching satire of 'Devil's Radio,' it is a pleasure to hear a pair of past masters bring out the best in each other."

Writing for MusicHound, Roger Catlin views Live in Japan as "a remarkable live set, featuring Harrison … playing a repertoire that blends the best of his Beatles writing with his solo material". AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes the album as a "fine double-disc set" on which Harrison "turns in surprisingly strong versions of his best solo material". Erlewine adds: "it easily surpasses Paul McCartney's double-disc Tripping the Live Fantastic or Paul Is Live. Not bad for a guy who doesn't like to give concerts."

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